I rented a movie through Amazon on my roku 2xs tonight. I had the option of SD or HD for a $1 more. I went with the HD. The video paused a few times and appeared to buffer and then come back on. Then the roku randomly rebooted. When I tried to resume the video would not play. Amazon help asked me to reboot the roku. I did and then the video played for a while longer and then appeared to buffer for a bit and then lost its connection. I rebooted the roku and this time the roku failed to connect to amazon repeatedly. I rebooted again. Same deal. I eventually gave up and watched the end of the movie in SD on my laptop. I have time warner internet 20Mbps. I guess I won't be renting anything in HD from amazon. I'll think twice before renting anything in SD either.
Crummy Amazon rental experience
- Thread starter avg1joe
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 17
- Views 2K
Reboot your router. Even though your laptop worked in SD, this may help.
I've never had a problem with Amazon d/l, but I have FiOS.
Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!
I've never had a problem with Amazon d/l, but I have FiOS.
Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!
Amazon refunded the rental price which is nice. After using netflix extensively you expect services like this to just plain work and its frustrating when they don't.
Amazon works quite well for others. I wonder why not for you. Might be worth figuring out, to give you options.
Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!
Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!
Point taken. That is why I posted my speed. Are people successfully playing HD video on Amazon with 20Mbps or less? ...successfully playing Amazon HD on the Roku 2?
I've only got 10Mbps and have never had any problem watching amazon HD. I use both a Kindle (wireless) and a Sony bluray player (hard wired using a home plug for connection)
Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!
20Mps is plenty fast for Amazon. I currently have 15Mps and have no problems at all. Back when Amazon first started their vod service, I got a few free sd videos and watched them without any problems. And I had 1.5Mps dsl!
I'm on centurylink dsl. The speed only runs avg 8.20 mbps & amazon streams hd flawlessly. Netflix on the other hand has had some issues the past few weeks but seems to have ironed itself out.
Not sure where the issue is or who's end it is on, but do go through quality problems with netflix but never amazon.
Not sure where the issue is or who's end it is on, but do go through quality problems with netflix but never amazon.
I'm on wireless IP below 1 mbps and can stream HD thru Amazon with some buffering depending on the bandwidth and time of day ... has to be the Roku or something, not Amazon.
Amazon HD works great here even on Satellite Inet and on the slower modem at 1Mbs. I have used it for a couple of years with no issues. Yes some buffering sometimes but not a lot.
When I had problems playing it a second time I went to access chat help and there was a message that they were having issues streaming to tivo devices. Perhaps the same issue spilled over onto roku devices.
That's a pretty surprising message to get considering that Amazon video can't be streamed to a Tivo in the first place, only downloaded.
I took the free trial of amazon prime and for my it almost never streams in HD. The xbox has a cell phone signal style indicator for streaming quality and it usually is one or two bars out of 4. I'm using Cox with 25Mb service on a DOCSIS3, I have no problems streaming netflix super HD so I think maybe there is a bottleneck between cox and amazon possibly.
Streamed isn't a direct quote. It could have said downloaded, linked or something else. The gist was that they were having issues.
I rented another movie in HD from Amazon today. Making no changes at all on my end it played flawlessly without buffering or pausing once.
I have a 5Mbps DSL which means I actually get about 2.5Mbps down. I watch Amazon with my ROKU all the time and never have any issues. By the way, if I had access to anything better than 5Mbps DSL, I'd get it, but I live in a rural area of Oregon and I'm lucky to have what I do.
We were late to the The Walking Dead phenomenon and played catch-up in between seasons after watching previous seasons on DVD. We rented the HD versions from Amazon and watched it via ATT 6Mb DSL with NO issues at all. I'm sure they adjust the bandwidth on-the-fly based on one's internet speed but it never buffered for us and was excellent quality.
