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Amazon Prime Video Introduces Offline Viewing for iPhone and iPad

Narcaz said:
Already did that. It's main purpose is collecting dust since i bought my Fire TV last year. It is neither really mobile, nor really useful my purpose, which is to connect my iPad to a hotel room TV. Due to the lack of a browser i can't login in most hotel wifi spots with it and peer to peer Airplay isn't available for this model (only for ATV3 produced after march 2013). So i am looking again at the adapter (despite its picture quality issues) for my next vacation.
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how well does the ipad lightning to hdmi adapter work, and what are the video issues?

I have an LG "smart" tv (otherwise a good tv, but the 'apps' are crap; what a ripoff with expiring apps! and the last system software update on the tv was in 2011) for which Amazon just discontinued support -- so I can't use it to watch Prime video directly anymore. It was a crappy app anyway, so I rarely used it. But there are times when I might want to - video is better on a 42" from my couch than a 27" at my desk or the 9.7" iPad!

Waiting to see whether the next ATV will be worth it - and I know it won't include access to prime. So, I'll compare to Roku once the ATV is announced in a few weeks. So, I may still need an alternate way to get prime video to my TV.
 
Pagemakers said:
They need to add a Downloaded tab to the app. It’s almost impossible to see what you’ve downloaded!!
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Don't you read the direction on the screen when you first launched the updated app. It tells you how to view the downloaded contents.
 
4jasontv said:
Is it an aTV 2? Last I looked they were selling for hundreds on eBay. Sell it and buy an aTV3, an iPad, and some of those new Oreo slims. I hear they are good.

Edit: just checked. You could get two aTV3.
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It's a ATV 3 rev.1 from june 2012 without support for Peer to Peer. Only models produced after march 2013 (rev. 2) have the newer silicon, which made it possible. Apple didn't highlight this hardware change and said they were identical, until they introduced the functionality last september for rev 2 only. And with the upcoming ATV 4 i am not really interested in investing in outdated technology. But i am very interested in those new Oreo slims.

FriendlyMackle said:
how well does the ipad lightning to hdmi adapter work, and what are the video issues?

I have an LG "smart" tv (otherwise a good tv, but the 'apps' are crap; what a ripoff with expiring apps! and the last system software update on the tv was in 2011) for which Amazon just discontinued support -- so I can't use it to watch Prime video directly anymore. It was a crappy app anyway, so I rarely used it. But there are times when I might want to - video is better on a 42" from my couch than a 27" at my desk or the 9.7" iPad!

Waiting to see whether the next ATV will be worth it - and I know it won't include access to prime. So, I'll compare to Roku once the ATV is announced in a few weeks. So, I may still need an alternate way to get prime video to my TV.
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You better get a Fire TV Stick for this scenario. Cheaper than the adapter and you get better quality. The adapter is limited to an upscaled 1600x900 resolution (not full 1080p) due to constraints of USB/Lightning interface and has even a slight delay and compression artefacts. I could live with that for vacation (if offline mode works!), but i wouldn't use it for my home setup. Or wait for the (soon to be updated) Apple TV, which might have an App Store, which allows an Amazon Instant Video App.

Pagemakers said:
They need to add a Downloaded tab to the app. It’s almost impossible to see what you’ve downloaded!!
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On my iPad downloaded movies appear in the library tab.
 
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yg17 said:
Or do what I did and buy a Fire TV stick for $34. It does everything Apple TV does and then some. My Apple TV has been gathering dust ever since I got my Fire TV stick.
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My TV lets me view Amazon Prime without a stick. I'll probably buy the new Apple TV next month, depending on features. I expect it to do more than my old Apple TV, your Fire TV stick, and my TV's built in apps.
 
mrkramer said:
This is great, the one downside about streaming services is that they don't work if you're on a plane flight, so if they have good content available this will come in handy for times when I'll be away from the internet.

I do have doubts that they'll actually have much in the way of good content to begin with though, I'm guessing the studios will experiment with a few less popular or older movies and see how it goes.
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Like you I was worried about content. Good news all the original content I tested worked as advertised. Another plus, easy to use, all done in app. Good job Amazon.
 
Well, yea, and, well, crap. For me. I should be taking delivery of my new unlocked 32GB Fire Phone that I bought last week for $129 just for loading a few videos for when I hit the road. At least I can use my iPad for this now to go along with my added year of Prime. Eh, $30 for a smartphone that will go in the drawer as a backup isn't that bad a deal I guess.
 
This will be of limited usefulness depending upon the filesize.

One reason why I don't use Amazon Instant Video is because they insist on sending the highest quality image that my bandwidth is capable of (regardless of what the receiving device is capable of). There is no way to limit it like there is with Netflix.

When I'm watching video on a 9.7" iPad, I don't need Amazon to send 8GB (approx.) of HD video. My Handbrake encodes weigh in at about 1GB for a 90-100 minute film.

If Amazon does the same with downloads, wasted space on the device, and wasted use of download usage for those with broadband data caps.
 
It looks like it's only available to the primary (prime) account, but not the household (secondary) account.
 
4jasontv said:
Amazon won online shopping by making the process easier than shopping in a real store. Does this feature make watching video easier? Can I download a whole TV series, or at least a season in one step, or do I have to request each episode?
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I checked, it looks like you have to request it each episode.
 
4jasontv said:
Amazon won online shopping by making the process easier than shopping in a real store. Does this feature make watching video easier? Can I download a whole TV series, or at least a season in one step, or do I have to request each episode?
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The easiest thing is to stream the episodes. Then there's no extra step needed to free up the space on your device when you're done viewing them.

However, you can now download individual episodes to your mobile device for offline viewing, such as on an airplane, or on a road trip (not while driving of course) where streaming is either not practical or possible.
 
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