The naming is a little odd: I guess it’s the same as Amazon Prime video, but you’re not actually an Amazon Prime member if you sign up for the video service only? It’s free for the first week, $2.99 USD/month for six months after that, and $5.99/month after that. I’m not sure what’s available or if the catalogue varies from country to country. I don’t really trust what I can currently see on Amazon’s website, because I’ve been burned too many times with that sort of thing before: “Watch this!” (Sign up.) “Sorry, in your region you can’t watch this!”
I’m very much in the Apple ecosystem and I don’t know what the best way is to get the stream from Amazon to my TV: perhaps via an iPad app, then mirrored to the Apple TV.
Anyone who’s already an Amazon Prime member should definitely have a look. I assume you’re already paying for it.
I’ll play with the week-long free trial in a few weeks, after the university semester winds down.
I signed up and will probably stay signed up for the first 6 months. I can’t imagine keeping the subscription after the price increase. Even though it’s only a small difference, the content doesn’t really do much for me (especially since I already have Netflix). Though I’ve heard that Man in the High Castle is a good show. I’ll check that out. There is a good variety of movies too.
The fact that less than half of what I’ve seen on the site has Chinese subtitles, I don’t see it taking off here. Netflix have done it right by making sure everything has subtitles.
Speaking of subtitles, pretty funny to watch “The Grand Tour” and the only subtitles displayed for Episode 1 were French. Episode 3 had English subtitles, but signs were translated to French.
When select options, I could have selected only Korean subs.
Weird.
But they have Seinfeld, Season 2 (and only Season 2) in different languages.
Still checking, have it just since 2 days.
Bump: how are people’s experiences with Amazon Prime Video here in Taiwan? I still haven’t tried it, but am now wondering if it’s worthwhile. When I browse it without being a member, it looks like some HBO shows - Deadwood, Veep - are available. Fleabag (one of the shows that I’d really like to see) seems to have all episodes except the first one (?!) available. But I never know if what I see at that level matches what I’d be able to see if I actually became a paying member.
Further question: what happens if I try to watch stuff on Prime when I’m in another country? Is it like Netflix, and I can do that no problem, but I’ve got different availability? Or does it just not work?
Yet another question: it’s giving me an option to add on an HBO membership, about USD$15/month, on top of Amazon: does anyone here do that? It’d be the only non-VPN way I know of to stream HBO content at will, assuming it works. There’s no way I’d pay that $15 in perpetuity, but for an occasional month here and there, sure.
I’m not reassured that it’s telling me “Things to watch while abroad!”, when, no, I’m actually kind of home.
Both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video filter their video selection based on your current location. If you have a netflix subscription and start watching a video here and then travel to another country, you may or may not be able to watch it, depending on whether or not they paid for the rights in that country as well.
Amazon video is the same, only its selection outside of the US, especially here in Taiwan, is waaay more limited than Netflix. Even many of their Amazon prime originals aren’t available for viewing here . It has been getting better recently, but Netflix still has a larger selection.
And no, the HBO subscription is not available in Taiwan. Well, you can subscribe to it if you have a US credit card and billing address, but you will be unable to access any of the content if your ip address is from Taiwan. You could use a VPN, and then get access to all the content regardless of location.
It does sound like you were browsing the US Amazon Prime selection. Check out www.primevideo.com to see what you can get in Taiwan. It works okay overseas but make sure you know what you’re getting because a lot of the US content isn’t going to be available in Taiwan (and a VPN won’t work).
If you have a close friend or family member in the US with HBO NOW, just see if you can use their subscription. The HBO CEO has essentially said they don’t care if you do and it works no problem with a VPN.
Which VPN? Mine used to work but now it tells me it detects a VPN and I can’t play anything if it’s on. Every other service I use has no trouble, it’s just Prime Video.
When I click through to that page, I seem to be stuck - it doesn’t link to anything else except the free trial. I get into the prime video through amazon’s main page, and it seems to show me what’s available, but I don’t trust it to understand where I am. (Like the Kindle Wishlist page: for a couple of months it was doing well at showing me the price that I would actually pay, but in the past few weeks that’s broken again. I guess it’s showing me the “in the USA” price until I click through to the actual book, and that’s when it recognizes “Oh, you’re in Taiwan!”)
Silly VPNs. I know they can work, but the fact that they may suddenly not work means I’m not going to pile one subscription on top of another when one day I could wake up to discover it’s all a waste of money.
For what it’s worth, the things that Amazon tells me I can stream with Prime, and want to watch, include The Americans, the film Cold War, Mr. Robot, Good Omens, Fleabag (with S1E1 apparently unavailable?!), Deadwood, Veep, Catastrophe, The Tick, and Patriot. (I’ll definitely want to watch The Expanse S4 when that shows up, and a big reason I haven’t signed up for Amazon yet is that I’m hoping to include that season in the first cheap six months, and then abandon the service again for a year or so.)
The depth of content on Amazon Prime certainly looks awful. I think I’ve gone through almost everything I really want to watch on Netflix, but I’ve got tons of “Eh, I’m not enthusiastic, but I’ve heard good things” material on my list there. That level of content seems almost non-existent on Amazon.
I got a lifetime subscription for my VPN, which means I’m stuck with it.
For Taiwan, a lot of the stuff you want isn’t available:
The Americans - no
Cold War - no
Mr. Robot - no
Good Omens - yes
Fleabag - yes
Deadwood - no
Veep - no
Catastrophe - no
The Tick - yes
Patriot - yes
The Expanse - yes
Probably worth checking out for a month just for the shows that are available. They have a few other interesting things that aren’t found anywhere else (not only their originals).
One thing I’m just remembering is that if you have a default address in the US already saved in Amazon, they like to try and use that for your location. I think sometimes that’s why it gets so confused. Their interface and integration is just really janky.
Cool, I’ll give the 30 day trial sometime. I use Windscribe and they have Netflix servers for the US, Canada, UK and Japan. All work well. US servers also let me use Hulu, HBO, Vudu, DC Universe, Dish Anywhere, the Criterion Channel and a few others (fireTV stick with the windscribe app makes all that easy). I’ve just had trouble with Prime Video… starting this year, I think.
The other one I’ve had trouble using is imdb’s “freedrive.”
Huh. Cool. I thought Netflix had mostly cracked down on VPNs, and using that had become too complex for me to bother.
Mind you, I suppose this could involve a rabbit hole of figuring out router settings? I use an Apple TV for everything, and if I recall correctly before what I did before was mirror Netflix from my iPad to the Apple TV.
For Netflix, it’s like whack-a-mole. The VPNs will always find a way to circumvent. Every now and then they throw up a new roadblock, but it doesn’t take long for the VPNs to get around it.
My router supports VPNs but I wouldn’t use it. I like my computer being in the US, while my game consoles are in Taiwan, and my FireTV is in the UK. That’s why I use the FireTV stick - you can install the different VPN apps. I don’t think the Apple TV does that yet (unless it’s changed recently). Although if mirroring works, the method you mention makes sense.
I just place my laptop next to my TV, plug an HDMI cable from my laptop to the TV, turn on ExpressVPN and there you go. Access to anything and everything.
Why not just torrent any content you want? It’s free and there are no content restrictions or streaming issues. Fast Internet is peanuts here; take advantage of it.
. It has been getting better recently, but Netflix still has a larger selection.