Is Amazon Prime worth it just for streaming

Prime doesn’t entitle you to everything in their database. And those movies you saw for $2.99 are available to anyone. You don’t have to be a Prime member to view those.

If you want to view Prime movies only, click (in the upper left corner): Departments>Amazon video>Included with Prime.

It’s a nice addendum to those two, but I wouldn’t recommend it as an only. The Amazon Originals are of course only available to Prime subscribers, and from no other source.

Up to four people in the same household/family can share. Free (and somewhat expedited) shipping is the big perk, streaming and audio are second, many things like Kindle privileges come after. Any economically/entertainment “active” household probably gets their money’s worth from it.

Amazon Prime has a very deep catalog of less well known stuff. I actually like watching old explotation movies and such and they have so much that I could never make a dent into their pile. Netflix’s pile is barely there by comparison.

Another advantage are popular movies in the 5-30 year range.

I think it’s about even with Netflix in the recentish (but not costing $) movies.

Keep in mind nobody is going to have most of your must see movies.

The main issue then is are you seeking particular stuff or do you just want something on the screen to pass time. If the latter, then Amazon Prime is quite good.

I initially signed up to Prime for the free shipping. I shop there pretty often, and the free two day shipping more than pays for itself. For my binge watching pleasure, Prime offers enough to keep me happy

More likely footprints on the envelopes and jiffy-mailers ----- what we call small sort. It falls a lot and after 4 hours we aren’t as good about picking it up as we should be.

(A new hire once asked me why management was so insistent that we all wear gloves at all times as soon as we walk on the floor. My answer was “no fingerprints to trace back”. :slight_smile: )

Yep. I’m aware that there exists “Included With Prime” content, I’m just saying anytime I thought of something I actually wanted to watch I would invariably end up having to pay for it.

Sometimes, at a garage sale, there will be a great big box marked “Free”. I’ll dig through it sometimes but if I don’t want any of it then it doesn’t really matter that it’s free.

You can add the Amazon channel to your Roku even without a Prime account. You can browse their selection to see if it interests you.

Without Prime, you can buy or rent the movies and shows. With Prime, some of the content will be free and the rest will be for buy or rent. You can browse the Prime sections to see what would end up being free with a Prime subscription.

So, it sounds like you’re the first kind of viewer; and for someone like you, I wouldn’t advise getting Prime, at least not specifically for the streaming video.

It’s not that much different from the way things were back before streaming video: you could look through all the channels you get and see what’s going to be on TV, or you could go down to the video store and rent something specific.

Yes and no.

I haven’t looked into Hulu, so can’t comment on that - but I often find things available on Amazon that are not available on Netflix (and vice versa of course).

Not necessarily on Prime (i.e. free if you have Prime, for pay otherwise), for what it’s worth - Doctor Who being one notable exception I spotted recently; it’s on Amazon (free) but not on Netflix at all. The real blockbuster movies are not usually free.

My suggestion: Make a list of shows / movies you’re interested in (either have watched, or would like to watch) and see which service carries them (and if Amazon, whether Prime or not). Also browse around the various websites to see what they carry. If most of what you’d want to watch on Amazon is non-Prime, then there’s no benefit to getting Prime just for that.

I’ve had Prime for years–the free 2-day shipping alone makes it worthwhile. So I regard Prime Video as an “extra.”

Netflix is a bit better–but Amazon gets some shows that drop off Netflix. Like Dr Who. Then there are the Prime Only shows–Man In The High Castle isn’t perfect but I’m on for Season 2.

Since I don’t really count the Prime fee in my entertainment budget, I’ve investigated the add-ons available for a few bucks a month. Starz for Ash Vs The Evil Dead and Acorn for shitloads of Murder Most British currently work for me; I can drop them any time.

Really–check out the inventory & make your own decision.

I bring my Fire tablet to work every day and stream a Prime radio station so I can hear that instead of my co-worker micromanaging her high school age children and saying the word “arthurized”. Prime radio beats the pee-wocky out of Pandora. I work that out to around forty five cents a day to block out the things that make my eyes roll to the top of my head. The movies and shipping are just the gravy. Worth every penny.

It depends on what you want to watch. Amazon doesn’t have as many shows as Netflix, but it did buy exclusive access to a few such as “The Americans” and “Orphan Black”. And it’s original shows, “Transparent” and “Man in the High Castle” are pretty good. If what it’s offering appeals to you, it may be worth it.

I find I keep forgetting about Amazon Prime streaming (I have Prime mostly due to the shipping) simply due to the fact that the app doesn’t have Chromecast ability.

I am in the “if you want to get it, do it primarily for the shipping” camp. The only shows I’ve watched are Archer, The Flight of the Conchords, the first season of Veep, and a few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Note: if you order anything on Friday (or late Thursday) with 2-day shipping, keep in mind that the Sunday delivery service they use can be flaky; twice, when I had packages delivered on a Sunday, I also got packages meant for other people in my condo block (same street address, but different number). I can only imagine what would have happened had it been the other way around - especially if the other person was under the impression that “anything delivered to you that you didn’t order is yours” (which isn’t true if it’s misdelivered).

If you’re a Star Trek fan, they have every season of every show (even the animated one) plus six of the movies.

We buy enough from Amazon that the free shipping makes it worthwhile. And we can get some shows on Prime that we can’t find anywhere else.