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In Depth: Amazon Prime Instant Video vs Netflix: which is best for you?

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Comments (25)
  1. Karine Prosacco says:

    You just the chrome extension hola lol

  2. Ewell Dietrich Jr. says:

    I like Netflix had it for 2 years now but I can see me running out of things to watch in the next year. The relatively small catalogue compared to the U.S version is an issue but its good value for £5.99. I've also tried Love film instant..and tried again when it changed to Amazon prime. Its not bad and seems to have a larger catalogue of films but the interface was never the best and now they mix prime titles in with the Pay Per view?…well what genius thought of that one. I think amazon really need to have a long hard look at the streaming side of there business because they seam to have messed this up since the switch over from love film. PS Love film by post is still an excellent service in my opinion.

  3. Sandrine Predovic says:

    Lovefilm much bigger movie and series selection. Use the search function to find more than that which is listed in browsing.

    Much cheaper to use Lovefilm if you want streaming and the latest DVDs (via post).

  4. Terence Koepp says:

    The thing with Amazon instant is that not all the content is available under the Prime subscription. Some of it requires you to pay extra to rent.

  5. Rodrick Rogahn says:

    Thats an unfair comparison. Bluray is capable of way more bandwidth than 15Mb a second. But also bluray is only 1080p not 4K. and i haven't compared the two, why don't you take some screenshots of both on a 4k screen and let us know?

  6. Karlee Weimann says:

    I have been with Love Film for a few years and never had a disc fail, but the colour and contrast seem washed out and dull on the blu ray films, which I find irritating.

  7. Prof. Emely Keeling PhD says:

    which offers full screen films on our tellys and equipment like smart tv or smart blue ray players . the difference with films is far and wide . sometimes a full screen then you get a half of screen . in my opinion not good . why should we the paying public get half mesures , when we have full sized tellys

  8. Sasha Hane says:

    Both are rubbish. The only way to get a decent selection is to hire discs out by post.

  9. Frederic Bergnaum says:

    how about 4K streaming v blu ray. my money is blu ray.

  10. Prof. Ashtyn Gleichner says:

    I prefer Netflix as they have a better selection of Films and TV Series to choose than LoveFilm. One more thing it is easier to navigate round it.

  11. Luisa Wiza says:

    I will never say you're wrong, as i don't have your device or your experience. But of all 5 of my years with netflix I think I have had it crash once or twice. I would speculate your device is the issue. If your device happens to be a computer, well then maybe it's your web browser. I wouldn't know as I rarely rarely ever used it on PC. FireTV, PS3, Xbox 360, Vizio TV, android tablet, and PC chrome and Firefox… I have never had crashing issues. ever.

    And if you say, I am computer savvy, my wife is the opposite, and just uses whatever devices we purchase, and she has no issues either.

  12. Erika Bednar III says:

    It's easy to find which of these sites has a movie or TV programme you're looking for using this search engine: http://www.findable.tv

  13. Montana Shanahan says:

    I have a Virgin TiVO as well, and it's good that you can search in the Virgin TV guide and find something on Netfilx. However you have to know what you're looking for, it's not integrated into browsing. I also have an Amazon Prime membership and I have to use an iPad or Wii-U to browse and watch that. The net effect is I hardly ever bother looking at, let alone watching, what's on either service. I've cancelled Netflix because of this, and I'll think about cancelling the inflated Amazon Prime cost when it comes up for renewal. Whoever comes up with a single point of access to browse and watch all subscriptions will make a fortune.

  14. Bertha Ortiz says:

    If you have Virgin TiVO you can access Netflix on channel 204… saves having to go throught the xbox/ having a Xbox live account!

  15. Thea Lueilwitz says:

    This may be outdated, but i am willing to say that 90% of devices that handle netflix handle amazon, you must own some pretty "lame" devices.

  16. Eva Ernser says:

    I got bored with Netflix after I had watched BB and a few other exclusives. Prime is something I have always had and I actually like the availability of rental and buy videos alongside it – if i am visiting someone and I want a more recent film for the night, I can take along my Fire stick and just plug in and buy / rent. The downside is that renting is also not a 100% option.

  17. Prof. Gennaro Greenfelder PhD says:

    Gary, This is a great selection of movies for this month. I look forward to watch Serenity. For those who live outside USA like me, you can use UnoTelly or other similar tools to access Netflix overseas.

  18. Ms. Bridget Koss says:

    no mention of smart TVs then.

  19. Cloyd Stoltenberg says:

    Amazon prime loses instantly due to the tiny amount of devices it can be used on. If it wants to win it needs to change this and fast until then it will never be more than a 2nd string service.

  20. Dr. Gerson Carter says:

    Lovefilm has the added benefit of supplying DVDs for home use whereas Netflix does not in the UK.

  21. Kirstin Berge Jr. says:

    Excellent article!

    I have both Netflix and Amazon. The forementioned is my first pick, while Amazon is used for those older movies and TV series which are unavailable on NF.

    As a resident on the Northern American side of the pond, I do believe we have a greater menu of programming availability to choose from. However, while my Comcast service can DL 50 mbps, I have found NF to be oversubscribed and oversaturated, giving greater loss of signal and slowdowns than Amazon.

    Lastly, even though an Amazon Prime member, their free included programs are limited and the rest are rediculously priced.

    Just my opinion however.

  22. Meagan Labadie says:

    Well I have had both before but I with Lovefilm I used to rent Blu Rays and they did not have this unlimited streaming service back then. The one thing about renting such discs that really annoyed me, was the fact that I very rarely got to see the whole of a film without the disc stalling or jumping, some discs would not even work at all.

    This is really down to the fact that it's such a huge rental service in relation to the local video shop you used to have by you back in those days, that are no longer here. So for me Lovefilms rental service was nothing but a pain in the but, and even the discs I sent back to replace, to which they was on the ball with getting it to you, did not work half the time either.

    The other thing about Lovefilm was trying to cancel your subscription. They would not take no for an answer and insisted they would improve their service to you and offer you a better deal for free foe a few months. Well all sounds great but as the discs never worked it was a complete utter waste of time, and eventually I got away from them.

    I then tried out Netflix for 30 days and at first thought it was ok and decided to subscribe to them. I must admit there streaming service was fine and I got to see a film without any interruptions, unlike Lovefilms so called rent a disc service.

    The thing though with me is that I am not really a movie buff, and I only ever watched a couple of films on the weekend whilst I had Netflix, and after 3 months I never watched anything simply because I got fed up of spending about an hour trying to find something I had not seen already.

    For the following 3 months after I was not even watching anything at all on it and got fed up with it to be honest, and even though I paid them 3 months money for nothing, as I had not cancelled my subscription, when I finally did cancel it from them, they gave me no problem at all, unlike the palaver I went through with Lovefilm.

    Now I see Lovefilm are doing an unlimited streaming service for £5.99 per month it's perhaps enticing me to give it a free trial, because for one thing I do know is that Lovefilm certainly have a wider selection to offer you and their movies will be more up to date unlike Netflix had. For me the streaming service should work a damn site better than their rental service and I will be able to see all of the film at last. I just hope at the end of the 30 day trial if I do not want it they are not gonna be as stubborn as they was with their rental service and not take No as an answer.

  23. Alexandrine Kiehn says:

    I really want to say Netflix, but after using it and it constantly crashing, it's a tough choice. hopefully they will both develop over time. For now I am really enjoying series on Blip.tv and Youtube.

  24. Margaretta Crona I says:

    "If it were a shop, it'd be John Lewis."
    Yeah,,,with a shop full of stock from 2010.
    They're both rubbish.

  25. Janie Kling says:

    My only criticism of the article is around movies. There is often repeated this idea that Netflix is poor for movies and most are old, but contains both hobbit and hunger games movies (never been on sky) which were basically the biggest movies last year and skyfall and avengers from the year before, not sure what else they could do.

    It's just one of those accepted truisms that kinda gets on my wick.

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