Octopus Overlords

Smoove_B wrote:HBO bringing shows to Amazon Prime:

Amazon just announced an agreement that makes Prime Instant Video the only strictly-online place to get certain HBO shows on-demand. The list includes favorites like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Big Love, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, and more—though it doesn't include Game of Thrones.

The deal makes Amazon Prime Instant Video the exclusive online-only place to get those shows, with previous seasons of HBO originals like Girls, The Newsroom, and Veep coming available as the multi-year agreement goes on. Shows will become available starting on May 21st.

BOOM HEADSHOT

Damn. Amazon Prime Instant Video just got relevant. I very rarely used it but now being able to finish out the other seasons of The Wire is a pretty big draw for me along with watching Boardwalk Empire and True Blood for the first time. I wonder if Rome will be available as well?

Rome is included...

This makes me very happy. I rarely watch movies with my Prime. Not anymore. FULL ON BABY.

I envy those of you watching Rome and The Wire for the first time.

$iljanus wrote:Damn. Amazon Prime Instant Video just got relevant. I very rarely used it but now being able to finish out the other seasons of The Wire is a pretty big draw for me along with watching Boardwalk Empire and True Blood for the first time. I wonder if Rome will be available as well?

I actually rent more videos from Amazon than I ever did from a store. I'll totally pay $5 for thirty seconds of tapping on my phone followed immediately by the movie appearing on my TV.

Fretmute wrote:

$iljanus wrote:Damn. Amazon Prime Instant Video just got relevant. I very rarely used it but now being able to finish out the other seasons of The Wire is a pretty big draw for me along with watching Boardwalk Empire and True Blood for the first time. I wonder if Rome will be available as well?

I actually rent more videos from Amazon than I ever did from a store. I'll totally pay $5 for thirty seconds of tapping on my phone followed immediately by the movie appearing on my TV.

Ditto. Although to be clear, that is not Prime Instant Video.

Zaxxon wrote:I envy those of you watching Rome and The Wire for the first time.

Just finishing Rome now. Great show. Haven't seen the Wire yet though. Not a big drama fan, but I love historical fiction.

Zaxxon wrote:

Fretmute wrote:

$iljanus wrote:Damn. Amazon Prime Instant Video just got relevant. I very rarely used it but now being able to finish out the other seasons of The Wire is a pretty big draw for me along with watching Boardwalk Empire and True Blood for the first time. I wonder if Rome will be available as well?

I actually rent more videos from Amazon than I ever did from a store. I'll totally pay $5 for thirty seconds of tapping on my phone followed immediately by the movie appearing on my TV.

Ditto. Although to be clear, that is not Prime Instant Video.

Not sure I followed you here, what isn't? Prime is not getting HBO shows? Or you can't launch it on your phone to your tv? You could use chromecast, open up chrome on your phone and broadcast the tab Prime is on to your tv, no?

Prime is the free stuff included with Prime, not rentals.

Zaxxon wrote:

Fretmute wrote:

$iljanus wrote:Damn. Amazon Prime Instant Video just got relevant. I very rarely used it but now being able to finish out the other seasons of The Wire is a pretty big draw for me along with watching Boardwalk Empire and True Blood for the first time. I wonder if Rome will be available as well?

I actually rent more videos from Amazon than I ever did from a store. I'll totally pay $5 for thirty seconds of tapping on my phone followed immediately by the movie appearing on my TV.

Ditto. Although to be clear, that is not Prime Instant Video.

HBO shows are already available to purchase through Amazon Instant Video. The prices are a bit higher than what it would normally cost to rent a disc at those rates.

The Wire is currently up for purchase at ~$20 a season, newer stuff for more. Being able to stream binge rather than purchase them would certainly help justify the $99/year cost of Prime.

Exactly. *That* is Prime.

Smoove_B wrote:HBO bringing shows to Amazon Prime:
BOOM HEADSHOT

Yup. That put me over the top in a major way. I PROBABLY would have renewed Prime, and I think I even mentioned somewhere above, that Amazon Prime Video needed something to separate them from Netflix for me to consider video to be any kind of value added, or even interesting. And dammit if that isn't exactly the kind of thing I was referring to, but had not even considered. Well played, Amazon!

I'd like to see a full list of shows that will be available. I started John Adams, but never finished, and would love to do that.

Hearty +1 for the comment above about being jealous for someone seeing Rome for the first time. That series was mind blowingly good.

awesome, i can catch up on Newsroom and Boardwalk. Now only if Showtime can get involved so I can catch up on Dexter

Dexter is on Netflix.

naednek wrote:awesome, i can catch up on Newsroom and Boardwalk. Now only if Showtime can get involved so I can catch up on Dexter

Newsroom may be harder, because they're only going to start showing up three years after their initial air date. I don't think the show's been around long enough yet.

Enough wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Fretmute wrote:

$iljanus wrote:Damn. Amazon Prime Instant Video just got relevant. I very rarely used it but now being able to finish out the other seasons of The Wire is a pretty big draw for me along with watching Boardwalk Empire and True Blood for the first time. I wonder if Rome will be available as well?

I actually rent more videos from Amazon than I ever did from a store. I'll totally pay $5 for thirty seconds of tapping on my phone followed immediately by the movie appearing on my TV.

Ditto. Although to be clear, that is not Prime Instant Video.

Not sure I followed you here, what isn't? Prime is not getting HBO shows? Or you can't launch it on your phone to your tv? You could use chromecast, open up chrome on your phone and broadcast the tab Prime is on to your tv, no?

Also Chromecast and Amazon Prime are not integrated (because Amazon is doing Fire TV), so you can't do that. I have heard that there is a non-official work around to stream Amazon Prime to the TV from a laptop, but I haven't yet tried it to see if it works (and even if it did I don't think it would work from a phone).

nasai wrote:Dexter is on Netflix.

I don't have netflix so that doesn't help me. I have amazon prime, and that would help me.

Most excited about The Wire. Never saw it despite the critical acclaim. Will be binge-city!!!

From the PR:

The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Big Love, Eastbound & Down, Oz, Band of Brothers and Deadwood, and early seasons of Boardwalk Empire and True Blood
The first content will hit Amazon on May 21. Girls, The Newsroom and Veep will also come available three years after initially airing on HBO.


So that's it? Crap. No John Adams? No Rome? No Curb Your Enthusiasm? Enthusiasm...curbed.

Edit to add:


– All seasons of revered classics such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome and Six Feet Under, and of recent favorites such as Eastbound & Down, Enlightened and Flight of the Conchords. Update: Oz too.
– Epic miniseries, including Angels in America, Band of Brothers, John Adams, The Pacific and Parade’s End
– Select seasons of current series such as Boardwalk Empire, Treme and True Blood
– Hit original movies like Game Change, Too Big To Fail and You Don’t Know Jack
– Pedigreed documentaries including the Autopsy and Iceman series, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib and When the Levees Broke
– Hilarious original comedy specials from Lewis Black, Ellen DeGeneres, Louis CK and Bill Maher
– The multi-year deal will bring additional seasons of the current series named above, along with early seasons of other series like Girls, The Newsroom and Veep to Prime members over the life of the deal.

El Guapo wrote:

Enough wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

Fretmute wrote:

$iljanus wrote:Damn. Amazon Prime Instant Video just got relevant. I very rarely used it but now being able to finish out the other seasons of The Wire is a pretty big draw for me along with watching Boardwalk Empire and True Blood for the first time. I wonder if Rome will be available as well?

I actually rent more videos from Amazon than I ever did from a store. I'll totally pay $5 for thirty seconds of tapping on my phone followed immediately by the movie appearing on my TV.

Ditto. Although to be clear, that is not Prime Instant Video.

Not sure I followed you here, what isn't? Prime is not getting HBO shows? Or you can't launch it on your phone to your tv? You could use chromecast, open up chrome on your phone and broadcast the tab Prime is on to your tv, no?

Also Chromecast and Amazon Prime are not integrated (because Amazon is doing Fire TV), so you can't do that. I have heard that there is a non-official work around to stream Amazon Prime to the TV from a laptop, but I haven't yet tried it to see if it works (and even if it did I don't think it would work from a phone).

Ahh, that makes since as Flash is a no-go on mobile. Perhaps the Roku Streaming Stick if not Amazon TV is a better fit for Amazon Prime.

I can confirm that Amazon Instant Video has a nice app for Rokus.

You can't stream amazon instant prime to a chromecast, but you can load the video up on your computer and send the entire tab to your tv. The quality isn't as crisp, but it's actually not as big of a drop-off as I would have anticipated.

I mainly just stream my amazon instant video to my tv using the 360 though.

In short, they found a way to monetize stuff in their back catalog that wasn't earning them much anymore.

Dang, no Carnivale. I'd really like to watch that in HD.

edit - YES! Carnivale IS on there in glorious HD! Hurrah! One of my top 10 favorite shows of all time and I finally get it watch it in HD. Thanks HBO and Amazon Prime!

Yesterday was HBO, today it's Prime Pantry:

Prime Pantry is a new shopping experience on Amazon.com. Prime members can shop popular household essentials and have them conveniently delivered.

Adding your first Prime Pantry item to Cart starts a Prime Pantry box. As you shop, you see that each Pantry item tells you what percentage of a Pantry box it fills based on its size and weight. Pantry boxes are large and can hold up to 45 pounds or four cubic feet of household products. As you check items off your list, we continuously track and show you how full your box is.

You can buy as much or as little as you want for a flat $5.99 delivery fee per Prime Pantry box. Save gas, save money, save time.

Smoove_B wrote:Yesterday was HBO, today it's Prime Pantry:

Prime Pantry is a new shopping experience on Amazon.com. Prime members can shop popular household essentials and have them conveniently delivered.

Adding your first Prime Pantry item to Cart starts a Prime Pantry box. As you shop, you see that each Pantry item tells you what percentage of a Pantry box it fills based on its size and weight. Pantry boxes are large and can hold up to 45 pounds or four cubic feet of household products. As you check items off your list, we continuously track and show you how full your box is.

You can buy as much or as little as you want for a flat $5.99 delivery fee per Prime Pantry box. Save gas, save money, save time.

Maybe I am missing something obvious, but how is that different from my previous ability through Prime to get these same items delivered via free, 2 day shipping? Seems like a downgrade.

Why would I pay for shipping when it's already free?

[edit] - Yeah, what he said.

I am nearly certain you couldn't ship 45lbs or 4 cubic feet worth of toilet paper with your Prime subscription prior to this. I never tried, but that's my guess.

There's a point at which I start to feel bad for local stores and will go out of my way to avoid buying on Amazon. Pantry may have been that point but fortunately looking at their selection, I'll be ok. Nearly all our groceries are local and/or fresh.

The only grocery item I might consider is Barilla pasta and they are more expensive than local sales which pretty much run all the time. And they only have like 3 varieties on Amazon.

Smoove_B wrote:I am nearly certain you couldn't ship 45lbs or 4 cubic feet worth of toilet paper with your Prime subscription prior to this. I never tried, but that's my guess.

Nope. With big deals (Amazon coupons, or maybe some Amazon Mom deals) I have ordered massive quantities (bulk boxes) of:

Kleenex
Diapers
Wipes
Toilet Paper
Paper towels

I'm talking HUGE boxes in some cases there. No extra fees paid IIRC (and I would definitely recall if I had)

Smoove_B wrote:I am nearly certain you couldn't ship 45lbs or 4 cubic feet worth of toilet paper with your Prime subscription prior to this. I never tried, but that's my guess.

They did ship me three cases of grape Gatorade and a box with eight jugs of laundry detergent, though. In fact, I bet this set up is due almost entirely to me ruining it for everyone else.

Fretmute wrote:Why would I pay for shipping when it's already free?

[edit] - Yeah, what he said.

Looking at an example (Crest toothpaste) it looks like they've allocated things to three groups: add-on item (free with Prime with another qualifying purchase), regular Prime, and Prime Pantry. You can't get a Prime Pantry item via regular Prime. Though you can probably find something similar through regular Prime.


I think the big seller will be convenience. Just put a bunch of stuff in and it will ship when full. I think it's another attempt to move to something like subscriptions. Subscribe and Save seems to be fading.

Carpet_pissr wrote:

Smoove_B wrote:I am nearly certain you couldn't ship 45lbs or 4 cubic feet worth of toilet paper with your Prime subscription prior to this. I never tried, but that's my guess.

Nope. With big deals (Amazon coupons, or maybe some Amazon Mom deals) I have ordered massive quantities (bulk boxes) of:

Kleenex
Diapers
Wipes
Toilet Paper
Paper towels

I'm talking HUGE boxes in some cases there. No extra fees paid IIRC (and I would definitely recall if I had)

Fretmute wrote:

Smoove_B wrote:I am nearly certain you couldn't ship 45lbs or 4 cubic feet worth of toilet paper with your Prime subscription prior to this. I never tried, but that's my guess.

They did ship me three cases of grape Gatorade and a box with eight jugs of laundry detergent, though. In fact, I bet this set up is due almost entirely to me ruining it for everyone else.

What if you tried the same order today?

Thanks for nothing, Fret!

Fretmute wrote:three cases of grape Gatorade and a box with eight jugs of laundry detergent

I need to see pictures from that party.

Smoove_B wrote:

Fretmute wrote:three cases of grape Gatorade and a box with eight jugs of laundry detergent

I need to see pictures from that party.

An Amazon order like that will get you a visit from the USDHS.

Carpet_pissr wrote:

Smoove_B wrote:I am nearly certain you couldn't ship 45lbs or 4 cubic feet worth of toilet paper with your Prime subscription prior to this. I never tried, but that's my guess.

Nope. With big deals (Amazon coupons, or maybe some Amazon Mom deals) I have ordered massive quantities (bulk boxes) of:

Kleenex
Diapers
Wipes
Toilet Paper
Paper towels

I'm talking HUGE boxes in some cases there. No extra fees paid IIRC (and I would definitely recall if I had)

Yep, we get toilet paper, paper towels and Kleenex every month via Subscribe and Save...

Smoove_B wrote:

Fretmute wrote:three cases of grape Gatorade and a box with eight jugs of laundry detergent

I need to see pictures from that party.

When they start Prime Liquor Cabinet and will send me 45 pounds of Scotch, I'll be first in line with my $5.99 shipping.

If only we lived in the UK and not the People's Republic of NJ...

EDIT: For additional depression...

LawBeefaroni wrote:

Fretmute wrote:Why would I pay for shipping when it's already free?

[edit] - Yeah, what he said.

Looking at an example (Crest toothpaste) it looks like they've allocated things to three groups: add-on item (free with Prime with another qualifying purchase), regular Prime, and Prime Pantry. You can't get a Prime Pantry item via regular Prime. Though you can probably find something similar through regular Prime.

Sounds like it is another attempt to get low profit, high shipping items off of Prime while making it sound like they're giving people a feature, combined with the 'have to add one more item!' trick that comes with the big box.