Amazon Prime on AppleTV

[Fishy]

Thank God, Amazon finally finished their AppleTV app. I have a little less use for it now that Movies Anywhere is a thing, but still, it’s nice to have all of my streaming sources on one box - I will not miss having to jockey the FireStick during an HDMI swap whenever I wanted to see if anything decent was on Prime.

The app itself is pretty much garbage, but the content meshes with the Watch Now feature on AppleTV, so you don’t have to bother much with it.

Hopefully, the Grand Tour will not suck when it drops this week.

 

[J187Money]

Finally.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Thank God, Amazon finally finished their AppleTV app. I have a little less use for it now that Movies Anywhere is a thing, but still, it’s nice to have all of my streaming sources on one box - I will not miss having to jockey the FireStick during an HDMI swap whenever I wanted to see if anything decent was on Prime.

The app itself is pretty much garbage, but the content meshes with the Watch Now feature on AppleTV, so you don’t have to bother much with it.

Hopefully, the Grand Tour will not suck when it drops this week.

Grand Tour did not suck.

 

[Fishy]

Grand Tour did not suck.

No, happily, it did not.

Also - there’s a new Sports tab on the watch now page.

It’s pretty good - basically scans your installed apps for live sports and aggregates them in one spot.

 

[Penfield]

I got a new 4K tv that you can download apps to and basically stopped using my apple tv since it can stream 4K content but my apple tv is only 1080P. The TV remote also has voice control, so while it isn't nearly as slick as the Apple TV it does the trick. The one app that doesn't work very well is the Amazon one. Sometimes the video will start to studder to the point that it is unwatchable. I somehow made it through the entire season of Goliath, but there was several times I turned it off and waited to see if it would stream better the next day. Never have this problem with Netflix or Youtube.

If I can finally watch Amazon on the Apple TV I guess I will start using it again, and maybe I will have to upgrade to the 4K Apple TV. I thought the Watch Now app was pretty cool the one time that I used it.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I got a new 4K tv that you can download apps to and basically stopped using my apple tv since it can stream 4K content but my apple tv is only 1080P. The TV remote also has voice control, so while it isn't nearly as slick as the Apple TV it does the trick. The one app that doesn't work very well is the Amazon one. Sometimes the video will start to studder to the point that it is unwatchable. I somehow made it through the entire season of Goliath, but there was several times I turned it off and waited to see if it would stream better the next day. Never have this problem with Netflix or Youtube.

If I can finally watch Amazon on the Apple TV I guess I will start using it again, and maybe I will have to upgrade to the 4K Apple TV. I thought the Watch Now app was pretty cool the one time that I used it.

I got a new 4K TV too. I don't much like the interface for any of the TV brands. Mine is Sony, which is among the best (Android based), but I still don't use it. I got a new XBox One S at the same time (great deals on cyber Monday), and use that for streaming. I find the apps are better (ESPN's certainly is). Basically the XBox S gives me what any other steaming device does and supports 4k streaming, plus it has a 4K HDR certified BluRay player, and it is a great game console.

 

[Penfield]

I got a new 4K TV too. I don't much like the interface for any of the TV brands. Mine is Sony, which is among the best (Android based), but I still don't use it. I got a new XBox One S at the same time (great deals on cyber Monday), and use that for streaming. I find the apps are better (ESPN's certainly is). Basically the XBox S gives me what any other steaming device does and supports 4k streaming, plus it has a 4K HDR certified BluRay player, and it is a great game console.

I also have a Sony TV and an X Box One S. I tried using the X Box for streaming, but I really didn't like it. I thought the Watch ESPN app had a great design, but the video streaming quality wasn't good. It would get really grainy sometimes and studder at others. I dont have that issue when I used Apple TV or the ESPN app on the TV. I never bothered trying to use Netflix or Amazon apps on there. I also find the navigation on the xbox to be annoying compared to the TV or Apple TV. So much easier to get to the app I want to use on either of those devices.

The ESPN app on Apple TV lets you watch up to 4 games at one time. I was very excited to use it during Basketball season, but now I am not very excited to watch a lot of basketball....

Also about the BluRay player- I find that some Blurays look decent but others are very grainy. Not sure if its the app (which has really low reviews on the xbox store) or the blurays themselves. I haven't watched a 4K bluray yet. Maybe my expectations are just too high for the other ones.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I also have a Sony TV and an X Box One S. I tried using the X Box for streaming, but I really didn't like it. I thought the Watch ESPN app had a great design, but the video streaming quality wasn't good. It would get really grainy sometimes and studder at others. I dont have that issue when I used Apple TV or the ESPN app on the TV. I never bothered trying to use Netflix or Amazon apps on there. I also find the navigation on the xbox to be annoying compared to the TV or Apple TV. So much easier to get to the app I want to use on either of those devices.

The ESPN app on Apple TV lets you watch up to 4 games at one time. I was very excited to use it during Basketball season, but now I am not very excited to watch a lot of basketball....

Also about the BluRay player- I find that some Blurays look decent but others are very grainy. Not sure if its the app (which has really low reviews on the xbox store) or the blurays themselves. I haven't watched a 4K bluray yet. Maybe my expectations are just too high for the other ones.

Interesting. I've been using it for years (prior XBox One) so maybe I'm used to the interface. Also, mine is in my finished basement, and wifi is terrible down there, so I have a powerline set up to hardwire my XBox. So streaming has been great quality wise.

Researched the XBox S bluray player, and early versions had a firmware issue they fixed. Since then technical analysis on AV sites have given it good marks. Movies have looked great and my one 4k title (Guardians of the Galaxy 2) was stellar. I am pretty sure Amazon streamed the Grand Tour in 4k or at least HDR, because it looked astonishing.

 

[Penfield]

Interesting. I've been using it for years (prior XBox One) so maybe I'm used to the interface. Also, mine is in my finished basement, and wifi is terrible down there, so I have a powerline set up to hardwire my XBox. So streaming has been great quality wise.

Researched the XBox S bluray player, and early versions had a firmware issue they fixed. Since then technical analysis on AV sites have given it good marks. Movies have looked great and my one 4k title (Guardians of the Galaxy 2) was stellar. I am pretty sure Amazon streamed the Grand Tour in 4k or at least HDR, because it looked astonishing.

My Xbox was hardwired too, and I have very fast internet so I was really confused why the ESPN streaming was so bad. Maybe I'll give it another shot.

Does Redbox rent out 4K BluRay? I don't buy a whole ton of movies, because I don't really rewatch very often. Maybe I will splurge and get Mad Max

 

[HuskyHawk]

My Xbox was hardwired too, and I have very fast internet so I was really confused why the ESPN streaming was so bad. Maybe I'll give it another shot.

Does Redbox rent out 4K BluRay? I don't buy a whole ton of movies, because I don't really rewatch very often. Maybe I will splurge and get Mad Max

Not yet. I wonder if their blu-ray take rate is high compared to DVD? Might dissuade them from adding a third format to the limited capacity of those kiosks.

That said, VUDU announced that they would be offering 4k streaming of movies, which they will rent. Price is higher I'm sure, but their current streaming quality is already excellent.

I buy some titles. Marvel stuff, Star Wars, a few others that get re-watched.

Edit: one thing to check. Does the HDMI cable between the TV and Xbox meet the relatively new standard required for HDR? Assume so if it is the one that came with the XBox S

 

[Penfield]

Not yet. I wonder if their blu-ray take rate is high compared to DVD? Might dissuade them from adding a third format to the limited capacity of those kiosks.

That said, VUDU announced that they would be offering 4k streaming of movies, which they will rent. Price is higher I'm sure, but their current streaming quality is already excellent.

I buy some titles. Marvel stuff, Star Wars, a few others that get re-watched.

Interesting

Yeah I own all the Star Wars movies on Blu-ray plus a handful of other movies. The Force Awakens and Rogue One look ok, but not as good as Netflix in 4k. The original trilogy doesn't look that great. That's why I'm not sure if it's the player or the Blu-rays

 

[HuskyHawk]

Interesting

Yeah I own all the Star Wars movies on Blu-ray plus a handful of other movies. The Force Awakens and Rogue One look ok, but not as good as Netflix in 4k. The original trilogy doesn't look that great. That's why I'm not sure if it's the player or the Blu-rays

Shouldn't match straight up 4k. My rough understanding is something like this:
4K BluRay > 4K streaming > upscaled BluRay with HDR > upscaled BluRay no HDR > regular BluRay.

I'm sure some possibilities are missing there. You can have you XBox do the upscaling, or leave it to the Sony. Maybe play around with it, but I've read that bot the Sony and Xbox have good upscaling engines. Lots of settings to check though.
Xbox One S: 4K, Ultra HD Blu-ray and HDR examined in more detail - Pocket-lint

 

[Penfield]

Shouldn't match straight up 4k. My rough understanding is something like this:
4K BluRay > 4K streaming > upscaled BluRay with HDR > upscaled BluRay no HDR > regular BluRay.

I'm sure some possibilities are missing there. You can have you XBox do the upscaling, or leave it to the Sony. Maybe play around with it, but I've read that bot the Sony and Xbox have good upscaling engines. Lots of settings to check though.
Xbox One S: 4K, Ultra HD Blu-ray and HDR examined in more detail - Pocket-lint

I suspected the 4K Blue-ray would be best, but didnt feel like spending $25 just to give it a shot. Now some discs have started to go on sale on Amazon so I'll probably buy one or two.

Thanks. I didnt think of that. I will have to fiddle around with the settings.