Bandwidth is dirt cheap, so why worry about how much you use??? Almost 100% of the costs of your connection are based on the equipment and physical lines, using a lot of bandwidth or a little changes nothing for the cost to your ISP. Why should amazon care about bandwidth usage just because your ISP unethically charges you by the byte??
As for the muddier video. On HD videos on amazon instant video, you can see all the pixelation flickering. It is weird, but its obvious it is not HD or near HD. There definitely is something wrong with their videos.
I have watched dozens of videos on Amazon Prime. I see no issue with it at all. The picture is very clear and crisp, no flickering or pixelation. When your connection becomes inferior, the video stream goes to a lower resolution.
Amazon streams on the computer always look like shit, because it is only SD quality--they require you to use a proprietary device (Xbox 360, PS3, Roku, or Kindle Fire) to view HD content.
Amazon streams on the computer always look like shit, because it is only SD quality--they require you to use a proprietary device (Xbox 360, PS3, Roku, or Kindle Fire) to view HD content.
Pretty bullshit.
That's not true. They have different pages for HD and SD content.
It's another thing I don't like about it. They split them because their entire service was initially built as a way to sell digital content, not as a netflix-like service. So since HD and SD content costs different, it's considered two different items on Amazon.
Hm. I have purchased HD content before and then tried to play it on the computer and gotten the pop-up that says HD content is only available on yada yada yada devices...
Hm. I have purchased HD content before and then tried to play it on the computer and gotten the pop-up that says HD content is only available on yada yada yada devices...
While I haven't purchased any content in particular, some HD content does show up as available for Amazon Prime Streaming (sort of free). I get the same message. I don't have xbox, roku or an apple TV. So I don't have access to HD, even if I have 1080p monitor on my computer. I suspect it would be pretty crummy and at truly ludicrous bandwidth, even if I did have it.
Bandwidth is dirt cheap, so why worry about how much you use??? Almost 100% of the costs of your connection are based on the equipment and physical lines, using a lot of bandwidth or a little changes nothing for the cost to your ISP. Why should amazon care about bandwidth usage just because your ISP unethically charges you by the byte??
As for the muddier video. On HD videos on amazon instant video, you can see all the pixelation flickering. It is weird, but its obvious it is not HD or near HD. There definitely is something wrong with their videos.
I can understand your point of view to some extent. Most people really don't care. Heck, most people don't even know to check. For that matter, most people can't tell when the screen is that much muddier because they're not really watching. They're simultaneously chatting with friends or sending out an email. Or napping. So it comes back to "who cares?", just as you say.
Except they do care when they get a letter from their ISP saying: "You've been naughty. We're going to charge you extra next time you go over your limit."
Other streaming services use less bandwidth and still provide clearer video. I expect Amazon to do better. I expect them to respect my bandwidth the way other services do.
Hm. I have purchased HD content before and then tried to play it on the computer and gotten the pop-up that says HD content is only available on yada yada yada devices...
I just for giggles started to play an HD video on this PC and it played fine. No notice about other devices.