Just over three years ago, Lovefilm started one of the first Flatrate Videotheques in the United States. In addition to the DVD and Blu-ray rental by post, the subsidiary offered its subscribers customers from the end of 2010 for the first time a limited selection of films for free streaming. Later the offer was independent of the DVD-Postverleih. Since 26 February 2017 it is now no longer Lovefilm video on demand, but is now called Amazon Prime Instant Video.
Flat rate for movies and more
The special feature: The video flat rate, as they also offer Watchever, Sky Snap or the Maxdome package, is now at Amazon is not only significantly cheaper than the competition, it is also coupled with the services of Amazon Prime. Prime customers will be able to watch films as they like, as well as borrow e-books from their Amazon Kindle library for 49 euros per year. And during the subscription period, they receive preferred premium deliveries of all items marked with Prime by the Internet sender. If you take these other Amazon services as free Dreingaben with, then for the film flat rate still a monthly price of only 4.08 euro. This is almost three euros less than before for Lovefilm (6.99 euros) and even less than for Maxdome, the next more expensive offer for 7.99 euros per month.
Recent movies in single-click
However, Amazon Prime runs on a yearly basis, while Maxdome, Watchever (8.99 euros) and Sky Snap (9.99 euros for non-Sky subscribers, 4.99 euros in addition to the Sky subscription) can cancel monthly. If you want full flexibility, you can use the Prime video store like Lovefilm further without contract binding - starting now for 7.99 per month. However, it is more expensive for Amazon Prime users. They paid 29 euros per year without a video flat rate.
Purchase, retrieval and equipment
In addition to the previous Lovefilm video library, which apparently was adopted without major changes, Amazon now also offers films in single-shot - depending on the title in SD and HD, on purchase or loan. Most titles are available in all four versions. While in the Prime Flatrate are predominantly older films, classics and TV series to be had, there's to the single issue many current loan and purchase titles. On the first check with a current test basket of 50 films, about half (54%) of all audited titles were lent and 62% were available for purchase - most in SD and HD resolution. On TV series, Instant Video from a test selection of 120 episodes had 90 actually in stock - exactly three-quarters.
Instant video in practice
Practice: Apps for video streaming
The established online video stores have more to offer especially in the Spielfilmangebot, but Amazon is likely to catch up quickly. Top performers are iTunes: In the current comparison, the testers found 39 of 50 test films (78%) on the loan and 47 for the purchase (94%). Among the TV series, iTunes offered a hit rate of 92% - or 110 of 120 episodes.
New rental films cost 3.99 euros in SD and 4.99 in HD for a useful life of 48 hours, older titles usually cost one euro less. Thus, Amazon takes advantage of the competitor's iTunes points. And one remains on average somewhat cheaper than Maxdome, Videoload or SonyVideo Unlimited, where top novelties gladly also cost a euro more. A few bargains such as the inevitable "Keinohrhasen" are available with Instant Video for 99 cents, or 1.99 Euro in HD. Purchase prices for feature films vary between 5.99 and 12.99 for SD and 10.99 to 16.99 euros for HD movies. This is also the case in the industry standard. The individual episodes of the current series are mostly 2.49 (SD) and 2.99 euros (HD), older episodes 1.99 and 2.49 euros. The season prices vary depending on the actuality and volume of the series between just 20 and a good 40 euros.
Instant video seamlessly integrates into the Amazon menu interface. You can search for films, buy, borrow and start, in addition to the streaming hits are also in doubt, DVDs, Blu-ray discs or books listed - just Amazon. Prime flat rate films are marked with a mark at the upper left corner, HD titles as well. The billing for the single fetch takes place like any other Amazon purchase. So you do not need a new Amazon account to borrow movies and do not have to be an Amazon Prime member for the single copy. Necessary for new users is an age verification if one wants to get films from FSK18. This is done online via credit card and identity card data. With previous Lovefilm customers, we automatically take over the FSK release into the Amazon video library.
The iPad app of Lovefilm was easily converted to the conversion. Although it is still on the iPad homepage "Amazon Lovefilm", but now has an internal Amazon look. Prime customers can search freely in the flatrate offer here. You can not order movies for the single shot in the app. Buy and lend movies, which you have previously purchased on the Amazon website, lists the app but in its own library. The retrieval of prime and on-demand films on other devices with the Amazon video app - for example on the Playstation 3 and 4, the Xbox One, Nintendo Wii as well as on current Smart TVs and various other networked devices - is similar From Sony, Samsung and LG. From Apple devices you get movies but also on the TV screen - using the Apple TV streaming box. The films can be sent to the TV via air-TV in the local network - but only in SD quality.
Practice: Watch TV series on the tablet
Of course, all the films run on the Amazon's own Kindle Fire Tablets. On them, Prime Instant Video is the preinstalled main application in the menu "Video". And like the celebration of the new service, Amazon now offers the two latest Kindle Fire HDX 7 and HDX 8.9 models 20 percent cheaper than usual.
On the iPad, the iPhone and the Kindle Fires you can download purchase and rental videos. Each movie can be stored on two tablets or smartphones of the owner and viewed there offline - for example, in the airplane. Movies from the Prime offer can only be downloaded on Kindle Fire tablets. All in all, Amazon limits the number of film and serial downloads to 25. On the PC, via smart TVs, Blu-ray players and other living room equipment, you can only stream Prime, buy and rent films. There are a few more restrictions on playback - on some computers, for example, the player does not display HD resolution in the browser. Amazon informs you about the purchase every time quite detailed. The bottom line is that, despite all the rules and exceptions, the operation is as intuitive as you can see purchases from Amazon.
We looked at the image quality of online video stores a few weeks ago. At that time Lovefilm convinced with the best quality of all streaming services. The technical films have not changed since then and so the Prime films continue to look like: After a short start-up phase the test-started films offered a detailed, sharp image quality, which was rarely disturbed by artefacts. We were able to make the same impact on the few previously tested rental and buying films. Except for downloads: The current test film "Gravity", which we downloaded on the iPad, started immediately without any streaming startup pixies in the best possible quality - in this case, however, in fairly good SD resolution. HD downloads allowed Amazon only on the Kindle Fire HDX - no matter a limitation.
Conclusion
Most films are only available with german stereo sound. Here, Maxdome, Sky Snap and Watchever have more to offer. Although they do not have a 5.1 home theater sound in stock, but allow for almost all titles the choice between American and original - even during playback. Other comfort features, such as Watchever offers in perfection, also has Amazon. The library remembers, for example, the playback position of a movie over all devices. If it is paused on the iPad, for example, it will run on the PC at the same location.
In the US, Amazon Instant Video has been around for a couple of years now, so we're on it. In this respect, it is not surprising that the offer has matured from the start. The film offer of the Prime Flatrate, similar to that of Lovefilm so far, is not bad, but never really up-to-date. However, Watchever, the Maxdome package and Sky Snap can do well because of the constantly growing selection of good series. The subscription price is a real battle to the competition. And to Netflix - the US provider, who wants to start this year with his video flat rate in the United States. In the US, Amazon Instant Video is rather in the shadow of Netflix, on the American market you want to prevent this.
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