Amazon Launches Prime Video App for Mac

[nilk]

Earlier today, I got annoyed that the HBO Max app did not have macOS support and didn’t properly full screen apps.

So yeah, news but not big news. News non the less. I got the sense not everyone was so impressed

And the HBO Max app on iPhone is terrible in that you can't zoom like you can in most apps, so I can watch something and have black bars on all four sides! Roku & Shield TV app is fine, so I save HBO content for when I can watch on my plasma TV or projector.

The Amazon app for iPhone is quite good and does things properly. Overall I've had a good experience with Amazon streaming (no complaints with Roku or Shield TV version of their app). I'm not sure how well the web player was working, so maybe watching on Mac was already fine, but I'd imagine Amazon's Mac app is not bad. If it enables 4k HDR, etc where it previously wasn't possible in the web player(?), then that's great and I welcome this.

 

[Scoob Redux]

I've always just used Friendly Streaming on my Mac. It lets me seamlessly switch between Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, etc. and stay logged in across all. Don't know why I'd need a standalone app for one service.

 

[macintoshmac]

Do you have an Apple Silicon Mac? Maybe they’ve made the iOS app available, or maybe it’s a Catalyst app.

I bought an Apple Silicon Mac today, back then I downloaded the app on Intel-enabled MacBook Air 2017.

Also, the news makes it sound like the app was launched today. Clearly not so. Hence I am confused with regards to this launch and this news.

 

[cababah]

Yes.

Streaming Quality.
Download quality.

all have good, better, best settings

Is there a way to know if it is streaming at 1080p or 4K, HDR, etc?

 

[metapunk2077fail]

The app can't be expanded to full screen so on the movie selection screen you have a limited view.

This sucks. It works for playing videos but the app just sucks like a rushed web app.

 

[orbital~debris]

Does this populate & update the ‘Watch Now’ tab of the macOS TV app (and from there, sync to & fro household Apple TVs)?

 

[metapunk2077fail]

Is there a way to know if it is streaming at 1080p or 4K, HDR, etc?

It says best quality but the 4K and HDR videos I tried look like 1080p SDR.

 

[DFZD]

Netflix still doesn't have one, and even the PC version kind of sucks. I hope Apple Silicon ensures we get a lot more apps from the iPad, like Apple promised 3 years ago. Netflix ensured we are not able to use the iPad version on the Mac. That's a real bummer.

Edit: Tried the Prime Video app, and it actually is the iPad version released as it is for Mac. Doesn't have native Mac resizing options. Ah, well we don't get everything. Hope it runs smooth.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

But it’s only for the M1 Macs though…… right?

 

[macintoshmac]

But it’s only for the M1 Macs though…… right?

Absolutely not, considering I had downloading this app on an Intel MBA 2017 in July 2020.

 

[orbital~debris]

But it’s only for the M1 Macs though…… right?

Nope. It’s ‘working’ on my 2019 Intel iMac. But only if your definition of working includes constant beachballing…

 

[Xtir]

I'm pretty sure you'll still need an Amazon Prime account to actually watch stuff.

in-app?

 

[BaltimoreMediaBlog]

Well I've have Amazon Prime for a long time and it's NEVER EVER worked in Safari, so I sure hope this works better. Amazon said I had to completely remove Silverlight and re-install. The only problem with that is that Silverlight is not even supported by Microsoft anymore and even attempting that did not work. So I can't wait for this epic failure from Jeff Bezos. I'm just glad he didn't kill Shatner.
Maybe he needs to take a red shirt to space next?

 

[snourse]

I'm getting a content protection error on my M1 Mac mini running 12.0.1 - audio plays but any non-commercial video show a black screen.

 

[deleon]

The big issue, for me, is that it doesn't seem to stream the 4k versions. I have tried a couple movies and they are listed as HD. You can see this in the bottom left of the screen when you are playing the video and bring up the controls (like play and pause). The Roku app works very much the same way and 4k videos display UHD in the bottom left.

 

[nostresshere]

I'm pretty sure you'll still need an Amazon Prime account to actually watch stuff.

Yep. Just like other streaming services.... you must be a member.

 

[boss.king]

in-app?

Yes. Think of it like Netflix. The app is free but without a subscription it's useless.

 

[1Mark]

pretty nice, but I hoped this meant having 4K HDR on my new MBP.

Alas, it looks pretty bad in comparison to Netflix and TV+

 

[alexe]

When is effing Netflix finally going to release an app for macOS?

 

[andywaynebrooks]

Ummm. nope...

 

[Rychiar]

Does it allow you to select what quality of streaming? The Apple TV app is infuriating in that way.

why would you want anything but 4k?

 

[Rychiar]

is there 5.1 surround?

 

[testcard]

Looking forward to trying this out.

 

[CVUSA]

is there a dark mode?

 

[LawJolla]

My only gripe is that I can't get native 4K/Dolby Vision/Atmos/HDR10 through the web browser for these streaming services. For that, you need the mobile apps....

DRM...argh.....

Agreed.

Without the constant web knee capping, it would completely dominate.