Amazon prime movies in sd only

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unionjak

Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by unionjak »

Hello,
I use amazon prime and can watch all tv titles at the full download rate of 6.4 gig per hour. However when watching movies(my purchased or rental) i can only watch at 1.6 gig per hour which equates to standard definition. This is on chrome and firefox and on both my Desktop(intel i5/nvidia/2k monitor) or 1080p tablet. No errors come up and i dont want to start getting full hd movies from other sources (lol) so is this normal and has anyone any ideas please ?

Many thanks.

Ps The reason i have not tried much to sort this out is that i am using mint 18.3 and most information is for much older versions or dissimilar problems.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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catweazel
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Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by catweazel »

unionjak wrote: Sat May 12, 2018 3:50 am 6.4 gig per hour
What is the speed of your internet connection?
"There is, ultimately, only one truth -- cogito, ergo sum -- everything else is an assumption." - Me, my swansong.
Hoser Rob
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Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by Hoser Rob »

catweazel wrote: Sat May 12, 2018 3:55 am
unionjak wrote: Sat May 12, 2018 3:50 am 6.4 gig per hour
What is the speed of your internet connection?
That's what I was thinking. This is often ISP throttling.

And remember that people are rarely getting the connection speed they think they are.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
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Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by catweazel »

Hoser Rob wrote: Sat May 12, 2018 8:22 am
catweazel wrote: Sat May 12, 2018 3:55 am
unionjak wrote: Sat May 12, 2018 3:50 am 6.4 gig per hour
What is the speed of your internet connection?
That's what I was thinking. This is often ISP throttling.

And remember that people are rarely getting the connection speed they think they are.
I suspect that the OP's internet speed is the issue. Amazon requires 3.5Mbps for HD.
"There is, ultimately, only one truth -- cogito, ergo sum -- everything else is an assumption." - Me, my swansong.
Hoser Rob
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Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by Hoser Rob »

catweazel wrote: Sat May 12, 2018 8:52 am
Hoser Rob wrote: Sat May 12, 2018 8:22 am
catweazel wrote: Sat May 12, 2018 3:55 am

What is the speed of your internet connection?
That's what I was thinking. This is often ISP throttling.

And remember that people are rarely getting the connection speed they think they are.
I suspect that the OP's internet speed is the issue. Amazon requires 3.5Mbps for HD.
You're probably right.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
unionjak

Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by unionjak »

Sorry,
my internet speed is just over 40 meg second...
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Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by phd21 »

HI unionjak,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

1.) You can verify your Internet speed by using many various Internet speed testing websites, like the one below.

Speedtest by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test
http://www.speedtest.net/


2.) For security and to prevent your ISP (& others) from monitoring and possibly slowing down your Internet connection's speed (throttling), I highly recommend that everyone change their ISP's default DNS server IP addresses to secure and anonymous ones from a free DNS provider like "Cloudflare", "dns.watch", "opennic", "openDNS", "freenom world", etc... This is simple to do, see links below.

Setup Guide | OpenDNS
https://www.opendns.com/setupguide/


Announcing 1.1.1.1: the fastest, privacy-first consumer DNS service
https://blog.cloudflare.com/announcing-1111/

1.1.1.1 — the Internet’s Fastest, Privacy-First DNS Resolver
https://1.1.1.1/


3.) If you have access to the hardware router that you use to connect to the Internet with, and it supports "QoS", you can give priority to various services like Amazon Prime Video.

What is Quality of Service (QoS)? - Definition from Techopedia
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/9 ... of-service

How to Use Quality of Service (QoS) to Get Faster Internet When You Really Need It
https://www.howtogeek.com/75660/the-beg ... ur-router/

Hope this helps ...
Last edited by phd21 on Sat May 12, 2018 11:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
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unionjak

Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by unionjak »

That wouldn't make sense as amazon TV programmes give me full hd(more actually) so I don't see why they would throttle my movies especially as I have paid for them ?
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Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by phd21 »

Hi unionjak,

It is not Amazon.com that would "throttle" your Internet connection, but your ISP can. ISP = Internet Service Provider
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
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Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by Hoser Rob »

unionjak wrote: Sat May 12, 2018 11:23 am Sorry,
my internet speed is just over 40 meg second...
As I said before, most people think their connection speed is WAY faster than it actually is in practice.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
MintBean

Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by MintBean »

Somehow I doubt an ISP is going to differentiate between 'TV show' and 'movie' and throttle one but not the other. Personally, this sounds to me like an Amazon issue and I would get in touch with them and explain the problem.
Please let us know if you find a solution.
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Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by phd21 »

HI MintBean, and others,

From what I have read, ISP's can and frequently do block or "throttle" (slow-down) someone's Internet speed based on their activities, like streaming videos (movies or TV), or online gaming, P2P and Torrent downloading, etc... By changing your ISP's connection DNS server IP addresses, and or using a reliable fast VPN provider's server connection, they cannot tell what you are doing and therefore cannot target certain online activities.

But, there is also a possibility that something from Amazon's streaming site is not working well, or they know of ways to improve their service, so contacting them might help as well.

FYI: Using a hardware device like a TV dongle (Amazon TV Firestick, Chromestick, Smart TV , Smart Blu-Ray DVD player, etc...) will usually work better because they have hardware based video and audio decoding rather than using software based video and audio decoding that most computers and browsers use.
Last edited by phd21 on Sat May 12, 2018 12:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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MintBean

Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by MintBean »

I understand the concept phd. I just question that they would employ algorithms to differentiate between 'tv show' and 'movie' and leverage different throttling policies between the two forms of streaming video.
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Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by phd21 »

Hi MintBean,

I also doubt they could differentiate between movies or TV shows from the same website (streaming location). Amazon Prime has both movies and TV shows. But, certain websites and streaming video servers are very well known like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, and others, so they can easily be monitored by an ISP and thus can be "throttled" slowed down or even blocked depending upon a users usage or even overall high traffic to that website or streaming server, especially during "peak" viewing times.
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Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by trytip »

this is what we call "no network neutrality" did you remember to send your congress a petition if you live in USA https://github.com/save-net-neutrality, call your ISP and complain about your issue, only they can solve it if you in fact have good speed. 40megs is not a correct measure. what is your speed?
Last edited by trytip on Sun May 13, 2018 11:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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unionjak

Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by unionjak »

Hello all,
i will put more meat on the bones as far as information is concerned lol.

I am in the uk, using a desktop pc with high specs and a full hd tablet...both with fully updated 18.3 linux mint (cinnamon)

In amazon uk i can happily watch (on the pc) anything amazon have to offer....that is upto and including 2k while watching tv programmes. Obviously i can only watch the tv stuff at full hd on the tablet as its a full hd device. The band width allocated for both devices is 6.4 gig per hour which equates to "roughly" between full hd and 2k. I can tell with my mark 2 eyeballs that i am watching full hd (where a programme was actually shot in at least full hd but not if its an older series).
The fun starts when watching movies......on the above machines(desktop and tablet) i can only stream at 1.6 gig per hour which equates to around standard definition(or a tad higher) and you can actually see the difference..or lack of lol.

Using windows 10 on both machines gives me the full 6.4 gig per hour allocation. Please note, this is not an attempt at operating system wars...just a statement of fact :) Especially as i rarely use use win 10 on the Desktop as i rather lie linux mint....however i do like my movies at full visual strength so am using windows when i watch movies on amazon...but i dont really like duel booting...or windows 10 lol.

Thanks again for any help....

If it helps i do get a dialog box telling informing me that i am getting standard def...and it suggests options like drm and hardware. Not sure about the drm but the hardware works on win 10.
unionjak

Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by unionjak »

Also, it states "your video will play in standard definition because your computer hardware must meet all the content ptrotection HDCP requirements" ....for which they do in windows but not in prime video (movies ) on mint ?
MintBean

Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by MintBean »

Well that's some pretty important information that would have saved a lot of time if given up front.

You're not meeting some of the requirements then, I guess. Give us a list of them and tell us if you meet each one.
unionjak

Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by unionjak »

Not sure how i dont meet the requirements in linux mint...but exceed the requirements in windows 10 ?
MintBean

Re: Amazon prime movies in sd only

Post by MintBean »

unionjak wrote: Sun May 13, 2018 7:13 am Not sure how i dont meet the requirements in linux mint...but exceed the requirements in windows 10 ?
Without the list of requirements it's a guessing game, so why not post them?
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