Amazon Video is... different?

[Jecht_Sin]

Just to be clear I immediately checked the app version: 4.1.121 that as far as I remember  is the one we have got since the Android 7.0 update.

To me it's different. I am quite sure that pressing "Back" on the remote it showed a popup window (something like Confirm/Cancel). Now instead it closes the video we are watching (and I prefer it in this way).

On the good side it seems it staggers much less! I mean, I can even change the volume or go into settings and it keeps playing smoothly. No audio distorsion either. Something that iI wasn't used to. And I am talking about American Gods (UHD) which always gave me an headache when starting.

On the bad side my history is instead messed up in some TV shows. Like "The Grand Tour". I know I reached episode 4, selecting the TV show it correctly jumped to Episode 4. But then there is no bar for the position I reached. And I can't watch anything, selecting the episode it simply doesn't start. "Z" has similar issues but at least it plays. Other TV shows/Movies are just fine (well, the few I checked).

What I don't understand is how this (if real) would be possible. Especially the thing about eliminating the popup window to confirm to stop watching a video. The app version didn't change. Is it downloading pieces of code from the Amazon servers? Does anyone else feel any improvement?

[Anonymous]

Hi there

I am still on Mashmallow and not Nougat, as well as my Amazon verision is 4.1.70, so I cannot confirm.  As this is in-app functionality, try contacting Amazon to see what they have to say?

Cheers

[Kuschelmonschter]

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To me it's different. I am quite sure that pressing "Back" on the remote it showed a popup window (something like Confirm/Cancel). Now instead it closes the video we are watching (and I prefer it in this way).

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That has also changed on Marshmallow without any app update. Guess it is a change in the web backend. Suppose this app is just a webview like many...

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On the good side it seems it staggers much less! I mean, I can even change the volume or go into settings and it keeps playing smoothly. No audio distorsion either. Something that iI wasn't used to. And I am talking about American Gods (UHD) which always gave me an headache when starting.

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Video playback indeed improved, also on Marshmallow. Playback start is still not reliable though. Sometimes I have to start a video twice or even more times until it plays smoothly. Also first playback attempt after a full system boot almost always results in a black screen.

[Jecht_Sin]

@Kuschelmonschter So I am glad we do get more or less the same behaviour. Which is a goof thing, that means the experience can be improved by Amazon without even updating the app (which would require an Android update, apparently)! It also shows that even if it still eats an awful amount of RAM (300+ MB. I've double checked) it can play smoothly (thus somehow I was wrong. Unless something has been changed under the hood in Android as well, because generally speaking the volume bar seems more responsive).

The Grand Tour still doesn't start today, though. Any episode. Oh, I see, now. In the phone app it even says "unavailable" on each episode. Only for the UHD version, though, which is obviously the one I watch on my TV. And even there.. Why separate between HD and UHD. With a different history as well. Not that I wouldn't like that option in YouTube at this point!

[Kuschelmonschter]

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Why separate between HD and UHD. With a different history as well. Not that I wouldn't like that option in YouTube at this point!

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For the same reason I would like to have an option on YouTube too. So when you have enough bandwidth, it will probably choose the UHD stream, but the app is so poorly optimized that it can't play it back smoothly. So I want to go to the HD version and at least have a smooth experience. They do that instead of optimizing the app for proper UHD playback...

[Jecht_Sin]

@Kuschelmonschter I understand that. But in Amazon Video the resolution still adapts to the bandwidth (starting from low resolutions. Veery low resolutions!). So that means the streams should go through a converter. Which is CPU costly, I suppose. And then only Grand Tour does it. To separate them shouldn't give Amazon any economical advantage. Google instead seems to prefer to use disk space instead of CPU time. It still has streams with adpative resolution (I don't know how they work), but as we know each video also has various streams with different fixed resolutions.

The point is that at the end of the day Netflix still is the one with the best technical solution(s). Apart from a bit too high compression, maybe. But sure netflix's interface is the clear winner.

[Jecht_Sin]

Well, I have found out yesterday what happened! Amazon actually made a single version of The Grand Tour Season 1, and it does play at UHD HDR. The other version apparently has been removed, but the app still remembers it was there. Unless it is because it was in the app caches of both my phone and television? Time to do a cache wipe..

Then I am not sure, but I think some TV Shows now have the HDR version as well? Was Season 1 of The Man in the High Castle in HDR already? I thought I had read HDR started with Season 2.

Still I confirm that it is in general more usable. It also goes to 1080p (and then UHD) faster, it seems. Yup. Just checked. Straight to 1080p.

OT: Am I the only one not seeing much difference in streamed, compressed videos between UHD and 1080p upscaled to UHD? 

[Kuschelmonschter]

Amazon Video on SHIELD has been lifted to version 4.2.43 with latest FW 6.0. Improvements accoding to FlatpanelsHD:

The updated playback engine delivers improved A/V sync and streams 4K video almost instantly.

[Jecht_Sin]

Cool. Too bad that Amazon Video gets updated only together with Android. I tried to look for an apk (to see if it worked via sideload) but not even Aptoide has it. Apart that now I have all video apps randomly stuttering. But Amazon Video with the AVR is the worst of all. I see the audio disappearing in the AVR display (and I wonder how safe it is for the AVR to have all those jumps)!

[Kuschelmonschter]

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Jecht_Sin schrieb:

Cool. Too bad that Amazon Video gets updated only together with Android.

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I wonder why Sony has this app updating mechanism beside the Play Store (see Settings > About > App updates or Help > App updates). I pretty much assume that this is for stock apps that are not on the Play Store, just like Amazon Video. I have never seen anything coming in via this channel though.