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

Owning stuff is so 20th Century: these days, the smart money gets spent on streaming.

Why pay for shiny and expensive discs when you can stream almost everything ever made to every device you and your family own for a small monthly fee?

That's what Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video offer, but there are big differences in the way they do things and in the stuff you can see. Let's discover which streaming service is best for you.

The standard Netflix UK service is £5.99 per month or £6.99 if you want high definition streaming (where available); if you've already signed up as a customer that £1 price increase has been delayed until 2016.

If you want Ultra HD/4K streaming you'll need to pay a bit more: that's £8.99 per month.

If you're a member of Amazon's Prime free-delivery club the Instant Video service is free - although the annual price of Prime has been hiked from £39 to £79 and gives you video whether you want it or not.

If you want Amazon Prime Instant Video but don't want the other benefits of a Prime membership, the price is a flat £5.99 per month.

Just want free next day delivery? Well you're stuck with the streaming service too

On the Xbox, users of Netflix or Amazon had to pay extra to use the apps as they were only available to paid-up Xbox Live Gold members. Microsoft has now dropped that requirement.

Both services are available for PC and Mac, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, PS3 and PS4, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo Wii U, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad and the Kindle Fire family.

Netflix apps are available on almost any device you can think of

In addition, Amazon Prime Instant Video is available on LG, Sony and Samsung Smart TVs, Sony's Network Media Player and Home Cinema System, and Blu-Ray players from LG, Samsung and Sony.

The previous lack of an Android phone app has been addressed, although it doesn't support Chromecast, and there's no Windows Phone app. As you'd expect, it works with Amazon's own Fire TV.

Netflix is available on Android (including Chromecast) and Windows Phone, compatible LG, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony Blu-Ray players and Smart TVs, Apple TV and set-top boxes from Philips, Roku, WD and Virgin Media, as well as LG home theatre equipment. It's also coming to YouView boxes.

Amazon's apps are much nicer than the web interface, possibly because they look like Netflix

You'll find a full list of Netflix-capable devices here; the list for Amazon Instant Video is here.

Both services have extensive libraries of kids' TV shows and movies including Disney and Pixar hits. Amazon also has an impressive collection of cartoons.

Both services have parental controls that can prevent the little 'uns from streaming horror movies, and Netflix also enables you to create separate profiles for each user and make the kids' ones child-friendly.

Netflix's user accounts are handy, especially for kids, but they aren't password protected

Those profiles aren't password-protected, however, so there's nothing to stop the little ones logging in as you and watching The Human Centipede 2.

Netflix has long had the edge over Amazon when it comes to TV: it snapped up the rights to stream Breaking Bad and it's commissioned critically acclaimed shows such as Orange Is The New Black and House of Cards.

Amazon is getting into the commissioning game too - its drama Transparent has attracted rave reviews - but its TV catalogue isn't as impressive as Netflix's. Netflix often has more recent series than Amazon, so for example Netflix has 8 seasons of the US Office while Amazon's streaming ends with season 5.

We often found Amazon's TV shows to be older than Netflix's unless you go pay-per-view

That brings us to one of the things we really hate about Amazon's offering: Prime Instant Video sits alongside the non-Prime Instant Video service, which is video on demand and isn't included in your membership. It's very frustrating to see programmes in the listings without the blue Prime logo.

The aforementioned US Office is a good example: if you want to see series after season 5, you'll need to pay £1.89 an episode for SD or £2.49 for HD.

On balance, we think Netflix has the better selection of TV programmes - but that might be because we're more Breaking Bad than Vikings. We'd recommend searching both services for your favourites.

It's important to know that both services regularly prune their catalogues, usually because the deals with the content owners have expired. Don't assume that a title that's there today will still be there in a few months' time.

View the original article here

Amazon Music With Prime Music (for Android)

$99 per year Amazon Prime subscription required for Amazon Prime Music. Individual song pricing starts at 69 cents.By Jeffrey L. Wilson

Amazon Music—an updated and rebranded version of the Amazon MP3 app—has a new feature that may entice Amazon Prime subscribers: Amazon Prime Music support. That's right, the mobile music store now taps Amazon's newly released music streaming service to bring millions of songs to your Android tablet or smartphone (if the device is running Android 4.0 or later). If you already subscribe to the $99 Amazon Prime, you'll likely find the ad-free Amazon Music With Prime Music a solid app, but it lacks several features—and artists—found in Slacker Radio, our Editors' Choice among Android music streaming services.

Getting Started
Amazon's app is a store that lets you purchase individual songs and albums, but it becomes a music streaming app with a focus on playlist building (not creating radio stations) if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber. You can hunt for tracks by selecting one of more than 20 music genres and then cycling between the Songs, Albums, and Playlists categories. A swipe-out menu lets you quickly check out recommendations (which are located in a far more convenient place than in the browser-based Amazon Prime Music), new releases, playlists, settings, and the Amazon Music Store. You can also search for your favorite artist or song by keying names into the search box.

Unfortunately, you cannot search for artists, songs, or bands within the Prime Playlist section. If you want to see which artists are included in a playlist, you must open the playlist. I would have liked a search option that let me see where Rage Against the Machine songs live in the various playlists.

Catalog Woes
Amazon Music With Prime Music has a big flaw that's tied to the Amazon Prime Music service and not the app itself: holes in the catalog. You're not, for example, going to find Led Zeppelin (you can, however, find the group in Pandora, Slacker, and Spotify streams), and nearly all of Michael Jackson's solo output is missing in action.

Another woe: Amazon couldn't hammer out a deal with Universal Music Group, so you can't stream that record label's stable of artists, which includes the likes of Nicki Minaj and Metallica. That said, you can stream music from popular and not-so-popular artists such as Daft Punk, Foo Fighters, Pitbull, and Amy Stroup.

Playlists and Purchases
Like Songza, Amazon Prime Music is stocked with hundreds of themed playlists. I found interesting collections such as 50 Great '90s Songs and Hot, Sweaty Summer Nights. Each playlist displays a list of the tracks and the list's total runtime. When you find a track or playlist you like, you can quickly add the music to your music library by tapping the "Add" icon.

Naturally, Amazon gives you the option to purchase songs—it's one of the world's largest retailers, after all. The app's Music Store contains many tracks priced between 69 cents and $1.29. You may ask yourself why you'd want to purchase music when lots of "free" music comes with your Amazon Prime subscription. It's simple: Buying digital music files fill Prime Music's catalog holes. For example, you can purchase the Zeppelin songs that aren't available for streaming and listen to them from within Amazon Music with Prime Music.

Unlike the browser-based Amazon Prime Music, the app lets you purchase just one song or album at a time. If you want to do mass purchases, you'll need to visit Amazon on the desktop side—a slight inconvenience. Check out our Amazon  Prime Music review for storage information and how the service compares to iTunes Match.

Decent Audio, Performance Issues
The music streamed to my ears via an Astro Gaming headset was crisp and satisfying. It wasn't audiophile good, but most people won't have an issue with the audio. If you're the type who likes to read song lyrics, you'll have to go elsewhere, because there are none to be found here.

I have a larger gripe, however: Amazon Music With Prime Music locked up my Samsung Galaxy Note II phone on multiple occassions. Each time my phone froze, it was after I had tapped the play button to initiate a stream. On the upside, you can cache music for offline playback as you can with a $9.99 per month Slacker Radio Premium subscription.

It's Amazon Prime on the Go
Amazon Music with Prime Music won't coax away listeners from PCMag Editors' Choice Slacker Radio, who are accustomed to live radio, lyrics, weather updates, and excellent DJ-curated stations, but if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber who just wants to listen to a few tunes on your Android smartphone or tablet without incurring additional costs—or exploring other apps—you may want to download the app.

View the original article here

Amazon Music With Prime Music (for Android)

$99 per year Amazon Prime subscription required for Amazon Prime Music. Individual song pricing starts at 69 cents.By Jeffrey L. Wilson

Amazon Music—an updated and rebranded version of the Amazon MP3 app—has a new feature that may entice Amazon Prime subscribers: Amazon Prime Music support. That's right, the mobile music store now taps Amazon's newly released music streaming service to bring millions of songs to your Android tablet or smartphone (if the device is running Android 4.0 or later). If you already subscribe to the $99 Amazon Prime, you'll likely find the ad-free Amazon Music With Prime Music a solid app, but it lacks several features—and artists—found in Slacker Radio, our Editors' Choice among Android music streaming services.

Getting Started
Amazon's app is a store that lets you purchase individual songs and albums, but it becomes a music streaming app with a focus on playlist building (not creating radio stations) if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber. You can hunt for tracks by selecting one of more than 20 music genres and then cycling between the Songs, Albums, and Playlists categories. A swipe-out menu lets you quickly check out recommendations (which are located in a far more convenient place than in the browser-based Amazon Prime Music), new releases, playlists, settings, and the Amazon Music Store. You can also search for your favorite artist or song by keying names into the search box.

Unfortunately, you cannot search for artists, songs, or bands within the Prime Playlist section. If you want to see which artists are included in a playlist, you must open the playlist. I would have liked a search option that let me see where Rage Against the Machine songs live in the various playlists.

Catalog Woes
Amazon Music With Prime Music has a big flaw that's tied to the Amazon Prime Music service and not the app itself: holes in the catalog. You're not, for example, going to find Led Zeppelin (you can, however, find the group in Pandora, Slacker, and Spotify streams), and nearly all of Michael Jackson's solo output is missing in action.

Another woe: Amazon couldn't hammer out a deal with Universal Music Group, so you can't stream that record label's stable of artists, which includes the likes of Nicki Minaj and Metallica. That said, you can stream music from popular and not-so-popular artists such as Daft Punk, Foo Fighters, Pitbull, and Amy Stroup.

Playlists and Purchases
Like Songza, Amazon Prime Music is stocked with hundreds of themed playlists. I found interesting collections such as 50 Great '90s Songs and Hot, Sweaty Summer Nights. Each playlist displays a list of the tracks and the list's total runtime. When you find a track or playlist you like, you can quickly add the music to your music library by tapping the "Add" icon.

Naturally, Amazon gives you the option to purchase songs—it's one of the world's largest retailers, after all. The app's Music Store contains many tracks priced between 69 cents and $1.29. You may ask yourself why you'd want to purchase music when lots of "free" music comes with your Amazon Prime subscription. It's simple: Buying digital music files fill Prime Music's catalog holes. For example, you can purchase the Zeppelin songs that aren't available for streaming and listen to them from within Amazon Music with Prime Music.

Unlike the browser-based Amazon Prime Music, the app lets you purchase just one song or album at a time. If you want to do mass purchases, you'll need to visit Amazon on the desktop side—a slight inconvenience. Check out our Amazon  Prime Music review for storage information and how the service compares to iTunes Match.

Decent Audio, Performance Issues
The music streamed to my ears via an Astro Gaming headset was crisp and satisfying. It wasn't audiophile good, but most people won't have an issue with the audio. If you're the type who likes to read song lyrics, you'll have to go elsewhere, because there are none to be found here.

I have a larger gripe, however: Amazon Music With Prime Music locked up my Samsung Galaxy Note II phone on multiple occassions. Each time my phone froze, it was after I had tapped the play button to initiate a stream. On the upside, you can cache music for offline playback as you can with a $9.99 per month Slacker Radio Premium subscription.

It's Amazon Prime on the Go
Amazon Music with Prime Music won't coax away listeners from PCMag Editors' Choice Slacker Radio, who are accustomed to live radio, lyrics, weather updates, and excellent DJ-curated stations, but if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber who just wants to listen to a few tunes on your Android smartphone or tablet without incurring additional costs—or exploring other apps—you may want to download the app.

View the original article here

Amazon Prime Music

Included with a $99 Amazon Prime subscription.By Jeffrey L. Wilson

When Amazon raised the price of its marvelous Amazon Prime service from $79 to $99 per year, many subscribers wondered what the company would give them to justify the boost. Amazon quickly responded. First, select HBO content became available for streaming in the Instant Video section. Next, Amazon Prime Music—the subject of this review—arrived, giving subscribers fast access to millions of tracks and hundreds of curated playlists. If you already subscribe to Amazon Prime, you'll likely find Prime Music a solid addition, but it lacks several features—and artists—found in Slacker Radio, our Editors' Choice among music streaming services.

A Lot of Genres, Some Missing Artists
The Amazon Prime Music home screen is divided into two main sections: a primary content section that takes up most of the screen real estate, and one column just left of it. The former houses popular playlists and songs, while the latter hosts more than 20 genre categories. You can, of course, search for content by band or song name.

Searching for Led Zeppelin tracks quickly revealed one of Amazon Prime Music's bigger flaws: holes in the catalog. The service offers tons of Zeppelin tribute band content, but no actual music by the official group (Slacker and Spotify, on the other hand, both have access to the Zeppelin catalog). Likewise, I found just one Michael Jackson song—"Will You Be There" from the Free Willy soundtrack. The service also lacks content from Universal Music Group. That said, Amazon Prime Music isn't a total wasteland. You can stream music from popular and not-so-popular artists such as Bruno Mars, The Dirtbombs, Madonna, and Rage Against the Machine.

Playlists, Purchases, and Recommendations
Like Songza, Amazon Prime Music is stocked with hundreds of themed playlists that were assembled by the rather pretentiously named collective known as Amazon's Music Experts. I found interesting collections such as Foo Fighters Top Songs and the oddly named 50 Great Epic Classic Rock Songs. Each playlist displays a track listing, the total runtime, and curator. When you find a track or playlist that you like, you can quickly add the music to Your Music Library (a section where your favorite tracks live) by clicking Add to Library.

Naturally, Amazon gives you the option to purchase these songs, too. You can buy them individually (many are priced between 69 cents and $1.29) or toss a few into the MP3 Cart for a mass purchase.

Unfortunately, if you're looking for Slacker-like recommendations to expand your music horizons, you must look carefully. Recommendations are stashed in the Recently Viewed Items and Featured Recommendations section—a section that's located below the comment section. It's very inconveniently placed and easily overlooked. Even worse, it can be confusing to discern at a glance which items are actual recommendations as opposed to previously eyeballed items. Fortunately, the recommendations on the Your Music Library page are separate from items that you previously viewed, so there's no confusion. I wish Amazon had opted for a more unified user interface.

Importing and Audio
Like Spotify, Amazon Prime Music lets you import music into Your Music Library. To do so, you must install Adobe Flash, download the import app, and manually upload  music files. You can also opt to let the Music Importer scan your iTunes and Windows Media Player folders for music and automatically upload the songs.

All your new and previously purchased Amazon music files are stored free of charge, as are the first 250 uploaded tracks not bought from Amazon. If you need to import more non Amazon music, you can import 250,000 tracks for $24.99 per year. The imported music and bookmarked Amazon Prime Music tracks exist as a single playlist within Your Music Library.

Amazon Prime Music takes many cues from Apple's iTunes Match, a subscription service ($24.99 per year) that removes ads from iTunes Radio and fills your iCloud account with tunes that match the music files on your computer. iTunes Match also lets you store 250,000 non-iTunes purchased tracks.

The music streamed to my ears via an Astro Gaming headset was crisp and satisfying. It wasn't audiophile good, but most people won't have an issue with the audio. Still, I favored iTunes Match's audio over Amazon Prime Music's as it was a bit crisper. Apple streams its iTunes Match tracks at a solid 256 Kbps; I've reached out to Amazon for its Prime Music streaming bitrate and will update this review with a response when it's received. Note: Billboard states that Amazon's streaming music will be delivered at a bitrate ranging from between 48 Kbps to 256Kbps, depending on the Internet connection speed.

Not Amazing, but a Good Addition to Prime
By itself, Amazon Prime Music isn't a selling point for a Prime subscription, but it's yet another feature that the service affords. If you want a feature-packed streaming service that offers live radio, lyrics, weather updates, and excellent DJ-curated stations, Slacker Radio is your go-to pick. But if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber who just wants to listen to a few tunes without incurring additional costs—or exploring other apps—Amazon Prime Music is a streaming music service to check out.

View the original article here