Amazon.com has continually been expanding its services from being a well-known online store to being a source of various multimedia files. Amazon Prime Instant Video offers HD movies and television shows for entertainment junkies. Every movie and TV enthusiast will be delighted with Amazon’s huge archive which is constantly updated with the latest films and TV episodes.
Over 100,000 movies and shows to choose from
With this amount of movies to choose from, you might find it overwhelming and develop a dilemma of which movie or TV show to watch. Amazon makes the job easier for you by providing Editor’s Movie Picks which are cleverly arranged into categorized such as Award Winners, History 101, Love Love Love, and a lot more.
They also provide movie trailers and information to help you decide. Amazon does a good job of making things convenient for you.
Services offered
Rent or Buy: Rental price starts at $3 and is available for you to watch for 30 days. Once you have started watching the movie, you have a 24-hour window period to finish watching. The movies will automatically be deleted from your library after the time period allotted. Buying price starts at $10 and the maximum price for HD movies is around $20. Once bought, they are yours to keep.
Prime Instant Video: This is subscription plan which entitles you to instantly stream around 13,000 movies and TV shows, read 50,000 Kindle books for $79/year.
Watch Anywhere: The movies and TV shows can be accessed anytime and anywhere. It can be streamed on the Kindle Fire, PC, Mac, Roku, Blu-ray players and even on TVs by teaming up with Sony and TiVo.
Stream or Download: Streaming requires a stable and fast internet connection. You may use different devices to stream. You can stream through you traditional web browsers or you can try something new like streaming on your Kindle Fire and even on compatible HDTVs and Blu-ray players. Downloading the movie or TV shows lets you experience them even offline.
Free Movies: Amazon also offers free HD movies and TV shows. Most of the titles, however, are not popular.
Pros And Cons
Pros
- Huge selection of over 100,000 movies
- Registration with Amazon.com is free
- Compatible with many device including portable ones
- Offers HD Movies in 5.1 surround sound
- Provides trailers and information about the movies and TV shows
Cons:
- Only available to customers in the US
- Downloading movies need Amazon Unbox video player
- Amazon offers online viewing only on Macs since the Unbox Video Player is not available for MAC OS.
- Membership is quite expensive for $79/year.
- Most videos are DRM-protected
Amazon Unbox Video Player
This player is required to download movies, watch them offline and transfer them to mobile devices. Major weakness includes its incompatibility with Mac or Linux and the videos cannot be transferred to iPods or iPads.
Conclusion
Major setbacks of Amazon Instant Video include the videos’ incompatibility to be accessed offline on devices such as Mac, iPods, and iPads and that they are DRM-protected. Another is that the service is only available to US residents. The price per movie or TV show is reasonable and you have the option to rent to save more money.
Considering its huge catalogue of movies, Amazon.com is an above average choice for movie lovers and the like. Its compatibility with several devices including TVs and Blu-ray players along with the availability of high definition movies add major points to the users’ satisfaction.
Have you tried Amazon Instant Video or other video downloading service? Feel free to post you comments and experiences below.
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