On 21/04/2023 16:13, scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us wrote:

Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me> wrote:

I have Amazon Prime, for about $10 a month, which I've had for years.
Recently I changed my HTPC for an orange Pi, I put a lot of effort into
getting Amazon Prime Video to work at all, now it works, but badly.

Which model of Orange Pi, and under what OS? I recently obtained an Orange Pi 5 and put Android on it. Prime Video runs like a champ on it...more responsive than any of the Fire TV sticks I have.

Which version/download of Android? Do you get full quality Prime Video 6GB/hour?

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Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me> wrote:

On 21/04/2023 16:13, scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us wrote:

Which model of Orange Pi, and under what OS? I recently obtained an Orange >> Pi 5 and put Android on it. Prime Video runs like a champ on it...more
responsive than any of the Fire TV sticks I have.

Which version/download of Android?

Whichever version was available for download a couple of weeks ago...think
it's based on Android 12, which is newer than what's on my phone. :)

Do you get full quality Prime Video 6GB/hour?

I don't know and I don't know where I'd look. TBH, it's used more for Plex, SiriusXM, and YouTube (via Invidious) than Prime Video. It's plugged into a 55" TV, and I have no complaints about video quality.

--
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On 23/04/2023 05:29, scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us wrote:

Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me> wrote:

On 21/04/2023 16:13, scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us wrote:

Which model of Orange Pi, and under what OS? I recently obtained an Orange >>> Pi 5 and put Android on it. Prime Video runs like a champ on it...more
responsive than any of the Fire TV sticks I have.

Which version/download of Android?

Whichever version was available for download a couple of weeks ago...think it's based on Android 12, which is newer than what's on my phone. :)

Do you get full quality Prime Video 6GB/hour?

I don't know and I don't know where I'd look.

While watching a video, mouse over the window, an "Options" menu icon
(cog) will appear in the top right corner. That menu will list Video
Quality. If "Best" is about 6 GB per hour, you have full DRM security,
if "Best" is about 1 GB per hour you don't

TBH, it's used more for Plex,

SiriusXM, and YouTube (via Invidious) than Prime Video. It's plugged into a 55" TV, and I have no complaints about video quality.

Is that at 4K?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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"bob prohaska" <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote

| Any thoughts on how well it'd work, and how the streaming
| catalog compares to the DVD catalog (which has dwindled
| hugely since the good old days)?
|

I stream Netflix on an RPi4. I don't remember the
details exactly. I think it used to require installing
Widevine for Chromium but I think now it's pre-installed.
There was someone online who provided an esoteric
installer for awhile. But I'm pretty sure that now there's no
special fiddling needed. Just make sure to update Chromium.

The only issue was that Widevine
wasn't provided for ARM CPUs. But I think that now it
is. It may even now be in Firefox on ARM, but Chromium
is probably a better bet. You can check into that.

I've been running it for years. In one room I
have Win7 with FF. In another room I have an RPi4 with
Chromium, plus a wireless keyboard/mouse. I pipe both of
them to a TV with HDMI. No problems. It's also nice for
the relative privacy. I don't connect either TV to the Internet.

We got the discs for years. I loved it. But then they started
cutting back on their stock. It got to where everything I
wanted to see was unavailable. The streaming has gone
downhill the same way. And of course, the streaming selection
never was very good. I often just can't find anything that
I want to see. I get more DVDs from the local library than
movies on Netflix. It's mostly crap, dumb TV series, Korean
TV (?)... whatever they can get cheap. Plus their own
productions, which are mostly crap.

But it's not entirely Netflix's fault. Several companies are
trying to take over streaming and refuse to release their
movies. If it's Paramount+ it will show up at the library, but
never on Netflix. AppleTV? You'll need to subscribe to that.
Disney? You probably need to subscribe to Disney. Amazon
has a lot, but much of it is expensive. (I saw Tar at a friend's
house on Amazon. $20!) Netflix can't get any of that stuff,
because the other companies are competing with them.

Netflix is cheap and sometimes OK. So we keep it. I don't
do business with Amazon. I would never buy anything from Apple.
And I don't appreciate those other 2-bit companies trying to
force me to buy their subscription. It's just not worth it. But
I do sacrifice. For example, Jennifer Lawrence's new movie,
Causeway. It's on AppleTV. So I'll likely never see it. I'm surprised
that good actors like that are willing to go to the trouble to be
limited by streaming lock-in.

Anyway, long story short, yes it works. It might be worth it
for the cheap price. But don't get your hopes up... Also, there's
a very handy extension for FF. Probably for Chrome, too. I can't think
of the name of it offhand, but it gives you IMDB and RottenTomatoes
ratings on Netflix. Very handy. You can set the minimum rating. So,
for example, say you set movies to 6.5. The extension will look up
movies, almost instantly, and show ratings only for movies that meet
your criteria or above. Each movie listing will show something like, say,
a yellow 6.5 (IMDB) and a red 71 (RT). Or there will be no rating if
the movie or show doesn't rank high enough. That saves a lot of work
because Netflix stuffs their selection with absolute crap they can get
for cheap. With the ratings you can visually filter what's worth
checking out.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me> wrote:

On 23/04/2023 05:29, scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us wrote:

TBH, it's used more for Plex,
SiriusXM, and YouTube (via Invidious) than Prime Video. It's plugged into a >> 55" TV, and I have no complaints about video quality.

Is that at 4K?

1080p. The TV's about 12 years old and still works like a champ...haven't
seen any reason to replace it.

--
_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Newyana2 <Newyana2@invalid.nospam> wrote:

We got the discs for years. I loved it. But then they started
cutting back on their stock. It got to where everything I
wanted to see was unavailable. The streaming has gone
downhill the same way. And of course, the streaming selection
never was very good. I often just can't find anything that
I want to see. I get more DVDs from the local library than
movies on Netflix. It's mostly crap, dumb TV series, Korean
TV (?)... whatever they can get cheap. Plus their own
productions, which are mostly crap.

Ok, so the Pi works for streaming netflix, but there's still
little to see.....8-(

I too have noticed the shrinking selection in disks and really
hoped the trend might be reversed by switching to streaming,
not least because the disks are going away. It's become real
work to keep a one-at-a-time disk queue from going dry, sounds
like it'll be worse with streaming.

I may try streaming, but am much less sure than I was.

Thank you for writing!

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

"bob prohaska" <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote

| I may try streaming, but am much less sure than I was.
|

It's frustrating. There are so many streaming companies now,
and they all want to restrict their stock to their service. On the
bright side, one-screen-at-a-time service on Netfix at 720p
is only $10/month. Last night I watched the John Mulaney
stand up that just came out. You can find lists online to give
you an idea of what they have. There are "What's on Netflix"
websites. (Our TVs are only 720p anyway, and frankly I don't
care about 1080 or 4K. We used to have a CRT and I didn't
notice the difference between that and 720. The picture is
fine for my aging eyes.) Two streams at 1080 is $15.50.

Another option, if you live someplace with a good library, is
two other services: Hoopla and Kanopy. I sometimes watch things
on Hoopla. It's not a big selection, but there are some interesting
things like Tibetan or Arabic movies. And mamby pamby stuff
like Sleepless in Seattle. Kanopy has more, but their website
gave me trouble with my password at one point and I haven't
had motivation to get it fixed. If your local library has one or
both of those you can stream for free. The library pays. And it
works through the browser.

I can't see where this is all going. Will people end up paying
$80/month for 7 different services? Not me. But
I have a good library for DVD selection. Most people don't.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Newyana2 <Newyana2@invalid.nospam> wrote:

"bob prohaska" <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote

| I may try streaming, but am much less sure than I was.
|

Another option, if you live someplace with a good library, is
two other services: Hoopla and Kanopy.

I have a decent library a couple blocks away. Their webside doesn't
seem to recognize either Hoopla or Kanopy as streaming services.

The library does appear to have DVDs, maybe that's worth exploring.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)