Feelings On Netflix & Amazon Prime

I have had both now for several years as gift subscriptions & both will be running out in the spring.
I subscribe to Comcast with all of the pay channels and have enough physical media to last several lifetimes.
I do watch original programming, documentaries and newer movies on both, but I am now wondering if it is really worth the extra cost.

I was wondering, for those who have both or either service, is it worth it to you?

Thanks for all opinions!

 

With 2 kids of various ages, Netflix streaming is worth the $10 a month. We have a basic channel package with directv and this gives the kids plenty to watch especially on their own devices. For us adults, not as much. Their classic selection mostly sucks. They seem to have focused on series, exclusives and not so much on movies. I do watch the occasional documentary on there but in general their selection is big, but not the kind of stuff I'm interested in. We have Amazon prime but never watch anything on it. We just got a smart tv with the prime app on there so we may start. For me I'll probably add filmstruck at some point which matches my taste. If we had no kids, I'd cancel Netflix.

All that said I think Netflix hd streaming is pretty good quality of picture and no buffering issues at my Home. Not Blu Ray quality bit as good as hd shows from cable.

 

My son pays for the Netflix, so of course I enjoy the heck out of it.
Amazon...even though it's a part of my Prime setup, I can't watch because the picture is always jittery, and keeps buffering. No way to watch a film.
.

 

It's nice having both. As Bela said in "Ed Wood:" I don't give two s*its about anything on cable.

 

Fortunately, I have no streaming issues at all. Better here in Portland than it was in Los Angeles.

 

I had buffering issues with these networks on FIOS and was advised to turn the modem on and off for 30 seconds weekly, reset the router channel to 6 or 9 and reset the router if necessary.

 

I find the content on both services extremely lacking so I really don't miss them. Sometimes I'll pay Netflix for a few months and cancel again. That's plenty of time to catch up on any new stuff they might have added. The TV series stuff has never interested me.

 

That sums it up for me as well. The kids have stuff on netflix that they like, but I rarely watch it. Every time I look something up, they don't have it. A few years ago, there were a decent number of movies and older tv series that I was interested in, but that's gone the way of the dodo. They've dropped most of their quality shows due to rights issues, and the shows and movies that they've added do not interest me. I told my wife we should just drop it at this point, but she told me she still watches a couple of the shows with our oldest daughter, so as long as they're getting use out of it, that's good enough for me. I think their programming just skews towards a younger audience now, as they've dropped the older movies and tv shows I used to watch on it.

And as for amazon prime, I just rarely check it out, so I'm not a good barometer. I've probably watched a handful of things on it over the past couple years, but I pay for prime for the 2 day shipping, the streaming stuff is just a bonus. I have found myself using their streaming music app more lately, which is also included with a prime subscription. The selection there is impressive.

 

Have 'em both and watch them both a lot.

 

I enjoy both (though Prime is more about the other services with video being a plus). I have three kids in the household and all they really know is NetFlix and Amazon. There are enough series and movies (plus I kept a DVD subscription) to keep my limited viewing time filled. If it wasn't for sports I'd probably opt out of cable television altogether.

Currently enjoying The Glitch while I sort through today's mail at work.

 

I'm torn.

 

I think if you're trying to decide between Netflix and Amazon Prime, I'd go with Netflix. I think Netflix's original content is better but I like the Amazon player better in terms of functionality. I have had streaming problems with both but that's more on my end due to the wifi. Movie wise, it's probably a wash with perhaps a slight edge to Netflix.

 

Kids = I use Netflix. A lot. The original programming is a good call on their part as soon they will become the new HBO in some ways.

As for Prime, with one in college I get a price break on that so it's a no-brainer to keep.

 

Mixed opinion here as well. We use Netflix for original content, foreign TV series and movies (British, Scandinavian, etc.), and some anime - all of which we really enjoy. Hate the fact that there's rarely anything good to stream in the domestic movie market on Netflix, though.

We use Amazon Prime for 2-day shipping, mainly. Occasionally use it for domestic movies, and the occasional original content series (Man in the High Castle, etc.). We watch far, far less on Amazon Prime compared to Netflix.

We also use Hulu with the commercial-free upgrade. We use that a lot (probably even more than Netflix), although now that current CW shows are no longer carried by Hulu, but instead are on their own commercial-laden travesty of a channel (CW), we've been using Hulu a lot less this Fall.

"Cutting the cord" is getting less and less satisfying with the increasing number of ala carte streaming vehicles that carry their own proprietary material. Give it another couple years, and we all may be jumping back on the cable/satellite bandwagon because it's cheaper.

 

That's why we still "bite the bullet" and have cable. I have everything I want in one place; on one DVR. No "app jumping". That gets exhausting...

 

I have both. We don't have cable, so this is the only way we have to watch TV. Netflix, as people have said, is only 10 bucks a month. Amazon Prime is something I have anyway, because of the ungodly number of records I buy every month. Having the streaming video is icing on the cake. I haven't noticed any problems with the picture quality with either service.

 

They're way cheaper than buying a bunch of discs that will get watched once.

 

I have them both. Hulu too. Love them!

 

Do you subscribe to cable or satellite?

 

Use Netflix a lot. Have not rented or purchased a disc in quite some time.

 

I still have cable for sports...news/weather. I love the original shows Netflix and et.all are producing right now.

 

Watching Netflix and Amazon enough that I'm considering dumping the DirectTV.

 

I've got Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, dumped satellite a few years ago and have no regets about that.

 

My thing with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu is that it's totally hit and miss.

I always felt like one of the main benefits to a huge streaming hub would be that, if you're sitting there and decide "Okay, I want to watch such-and-such specific movie, a comedy I remember from 1987", you'd be able to pull it up and watch it. I would never expect this to *always* work out, but in my experience, it almost *never* does. Pick a list of say 20 movies, covering maybe every decade from the 70s to present, of multiple genres, and what you'll probably find is that one or two of them are on Netflix, maybe one or two on Amazon or Hulu, then Amazon will have maybe five to seven additional selections available to *pay* to rent for $3 to $5, a few will only be able to be *purchased* for $19.99 as a digital copy on Amazon while you *can* stream it, but only if you buy an add on service like HBO or Showtime or something. The latter is the latest phenomenon, where you can't even *pay* to rent some movies on Amazon anymore, and instead have to either just buy the damn Blu-ray or DVD, or pay another $10 for an HBO or Showtime or Cinemax add-on streaming subscription. And all of this is not even getting into older classic films from the 60's and first half of the 20th century.

There's a ton of stuff on these services, but a ton of it is filler. You end up not seeking out something you want to watch, but instead looking at what's on there and just settling for what they have. It's how you end up watching a documentary on lobsters. Which *sometimes* is a cool thing. But sometimes you want to seek a movie or TV show out, and it's a total crapshoot as to whether any of the services will have it.

Also, these services will have films and then lose them. Sometimes it works out well. I spent several XMas seasons paying the $2.99 or whatever to stream "The Ref" in HD on Amazon, because the DVD release looks awful and is non-anamorphic. But now it's on Netflix. But on the other hand, I have a ton of stuff in my watchlist on Amazon Prime that I know I added because it was "Prime", and now it isn't. Amazon actually gives more visibility (inadvertently) to what stuff they lose, because on Netflix when stuff leaves it just disappears. Whereas, with Amazon, they usually continue to have it, just for a rental fee.

Netflix has come up with several original series that I do like, such as "Stranger Things", "Jessica Jones", the "Gilmore Girls" revival, and the upcoming MST3K revival.

I actually canceled Netflix for a number of months after I finished "Stranger Things", because that had been the first thing I watched in ages on there (probably not much since "Jessica Jones" other than a random movie here and there), and I then I re-upped again to watch "Gilmore Girls." Now I may cancel again for awhile, I'm not sure.

Amazon Prime has the 2-day shipping, which I use a lot, so I end up keeping that usually because the streaming stuff is just a side benefit.

If you need a digital babysitter for kids, any of these streaming services would work well. But as a service you want to watch, you just have to look at how much you actually use it. These services try to make it really easy to just keep the subscription and be lazy, because it's only ten bucks.

 

I had both about a year ago and then cancelled Prime. The only thing I miss from it was the included 2 Day shipping on orders. Never found the Prime selection to be anything special. I'd use Amazon Streaming to rent new movies which I had to pay for anyway. Still have Netflix and find the selection to be a bit more robust. Have also been thinking of canceling just to cut more corners but for $10, figured it could just stay.