Note: Due to very limited hardware support in Australia, limitations in streaming through ‘redirectors’ and VPNs, and the fact I cancelled my account last year this review does not include any recent connect produced in 4K / with HDR.
This is an interesting service from Amazon. If you purchase a subscription to Amazon Prime you can get free two day shipping on a lot of items from their store, and they also throw in a streaming video service, and a music service as well, just because. Amazon Prime Video is an interesting mixed bag though. There is a lot of content on Prime, however not all of it is free to stream, to get the most recent season of a TV series might cost another $20 or $30 on top of the yearly subscription. Amazon has slowly been building out a massive media platform geared towards getting you to spend money with them.
Content: 3.5 stars.
This is hard to judge. Do you include the paid content that is available on top of the standard streaming service? Comparing it to other streaming services with a flat rate it wouldn’t be fair, so this is limited to the content that is available as part of Amazon Prime.
Amazon has started producing exclusive first party content. Unlike Netflix who release an entire season at once, Amazon commission pilots and then produce shows based on feedback and ratings from users who see the pilots on Amazon Prime. This means the pilots aren’t limited to focus groups, but to anyone who wants to watch them. Amazon have started to ramp up their first party content, outbidding for access to the former hosts of UK Top Gear. Some of the first part content is available on Stan in Australia, such as Transparent.
Video quality: 3.5 stars.
The video quality is sufficient. It is not brilliant, but it isn’t terrible. A lot depends on the source, and watch The Wire in SD, felt like I was watching SD, it was nowhere near as good as the remastered Star Trek The Next Generation on Stan. But now there is a remastered version of The Wire, and I’ll probably have to watch that sometime.
Audio quality: 4 stars.
Never had any issues with the audio quality, and I did managed to get 5.1 out of my Roku
Device Support: 2 stars.
There is no app for Apple TV, there is no app for Android (outside of the Amazon Marketplace, and that doesn’t support Chromecast. I originally bought a Roku box almost exclusively for Amazon Prime and The Wire - knowing I would be installing Netflix and Hulu on the box as well.
User Experience: 3 stars.
The mixture of paid content and content included in the streaming package can get confusing. It will almost always offer the content I as looking for, but it wasn’t always clear if I had to pay extra for it. It remembers where I am in a series, or in a show.
Overall Value: Low to High.
This is another tricky one to judge. If I was in the States and used Amazon to purchase other things, real things that ship to your door things, Amazon Prime would be good value. $99 for year of Prime shipping, plus the exclusive Prime Video content would be worth it. Outside of the States, not so much. The content library isn’t worth $99(USD) a year alone, especially with some of the exclusive content being ‘syndicated’ on other platforms such as Stan. It’ll be interesting to see if Stan manage to pick up the ‘Whatever the new name for UK Top Gear from Amazon is’ in Australia, or if that will go somewhere else.