Amazon video streaming

neilmcl

A while back when Amazon announced they were dropping their physical DVD rental service (Lovefilm) I was searching around for an alternative supplier and I kept getting the argument about disc rental was dead, streaming was king, it's the best, blah blah. I was never really convinced as I knew streaming could never replace the quality of a physical disc but my protestations fell on deaf ears.

Nearly 2 years later and I've finally come to the conclusion I was right all along. Was watching the newly released Solo: A Star Wars Story, HD version from Amazon Video the other night and the picture quality was absolutely appalling. The amount of picture blocking and artefacts on dark scenes, and being a space movie there tends to be a lot of those, was so bad it was almost impossible to make out what was happening at times. At nearly £4.50 a pop for a HD stream you'd think Amazon would allow more bandwidth, assuming that's the issue, to their HD streams. I don't know why I've put up with this for so long, it's never been that great but this is the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

No more pay-per-view streaming for me, yes I'll miss the convenience but I won't miss the utter poor quality and overall cost.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

neilmcl wrote: »

Was watching the newly released Solo: A Star Wars Story, HD version from Amazon Video the other night and the picture quality was absolutely appalling. The amount of picture blocking and artefacts on dark scenes, and being a space movie there tends to be a lot of those, was so bad it was almost impossible to make out what was happening at times.

How are you connecting to your stream. Our HD tv is hard wired, with both Amazon and Netfix both streaming without any problem. if you are using wifi, then you can expect this. You could try the tech boreds for other solutions!

forgotmyname

Was the bottleneck theirs or yours though?

Not had any issues with Grand Tour, except a slight delay in the time its supposed to be ready to watch.

Lip_Stick

I've streamed films through various sources and had great quality using my fibre connection. I've even streamed at my Dad's with normal broadband through a Wi-Fi connection and it's been very watchable, only the occasional buffering once or twice through a film.

Gavin83

Totally agree with you which is why I registered with cinema paradiso when love film stopped. It basically works the same and is worth checking out. Saying that I do have Netflix as well but generally use it more for tv series.

DCFC79

neilmcl wrote: »

A while back when Amazon announced they were dropping their physical DVD rental service (Lovefilm) I was searching around for an alternative supplier and I kept getting the argument about disc rental was dead, streaming was king, it's the best, blah blah. I was never really convinced as I knew streaming could never replace the quality of a physical disc but my protestations fell on deaf ears.

Nearly 2 years later and I've finally come to the conclusion I was right all along. Was watching the newly released Solo: A Star Wars Story, HD version from Amazon Video the other night and the picture quality was absolutely appalling. The amount of picture blocking and artefacts on dark scenes, and being a space movie there tends to be a lot of those, was so bad it was almost impossible to make out what was happening at times. At nearly £4.50 a pop for a HD stream you'd think Amazon would allow more bandwidth, assuming that's the issue, to their HD streams. I don't know why I've put up with this for so long, it's never been that great but this is the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

No more pay-per-view streaming for me, yes I'll miss the convenience but I won't miss the utter poor quality and overall cost.

Disc rental isn't dead as such, there is 1 website out there where you can rent dvds, I'll find the name of it.

Have you tried to see if any of the free content is the same, assuming you have prime ?

The Lovefilm alternative is cinema paradiso, not tried it myself yet.

neilmcl

forgotmyname wrote: »

Was the bottleneck theirs or yours though?

Not had any issues with Grand Tour, except a slight delay in the time its supposed to be ready to watch.

Lip_Stick wrote: »

I've streamed films through various sources and had great quality using my fibre connection. I've even streamed at my Dad's with normal broadband through a Wi-Fi connection and it's been very watchable, only the occasional buffering once or twice through a film.

I never mentioned anything about buffering or bottlenecks, that's not the issue. It's the actual quality of the video stream itself. The sort of thing you get when some programmes are transmitted at really low bitrates.

FYI I'm on Sky fibre running my Amazon Fire TV box (4K version) directly via ethernet connected directly to the Sky Hub. There is/was no "bottleneck" my end, and it's not just this particular movie, there's always been a reduction in video quality streaming pay-per-view, so-called HD movie content via Amazon. Strangely though, their own shows seem to be OK.

neilmcl

Gavin83 wrote: »

Totally agree with you which is why I registered with cinema paradiso when love film stopped. It basically works the same and is worth checking out. Saying that I do have Netflix as well but generally use it more for tv series.

No worries, I registered with Cinema Paradiso the moment I stopped watching the film. I'm on the free trial so I'll see how it goes. I've also ordered the same film from my list so I'll be able to do a bit of a comparison

neilmcl

DCFC79 wrote: »

Disc rental isn't dead as such, there is 1 website out there where you can rent dvds, I'll find the name of it.

Have you tried to see if any of the free content is the same, assuming you have prime ?

The Lovefilm alternative is cinema paradiso, not tried it myself yet.

Generally the free stuff and shows are a mixed bag, mostly not too bad. Maybe it's a demand thing that affects new and popular released content. Looking back through my orders it would also be cheaper to rent rather than stream, as I was watching about 4 paid movies per month.

Ganga

The plus with a DVD is the quality is usually perfect,with anything over the tinternet buffering etc does spoil the enjoyment of watching.

forgotmyname

neilmcl wrote: »

I never mentioned anything about buffering or bottlenecks, that's not the issue. It's the actual quality of the video stream itself. The sort of thing you get when some programmes are transmitted at really low bitrates.

FYI I'm on Sky fibre running my Amazon Fire TV box (4K version) directly via ethernet connected directly to the Sky Hub. There is/was no "bottleneck" my end, and it's not just this particular movie, there's always been a reduction in video quality streaming pay-per-view, so-called HD movie content via Amazon. Strangely though, their own shows seem to be OK.

But the quality will depend on the bitrate and speed of your connection. They wont push 4k content with a high bitrate down to someone with a 256k connection.