Okay, these days I spend most of my home video time with Netflix, Hulu, and HBO. I am also an Amazon Prime member and I’m trying to figure out how to make use of Amazon Video to the extent that it benefits me.
The thing is, I can’t really figure out what it’s good for. If I get a recommendation for something, I first check Netflix, if it’s not there, I check Hulu, then HBO. And then I check Amazon.
The thing is, in this process, Amazon has never produced a result I want. I’ve never gotten to the point that if I want to see it, Amazon, and none of the other three, has it.
And for some reason, I find the search function for Amazon very difficult to understand. Can I watch it on my Blu-Ray? Or just on my computer or mobile? Or wait, there’s no play button. Oh, wait, I have to pay additionally to get it? Or wait, there’s a search result, but no indication of how to watch it?
Is it me, or is Amazon Video just not designed in a way that makes it easy to understand what is actually available and what isn’t?
There are a handful of Amazon Prime Video exclusive TV series. The one I’ve liked most is The Grand Tour, which is what the former Top Gear hosts went on to make. Some of the other exclusives are decent enough IMO, though none have completely grabbed my attention.
Otherwise, Amazon Prime doesn’t offer much in addition to Netflix, Hulu, or HBO. However, if you only subscribed to one or two of those other services, Amazon Prime Video would fill in the gap somewhat. For example, Amazon Prime has the back-catalog of HBO, as well as some of the other premium cable channels.
It’s not really worth the cost of Amazon Prime IMO, but it’s good enough to sweeten the deal whenever I’m reconsidering whether I really care about free 2-day shipping.
There are quite a few more Amazon series than a handful.
Some of them are really quite good: Bosch, Grace and Frankie, Mozart in the Jungle, Transparent, Alpha House*, Goliath, Sneaky Pete, etc. And those are just the ones we like. The Man in the High Castle ranks well but isn’t for us.
The key thing that Amazon just beats everyone else by a very, very large margin is the amazing depth of the catalog of old movies you can watch for free. It’s the anti-Netflix. It’s just incredible how many they have.
If you prefer recent big box office stuff, then you have to pay on Amazon. But if you have much broader tastes, it’s a gold mine.
Note that Amazon Video and Amazon Prime Video are not the same thing. The videos that are available to watch for free if you have Amazon Prime are a relatively small subset of the videos available to buy or rent. It is possible to search all of Amazon’s videos, or to search just the ones that are “available with Prime”; but to avoid confusion, be sure you know which of those you’re doing.
IMHO the easiest way to search Amazon’s video offerings is to do so through their website on an actual computer. You can add videos to your “Watchlist” and then watch them on some other device.
Same here. Amazon is in some pissing war with Google so I can’t stream their stuff to my television without buying an Amazon Fire stick or similar. Which would only be used for Prime Video since Netflix, Vudu, Pandora, etc are all on my television natively. So I just don’t watch Prime video and roll my eyes when, every time I visit the site, they have an ad essentially saying “Why won’t you love us and watch Prime video?”
I prefer to use InstantWatcher to search for Amazon Prime stuff.
One of the truly annoying aspect of search on Amazon is you enter a term, click on “Prime” to get just the Prime stuff. Do another search, click on Prime AGAIN, and on and on. Any decent web site developer knows you don’t UNCLICK stuff in searches.
The Grand Tour.
Every episode of every Star Trek TV series, ever.
Amazon Prime was a Christmas gift for us. We don’t pay for any other TV, and we’re relatively content. The only thing we really missed was watching the Cubs win the World Series, since we can’t get Fox with the antenna and couldn’t see paying for cable for a few nights.
I find lots of things that aren’t on Netflix. I think Prime is best for a lot of the big things that Netflix isn’t willing to pay for. The original programming is good, probably not as good as Netflix or HBO, but better than Hulu and has more stuff than Starz.
That and the Prime shipping pays for itself in my experience.
The interface is not the best but better than awful Hulu.
I’m guessing you don’t have small children? Amazon Prime has a ton of kids’ shows (for some, not all seasons are free):
Bubble Guppies
Team Umizoomi
Dora the Explorer
Go, Diego, Go
The Backyardigans
Wonder Pets
Blue’s Clues
Fireman Sam
Shaun the Sheep
Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood
Plus some cartoons bigger kids (and adults) might enjoy, like Batman: The Animated Series and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
I have had Amazon Prime for a couple years, and it wasn’t until yesterday that I explored Amazon video. What a letdown. The browse function was slow, clunky, and very user-unfriendly. I didn’t see a single thing that interested me that I haven’t already seen, with many annoying repeats throughout the browsing session.
I had a similar problem because the app I was using to watch Amazon Prime was really bad. After I got a Roku, Prime became easier to search and use so I watch it much more often now. You don’t necessarily need a Roku but a better app of some kind may help.
Prime user w/ Roku here. We use it a fair amount, Mozart in the Jungle, Man in the High Castle, just found Hoodwinked! last week (loved that movie). There’s good stuff there. If your app/interface sucks, then, yeah, go elsewhere.