PSA: Watching Prime Video in HD vs. 1080p HD

[bfett9]

Not sure if this is common knowledge or not, but Amazon Prime limits your playback quality dependent on the browser/app you use.

Now if you are using like a Roku, FireStick, Chromecast etc you should just get whatever the best quality you can handle. (1080p,4K etc)

But if you are on iOS, Mobile or PC you need to be using the right browser otherwise your video quality will be throttled.

I noticed this when using the Prime Video App to stream one of their shows. I was getting tired of the video quality constantly degrading to like 240p when I have like 400 Mbps Down. Even without this issue their own app caps out at 720p!? Which is HD, but I know my network can handle better.



If you use safari or edge on your device you will see that the HD badge at bottom should quickly transition over to a HD 1080p Badge. Personally I have also noticed that the video quality consistently remains at HD or 1080p, versus the app which constantly fluctuates 240p-720p for me. I have never been able to achieve 1080p with the official app on mobile only via the browser. If you use other browsers the cap is again the 720p HD.



Tested:
Safari iOS 1080p
Safari PC 1080p
Edge PC 1080p

I have not tested chrome on Android, if someone else can or try the edge browser app on Android and get back to confirm.

Also oddly enough, it seems to cap out at 720p even on these browsers for stuff you own versus stuff you get via Prime Video, not 100% certain but something I have seen so far. Still shows 1080p,4K on the streaming sticks etc.

[kannibaliztik]

Yes most browsers were capped down to SD for streaming recently due to DRM security issues.

[bfett9]

Originally Posted by kannibaliztik

Yes most browsers were capped down to SD for streaming recently due to DRM security issues.

I mean DRM aside why can't their own official app stream at 1080p?!

[Fiffy]

Originally Posted by bfett9

I noticed this when using the Prime Video App to stream one of their shows. I was getting tired of the video quality constantly degrading to like 240p when I have like 400 Mbps Down. Even without this issue their own app caps out at 720p!?

Yes, the app (at least on iOS) was always limited to 720p. I don't know why. I can kind of understand whey they are doing this on phones with their tiny screens, but it's the same on iPads, where you can easily see the difference.