Several weeks prior to April 15, 2015 Amazon announced they would no longer provide download capability for video content on older TIVO models. The only models they would continue to support with download capability were the Roamio and Premiere Series 4 units, I own a Premiere Series 4.
Over the last 6 years I have purchased 48 titles from Amazon, most of them TV shows which have 20 plus episodes in each season. With all the content plus hardware I have purchased from Amazon, I can quickly add up a reasonable total that is close to $5,000.
This week I went to my library to download season 1 of Breaking Bad and the download link was missing, I checked all of my content and the link was missing on everything. A call to Amazon support and the rep. tells me its a technical problem with my TIVO unit. I asked him how he could know that without running any tests on my unit and by the way, the unit is not reporting any errors and if it was, how could an error on my TIVO cause a web page on Amazon to fail on displaying the download link? He inistists that it is a technical problem and that I should contact TIVO support.
So I call TIVO and get this answer. Amazon contacted TIVO and asked them to dumb down all TIVO units to prevent users from downloading any content. TIVO refused, so instead of working out thier differences with TIVO, Amazon cuts off downloading to all TIVO customers even if they have Amazon approved TIVO hardware, and it doesn't stop there.
When I loaded the Amazon app. on my TIVO to stream, I suddenly had fuzzy video, so bad you couldn't see someones face and the unit pauses every 10 seconds to fill the buffer. So I hooked up a packet analyzer and started monitoring the data stream from Amazon's data center to my static IP. What do I find, Amazon is throttling the bandwidth down to below 600Kbps, 535Kbps (Kilobytes) to be precise. That's 600% slower than what I was getting two weeks ago. I have a business class internet connection and I can confirm I have 30Mbps (Megabytes) download speed everywhere except to Amazon's data center, I can hit thier website with that 30Mbps but not the data center.
So I borrowed my daughter Sony DVD player because it can connect to Amazon, and I did a test using that device. Once connected I could download any video from my library at 17-26Mbps, the image is pristine and the audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. So I pause, switch over to the TIVO and restart the stream on the same video, and it comes downs at 540Kbps.
So without so much as an email, a letter or any kind of notice with an option to prepare for this, Amazon targets TIVO customers and cuts thier services. At 500Kbps it makes no sense to stream, I'll fall asleep during the pauses waiting, and some videos have no audio at all.
What's the sense in paying for an Amazon Prime membership, buying content at $16 - $60 a title, that's either a movie or an entire season of a TV show, if you can't watch it on Amazon approved TIVO hardware?
As far as I am concerned, I've paid in advance for a service they are still selling but not delivering on, some how that feels like a breach of contract. And if every TIVO owner is experiencing what I am, then I'll sit back and wait for the class action law suit.
If you subscribe to Amazon Prime or purchase content from them to either download or stream, let me know if you're having the same experience. If Amazon has targeted all TIVO customers, then they have bit the tail of a rattlesnake as most TIVO owners are pretty hardcore when comes to getting what they paid for.
Over the last 6 years I have purchased 48 titles from Amazon, most of them TV shows which have 20 plus episodes in each season. With all the content plus hardware I have purchased from Amazon, I can quickly add up a reasonable total that is close to $5,000.
This week I went to my library to download season 1 of Breaking Bad and the download link was missing, I checked all of my content and the link was missing on everything. A call to Amazon support and the rep. tells me its a technical problem with my TIVO unit. I asked him how he could know that without running any tests on my unit and by the way, the unit is not reporting any errors and if it was, how could an error on my TIVO cause a web page on Amazon to fail on displaying the download link? He inistists that it is a technical problem and that I should contact TIVO support.
So I call TIVO and get this answer. Amazon contacted TIVO and asked them to dumb down all TIVO units to prevent users from downloading any content. TIVO refused, so instead of working out thier differences with TIVO, Amazon cuts off downloading to all TIVO customers even if they have Amazon approved TIVO hardware, and it doesn't stop there.
When I loaded the Amazon app. on my TIVO to stream, I suddenly had fuzzy video, so bad you couldn't see someones face and the unit pauses every 10 seconds to fill the buffer. So I hooked up a packet analyzer and started monitoring the data stream from Amazon's data center to my static IP. What do I find, Amazon is throttling the bandwidth down to below 600Kbps, 535Kbps (Kilobytes) to be precise. That's 600% slower than what I was getting two weeks ago. I have a business class internet connection and I can confirm I have 30Mbps (Megabytes) download speed everywhere except to Amazon's data center, I can hit thier website with that 30Mbps but not the data center.
So I borrowed my daughter Sony DVD player because it can connect to Amazon, and I did a test using that device. Once connected I could download any video from my library at 17-26Mbps, the image is pristine and the audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. So I pause, switch over to the TIVO and restart the stream on the same video, and it comes downs at 540Kbps.
So without so much as an email, a letter or any kind of notice with an option to prepare for this, Amazon targets TIVO customers and cuts thier services. At 500Kbps it makes no sense to stream, I'll fall asleep during the pauses waiting, and some videos have no audio at all.
What's the sense in paying for an Amazon Prime membership, buying content at $16 - $60 a title, that's either a movie or an entire season of a TV show, if you can't watch it on Amazon approved TIVO hardware?
As far as I am concerned, I've paid in advance for a service they are still selling but not delivering on, some how that feels like a breach of contract. And if every TIVO owner is experiencing what I am, then I'll sit back and wait for the class action law suit.
If you subscribe to Amazon Prime or purchase content from them to either download or stream, let me know if you're having the same experience. If Amazon has targeted all TIVO customers, then they have bit the tail of a rattlesnake as most TIVO owners are pretty hardcore when comes to getting what they paid for.
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