Amazon Video "Insufficent bandwith" issues (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

I use the Amazon Prime Video app to run HBO as a Prime Video Channel, simply because my Blu-ray player comes with the Amazon app built in but not the HBO app.

I've used it several times, as recently as last weekend, without any problem. It works perfectly.

Then suddenly a few days ago I got on and Amazon said I have "insufficient bandwidth" to watch programming. This is ridiculous, because I can stream successfully on both Netflix and Vudu without a problem. Also, I didn't have a problem with Amazon at all up through all of last weekend.

This has now been going on for a few days. There was a Prime Video outage that Deadline reported on the other day, so I thought it might be related to that, but when I contacted Amazon about it, they said the outage has been fixed now. The representative advised deactivating my device, then unplugging the Blu-ray player from power and plugging it back in after ten seconds to fix the issue.

I did that. It didn't work.

The other wrinkle that makes this time-sensitive is that my HBO subscription is set to renew for another month on Sunday. I am only interested in a couple of programs that they have, so I want to finish Euphoria (which is the show I was in the midst of watching last weekend) before the end of the current billing cycle so I can cancel. I only have five episodes left, so bingeing them should not be a problem -- but in order to do that, the app has to work.

I would like to finish Euphoria by the end of the day Saturday at the latest so that I can then log on and cancel HBO before it bills again.

Has anyone else recently encountered a similar issue Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: On a whim, I clicked on something else on Amazon Video. Even though Euphoria is what I want to watch, I have sufficient bandwidth to stream Spider-Man 3 on Amazon. I even have sufficient bandwidth to watch other episodes of Euphoria -- episode 3 (which I already watched) will load for me, and so will episode 5. Except that I don't want to watch episode 5 without watching episode 4, because the show is serialized. So it appears to be an isolated problem with this one episode.

I am not interested in pirating the show -- but I am paying for HBO and episode 4 is included with the subscription, so I feel like I should be able to access this, and it's extremely upsetting that I can't.

Again, any advice would be appreciated. Ugh.

 

[Tino]

I use the Amazon Prime Video app to run HBO as a Prime Video Channel, simply because my Blu-ray player comes with the Amazon app built in but not the HBO app.

I've used it several times, as recently as last weekend, without any problem. It works perfectly.

Then suddenly a few days ago I got on and Amazon said I have "insufficient bandwidth" to watch programming. This is ridiculous, because I can stream successfully on both Netflix and Vudu without a problem. Also, I didn't have a problem with Amazon at all up through all of last weekend.

This has now been going on for a few days. There was a Prime Video outage that Deadline reported on the other day, so I thought it might be related to that, but when I contacted Amazon about it, they said the outage has been fixed now. The representative advised deactivating my device, then unplugging the Blu-ray player from power and plugging it back in after ten seconds to fix the issue.

I did that. It didn't work.

The other wrinkle that makes this time-sensitive is that my HBO subscription is set to renew for another month on Sunday. I am only interested in a couple of programs that they have, so I want to finish Euphoria (which is the show I was in the midst of watching last weekend) before the end of the current billing cycle so I can cancel. I only have five episodes left, so bingeing them should not be a problem -- but in order to do that, the app has to work.

I would like to finish Euphoria by the end of the day Saturday at the latest so that I can then log on and cancel HBO before it bills again.

Has anyone else recently encountered a similar issue Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: On a whim, I clicked on something else on Amazon Video. Even though Euphoria is what I want to watch, I have sufficient bandwidth to stream Spider-Man 3 on Amazon. I even have sufficient bandwidth to watch other episodes of Euphoria -- episode 3 (which I already watched) will load for me, and so will episode 5. Except that I don't want to watch episode 5 without watching episode 4, because the show is serialized. So it appears to be an isolated problem with this one episode.

I am not interested in pirating the show -- but I am paying for HBO and episode 4 is included with the subscription, so I feel like I should be able to access this, and it's extremely upsetting that I can't.

Again, any advice would be appreciated. Ugh.

Have you tried using the HBOGO app?

 

[Cranston37+]

Have you tried playing the episode on your computer or phone?

Those blu-ray player apps are notoriously bad as they don't get updated often as the ones on devices like Apple TV and Roku do.

 

[Walter Kittel]

I ran into this issue trying to watch a trailer for something on Wednesday on Amazon. I was able to stream several other programming choices okay, but tried this trailer several times and all I got was the circular 'queueing' arrow. Weird.

This was on an Amazon FIre TV Cube, BTW.

- Walter.

 

[Cranston37+]

I ran into this issue trying to watch a trailer for something on Wednesday on Amazon. I was able to stream several other programming choices okay, but tried this trailer several times and all I got was the circular 'queueing' arrow. Weird.

This was on an Amazon FIre TV Cube, BTW.

- Walter.

Wednesday was the day Amazon Prime Video was experiencing an outage as Jake mentioned in his first post. Some things worked, some didn't.

 

[Sam Posten]

Always check Down Detector.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Late last night, I got the episode to stream on my laptop -- which means I watched it on a small monitor with not-very-good sound. However, at least it worked and I got through it and I can go back to the TV for the rest of it.

 

[KPmusmag]

I watched a movie using the amazon app on my Sony blu-ray player, and it worked fine, but I got a message saying "This service will not be available after 9/28/2019". No idea why that would be, anyone else encountered that or know anything?

 

[Jake Lipson]

That's interesting. I also use a Sony Blu-ray player to access the Amazon app and have not had a message to that effect.

 

[Jake Lipson]

So I did finish the season of Euphoria tonight and was able to watch all episodes prior and subsequent to episode 4 on my TV. This makes me suspect that there is some coding error on Amazon's part because there is no logical reason why that episode should require more bandwidth than the others. It did work on my computer. But whatever; I'll see episode 4 on my TV when I buy the Blu-ray season set. In the meantime, this just feels like a weird aberration more than anything else.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

This may not be welcome advice, but streaming software built into TV and disc player hardware rarely performs well and is rarely reliable over the long haul. Many manufacturers stop supporting the software almost immediately and many app developers don’t upgrade the apps. If they even worked in the first place, they won’t provide a full quality experience, especially over the long haul.

You’ll have a much more consistent and high quality experience long term if you switch to a dedicated streaming device for your streaming activities. The quality of my newish AppleTV just blows away everything I used prior to it.

 

[Edwin-S]

The Netflix app on my LG has been updated several times. Amazon Prime less so. Both support 4K and ATMOS over ARC. The Disney+ app supports 4k but the audio support is weak: downconverts to DD.

Generally, I've been satisfied with performance of the first two on my set
. Disney+ gets marks off due to the audio support. Other than that, all three have been performing acceptably

 

[tempest21]

This may be a little late in responding but since we moved into our new home, I've been watching Amazon Prime through my 4K TV and I've rarely had any issues with it. But, that may be because I'm subscribed through Comcast and my broadband speeds are something like 250mbps. There have been times where there has been a hiccup or something but if you're having issues with streaming, that it may have more to do with your ISP than with Amazon Prime.

ISPs have been trying to get rid of Net Neutrality so they can get streaming services and other internet giants to pay for the bandwidth that is being consumed by their services on the various ISP's network. I know I'm constantly having issues with watching videos on youtube. I think it's something that everyone has to live with as there's nothing that can be done until new Net Neutrality laws can be passed back into law.