[Closed] Netflix or Amazon or Don't bother

Netflix - Pay a monthly fee that is it
Amazon - Pay a monthly fee for what is available for that and then there are top ups

Sign up for a month see if you like it and cancel if you don't I have alternated between the 2

£7.99 a month for Netflix. No other charges, everything viewable

I had Prime on a demo, and from memory there was a lot of stuff you could "rent" over and above the free stuff and the associated cost for that

I don't recall seeing any additional fees in Netflix, which is superior to prime (imo).

Netflix has fewer 'big' films, the tend to concentrate on their own-made stuff (much of which is very good)

FWIW, a mix of Netflix for TV and lucky-dip films and one-off rental of new/big films from Google Play works for us.

Netflix all the way, they are the next thing in TV and Video, they’re now making their own big budget films and commissioning great TV series. What they’re not very good at is showing big films, they’ve got a few but it’s not really their thing. You pay a monthly sub based on number of screens you want to watch in on at once, plus 4K if you want it - but it’s ‘all you can eat’ after that.

Prime has more big films, still not exactly massive though and they have some good series like ‘Man in the High Castle’ and ‘The Grand Tour’ if you like old Top Gear. Prime is also ‘all you can eat’ but it also integrates into their video hire product so you will be given the option to rent newer films.

I have both and swap back and forth. If I could only have one it would be amazon.

Depends how much you watch TV. I had Netflix and it is good but then tried Amazon due to the other benefits but am disappointed. I'm watching all the classic '80's and early '90 movies with my kids at the moment and tried to watch the original Karate Kid on Amazon Prime and was horrified to see that they wanted £3.50 to rent it. It's a 30-odd year old movie! I would have thought they would have charged for the newer and more recent movies and let you watch older movies for free. So I would not recommend Amazon just for the telly.

The music service is good though, especially if you have Alexa.

Amazon Video is pay to rent or buy. Amazon Prime gives you a load of the video content for free. You can still pay for stuff on top of Prime if you want. Usually big movies or TV shows that cost extra.

Both available as free trials afaik. We have both. When we finish binge watching the stuff on one, we binge watch on the other one and when we're done with that something else has been released on the other.

the original Karate Kid on Amazon Prime and was horrified to see that they wanted £3.50 to rent it.

Yeah some old classics are still paid, but the reason you want to watch it is that it's still a big movie and so they charge. At worst it's like a video rental shop.

When we finish binge watching the stuff on one, we binge watch on the other one and when we're done with that something else has been released on the other.

If you order stuff from Amazon you can opt for 3-5 day delivery and get a £1 credit against rentals/purchases.

Netflix is better imo.
We have both currently but I'm getting rid of prime. I do not want to see any content that I have to pay for and there is no way to view only the included content and this annoys me immensely. Also the UI is awful.

I'm not condoning it, but if you have ever experienced Kodi it makes them both seem feeble.

I'm not condoning it though. Kodi itself is legal obviously, just not some of its uses.

Kodi isn't as under the radar as it used to be either.

Netflix is very good these days far better it once was, Prime is pretty good and they do rentals yes but they’re newer films usually, they often have offer where you can rent for £1.99

Like mentioned you can get Prime free for 30 days.

Poopscoop - Member
I'm not condoning it, but if you have ever experienced Kodi it makes them both seem feeble.

I have Netflix for the kiddie

Its full of kiddie stuff really worth the cost. Me and the missus have never actually watched anything for ourselves. But we will sometime. But just for the kiddie its worth the cost

Poopscoop - Member

I'm not condoning it, but if you have ever experienced Kodi it makes them both seem feeble.

I would have to disagree. Utterly shit interface and horrible navigation combined with completely variable quality and the fact the content is available on streaming sites all over the web - Kodi makes Netflix 4k look amazing.

With Prime you get free next day delivery on items purchased via Amazon and also get Amazon music so much more to it than Netflix if you use them.

If your wife orders a gazillion parcels a month, then £75 a year for Amazon Prime is the way to go.

So I've heard.

jimjam - Member
Poopscoop - Member
I'm not condoning it, but if you have ever experienced Kodi it makes them both seem feeble.

I would have to disagree. Utterly shit interface and horrible navigation combined with completely variable quality and the fact the content is available on streaming sites all over the web - Kodi makes Netflix 4k look amazing.

Aside from the user interface I couldn't disagree more.

I'm not going into it further though as I'm guessing the mods would quiet rightly not like it discussed at length.

got prime - by accident.

its shit. wouldnt bother again .Good for parcels shit for TV

its only positive is that it slips under the works streaming radar (i live on base) so i can watch the grand tour and stuff here.

netflix is picked up by the servers and you dont want to get caught using a VPN .

parents have a kodi box from a man down the pub. its a propper pile of pish. half the content comes up with not availible and what does come up varys from watchable quality to waiting for someone in front of the cinema to get up and go for a piss.... ok my parents probably dont update it as much as it needs but seems like a propper pain in the arse.

@poopscoop

It has been discussed at length many times before and I've argued "pro kodi" at least in principal. Laughable to suggest it shouldn't be discussed as it's common knowledge.

Laughable to suggest it shouldn't be discussed as it's common knowledge.

Unlimited photo back-up with Prime too. I have the app on my phone and it backs-up in the background. I have Prime because of the other features, not the TV side.

I watch more things on Netflix though.

jimjam - Member
@poopscoop

It has been discussed at length many times before and I've argued "pro kodi" at least in principal. Laughable to suggest it shouldn't be discussed as it's common knowledge.

Not laughable, many forums won't let you discuss such things, even Usenets "darker" side.

I've never read a thread on the explicit uses of kodi on here so simply assumed it better not to go into detail.

I can't see STW wanting to be a forum for what is an illegal use of Kodi...?

Either way, the op can Google it if he so wishes.

EDIT: Just read cougars post.

Is the other problem it’s prime not that you can’t chomecast with it which makes it slightly more difficult to watch on a big screen unless you have a pc connected to it

Just get a Fire TV stick then - much easier than trailing a cable from a PC.

And you can use Netflix on the Fire TV stick too.

Poopscoop - Member

Not laughable, many forums won't let you discuss such things, even Usenets "darker" side.

No it is utterly laughable.

I've never read a thread on the explicit uses of kodi on here so simply assumed it better not to go into detail.

There are 23 threads started in the last two years with "kodi" in the title. The term kodi returns 5 pages of threads.

I can't see STW wanting to be a forum for what is an illegal use of Kodi...?

It's not, and discussing it doesn't make it so. Discussing speeding or tax evasion doesn't make people speed or evade tax.

EDIT: BTW I don't have Kodi, because it's balls 😆

Anyway,

I've had both, Netflix and prime.

Prime is better for movies, though many cost extra.

Netflix is better for tv.

These boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred though.

Reality is that both are like Cadbury Roses if you watch a lot of movies or series.

After a while you have eaten what you really like and are left with the dregs at the bottom of the tin that no one really likes...and new content arrives at a pretty show trickle.

If you have pretty eclectic tastes and watch more or less anything then it isn't so bad.

ninja

No it is utterly laughable.

I can't see STW wanting to be a forum

Carry on and discuss it then mate, I'll take cougars pretty plain statement of STW policy to be honest though.

I didn't day Kodi was illegal, it can be used in an illegal manner...

Don't know what else to say?

Is the other problem it’s prime not that you can’t chomecast with it which makes it slightly more difficult to watch on a big screen unless you have a pc connected to it

It’s not difficult in the slightest you can use smart tv or a fire stick.

I got really annoyed with Prime as it isn't really obvious when you click on a film that you have to pay extra for it. It always seemed like the ones I wanted to watch all had to be paid extra for, could never find anything free to watch!

Poopscoop - Member

Prime is better for movies, though many cost extra.

But there are plenty of pay to rent movie services, like youtube and google play which offer new/major films to watch without having to pay a monthly subscription fee. I wonder if there's a site or database showing what's available where and any overlaps.

Carry on and discuss it then mate, I'll take cougars pretty plain statement of STW policy to be honest though.

I'm pretty sure Cougar has been involved in plenty of the discussions, just as a poster not moderating.

Thanks all. Gotta love this forum.

So it looks like it's Netflix for us.
But what's the latest movies on there please?
Is say Rogue One available?
What's the latest movie on there today?
As for TV are things like all of the series's of Elementary on there?

https://uk.newonnetflix.info/catalogue

JohnClimber - I use Jus****ch to see what platform a film is on...

https://www.jus****ch.com/uk

Rogue One is on NowTV! 😀

jimjam - Member
Poopscoop - Member
Prime is better for movies, though many cost extra.

But there are plenty of pay to rent movie services, like youtube and google play which offer new/major films to watch without having to pay a monthly subscription fee. I wonder if there's a site or database showing what's available where and any overlaps.

I'm pretty sure Cougar has been involved in plenty of the discussions, just as a poster not moderating.

It's getting a little boring now...

I don't use prime for movies, many don't. I use it for next day delivery.

Sorry OP, didn't intend for this to go so off course.

I'll leave jimjam to discuss things with cougar if he wants. 🙂

NowTV is a great substitute for Sky/Virgin. I wouldn’t pay what they want for movies or sport though.

I’ve got NowTV on trial for a month, so far it’s pretty good but not sure I’ll continue.

Just cancelled my Prime after a couple of months of Christmas parcels. Found virtually nothing I wanted to watch on it, TBH.

JohnClimber - Member

Thanks all. Gotta love this forum.

So it looks like it's Netflix for us.
But what's the latest movies on there please?
Is say Rogue One available?
What's the latest movie on there today?
As for TV are things like all of the series's of Elementary on there?

Rogue One isn't available on Netflix yet but as I said back there it's available on non subscription platforms that you probably already have accounts for like youtube, google play, itunes etc.

Netflix is ok for movies but it's the series / box set stuff where it really shines. Prime is only worth having if you order a lot of shopping from amazon. The tv, video and music services feel like a bolted on afterthought to incentivise people to upgrade their account whereas Netflix feels like a proper broadcaster/content creator.

We’ve got Prime.

Easily paid for itself over Xmas alone with the parcel deliveries. Amazon Pantry took care of some major shopping too including large crates of wine at a good price. And Prime Music provided some of the soundtrack via Alexa.

That is all part of Amazon Prime, as well as the TV stuff, so you have to consider it as a package.

In terms of TV, we don’t watch that much but we never have any bother finding a movie or something for the kids to watch on Prime (without paying extra).

Tl;dr: Netflix has more TV, but Prime gives us more services for roughly the same price.

Prime users - I notice they’re got a music subscription service now, is that included with Prime?

It’s not difficult in the slightest you can use smart tv or a fire stick.

I see that Google have now started allowing Amazon devices to access youtube in return for Amazon selling chromecasts, so hopefully they'kk make the Amazon Prime Video app chromecast capable.

Oh, my kids use Netflix quite a lot. Sky is hopefully going to be the big loser in the coming years. I'm also quite impressed with NowTV

Just ask someone for their logins, you don't need to buy it 15 times in
a family! 😆

Netflix is better, Amazon is ok, got vikings, the americans and few other decent shows, but really they are just trying to sell you other stuff, ie you'll get an ad before every show and pay for content is everywhere(be caeful with that among the younger elements of your family that are trigger happy), basically just think of the tv and other stuff as a bonus to prime deliveries (again, just share the one account about you family.)

Firesticks suck donkey balls btw, but a necessary evil if you don't want to trail a hdmi cable to your tele.. netflix works fine with chromecast, amazon doesn't(you can cast your phone screen mind, but that's not ideal.)

Prime users - I notice they’re got a music subscription service now, is that included with Prime?

Yes but it’s limited it’s not the same as their Music Prime.

I already have a number of chromecasts (that handles 90% of the streaming out there) but I think it's pretty crap to have to buy another device just to stream amazon Prime.

I bought the right device the first time, problem solved.

Just ask someone for their logins, you don't need to buy it 15 times in
a family!

I use both and Now TV.

Amazon I may not bother with, but I make a lot of use of their inclusive unlimited Photo Storage which makes it worth the price in itself... plus free Prime postage is good. Netflix is great for the kids, and we watch it a fair bit too. Now TV has all the good stuff off Sky. I was going to unsubscribe after Game of Thrones but we found plenty more to keep us entertained so it stays. Often get better movies on that than the others too.

(We don't get to go out very much!)

We have prime. Mainly for the deliveries. TV is quite good, rentals are high priced. Tried to get Big (Tom Hanks) and it was 2.99 to rent, 3.99 to buy. Or 1.29 from music magpie...

Firesticks suck donkey balls btw, but a necessary evil if you don't want to trail a hdmi cable to your tele.. netflix works fine with chromecast, amazon doesn't(you can cast your phone screen mind, but that's not ideal.)

Apple TV works fine casting from the Amazon Prime Video app.

we have Netflix via MiL account - it's been good if you want easy entertainment but not a lot of niche/indie/BBC4 esque stuff, however Force Awakens popped up the other week which I was happy about. More and more original series but films take a while to come onto the site and only from certain studios

how they commission stuff is based on making loads of pilots and seeing what gets views or attention and then making a series, hence why there is a lot of Bollywood, loads of Marvel on there - following the money but of course it doesn't go out on a limb for expensive stuff that may flop

what would be good is a big low-res list of everything on the site rather than the interface that guesses for you (I don't want somebody else to apply a filter I can do that)

I'm pretty sure Cougar has been involved in plenty of the discussions, just as a poster not moderating.

I'm not sure exactly what you're all referring to, but my personal stance is this:

Kodi in and of itself is perfectly legal and I see no issues with discussing it on the forum, it's just a media player.

What is illegal is the third party add-ons which give it the additional capability to stream pirated content. I know we've let it slide in the past as, being generous, this could arguably be viewed as a grey area. But I'd say that actively recommending specific add-ons would be verboten.

And yes, you're right in that I've been involved in theoretical discussions around this previously. I've never promoted Kodi myself though as I've never used it, aside from setting it up once on a Pi 2 for an evening just to play about with it.

Does that help?

As for the OP's question.

I have Netflix. Where it excels is in its own "Netflix Original" content. Stranger Things, Orphan Black, all the Marvel series like Jessica Jones and so forth. There's a list here: https://www.netflix.com/gb/originals It can also be pretty good for classic TV - I'm currently binge-watching the old The League of Gentlemen before watching the new ones.

Where it falls down is that its other offerings can be patchy. I can't remember specific examples, but I've seen where it offers say the first 4 seasons of a series when the show is up to season 7. I can't be sure on this but I think I've also seen it offer the second series of something but not the first. Similarly with films, there's some classics on there as well as some relatively new offerings, but there's a heck of a lot of dross.

This is a handy resource:

https://uk.newonnetflix.info/catalogue
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Technology wise, this may just be a fault of the Xbox app but I've found the search function a bit weird. I was going to watch Back to the Future the other day, searched for it and it offered me a choice of BTTF 2 or BTTF 3 but not the first one. So I searched for something else in a similar vein, it couldn't find whatever it was I was looking for so offered me a list of "you might like this instead" options, one of which was BTTF. Huh?

That aside, it's never put a foot wrong. I've not once had it buffer (other than for a few seconds before the show starts playing), crap out, crash, fail to fast-forward / rewind sensibly, it Just Works. Audio and video quality is excellent, obviously depending on the quality of the source material.

But there are plenty of pay to rent movie services, like youtube and google play which offer new/major films to watch without having to pay a monthly subscription fee.

I think you can use Amazon Video without being a Prime member which makes it the same as the others i.e. free to sign up and you pay for the content. Being a Prime member gives you a load of the content for free.

Re multiple logins - Netflix costs something like £2/mo extra for multiple login capability; Prime can be applied to a household rather than just a single account - I think multiple concurrent viewing works but don't quote me.

We use both because it's far cheaper than Sky and has far more stuff on it. And Netflix is currently the best TV content producer out there by miles and miles, IMO.

I have Netflix through the gf's account and have prime for deliveries etc. Out of Netflix and prime, I prefer Netflix.

How can one not have both?

We have both and now tv having recently got rid of virgin . If I was only going to have 1 I would say Netflix but I think prime offers enough to make it worthwhile having and now tv has impressed me with the amount on it , we get the family package free with my wife’s phone contract.
We don’t watch anything live now , all streamed and on catch up services and have saved a fair bit of money off our old virgin bill .

I've seen where it offers say the first 4 seasons of a series when the show is up to season 7.

I stopped using amazon to order stuff under 20 quid when they started charging delivery. Use ebay instad for that. Refuse to sign up to prime for that reason so opt for Netflix instead.

Article in 'Which' this month rates Netflix slightly more highly than amazon for content & aparently the streaming picture & sound is of slightly better quality. Also interestingly enough, Netflix only need a solid 10mbps download speed to get 4K running but amazon needs a good bit more 15odd plus i think.

Kodi is great if you can be arsed keeping on top of maintaining it which is a real chore for the less technically astute folk. It's not the set & forget miracle that many 'fully loaded' box guys in the pub would have you believe it is. Nowadays, you need to pay for a decent VPN to keep it running sweet.

I stopped using amazon to order stuff under 20 quid when they started charging delivery. Use ebay instad for that. Refuse to sign up to prime for that reason so opt for Netflix instead.

I got Prime for the opposite reason to this. There is a company I order a lot of stuff off (picture framing supplies) and if I order it directly from them I pay delivery. But if I order the same items from them through Amazon, using my Prime, I don't pay delivery. Go figure! Its paid for itself god knows how many times over, without even thinking about the tellybox stuff.

Anyway... having both is a no-brainer, especially if you've got kids. The Binnerettes, aged 13 and 10, do pretty much all their telly-viewing on Netlix. Its brilliant for kids!!

And most of the time, me and Mrs Binners don't even look at the TV listings as we're binge watching box sets on Netflix. Their original content is top notch stuff, and getting better all the time. At £7.99 a month its outstanding value for money

I've always been a supporter of Netflix that had the best technology and value before the others got on it.

As mentioned their own stuff is fantastic. Films will get there eventually. Next year Martin Scorsese's the Irishman should be the watershed on that.

I could survive with Netflix and nothing else. But Amazon offers a few top ups, as does Now TV. I have them all. Great value especially compared to buying boxsets that you never watch again.

Different licensing deals mean things shift around. Tin Star and Billions both on Now TV for instance.

I'm not condoning it, but if you have ever experienced Kodi it makes them both seem feeble.

Kodi users that stream the freebie ripped off content are as anti social as smokers. They should be made to stand outside for their cheapskate lifestyle choices

Time and time again I see my wealthy office bound mates with their pirated music and films, which is so 80s FFS.

They have no appreciation of paying for stuff or the quality that comes with it.

Netflix is under a tenner a month for crying it loud.