Amazon Prime Video [-]
Jul 22 2024
I have a month of Amazon Prime and have spent three weeks watching videos using the Amazon Prime Video App. Much like the Netflix app you can browse or search for videos and play them, although APV also shows you videos on other services or that are on Amazon Video for rent and I do find that annoying -- just show me the stuff I can play without spending more money.
In comparison APV is quite worse than Netflix. On my old iPad the UI is fairly laggy with perceptible fractional second delay as you use the UI, including when using video playback commands. My iPhone SE is newer and works fine so it's just that APV is not designed for older iPads, unlike Netflix which runs great on my iPad.
On the plus side, when I watched The Expanse (produced by Amazon for seasons 4 to 6) and paused it showed me a list of actors and their roles in the scene. Unfortunately when I watched some Asian shows that info wasn't there. Similarly when you view The Expanse episode list there is a little blurb for each but for Asian shows it's the same blurb over and over, which is the show description blurb. And that show description reads like a transliteration -- it doesn't read natural.
Another plus is that Prime Video is a Mac App Store app and supports handoff which worked pretty well.
APV is rather aggressive stopping a show when you go out of the app and back in after a minute, so then you have to find the episode and restart viewing. Netflix I can go to another app for a few minutes and when I come back the video is still paused and I can continue (though maybe that means I'm holding one of the two viewing instances for the account).
APV has commercials. A pre-roll and one or two mid-rolls during a tv show. It's the usual television-style ads where the volume is at max no matter what you were watching. It also jarringly comes one without a fadeout/fadein -- I think it algorithmically tries to find the end of a scene and puts the mid-roll there. Sometimes a character finishes their sentence and commercial immediately starts.
As for content I'm not sure. The Expanse is great but it was a Sci-Fi channel show and it was good then also. I watched a Korean romance drama and a Chinese romance drama and they were fine though not as good as the ones on Netflix (but APV might have recommended less stellar fare to me). Both Asian dramas had good translations on par with Netflix. Still, the Asian dramas selection seems quite smaller than Netflix and I'm really into Asian romantic dramas right now.
In the end I wouldn't subscribe to Amazon Prime Video over other services. If you get it effectively free because you have Amazon Prime for the other benefits then it's worth it. But for me it's a pass.
What I Watched
The Expanse (2015) (62 episodes) - 46.5 hours
Good Omens #1.1 (2019) - 1 hour
Cute Bodyguard #1.1 to #1.4 (2021) - 3 hours
Cute Programmer (2021) (30 episodes) - 22.5 hours
Jolt (2021) - 1.5 hours
Oh My Ladylord (2021) (16 episodes) - 16 hours
My Roommate Is a Gumiho (2021) (16 episodes) - 16 hours
Promise in the Summer (2023) (24 micro-episodes) - 3 hours
Fallout #1.1 (2024) - 0.75 hours
The Idea of You (2024) - 1.75 hours
My Undead Yokai Girlfriend (2024) (8 episodes) - 4 hours
Total 126 hours
In comparison APV is quite worse than Netflix. On my old iPad the UI is fairly laggy with perceptible fractional second delay as you use the UI, including when using video playback commands. My iPhone SE is newer and works fine so it's just that APV is not designed for older iPads, unlike Netflix which runs great on my iPad.
On the plus side, when I watched The Expanse (produced by Amazon for seasons 4 to 6) and paused it showed me a list of actors and their roles in the scene. Unfortunately when I watched some Asian shows that info wasn't there. Similarly when you view The Expanse episode list there is a little blurb for each but for Asian shows it's the same blurb over and over, which is the show description blurb. And that show description reads like a transliteration -- it doesn't read natural.
Another plus is that Prime Video is a Mac App Store app and supports handoff which worked pretty well.
APV is rather aggressive stopping a show when you go out of the app and back in after a minute, so then you have to find the episode and restart viewing. Netflix I can go to another app for a few minutes and when I come back the video is still paused and I can continue (though maybe that means I'm holding one of the two viewing instances for the account).
APV has commercials. A pre-roll and one or two mid-rolls during a tv show. It's the usual television-style ads where the volume is at max no matter what you were watching. It also jarringly comes one without a fadeout/fadein -- I think it algorithmically tries to find the end of a scene and puts the mid-roll there. Sometimes a character finishes their sentence and commercial immediately starts.
As for content I'm not sure. The Expanse is great but it was a Sci-Fi channel show and it was good then also. I watched a Korean romance drama and a Chinese romance drama and they were fine though not as good as the ones on Netflix (but APV might have recommended less stellar fare to me). Both Asian dramas had good translations on par with Netflix. Still, the Asian dramas selection seems quite smaller than Netflix and I'm really into Asian romantic dramas right now.
In the end I wouldn't subscribe to Amazon Prime Video over other services. If you get it effectively free because you have Amazon Prime for the other benefits then it's worth it. But for me it's a pass.
What I Watched
The Expanse (2015) (62 episodes) - 46.5 hours
Good Omens #1.1 (2019) - 1 hour
Cute Bodyguard #1.1 to #1.4 (2021) - 3 hours
Cute Programmer (2021) (30 episodes) - 22.5 hours
Jolt (2021) - 1.5 hours
Oh My Ladylord (2021) (16 episodes) - 16 hours
My Roommate Is a Gumiho (2021) (16 episodes) - 16 hours
Promise in the Summer (2023) (24 micro-episodes) - 3 hours
Fallout #1.1 (2024) - 0.75 hours
The Idea of You (2024) - 1.75 hours
My Undead Yokai Girlfriend (2024) (8 episodes) - 4 hours
Total 126 hours