Hidden Gems of Amazon Prime instant videos

For one of the first times I decided to switch between PS3 and PC streaming today. I had the urge to play a game but wanted to finish the Fringe I was watching. And as expected, when I pulled the episode up on PC it had a "resume" option that picked up right where I left off on PS3.

I expected it to do this I guess, but had never tested. So a pleasant surprise that it works as it should.

Stele wrote:

Dead Like Me, which the wife vaguely remembers watching and I remember her and others talking about it a few years back.

And several others which I've heard are good and been told to watch by multiple people: Pushing Daisies

I liked Dead Like Me well enough but Pushing Daisies (both were created by the same guy) was one of my favorite shows ever.

Posted on the Amazon front page, but they got some new movies this week, including Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man 2.

I saw that too. Apparently Amazon just signed some deals that added films from three major studios to their instant video service. Outstanding!

They're catching up to netflix on the selection side of things pretty quickly. Now they just need to get their video quality up to snuff. Right now their HD stuff is pretty ugly compared to netflix.

Eh? What are you watching on?

I don't think I've tried many HD movies, but the TV shows in 720p look great on my PS3/HDTV, as good or better than regular HD broadcasts.

Hmmm. So far I've been really pleased with the playback quality on the Xbox 360's AIV app. It's certainly better than some of the low bandwidth HD broadcasts you occasionally see on cable or satellite. Argh! I simply cannot stand providers and channels that skimp on bandwidth so they can broadcast HD on the cheap.

Stele wrote:

Eh? What are you watching on?

I don't think I've tried many HD movies, but the TV shows in 720p look great on my PS3/HDTV, as good or better than regular HD broadcasts.

Have watched on the PS3 app, the app on my HDTV itself, and on the PC on both monitors and my HDTV.

Have 30 megabit downstream internet and actually get that.

Amazon's HD anything has a fairly heavy amount of artifacting and just a lot of noticeable compression related flaws in general. Netflix completely spanks them on video quality for HD streams. Watching the same TV show on both is night and day different. Movies are particularly bad.

If you like the genre, I see that AIV has Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" streaming for free. It's also noteworthy for staring the future "Dark Knight," Christian Bale.

Thin_J wrote:
Stele wrote:

Eh? What are you watching on?

I don't think I've tried many HD movies, but the TV shows in 720p look great on my PS3/HDTV, as good or better than regular HD broadcasts.

Have watched on the PS3 app, the app on my HDTV itself, and on the PC on both monitors and my HDTV.

Have 30 megabit downstream internet and actually get that.

Amazon's HD anything has a fairly heavy amount of artifacting and just a lot of noticeable compression related flaws in general. Netflix completely spanks them on video quality for HD streams. Watching the same TV show on both is night and day different. Movies are particularly bad.

Is that just with Prime content? I purchase and rent a fair number of shows and movies from Amazon for playback on the Roku and iPad and have pristine image quality. It looks as good as the same programming on Netflix, when I've had the opportunity to compare the two.

Hm I do have Dollhouse on Blu. I suppose I could load it up and then compare it to Amazon's HD stream. Maybe take comparison pictures... that sounds like a lot of work though...

I've never had a moment where I think or say "that looks terrible" when watching Amazon though. Like when my HD Fox Sports channel goes out sometimes and I flip to the SD version to watch the Rays play. Then I go on a long-winded, foul-mouthed rant about how much I hate Comcast.

I've got the lowest Roku box that's out right now (the HD I think?). Wife and I rented MI:Ghost Protocol for Saturday night. About half way through, we paused it and from then forward, the movie had consistent little skips. Like a small half a second freeze, then catch up. We never did stop and reboot the Roku (just didn't feel like screwing with it) and the only other thing I can think of is Wifey started surfing on her laptop around that same time, using the same wi-fi the Roku does (this box doesn't have wired connection).

While it did work, it was smooth and looked good (this was the non-HD version too). I've been happy with the picture quality of even the SD stuff, but honestly don't see a lot of difference when watching HD vs. SD from Amazon. I *do* notice it with real blu-rays on the PS3 however. We just don't see enough of an improvement over DVD to go blu or nothing.

Anyway, very glad to see Amazon getting more of these deals. Started watching Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon at noon and was amazed at how good it looks for a movie from that time.

Maybe best to hit this particular conversation with a bit of a disclaimer: I've always been fairly picky when it comes to picture quality and that propensity has gotten progressively worse over the last few years as I've upgraded my TV and other gear a few times. Blu-ray has been a big factor.

Also to be noted is that a fair portion of Netflix's HD content actually streams in 1080p. Mostly TV shows, but some movies too. Amazon tops out at 720p across the board. To me, this is an easily noticeable difference, particularly when combined with their seemingly higher compression. Between the compression and the lower resolution it's very, very noticeable.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Is that just with Prime content? I purchase and rent a fair number of shows and movies from Amazon for playback on the Roku and iPad and have pristine image quality. It looks as good as the same programming on Netflix, when I've had the opportunity to compare the two.

Nope. In fact, some of their TV shows on Prime look better than every single HD movie rental, and I've rented quite a few movies in HD now. Every single one has been lacking in the picture quality department. Compression artifacts abound, huge amounts of noticeable macroblocking on any solid color backgrounds or darker scenes, and some black crush and other forms of contrast loss that you won't see in the blu-ray versions of the same movies, or that will be noticeably lessened even on Netflix.

Stele wrote:

Hm I do have Dollhouse on Blu. I suppose I could load it up and then compare it to Amazon's HD stream. Maybe take comparison pictures... that sounds like a lot of work though... :D

Even Netflix is going to show some significant flaws in a side by side with a blu-ray. Expecting anything close to blu-ray quality from any streaming service is just super unrealistic. Don't bother.

If you don't see the issues with the picture then I would just say... be happy. I envy you because I really like the idea of just renting movies through Amazon but it's been an underwhelming experience every time so far.

With Netflix's disc service I'd gotten to a point where I was only watching two or three movies a month and usually I only really wanted to see one or two of those. So I ditched the disc service thinking I'd just rent new releases in HD through Amazon and probably end up saving a few bucks every month. So far it's saving me a few dollars every month but it's not nearly as good an experience when it comes to actually watching the movie.

I've also tried a couple HD rentals on the Xbox 360 and one on the actual PS3 marketplace. The PS3 was the best but still not great. HD rentals on the 360 are total sh*t, and that's not even streamed that's actually a straight download of the movie file. Given that it's a download there's really no excuse for the crappy quality. When it was so bad the first time I thought maybe it was just a sh*tty transfer for that one movie so I gave another one a shot and was rewarded with a similarly muddy and ugly picture. Do not recommend their video rentals at all.

Tagged!

Thin_J wrote:

Also to be noted is that a fair portion of Netflix's HD content actually streams in 1080p. Mostly TV shows, but some movies too. Amazon tops out at 720p across the board.

Well that's why I mentioned TV shows and not movies when you mentioned it a couple posts earlier today. Because all TV is broadcast in 720p on the networks. And that was my comment,

Stele wrote:

the TV shows in 720p look great on my PS3/HDTV, as good or better than regular HD broadcasts.

So that's where I was confused. If it looks as good as my HD Cable, that's good enough right? I didn't really expect it to be blu-ray quality, so this makes sense:

Thin_J wrote:

Even Netflix is going to show some significant flaws in a side by side with a blu-ray. Expecting anything close to blu-ray quality from any streaming service is just super unrealistic. Don't bother.

I guess I might not have the eyes. I do obviously notice the difference between upscaled DVD and Blu, although the PS3 does a fantastic job of upscaling and my DVDs look better on it than they did on my old standalone player. But for the most part I check blu-ray.com reviews before I buy any BR discs, and especially when I already have a DVD, I don't bother upgrading unless they give it great marks. So far I've been very pleased with the 25 or so BR movies and shows I have collected.

Ah well... I probably couldn't tell the difference between 5.1 and 7.1 sound either.

Anyway I'll just take your advice

Thin_J wrote:

be happy.

Stele wrote:

So that's where I was confused. If it looks as good as my HD Cable, that's good enough right? :?

No it isn't. HD Cable's over-compressed image is pretty gross most of the time

All of this also depends on the size of your tv. ThinJ's probably got a rather large TV where pixel density matters a ton because even 1080p can look crappy if you aren't far enough away.

garion333 wrote:

All of this also depends on the size of your tv. ThinJ's probably got a rather large TV where pixel density matters a ton because even 1080p can look crappy if you aren't far enough away.

Yeah this is true. There's barely five feet between the foot of my couch and my TV stand and it's a 51 inch tv set. It's about a foot short of the usual recommended viewing distance (according to retailers and manufacturers) for a set that size. Combine that with me already being picky and well... you get the idea.

On the other hand if you look at viewing distance according to THX standards I'm right where I'm supposed to be, or damn close to it. But then the THX standard would be for content also filmed/mastered up to THX standards which, in general, does in fact look pretty freakin great. Doesn't really apply to video streamed over the internet

Assuming a proper viewing distance, I think it's fair to say that the better your HDTV equipment, the more obvious any flaws in the HD signal feed will be to the viewer. So, yeah, a poor HD source is going to be somewhere between mildly annoying to completely unwatchable.

I think it might just be a content issue. I've watched many, many episodes of Sesame Street with my kids(Prime on RokuHD) and haven't noticed anything. I've even watched the same episodes on Netflix and it's all the same to me. Lower standards however are also a likely culprit.

ringsnort wrote:

completely unwatchable.

HD rentals on the 360 video marketplace are waving hi. No hyperbole. Like not even DVD quality. Hideous. Do not pay for them. EEEEEEEEEVVVVVVEEEEEEERRRRRR.

Netflix and Amazon both stream at higher quality.

I never bothered with the 360 video marketplace, and NOW I'm glad I didn't explore that rabbit hole. Below DVD quality? Wow. Good to know.

ringsnort wrote:

I never bothered with the 360 video marketplace, and NOW I'm glad I didn't explore that rabbit hole. Below DVD quality? Wow. Good to know.

Have you ever tried out the digital copy thing that comes with a blu-ray? It looks about like that.

Either Amazon is buggy tonight or the BBC is removing Dr Who from Prime. About 1/3 of the episodes show as free still and the other as $1.99. And it's like alternating episodes, or streaks of 3-4 in a season. Or some seasons just one free episode left and it's way down in the middle. Makes no sense at all.

You'd think they'd give a warning if they were removing things. I saw a post on the forums about some movie titles with a notice that they are only free until Sept 30. At least then you could prioritize what you wanted to watch.

Stele wrote:

Either Amazon is buggy tonight or the BBC is removing Dr Who from Prime. About 1/3 of the episodes show as free still and the other as $1.99. And it's like alternating episodes, or streaks of 3-4 in a season. Or some seasons just one free episode left and it's way down in the middle. Makes no sense at all.

Bummer if true. Especially as I haven't gotten around to catching up.

Stele wrote:

You'd think they'd give a warning if they were removing things. I saw a post on the forums about some movie titles with a notice that they are only free until Sept 30. At least then you could prioritize what you wanted to watch.

No online video site has been good at this, or even made a consistent effort to publicize the limits of their licencing. In the future, I expect either a lot fewer shows falling out of circulation or more public knowledge of the terms of every licencing agreement.

I mean, the publicizing limited time benefits both the content owner (because it spurs buying DVDs to own permanent access) and the broadcaster (limited time deals attract more interest than perpetually giving away the same thing for free). And yet it's like no one wants to admit when these are limited time licences.

Well throughout the night episodes disappeared and reappeared. Seems to be mostly a bug.

But yeah it definitely makes me wonder about licensing stuff. We've got several other series in our queue that have been recommended by friends, and it'd be nice to know which one we should watch next, in case one of them won't be around...

Zombie Strippers

It's exactly what you'd expect out of a movie named 'Zombie Strippers.'

Has anyone found a way to manually set the streaming rate on Amazon Prime like you can do on Netflix (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S)? Amazon detects my low speed connection and sticks me with the basement streaming rates, but I'd be glad to let it buffer 10-20 minutes if it would let me stream at least 720p.

*EDIT* I'd also like to add that I'm using Amazon Prime's free trial period to make good on a lost bet which requires me to watch Leprechaun: In the Hood. It's so bad that it's good enough to make me glad I lost the bet!

Netflix has that movie also.

Puce Moose wrote:

Has anyone found a way to manually set the streaming rate on Amazon Prime like you can do on Netflix (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S)? Amazon detects my low speed connection and sticks me with the basement streaming rates, but I'd be glad to let it buffer 10-20 minutes if it would let me stream at least 720p.

This page on the Amazon forum might help. Then again, it might not. The forceBR codes worked for people who had fat pipes, but were having Amazon's streaming system autodetecting a slow connection for some reason.