Amazon Prime Video is a streaming service from Amazon that has undergone many different phases since its inception in 2006.
Now, the streaming service is considered one of the better ones at present that is also quite cost-effective with the overall Prime deals that you end up getting from the services, as well, more on that later.
Since this streaming service is one of the biggest contenders in the current ‘streaming wars’ that is going around the world, we decided to review and see how well this service stands amongst all its competitors.
In this review I will cover most of the important topics on Prime Video and in the end give my final verdict on the overall service.
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Contents
Availability of Prime Video
In terms of availability, Prime Video is actually well-ahead of most of the streaming services in the US because of the time it has been around and also thanks to its parent company, Amazon.
Prime Video services are currently available worldwide, except in countries like Mainland China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Belarus, and Syria.
Apart from all these six countries, you can easily access Prime Video and its overall catalogue of content in all the other major countries.
As far as the availability of its application is concerned, Prime Video has also worked on that matter as you can download its app on leading streaming platforms and popular app stores, such as App Store, Google Play Store and even Microsoft Store.
So, as far as availability is concerned, Prime Video does deliver well in that market.
Prime Video Price & Free Trial
Prime Video offers excellent value for money propositions for its customers. It is one of the only streaming services present right now that not only offer a free trial, but offers a 30-day free trial service, which is unheard of in the world of streaming.
Among this, Amazon also kept the overall pricing of Prime Video fairly simple and didn’t overcomplicate it with subtracting features or content in its library.
If you are looking to get just Prime Video, then you would have to shell out $8.99/month, which is a pretty great deal for all the features that it is offering. To put this price in context, Disney Plus’s Ad-Tier (which used to be its Ad-free tier) costs almost the same at $8/month.
However, since everyone knows that Amazon is one of the biggest online shopping sites. So, if you are looking for exclusive Prime Deals and free delivery on its products, along with Prime Music and Prime Video, then you can get it all for $14.99/month!
That is a really good amount of value offered for the price, and that is why a lot of people do end up signing up for the prime membership that includes almost everything that Amazon has to offer to its customers.
Pros and Cons of Prime Video
Let’s discuss some of the pros and cons of Prime Video
| Pros | Cons |
| ✅Great value proposition ✅Great list of features, such as Dolby Atmos, 4K ✅HDR Content and more ✅Available in many countries | ❌2 simultaneous running screens Losing third-party licensed content ❌Website UI can be a little confusing |
So, when it comes to the pros and cons of Prime Video it seems pretty clear that there are definitely a lot of advantages to being a prime member because it does offer quite a lot of value to its customers with overall quality products.
However, since the overall pricing of Prime Video is fairly low compared to its competitors, there are also some departments where Amazon did cut some corners in order to save up some money.
Some of the features, such as only 2 simultaneous running screens could be an issue if you are a family of four and you are trying to stream content from different devices at the same time. They could offer the option of 4 screens with some additional price, if users want to.
Along with this, while there are some great popular shows on Prime Video, such as The Boys, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and Invincible, it still lacks some popular tv shows that it used to run, such as The Office, Parks and Recreations, and more that it has been losing to its rival streaming services.
Still, at the end of the day, it has a good amount of content to leave people pretty satisfied and Prime Video does put its focus more on Quality over quantity, which is always a better strategy.
Specific functionalities of Prime Video
Let’s discuss in detail some of Prime Video’s special functionalities.
Renting on Prime Video
Prime Video started out as a movie renting business, similar to that of Netflix, and it still follows that same method as it is one of the major places where audiences can rent out a particular movie or tv series once it has been released digitally.
Prime Video’s rent option can be a little tricky when you first do it, as it requires you to sign-in to your prime account, so without that you won’t be able to rent out the movie or tv shows that you are looking for.
You get three options of renting on Prime Video, you can either rent it in SD, HD or UHD quality. Some of the older titles are not available to rent in UHD, and that is mostly and the overall content is then available for 30 days in your library.
The overall library of renting on Prime Video is actually pretty vast, and you tend to get to watch new movies fairly early before they arrive on streaming services, so the overall renting experience on Renting is pretty good.
UI
Prime Video recently got a huge update on the UI that is accessible across all the applications and it looks much better than what was previously offered.
Still, there is definitely some room for improvements because while the overall look of the app has changed, the functioning of it remains a little clunky.
If you are in the US, and you are trying out Prime video from Amazon’s website, then things get even more complicated as you are offered to watch the movies and everything on Amazon’s shopping UI, which is very different from the actual UI of Prime Video.
When you hop on Prime Video’s UI, the first thing that you will end up seeing is all the Amazon Original content that Prime Video has to offer, so Amazon likes to boast its library to its audiences in the first glance itself.
Some people do find it a little annoying, and Amazon could take the approach of Netflix, where Netflix has a separate section of ‘Only On Netflix’ that shows all the Netflix original movies and tv shows, rather than only showing what Amazon has produced on its own.
Still, the overall UI experience of Prime Video is nothing groundbreaking, however, its recommendation feed is a little hit and miss, as sometimes I go through it and find something that I would like to see, but most of the time it is something that is not something I am a fan of.
Catalogue of Content
As far as the overall content is concerned on Prime Video, well, in that department Prime Video does offer quite a wide range of movies and tv shows to its audience.
You obviously have all the Amazon Original content that Prime Video produces on its own, and they can be a little hit or miss sometimes, but the overall quality of the productions is still very good.
Then, as I mentioned above, you are also able to rent out many different movies, and latest movies, as well, on Prime Video, and you can buy it out in SD, HD, and even UHD resolution.
Prime Video used to have licensed content from NBC, such as Parks and Recreation and The Office, to name a few, however, Peacock has taken back the licensing rights to it, and that is somewhat the story of Prime Video’s licensed content.
So, in order to prevent other studios from getting back the content, Amazon has now started to purchase the overall IPs, so you are able to watch all of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, and even the entire MGM’s library, which includes all of James Bonds films on Prime Video.
There are also a number of classic films that are available to watch on Prime Video’s library. However, that’s not all, through Prime Video, you can also subscribe to some other services, such as Lionsgate Play, Freevee, AMC +, and even a free trial of Paramount Plus.
Basically, you have to pay for all these extra channels, but you will be able to access all of them right from Prime Video’s interface without having to install another application or having another account to sign in.
So, as far as content is concerned, you have a lot of different options to choose from on Prime Video.
Live TV Channels
Prime Video is also delving into live tv channels, and it has gotten rights to some of the cricketing events that play around the world, and Prime Video also got the exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football games, as well.
The overall live tv channels on Prime Video is fairly limited and there are better options available if you are looking to watch live sports on a streaming service rather than Prime Video.
However, with their growing library of sports content, with some more channels available to subscribe to via Prime, such as MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, and even PGA Tour Live (each of them have their own subscription rates), it is clear that Prime Video is looking at live sports pretty seriously.
This is not just in Prime Video, but so many other streaming services have started to explore more live sports options so that they are able to attract that target audience, as well, and make the overall streaming service an all-rounded service.
X-Ray and Media Playback
Prime Video’s media playback player and the overall X-Ray functionality is something that is among the very best in the overall streaming sectors, compared to all the other alternatives.
Prime Video offers a very robust and quick X-Ray functionality that works pretty smoothly whenever you are playing any title on Prime Video.
The X-Ray section is usually on the top section of the media player and it shares details about the actors who are in the scene, in real time. It also shares some extra behind the scenes trivia about the particular title that you are watching.
Along with this, it also lets the users know about the song that is currently playing in the scene, and give you some bonus content if that is an Amazon Original content that you are watching.
The overall Media playback of Prime Video is also quite good as it offers you the simple 10 sec rewind and fast forward option, you are easily able to fast forward through in 30x speeds, as well.
As far as the settings tools are concerned, you are able to change the size, colour and font of the subtitles and choose Dolby Audio or Stereo Audio, as well.
All in all, the overall media player experience on Prime Video is really good and it is one of the best in the business.
Prime Deals
The great thing about being a Prime member is also the fact that you are able to get so many different deals on your Amazon Shopping app, such as exclusive discounts, one-day advance Prime Day offers, free shipping and more.
Plus, you get access to an ad-free plan for Prime Music that has more than 100 Million songs in it, and the overall song library consists of popular and niche songs on it, as well. Although, only one person can stream music at a time on Prime Music.
Plus, Prime Video is one of the few streaming services present that provides premium features, such as Dolby Audio, 4K HDR resolution, No ads, Offline downloading, and a whole lot more in its one pack, and it doesn’t differentiate like all the other streaming services do in its price category.
So, there are a lot of advantages when you become a Prime Member.
FAQ
Let’s discuss some of the frequently asked questions regarding Prime Video.
Is Amazon Prime Video any good?
Amazon Prime Video is very good, in my opinion, especially for what you are able to get for the price that you pay. As I mentioned above, if we are just talking about Prime Video, then you are able to watch a lot of well-known TV and Movies on the service.
Amazon is also building on its overall library of Original content and even they tend to click well with the audience and critics, as well.
So, yes, Amazon Prime video is really good!
Is Prime Video better than Netflix?
Prime Video and Netflix, while competing together in the streaming wars, there is definitely a winner, in terms of the overall subscriber numbers, and that is Netflix. Netflix started out the streaming business and it has been the king of it ever since.
However, Prime Video is not that behind, as well, yes it does not have the overall size of the library of Netflix’s but how many times have people always just scrolled on Netflix’s library, just because it is just too much to decide.
Prime Video, on the other hand, also has a fairly huge library which people can often look at and immediately find something to watch on it, as well.
So, I wouldn’t say that it is better than Netflix but it is pretty much up there with it.
What are the disadvantages of Amazon Prime?
Prime Video, as I mentioned above, in the pros and cons list, does have some cons to it. For example, if you are living in countries like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Belarus, and Syria, then you won’t be able to access it.
It does not allow to stream more than 2 simultaneous screens, and that can be an issue if you are buying its subscription if you are a family of four.
The overall licensed TV content on it has been getting removed because of other studios putting that same content on their own streaming platform to attract more customers.
And the overall UI of the website of Prime Video on Amazon Shopping can be a little improved, in terms of its overall performance, as well.
So, yeah, there are some disadvantages to it, as I have always said, there is no such thing as a perfect application.
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Final Verdict and Review
So, what is my final verdict on Amazon Prime Video? Well, I quite like the service, as a whole. It does offer a lot of things to its users that you don’t really get from any other streaming service, as a whole.
In terms of just the streaming service, you are able to watch some well-known IPs, along with some Amazon Original content that has gotten appreciation from both critics and audience, alike.
You get to watch content in 4K resolution in Dolby Sound, download the content for offline viewing and even have a watch party, all from one subscription.
Plus, if you are a Prime Member, then you obviously get so many different things and features, that is all very different from one another, but it gets all clubbed into one thing because of Amazon.
The main reason Amazon Prime Video is priced in such a way is because Amazon wants its customers to stay in its ecosystem and not go to its competitors, and with such a value offered, a lot of customers do prefer it, and so do I.
Because of this, you shouldn’t also expect a price hike, like other streaming services, because this is not Amazon’s main source of income, their main source of income is the Amazon shopping app, and this just happens to help people stay in that ecosystem.
So, Amazon doesn’t have to worry that much about being profitable, like all the other streaming services have to.
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Conclusion
Well, there you have it, an article reviewing Prime Video. It is one of the few streaming services available that is not introducing an ad-supported tier and offers everything in just one tier.
It is a one of a kind service, and you should definitely check it out, if you haven’t done so already.
As always, these have been my thoughts on this topic. What about you? Do you agree with my review? Or do you think that Prime Video is something that you are not particularly a fan of?
Whatever your thoughts are, do let us know about them in the comments down below!
