Prime Resolution

[ZeroSugar]

I am not asking this because of a problem with AS but because I simply do not not what kind of experience other users are having. I have never (that I can recall) through any version of AS, been able to download at a resolution greater than 960x540 on Prime. Is this normal for others?

 

[Water Faucet]

Nope, not normal for me. I have downloaded many movies and series in HD (1920x1080). Some of the series I have been able to download in HD: Goliath, Billions, the Man in the High Castle (about half the episodes). There are many that are not available yet in HD. I am waiting for the fix to get them. Also, I have seen many episodes and movies available in 1280x720 as well (not just 960x540). I can only account for my experiences, other users in other parts of the world have theirs.

Edit to add: several of the movies on the "Home" page of Amazon Prime are 1080p for me, including: Hackers, Sister Act, Force 10 From Navarone....I could go on with many more.

 

[Neil Wilkes]

Not normal for me, either.
That said there is an awful lot of SD and 960/540 content on Amazon.

 

[SAF]

It's getting harder and harder to find something to download on APV which I use exclusively. Some tastes may vary.

 

[BoomKapoow]

Been downloading 1080 exclusively pretty much around the clock since August from Prime

 

[SAF]

Nope, not normal for me. I have downloaded many movies and series in HD (1920x1080). Some of the series I have been able to download in HD: Goliath, Billions, the Man in the High Castle (about half the episodes). There are many that are not available yet in HD. I am waiting for the fix to get them. Also, I have seen many episodes and movies available in 1280x720 as well (not just 960x540). I can only account for my experiences, other users in other parts of the world have theirs.

Edit to add: several of the movies on the "Home" page of Amazon Prime are 1080p for me, including: Hackers, Sister Act, Force 10 From Navarone....I could go on with many more.

WF, I was curious with what you said. So, I tried Goliath. I was able to download the first 2 Episodes of Season 1 in 1080P. All the rest in Season 1 (6 Episodes) went to 960x540 resolution but curiously still had 640 kbs DD+ 5.1 audio. Checked Season 2 Episode 1 and it resolved back to 1080P and beyond. Too sketchy for me to download yet. Is this what you are seeing? Thanks

 

[Water Faucet]

WF, I was curious with what you said. So, I tried Goliath. I was able to download the first 2 Episodes of Season 1 in 1080P. All the rest in Season 1 (6 Episodes) went to 960x540 resolution but curiously still had 640 kbs DD+ 5.1 audio. Checked Season 2 Episode 1 and it resolved back to 1080P and beyond. Too sketchy for me to download yet. Is this what you are seeing? Thanks

For Goliath I did not have that same scenario happen...was able to get all in 1080P (Can't remember if I got them all prior to the Dec DRM change though). I am having something like that happen with 'The Man in the High Castle". For example, I can get Season 1, episodes 2-9 in 1080P but episode 1 and 10 are only available in less than HD. It is very random and inconsistent...same with some of the movies in APV

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

Just tried AP with 1.3.2.2 to try to download a purchased movie in 1080p, but sadly, the maximum resolution AS gives me is 960x540. :\

 

[Water Faucet]

Just tried AP with 1.3.2.2 to try to download a purchased movie in 1080p, but sadly, the maximum resolution AS gives me is 960x540. :\

Did it show HD as an option prior to your purchase or rental? I think all movies (I have maybe rented 5 at his point) that have had a HD option up front, I was able to get a HD download. Though I think all the ones I rented are older movies, that may be the reason?

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

Yes, the purchase had SD and HD options, with the HD option being more expensive. I played it via Roku and could clearly see it's HD.

I did expect that this would probably be the case, the fact that it can download anything at all is pretty good, all things considering.

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

I just tried the competitor's product with the initials SF and the 1080P download worked.

Hope AnyStream is able to get this working again as it's my preferred application.

Here's some info in case it might be useful:

With the SF, I watched system processes and the download directories. I wanted to ensure it wasn't actually downloading 540P then upscaling or anything like that.

It first did "downloading" where it downloaded the video / audio as .tmp files. It said downloading 1080P / EAC3. Didn't appear to be doing anything other than downloading.

After downloading, it did "processing" which took almost as long as the downloading (5 - 10 minutes). This moved the files from .tmp to .mkv. I am guessing that the "processing" is actually the decrypting stage. (That's actually a pretty big guess on my part as I actually have no idea.) I didn't see any video encoders or excessive CPU running. I checked some frames from the final file using VirtualDub and they appear to be the original 1080P frames.

By the way, before I tried SF I actually tried *another* competing product with the initials TP, and that didn't work, it behaved the same as AnyStream; it could only download 540P max.

Hope I'm not causing anyone problems by mentioning the above, just wanted to state the facts with my experience.

 

[RedFox 1]

Hi Pelvis, we already knew all of that except for the fact I am still not 100% sure he is not screen recording and recompressing, but that's just my opinion, not making any claims.

 

[Greg Alex]

Hi Pelvis, we already knew all of that except for the fact I am still not 100% sure he is not screen recording and recompressing, but that's just my opinion, not making any claims.

Maybe there's some re encoding / recompressing during the "post processing" stage AFTER the download itself.....it seems excessively long

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

CPU usage during "processing" was only a few percent, on one core. The tmp file it downloaded and the final file after processing are the same size. I didn't see any kind of executable running (ffmpeg, x264, etc.) during "processing". The content has a lot of fine grain and that usually is visually compromised in some way with a fast re-encode (~8 gigs in 10 minutes is fast), and I didn't see that. I don't believe it re-encoded or re-compressed anything.

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

Hi Pelvis, we already knew all of that except for the fact I am still not 100% sure he is not screen recording and recompressing, but that's just my opinion, not making any claims.

If it is, it's not doing it locally. But it's an interesting idea... it could be possible that they have such a process running on their end. But, the download happened pretty fast... 8 gigs in ~10 minutes, so I'm not sure if it's really possible to do a frame by frame screen capture, fast encode, and fast download like that, unless they have some kind of proprietary hardware designed just for this purpose. But again, the fine grain detail I was seeing on Roku was retained, and that usually gets compromised with fast re-encodes.

 

[Roter Fuchs]

I just want to confirm that I rented Deja Vu in HD from Prime, yet the best download option I get in AnyStream 1.3.2.1 is 960x540. Hope this can be fixed again.
Note: this is not the only HD movie where his happens. Very disappointing. Will wait out the 30 days I have for watching... maybe AnyStream is good for 1920x1080 or at least 1280x720 by then.

 

[RedFox 1]

If it is, it's not doing it locally. But it's an interesting idea... it could be possible that they have such a process running on their end. But, the download happened pretty fast... 8 gigs in ~10 minutes, so I'm not sure if it's really possible to do a frame by frame screen capture, fast encode, and fast download like that, unless they have some kind of proprietary hardware designed just for this purpose. But again, the fine grain detail I was seeing on Roku was retained, and that usually gets compromised with fast re-encodes.

Its absolutely possible, again I am not saying that's what is happening, but didn't you ever play a YouTube video running at 8x,I have, then play it back after recompressing at normal.

 

[RedFox 1]

I just want to confirm that I rented Deja Vu in HD from Prime, yet the best download option I get in AnyStream 1.3.2.1 is 960x540. Hope this can be fixed again.
Note: this is not the only HD movie where his happens. Very disappointing. Will wait out the 30 days I have for watching... maybe AnyStream is good for 1920x1080 or at least 1280x720 by then.

We are aware of this. Thank you for bringing it up again.

 

[Greg Alex]

CPU usage during "processing" was only a few percent, on one core. The tmp file it downloaded and the final file after processing are the same size. I didn't see any kind of executable running (ffmpeg, x264, etc.) during "processing". The content has a lot of fine grain and that usually is visually compromised in some way with a fast re-encode (~8 gigs in 10 minutes is fast), and I didn't see that. I don't believe it re-encoded or re-compressed anything.

I don't have any theory of my own to challenge this, however when browsing their forum I saw threads where people have complained about high CPU usage during processing, and posted screenshots. That seemed to reference what I saw in "difference between download and record and how to spot it" thread in AS forum (which is a pretty useful and informative guide I might add). Then again, there's been several members who have confirmed that it produces identical downloads when they compared them to AS.....I don't know. I just wish these drm issues got fixed with AS so we didn't need to talk about any competition. I miss the old days.

 

[RedFox 1]

I don't have any theory of my own to challenge this, however when browsing their forum I saw threads where people have complained about high CPU usage during processing, and posted screenshots. That seemed to reference what I saw in "difference between download and record and how to spot it" thread in AS forum (which is a pretty useful and informative guide I might add). Then again, there's been several members who have confirmed that it produces identical downloads when they compared them to AS.....I don't know. I just wish these drm issues got fixed with AS so we didn't need to talk about any competition. I miss the old days.

It's not easy, but I believe it will get done.