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I've been considering getting an Amazon Prime membership and dumping Netflix streaming. I think the Prime would be more cost effective and there are a lot of free kindle books I would like to check out.
My problem is I have a cap on my internet service of 60GB per month. Netflix allows me to set the streaming at "good" which keeps the use down to 700mb per hour. This works out well for my viewing habits of 2 to 3 hrs a day. I have been searching for info on how much Amazon uses per hour but the answer is elusive. Does anyone know? Is there a link with that information?
I decided to e-mail Amazon directly and they responded...
Hello,
Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com.
I regret to inform this to you, but as of now you cannot stream the Prime Instant videos on limiting the your bandwidth. I'm sorry if this is disappointing.
I understand that having the option of streaming Amazon Prime Instant Videos by limiting the your bandwidth would be a great feature and would add to the convenience of many customers.
Therefore, considering your comments as feedback and to ensure utmost attention, I've forwarded your email message as feedback to our Amazon Instant Video development Team and let them know that you'd like to stream videos by limiting the bandwidth.
We have team of experts who takes into consideration each and every feedback of our customers and brings them into practice. They are always looking for ways to improve our service and may be able to make this app available in future.
Please be assured that we are working hard to improve your Amazon instant Video experience.
I can't believe they hadn't considered bandwidth use when designing their service. A LOT of people are subject to data caps on their internet service. Everyone with Satalite is limited to 35 gb per month, most national wireless plans limit you to under 20gb per month. Despite our government spending (wasting) Billions on rural broadband development it still sucks. Even in some areas served by cable internet the service is limited.
Despite our government spending (wasting) Billions on rural broadband development it still sucks. Even in some areas served by cable internet the service is limited.
We live in a county service by a municipal fiber system. 75% of the county residents have fiber to the home.
The estimate was for 35 million to hook up the remaining 25% of county residents. So the Public Utility District applied for and got a 35 million dollar "grant" from the program. After looking at the requirements of the program the PUD discovered it would end up costing much more than 35 million. So they gave the money back to the Feds.
Now the person in charge of the program was our former Governor Locke who tried to kill municipal broadband in Washington state and was successful to a great extent. The only reason we have it is that the county sells surplus electricity to western Washington and Oregon for millions of dollars. AND that program paid for the fiber.
I think the whole point of the Obama Administrations rural broadband program was to give lots of money to the cable and telecom companies. In this they were successful.
The provision of rural broadband to actually people is a much different story.
Prime is way better than Netflix. You get it for less per month than Netflix's "standard definition one tv" plan, AND you get free 2nd day air shipping on Amazon stocked products. Cant really beat it. Netflix's programming has degraded continually over the years, and Amazons gets better and better.
Prime is way better than Netflix. You get it for less per month than Netflix's "standard definition one tv" plan, AND you get free 2nd day air shipping on Amazon stocked products. Cant really beat it. Netflix's programming has degraded continually over the years, and Amazons gets better and better.
I would jump ship in a heartbeat but not with the way they "push" the highest quality your internet connection can handle. I am getting about 12mbps down on my connection which would probably be able to handle higher quality video. I do not want to burn through 1gb per hour of television watching.
Ugh, I know the problem. I stopped renting movies online because even one put us dangerously close to the bandwidth cap -- slightly higher than yours. Looks like I have some ISP options in my area, luckily. Time for a change.
OP, you might have been disappointed in amazon prime anyway -- not ALL of their streaming video is free, most is pay-as-you-watch (as opposed to Netflix's flat rate of, what, $8 a month for unlimited)? I've been watching TV shows and one of them ("Grey's Anatomy") went from free yesterday (all episodes in the first 8 seasons) to pay-per-view today. At $1.99 per episode, I'm not watching that show any more through amazon and will have to go back and search for other shows to add to my watchlist.
I like amazon prime for the FREE videos, but they are relatively limited, and there is no warning when something you're in the middle of watching switches from free to pay. I've read some comments from people who assumed that amazon's entire video library was free with prime -- not true at all!!
OP, you might have been disappointed in amazon prime anyway -- not ALL of their streaming video is free, most is pay-as-you-watch (as opposed to Netflix's flat rate of, what, $8 a month for unlimited)? I've been watching TV shows and one of them ("Grey's Anatomy") went from free yesterday (all episodes in the first 8 seasons) to pay-per-view today. At $1.99 per episode, I'm not watching that show any more through amazon and will have to go back and search for other shows to add to my watchlist.
I like amazon prime for the FREE videos, but they are relatively limited, and there is no warning when something you're in the middle of watching switches from free to pay. I've read some comments from people who assumed that amazon's entire video library was free with prime -- not true at all!!
These are all valid points. I don't watch many movies, and I can almost always find a free "Prime" movie when I am in the mood to watch something. At any given moment, there are 300+ free movies available (plus lots of TV shows) with a "Prime" membership. "Free" is subject to change without notice, though.
I agree that this is an issue that Amazon is going to need to address. We have Charter internet with a 250GB a month limit. Amazon videos are getting worse and worse on our bandwidth. I find myself using Netflix again more and more because I can set the quality like the original poster said. My kids have kindle fires and due to me setting the video limits wrong the other day they used almost 10GB in one day! Either they need to allow us to pick lower streaming quality or I will have to use other services that do.
I've recently wondered about Amazon's bandwidth. I have been watching Instant Video since late 2011 and hardly ever used over half of my bandwidth--until May, 2014.
I started streaming The Sopranos--now free with Prime--and I don't know if it is HD (it doesn't look any different to me) but suddenly my usage jumped exponentially and I went over the cap for the first time ever.
Amazon says they automatically adapt the streaming quality to your device (I use Roku) so I don't see a way I can select how a video is transmitted to keep the usage down.
I telecommute so internet is essential, and I certainly can't afford to have my internet suspended (if they were to start doing that--this time I just received an email 5/29).
Nothing else changed--used the work PC 40 hours each week, used my laptop intermittently and visited the same sites, and streamed Prime programs as usual. The only thing different was, the main program I was streaming was a current addition from HBO. I can only assume (for now, anyway) that this program takes up more bandwidth?
I streamed a lot of episodes but I have done that with other series and never came close to going over my data cap; I think 51% was the highest I recall seeing used in a one-month billing cycle.
Last edited by cjs123; 06-01-2014 at 06:55 PM..
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I've read some comments from people who assumed that amazon's entire video library was free with prime -- not true at all!!
