PROS
Excellent unique content material
4K and HDR streaming
Live Thursday Night Football and WNBA video games
Supports offline downloads, more than one viewer profiles, and audio descriptions
Lets you hire or purchase films and TV suggests
CONS
Continues to lose third-celebration content material to different offerings
Not as many extremely good suggests as competition
Even in case you ditch your cable company, you may nevertheless hold contemporary with the modern collection and films through subscribing to 1 or greater video streaming offerings. Amazon Prime Video gives a developing library of pleasant unique content material and a respectable series of films and TV suggests to flow. Subscribers additionally have the choice to down load content material for offline viewing or even watch 4K titles. On pinnacle of that, Amazon hosts an excellent catalog of TV suggests and films to be had for hire or buy. However, it does not have as many extremely good suggests because the pinnacle offerings and keeps to lose third-celebration content material.
What Can You Watch on Prime Video?
Although Amazon Video commenced out as an area to buy and watch TV suggests and films, the enterprise has modified and Amazon has embraced the arena of unlimited, buffet-fashion streaming for a unmarried month-to-month fee. Take, for example, Amazon’s developing library of exceptional unique content material which include Bosch, Catastrophe, Electric Dreams, Flack, Fleabag, Good Omens, Hanna, Homecoming, Hunters, Invincible, Jack Ryan, Tales From The Loop, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Patriot, The Boys, Undone, Upload, and UtopiaUtopia. Amazon even stored The Expanse from cancellation.
Amazon is likewise generating a sequence primarily based totally at the Fallout franchise, one set withinside the global of Lord of the Rings, and one primarily based totally at the vast Wheel of Time delusion collection. The listing of originals keeps to grow, and whilst it is now no longer as massive as Netflix’s or HBO Max’s series, a few of the suggests are on par, pleasant-wise. Prime Video’s unique suggests additionally outclass Hulu’s.
You get greater than simply Amazon’s originals with Amazon Prime Video, together with suggests which include Chuck, Burn Notice, Hannibal, Mr. Robot, and The Americans at no extra value. Note that Prime Video has already misplaced suggests which include Justified, The X-Files, and Veronica Mars to Hulu. Other HBO and NBC suggests formerly at the provider have left or are leaving quickly, too. Amazon Prime Video has the maximum suggests any streaming provider, however whilst you clear out out for pleasant, Netflix and Hulu are higher alternatives.
Prime Video’s library additionally consists of a rotating library of famous films, plus a stunning variety or conventional films. Like Netflix, it additionally creates unique films, which include Blow the Man Down, Honey Boy, Manchester through the Sea, My Spy, Troop Zero, The Big Sick, The Vast of Night, and The Report. Many of those films have now no longer fared in addition to Netflix’s The Irishman, El Camino, or Roma, however Sound of Metal did win an Academy Award. Prime Video has greater films than another provider, however whilst you clear out out for pleasant, its numbers are in keeping with Netflix’s. Of course, in case you love B films (or even C and D films) you can disagree! Amazon is shopping for MGM for $eight.forty five billion, however, which have to improve its film library significantly.
Dedicated film streaming offerings generally tend to provide greater curated picks of titles with greater assisting content material. Mubi and The Criterion Channel are each exceptional alternatives for cinephiles.
Documentaries on Amazon Prime Video
Amazon has been cranking out unique documentaries over the years; examples consist of Generation Wealth, Time, One Child Nation, and Gimme Danger. For natural entertainment, take a look at out Hamilton: One Shot to Broadway and The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, which chronicles the lifestyles and instances of an eccentric West Virginia family.
All In: The Fight for Democracy is a documentary approximately voter suppression, whilst Citizenfour covers NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Lower-price range documentaries approximately spirituality and non-conventional medicine, which include Food as Medicine, spherical out its library.
Anime on Amazon Prime Video
The addition of the wreck hit InvincibleInvincible notwithstanding, Amazon Prime Video falters in relation to anime and cartoons, aleven though it does function an awesome variety of lively kids’ suggests and a few anime titles. VRV is our Editors’ Choice choose out for looking anime, thank you in element to its large library of collection and films, aleven though each Hulu and Netflix provide a few anime titles as well. In phrases of different lively suggests, Netflix leads the % with originals which include Bojack Horseman and Matt Groening’s Disenchantment. Hulu is every other right alternative for lively suggests that superior on conventional cable networks.
Our function on the whole thing arriving on Prime Video let you hold up with adjustments to the library.
Prime Video Windows 10 app
Live Sports on Prime Video
In addition to on-call for content material, Prime Video will host stay Thursday Night Football video games in the course of the 2021-2022 season. More importantly, Prime Video might be the distinctive broadcaster of Thursday Night Football beginning in 2022. That manner that soccer enthusiasts will want to enroll in Prime Video further to one in every of numerous different NFL streaming offerings; now no longer will a unmarried stay TV provider cowl all of your needs.
Amazon these days introduced it might flow sixteen ordinary-season WNBA video games in addition to the Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game. For New York residents, the provider started out broadcasting pick Yankees video games, too. Both projects trace at Prime Video’s developing stay sports activities ambitions. For now, ESPN+ remains a higher sports activities streaming provider on this rate variety, due to its good sized stay insurance of university and global sports activities.
Amazon we could subscribers upload sports activities-centric Channels, which include MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, and PGA Tour Live to their subscription, too. Of course, every of those channels provides a considerable value for your month-to-month or annual subscription.
Some different on the whole on-call for offerings additionally flow stay sports activities or have all started to these days. For instance, Paramount+ receives you get admission to to all country wide sports activities occasions that air on CBS and Peacock’s top rate levels consist of Premier League and IndyCar insurance. HBO Max can also additionally function stay NHL video games as quickly as subsequent season as well, due to a latest broadcast deal among the NHL and Turner Sports.
How Much Does Amazon Prime Video Cost?
There are methods to get get admission to to Amazon’s video content material: a standalone Prime Video subscription and an Amazon Prime subscription. A Prime Video subscription expenses $eight.ninety nine consistent with month and handiest consists of get admission to to Amazon’s streaming video library. Alternatively, you may pay $12.ninety nine consistent with month (or $119 consistent with year) for an Amazon Prime subscription, which incorporates Prime Video in addition to different perks which include loose -day (and identical-day, whilst to be had) shipping, track streaming, a Twitch Prime membership, and reductions at Whole Foods. Both levels provide you with get admission to to the identical content material and are ad-loose, shop for Amazon’s in-residence, pre-roll commercials, that are absolutely skippable. Amazon’s Prime Day occasion is speedy drawing close which incorporates offers for Prime subscribers, too; take a look at out our Prime Day insurance to live up-to-date.
If you now no longer need or want your subscription, comply with our commands on the way to cancel your Amazon Prime account. This will remove your get admission to to Prime Video as well.
Students can sign on for an Amazon Prime subscription at a reduced fee of $6.forty nine consistent with month or $fifty nine consistent with year. This plan consists of all of the perks of the ordinary Amazon Prime subscription, together with Prime Video and Music (now no longer to be careworn with Amazon Music Unlimited).
Like many different video streaming offerings, Amazon Prime Video additionally we could customers upload subscriptions to distinctive content material vendors to their account for a month-to-month fee. Options consist of Cinemax ($9.ninety nine), PBS Documentaries ($5.ninety nine), Showtime ($eight.ninety nine), and Starz ($eight.ninety nine). Prime Channels aren’t to be had for standalone Prime Video subscribers; you want to have a complete Amazon Prime account to feature this content material.
Prime Video channel upload ons
For comparison, Netflix’s most inexpensive plan with HD streaming is $13.ninety nine consistent with month. Hulu’s most inexpensive on-call for streaming plan is $5.ninety nine consistent with month, however in case you need an ad-loose enjoy, the rate jumps to $eleven.ninety nine consistent with month. HBO Max and Paramount+ have new ad-supported plans, which begin at $9.ninety nine consistent with month and $4.ninety nine consistent with month, respectively. The pinnacle tier HBO Max and Paramount+ plans value $14.ninety nine consistent with month and $9.ninety nine consistent with month, respectively. Disney+ charges $7.ninety nine consistent with month.
You do not want to pay whatever in your video streaming entertainment. Our roundup of the high-satisfactory loose video streaming offerings consists of alternatives for looking famous suggests and films. Our pinnacle choose out for that class is NBC’s Peacock for its mainstream titles, aleven though you want to pay greater to get the whole thing it gives.
All of those are notably inexpensive than the cable-alternative kind offerings, which include Sling TV (beginning at $35 consistent with month) and Hulu + Live TV ($64.ninety nine consistent with month).
Amazon Prime Video works on an internet browser, in addition to Android and iOS devices, media streaming devices (together with Apple TV, Chromecasts, Fire TV, and Rokus), recreation consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, and Wii), and Smart TVs. Prime Video additionally has a Windows 10 app, some thing Netflix and Hulu do too. The app helps offline downloads and the IMDb-powered X-Ray panel for streaming content material (a function we talk later).
With Prime Video, you may flow up to a few titles on the identical time from the identical account. Most different video streaming offerings guide greater concurrent streams. BritBox, for example, helps five. Other than Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, and Netflix additionally provide 4K and HDR content material. fuboTV additionally streams pick stay programming in 4K.
Renting and Buying Videos From Amazon
Amazon Prime Video gives a bonus over opponents which include Netflix and Hulu with the choice to hire or purchase TV suggests and films outright, further to iTunes, Google Play Movies and TV Shows, and the Microsoft Store’s Movies & TV phase for Windows 10 and Xbox. Notably, for a few content material, shopping for and renting are your handiest alternatives. Keep in thoughts that purchases and leases include restrictions. Once you buy a video on Prime Video, you may flow it as normally as you need and down load it on as much as 4 well matched devices. For leases, the three-video-flow restriction remains, however Amazon does now no longer can help you flow the identical condominium to multiple tool simultaneously. If you watch a downloaded condominium video on one tool, you may nevertheless watch it on every other (aleven though now no longer simultaneously). You usually get 30 days to down load or begin streaming a condominium, however once you do, you typically have forty eight hours to complete looking it. You can study all the precise information on Amazon’s Video Usage Rules guide web page.
Amazon prioritizes films and TV suggests which are covered with Prime, so your high-satisfactory wager is to especially look for the content material you need to observe or navigate at once to the Rent or Buy phase. Renting a film usually expenses among $2.ninety nine and $5.ninety nine, whilst shopping for it runs everywhere from $7.ninety nine to $19.ninety nine, relying on how latest it’s far and the pleasant (SD or HD). Sometimes, however, the SD and HD alternatives value the identical.
In phrases of pricing, Amazon Prime Video is in keeping with its competition for each shopping for and renting films. For example, Ford v Ferrari (in HD) expenses $19.ninety nine to buy. Google Play, iTunes, and the Microsoft Store price the identical rate. However, the iTunes and Google Play variations are in 4K and guide HDR. Some films are loose in case you enroll in a channel upload-on that consists of it. In the case of Ford v Ferrari, subscribers to the HBO upload-on might get to observe the film for loose.
The tale is quite tons the identical in relation to TV suggests as well, aleven though now no longer all TV suggests are available outright. Individual episodes usually value among $1.ninety nine and $three.ninety nine, with seasons jogging everywhere from $22.ninety nine to $29.ninety nine. We as compared expenses for an HD episode from season three of Westworld throughout the 4 platforms. Each provider charges $three.ninety nine consistent with episode and around $29 for the complete season. Amazon organizes all of the content material you hire or purchase withinside the Your Video Library phase, that is cut loose the Your Videos phase, which collects streaming content material.
Web Interface
One of Amazon’s largest problems (now no longer specific to its video offerings) is that it shoehorns all its offerings into the identical interface. Amazon Prime Video, like any of Amazon’s different offerings which include Amazon Fresh, lives withinside the drop-right all the way down to the left of the principle seek bar. Amazon have to create a separate web website online completely devoted to its video offerings or at the least prepare the whole thing higher. That said, the interface’s agency has advanced significantly over time.
The video provider’s homepage can not in shape the minimum aesthetic of Netflix or HBO Max, however it appears fine. At the very pinnacle, customers can pick among the subsequent menu items: Home, Free to Me, Store, Channels, Categories, My Stuff, and Watch Party. Right beneathneath that, Amazon Video highlights some wonderful suggests or films to be had for streaming after which organizes the whole thing else in horizontally scrolling lists, which include Watch Next, TV Shows We Think You’ll Like, and Blockbuster Movies, taking place the relaxation of the web page. The Categories phase is especially beneficial for locating new releases, originals, and 4K UHD content material. There’s additionally a Prime Video Explorer device for locating extra suggestions.
Prime Video unique content material
If you can not locate some thing to observe at the homepage, you may use the quest bar up pinnacle to locate precise content material through title, genre, launch date, or channel. If you notice some thing that pursuits you, you may begin streaming immediately (supplied it’s far to be had for Prime Video) or upload it for your watchlist. Your watchlist is simply an smooth manner to hold song of the suggests and films you need to revisit at a later time.
Clicking a film or TV display hyperlink opens a web page displaying the consumer rating, runtime, launch date, and different pertinent statistics. If you are on a TV display web page, you may click on the Preview button to observe a snippet; film pages can help you watch a trailer. One benefit that Amazon Video gives over Netflix is consumer reviews. Mubi and Shudder additionally allow customers chime in approximately suggests and films. Like Netflix, Amazon offers suggestions primarily based totally at the content material you watch.
We especially like Prime Video’s Now Playing screen, because it appears easy and lays out the controls intuitively. In addition to the same old play, rewind, and ahead buttons, Amazon Prime Video additionally implements subtitle and streaming pleasant alternatives at the screen. However, Amazon’s largest draw—and some thing no different streaming provider I’ve examined presently gives—is its X-Ray function (powered through IMDb). This obvious overlay populates with beneficial statistics at the characters and actors presently in a scene, any soundtrack titles, in addition to applicable display notes (which include continuity mistakes and critical cultural references). Most suggests get a Skip Intro button as well, a function that Netflix made famous. Check out our function on different Prime Video suggestions and hints you may not have recognized approximately.
Prime Video on Mobile
We downloaded Amazon’s Prime Video app on an Android eleven tool to check the cellular enjoy. Note that Amazon does now no longer provide a separate Amazon Video app: all video money owed use the Prime Video app. We respect that Amazon constructed a separate app for the video enjoy, for the reason that wedging it into the Amazon buying app might make matters tons much less manageable.
The interface appears equal to that of the website, albeit scaled down for a cellular screen. The app seems much like many different video streaming apps, significantly Netflix and HBO Now, with a darkish history and vibrant content material thumbnails. Across the pinnacle, the app shows the subsequent menu alternatives: Home, Originals, TV, Movies, and Kids. There’s a brand new backside menu, too, for navigating among the Store, Channels, Search, and My Stuff sections. Gone is the overburdened left-hand menu. Tapping on a display or film brings you to a information web page wherein you may view a display summary, in addition to study consumer rankings and reviews.
Prime Video Android app
The app does deliver customers a honest quantity of manage over the provider, with settings for flow and down load pleasant, parental manage alternatives, a listing of registered devices, in addition to the cappotential to clean video seek history. Prime members (now no longer Amazon Video subscribers), also can manipulate Amazon Channels subscriptions from the app.
Streaming on a cellular tool is short and stable. Over PCMag’s Wi-Fi connection (15Mpbs down load), We downloaded a 44-minute episode of The Expanse withinside the maximum pleasant in a bit beneathneath a minute and a half. If you’ve got got the time and garage space, the app consists of an alternative for downloading a whole season of a display all at as soon as. For streaming or downloading on a cellular tool, ensure which you are on a Wi-Fi connection or have a limiteless information plan; one hour of content material equates to approximately 1.eight GB of information.
Accessibility and Parental Controls
Audio descriptions are one step above the ordinary dialogue-primarily based totally closed captioning (CC). You can seek especially for Amazon’s Movies and TV Shows with Audio Descriptions to locate well matched content material. This seek returns over 1,000 effects on the time of publishing. Most of Amazon’s Original programming consists of audio descriptions, and we are hoping that it keeps to guide and enforce those enhancements. Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, and Netflix additionally guide audio descriptions.
Prime Video helps you to regulate the CC settings at once from the video player. You can extrade the font length and colour of the text. Acorn TV additionally permits those customization alternatives from the playback screen.
Prime Video suggests that guide Audio Descriptions
In phrases of parental controls, you may require a pin for any purchases, in addition to limition streaming through consumer ages. You can designate precise money owed as a Kids profile, too. Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max additionally consist of pinnacle-notch parental manage alternatives.
Playback Experience
We did now no longer enjoy any problems streaming over a domestic Ethernet connection (200Mbps down load speed). Although Prime Video can also additionally take more than one seconds to ramp as much as complete pleasant, the pleasant remains steady as soon as it does. The provider is likewise quite correct at saving your development thru a video if you get disconnected or want to renew looking later.
Amazon Prime Video does now no longer splice commercials into the center of suggests, however it does put it on the market in-residence content material at the start of a display or film, much like the manner HBO Max does. Users can without problems bypass those commercials, or if they may be inquisitive about the display, upload it to their watchlist at once. In any case, Amazon Video’s in-residence commercials are tons greater palatable than the ones of the inexpensive plans of Hulu, which plague you with the mainstream classified ads that drove humans farfar from cable withinside the first place. Netflix gives the maximum ad-loose enjoy, specially for the reason that you may now disable the auto-gambling video commercials for its suggests.
Amazon Prime Video now helps you to co-watch Prime Video content material with as much as one hundred humans, supplied all of them have an account and are placed withinside the US. The provider additionally ultimately delivered guide for more than one viewing profiles to subscribers withinside the US.
Prime Video and VPN
A digital non-public network (VPN) is an critical device for defensive your privateness online. Unfortunately, a few video streaming offerings, which include Prime Video, make it difficult, if now no longer not possible to flow content material whilst you’re linked to a VPN. This coverage may be because of content material licensing offers, as many suggests are confined to visitors in precise countries. Amazon Prime Video did now no longer paintings once we linked out check cellular and tool laptop to US-primarily based totally Mullvad VPN servers.
You should try and discover a VPN that works with all of the offerings you enroll in, however even in case you do, this doesn’t assure that the whole thing will paintings collectively withinside the future. Many video streaming offerings preserve to shut down the loopholes that VPNs presently depend upon to keep away from being blocked. Note that a few VPNs do provide devoted streaming servers, which can be greater dependable for this purpose.
A Complete Video Streaming Package
Amazon Prime Video gives a ton of extremely good originals at an affordable rate and keeps to introduce new streaming features. Additionally, Prime Video is to be had on almost each platform you may call and helps you to buy or hire suggests and films it does not consist of as a part of its subscription. The principal disadvantage is that the provider does now no longer have as many extremely good suggests as our pinnacle selections and stands to lose greater content material to competition.
Netflix is our Editors’ Choice winner for the on-call for video streaming because it has the high-satisfactory library of originals and films. Hulu is a extremely good fee for its mixture of a massive on-call for library and stay TV capabilities. YouTube TV impresses with intuitive interfaces and an exceptional variety of channels.
