Amazon Prime, how I do love thee. Unlimited video streaming service

Amazon Prime

We all saw the rumor of an Amazon Prime video streaming service but when I woke up this morning, went to Amazon and saw it was official I couldn’t help but be even more impressed with Amazon.  

I’ve always been a big Amazon fan and am an existing Amazon Prime member so I’m a bit biased but how can you not like Amazon?  They took a great service that did exactly what you paid for and made it even better.  Amazon claims to have 5,000 movies and TV shows available via Amazon Prime.

I haven’t been able to play with the video streaming service itself other than 10 minutes of District 13 so I’ll hold judgement on the quality for now but I’m eager to see what people think.  If you are not an Amazon Prime member, will you be joining now?

As you can see from the screenshot below subtitles and dubbing is available.  Playback started extremely quickly as well.  Playback was Flash based so we should be able to incorporate the service in various HTPC front-ends as well.

For more on the service, check out Amazon Prime.

  • I just saw this this morning

    I just saw this this morning also.  Very cool.  My wife has a free prime account for buying diapers and stuff so I’ll have to try it out later.

  • This is great news. I’m not a

    This is great news. I’m not a prime member currently, but this does add some value and makes me reconsider. At first glance, it does appear that the Prime video selection is more limited compared to their entire library and I’m sure this comes down to licensing costs. I am curious to know if any HD streaming is available in the Prime video selection as I haven’t seen one browsing through it.

    Considering HTPC integration, there already is a plug-in for Amazon Unbox that basically works in the background and allows the user to purchase on Amazon on another PC/device and then automatically download to the HTPC. In WMC, there is an Unbox folder placed in the My Videos section.

    One problem with Amazon on the PC is also that a lot of the HD titles Amazon has are not available to the PC as they are to other connected TVs and devices. Using the download method compared to instant streaming does give the benefit of 5.1 audio and the video quality can be a bit better.

    • It appears that only instant

      It appears that only instant streaming is available for Prime accounts so Unbox app with 5.1 sound option is out as an option.

      Also, the subset of the available library available to Prime accounts is currently 1668 movies and 484 TV shows.

    • There’s HD streaming, at

      There’s HD streaming, at least for some TV shows. E.g. Torchwood, some Doctor Who, some BBC Earth content (haven’t checked everything), Robin Hood and couple of others. Definitely not the majority, though. Of course, it’s all stereo as it’s streaming.

      Regarding HD movies: as long as I could see, there are some available for the Prime members but only on connected devices like TVs, Roku and Google TV but not on PC/Mac.

  • Very happy Prime customer

    Very happy Prime customer here – extra streaming options at no extra cost makes me happy

  • Love Amazon Prime!  Love the

    Love Amazon Prime!  Love the new Value Add with free Video streaming.

  • Has anybody seen an option to

    Has anybody seen an option to build a queue? 

  • Just checked it out on my

    Just checked it out on my Panasonic TV, works great and there are actually some movies and TV shows I’d like to watch.  Very nice.

  • One small gotcha on the

    One small gotcha on the Amazon download.  7MC won’t stream the 5.1 track to your reciever, but WMP will.   Note the format is WMV/WMA Pro, so not that many receivers support it.

    If someone is getting the WMA bitstreaming in 7MC from an HD Amazon show, please tell me so I know it’s my problem and not a screwy 7MC architecture issue.

    See my TGB post for the gory details.

  • Clicker.com has a comparison

    Clicker.com has a comparison chart,

    http://www.clicker.com/blog/amazon-prime-instant-a-closer-look-9651.html

     

  • George L. Schmauch Jr.

    I realize this thread is a

    I realize this thread is a month old, but I checked out the selection a couple of weeks ago and noted several things:

    1.  Selection sucked.  (I paged through EVERYTHING available for free to Prime members.)  I think I saw 2 things I would have even considered watching and even that was me truly going, “Is there ANYTHING here I’d at least TRY since it’s free?!?!”

    2.  Almost nothing was in HD.

    3.  The interface was horrendous.  I couldn’t find a way to search for (free via Amazon Prime) items within the client.  I had to go to the web and watch that way.

    4.  You can’t queue up any of this content to the client software.  Again, you must watch it in the flash player.

    I love Amazon and thoroughly enjoy the benefits of being a Prime member, but, if this “offer” (I use that word very loosely) was intended to give Prime members a taste of their VOD, so that they might try the paid version, they have failed in spectacular fashion.

  • George L. Schmauch Jr.

    Yup.  Sorry, that was what I

    Yup.  Sorry, that was what I meant by the “client”… Amazon’s client software that you can download for the PC.  I don’t have any “boxes” to interface with Amazon.

    • PC makes the worst client

      PC makes the worst client experience for Amazon, unfortunately.

    • Andrew Van Til

      The interface on my TV is

      The interface on my TV is pretty good (as is PQ). 

  • George L. Schmauch Jr.

    Even if I had a box, that

    Even if I had a box, that still wouldn’t fix most of my complaints, especially 1 & 2, and potentially #3, if you still can’t search for the “Prime” content.

    • Believe it or not, it does

      Believe it or not, it does address all three. PC experience is not even close to being the same as via my Samsung display or the Roku XD|S I reviewed. You’ll still likely find the selection not where you want it, but #2 and #3 are significant improvements.

  • George L. Schmauch Jr.

    Wait a second… you’re

    Wait a second… you’re saying that Prime members get access to MORE free content when using something besides the PC?

    • I can’t comment on Prime

      I can’t comment on Prime specifically, just Amazon VOD in general.