# Amazon Video: HD vs HD 1080p



## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

Hi folks, can anyone confirm for me that the Roamio's Amazon Video app can still display the "HD 1080p" status in the on-screen banner during playback (i.e., in the lower left part of the screen when you press Pause while playing an HD video)?

Yesterday I switched internet service providers and my speed dropped from 22-23 Mbps to 12-13 Mbps. I can still stream in Vudu at 1080p "HDX" quality with the full 4 bars. However, when I stream content from Amazon Prime, I'm only seeing the "HD" status now, whereas on the exact same shows before I would see the banner display the "HD 1080p" status in that spot. The picture quality still looks very good, although it's perhaps just a bit softer than what I recall seeing from Amazon before.

I did on online chat with Amazon support and was told (incorrectly, I suspect) that Amazon is no longer differentiating between the "HD" and "HD 1080p" status and now just uses "HD". I was also told that I needed 5 Mbps internet speed to get the best quality HD. He assured me that a consistent speed between 12 and 13 Mbps is most definitely sufficient for their best HD. My Roamio is connected to my router via ethernet, by the way.

Any feedback is appreciated. I suspect I am no longer getting the very best quality HD 1080p streaming from Amazon. If that's true, then either there's something wrong with how their server is assessing my internet connection OR Amazon requires a much faster connection for their best HD than anyone else. (Netflix's Super HD is about 6 Mbps and I think Vudu HDX can range from 4.5 to 9 Mbps.)


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## kes601 (Sep 27, 2015)

Yes, mine displays HD 1080p while streaming.


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## ncted (May 13, 2007)

If you aren't seeing 1080p on your Tivo, you are not getting the best available resolution. There is more to this than your "last-mile" connection to your ISP. There are potentially many other networks between your ISP and Amazon's Content Distribution Network (CDN). Your new ISP may not have the same interconnection agreements with backbone providers as your old ISP, in which case you may not be able to maintain the throughput needed to get 1080p from Amazon, especially during peak usage times.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

ncted said:


> If you aren't seeing 1080p on your Tivo, you are not getting the best available resolution. There is more to this than your "last-mile" connection to your ISP. There are potentially many other networks between your ISP and Amazon's Content Distribution Network (CDN). Your new ISP may not have the same interconnection agreements with backbone providers as your old ISP, in which case you may not be able to maintain the throughput needed to get 1080p from Amazon, especially during peak usage times.


Thanks. Yes, it crossed my mind that perhaps Comcast (which I now use) may not have the same interconnection deals in place with Amazon as AT&T (which I did use). I don't know. I've read that both Comcast and AT&T have such deals in place with Netflix but I can't find any info of such deals between Amazon and any ISP.

That said, the problem for me isn't limited to peak usage times. I've tested multiple shows from Amazon in the morning, afternoon, evening and after midnight and, in all cases, I get "HD" rather than "HD 1080p" now, but no buffering or other problems. With AT&T, I always got HD 1080p and *very* occasionally a show would downgrade mid-stream to just "HD" for several seconds before bumping back up to HD 1080p.

I'm tempted to upgrade my Comcast internet speed to 25 Mbps but I hate to pay more $ if that wouldn't help. And I don't think I could downgrade back to my current deal I have now if it made no improvement. Oh well. I've got a ticket in with Amazon Video's tech support -- they even took down my TiVo's SN and MAC ID. Hopefully they'll have an answer for me.


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## Jed1 (Jun 18, 2013)

I am only seeing HD on my Amazon Prime streaming. I have been watching The Wire and it only has HD on the bottom left.
I have a 50/5 internet package and my cable system is completely new as of last March. So increasing the speed will not fix the issue. 
I use the 1080p24 pass through on my Roamio and it reports 1080p24 when I check the stream coming into and leaving my AVR. I must assume that the TiVo is up converting the Amazon stream to 1080p24 based on the information posted here.
With Vudu I am getting 1080p24 all the time. I have all my vudu titles done in HDX. I have no issues streaming any movies from Vudu.
I have 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p24 checked in the video resolution menu. I do not use 1080p60 as there is no content made in that resolution.

This is from Amazon's website and they only mention SD, HD, and UHD.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201460880


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

With my 30/3 using Amazon, I play the trailer from Fury. It's a good test movie. I get HD 1080p (24fps) from the start. My Sony Blu-ray takes about 90 seconds to get full quality. A basic Roamio with a wired to wireless adapter.


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## Jed1 (Jun 18, 2013)

JoeKustra said:


> With my 30/3 using Amazon, I play the trailer from Fury. It's a good test movie. I get HD 1080p (24fps) from the start. My Sony Blu-ray takes about 90 seconds to get full quality. A basic Roamio with a wired to wireless adapter.


I tried Fury and Fury Road trailers and I did see 1080p after HD but I noticed the 1080p would disappear and reappear while the trailer was playing. If the 1080p disappears just hit the play button again and it will reappear.
I don't believe it is switching between 720p and 1080p on the fly as I would notice that. It seems the 1080p label disappears but the trailer is still streaming in 1080p. Besides 1080p24 uses less bandwidth than 720p60.

If there is an issues with this I wonder if this is related to the HDMI issues that were introduced with the winter update were the TiVo is not communicating with the display and causes the stream to go to the lower resolution.


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## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

I have Comcast in Philly area and get 150+ Mbps down to my Roamio via MoCA and get 1080p HD when I watch Amazon Prime videos.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

NashGuy said:


> Thanks. Yes, it crossed my mind that perhaps Comcast (which I now use) may not have the same interconnection deals in place with Amazon as AT&T (which I did use). I don't know. I've read that both Comcast and AT&T have such deals in place with Netflix but I can't find any info of such deals between Amazon and any ISP.
> 
> That said, the problem for me isn't limited to peak usage times. I've tested multiple shows from Amazon in the morning, afternoon, evening and after midnight and, in all cases, I get "HD" rather than "HD 1080p" now, but no buffering or other problems. With AT&T, I always got HD 1080p and *very* occasionally a show would downgrade mid-stream to just "HD" for several seconds before bumping back up to HD 1080p.
> .


I've got the standard Comcast Performance package here in Staunton VA (25Mbps down) and I'm getting HD 1080p with Amazon Prime on Veronica Mars for example.

Scott


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## ncted (May 13, 2007)

NashGuy said:


> Thanks. Yes, it crossed my mind that perhaps Comcast (which I now use) may not have the same interconnection deals in place with Amazon as AT&T (which I did use). I don't know. I've read that both Comcast and AT&T have such deals in place with Netflix but I can't find any info of such deals between Amazon and any ISP.
> 
> That said, the problem for me isn't limited to peak usage times. I've tested multiple shows from Amazon in the morning, afternoon, evening and after midnight and, in all cases, I get "HD" rather than "HD 1080p" now, but no buffering or other problems. With AT&T, I always got HD 1080p and *very* occasionally a show would downgrade mid-stream to just "HD" for several seconds before bumping back up to HD 1080p.
> 
> I'm tempted to upgrade my Comcast internet speed to 25 Mbps but I hate to pay more $ if that wouldn't help. And I don't think I could downgrade back to my current deal I have now if it made no improvement. Oh well. I've got a ticket in with Amazon Video's tech support -- they even took down my TiVo's SN and MAC ID. Hopefully they'll have an answer for me.


Do you have any other friends in your area with Comcast that you could check with? Comcast has oversold their network in numerous locations, but not others.

I routinely get 1080p on everything I watch on Amazon on my 24Mbps VDSL2 line from Frontier FWIW.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

Thanks gentlemen (and ladies?) for your feedback. After doing some more digging around online, I discovered that Amazon's 1080p video is encoded at about 10 Mbps, even higher than Vudu's HDX (up to 9 Mbps) and Netflix's 1080p (6 Mbps). So while my download speed of around 12 Mbps was good enough for Vudu HDX, it couldn't cut it for Amazon 1080p (despite Amazon Video customer support thinking my connection was plenty sufficient).

So I upgraded earlier today to Comcast's 25 Mbps tier (which is testing for me at about 31) and now I'm consistenly (so far anyway) seeing the little "HD 1080p" icon while streaming in Amazon Video on my Roamio, with the gorgeous picture I was accustomed to seeing before with my AT&T Uverse 18 Mbps service (which usually tested over 22).

My guess is that I was just shy of the speed necessary to get Amazon 1080p (assuming broader network conditions are favorable). I'd guess a 14 or maybe 15 Mbps connection is the minimum speed possible at which one could fetch a 1080p stream from Amazon.


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## Jed1 (Jun 18, 2013)

Ran into an issue last night while watching The Wire on Amazon Prime. About 7 minutes in I got a pop up that said I was out of bandwidth and ask if I want to continue. Before I could do anything the video started playing.
I backed it up 4 minutes and the show played right through at 1080p.
There was nothing wrong with my internet which is a 50/5 connection.
I may need to get a Amazon Fire TV box and see if I have any trouble with it. I never had any issue with my Premieres but since I got these Roamios I am running into this while using Prime. No issue with Vudu as that is always 1080p.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

Jed1 said:


> Ran into an issue last night while watching The Wire on Amazon Prime. About 7 minutes in I got a pop up that said I was out of bandwidth and ask if I want to continue. Before I could do anything the video started playing.
> I backed it up 4 minutes and the show played right through at 1080p.
> There was nothing wrong with my internet which is a 50/5 connection.
> I may need to get a Amazon Fire TV box and see if I have any trouble with it. I never had any issue with my Premieres but since I got these Roamios I am running into this while using Prime. No issue with Vudu as that is always 1080p.


Hmm, odd. I've never seen that message. I'm back to problem-free 1080p in Amazon Prime now that I have 25/5 Internet (more like 31/6 actually).

Is your TiVo on wifi or Ethernet? There's no way a 50 Mbps should have any problem streaming HD (or UHD). Maybe it's a bug in the app producing a false message? If it's real, I'd guess the congestion is either on your home network (wifi is likelier to be problematic than Ethernet) or some issue with Amazon's servers or interconnections. If you are on wifi and must remain so, maybe try changing the radio channel and/or switch between 2.4 and 5 Ghz.


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## GoodSpike (Dec 17, 2001)

On the topic of Amazon's video, I was watching Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense last night. I've yet to see that in Blu-Ray, but the video quality of Amazon streaming blew away my DVD copy.


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## thewebgal (Aug 10, 2007)

Watching Man in the High Castle last night and 1080p showed - looks great!
FIOS 75meg feed


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

thewebgal said:


> Watching Man in the High Castle last night and 1080p showed - looks great!
> FIOS 75meg feed


Wait until you see it streamed from Amazon in UHD with HDR. It puts the 1080P encode to shame.


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## Jed1 (Jun 18, 2013)

NashGuy said:


> Hmm, odd. I've never seen that message. I'm back to problem-free 1080p in Amazon Prime now that I have 25/5 Internet (more like 31/6 actually).
> 
> Is your TiVo on wifi or Ethernet? There's no way a 50 Mbps should have any problem streaming HD (or UHD). Maybe it's a bug in the app producing a false message? If it's real, I'd guess the congestion is either on your home network (wifi is likelier to be problematic than Ethernet) or some issue with Amazon's servers or interconnections. If you are on wifi and must remain so, maybe try changing the radio channel and/or switch between 2.4 and 5 Ghz.


I have wireless turned off in my Netgear WNDR 4300 as I have Cat5e through out my home. I put in structured media when I rewired my home in 2007.
I watched the entire 6 seasons of the Sopranos in the fall before TiVo exchanged my Premieres for two Roamios. I had no issues with the Sopranos at all. I got the Roamios on the 18th of December.
I think I managed to watch the first season of The Wire over the holiday but then started to have issues when I went to season 2. I am on season 5 and this is the first time I seen that message. It seems to only affect Amazon Prime on the Roamio as I have no issue with Vudu at all.

I am not going to call anybody as I am tired of one blaming the other and I am tired of troubleshooting with TiVo Support as I went through a year of it with my Premieres.
If I have to I will move onto some other device like the Fire TV box and see if that has any issue. The only downside to that is there is no Vudu app yet.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Jed1 said:


> I have wireless turned off in my Netgear WNDR 4300 as I have Cat5e through out my home.
> 
> I am not going to call anybody as I am tired of one blaming the other and I am tired of troubleshooting with TiVo Support as I went through a year of it with my Premieres.
> 
> If I have to I will move onto some other device like the Fire TV box and see if that has any issue. The only downside to that is there is no Vudu app yet.


That's sad. I have a R7000 refurb still in the box I bought by accident if you want it. It probably won't help, but I just got the R8000 and it seems to have fixed my issues on my computer failing to connect.

I'm tired of TiVo's support too. How to see a lot of junk: on the System Information screen, hit Clear, Clear, Enter, Enter, 0. Look at all the junk in the log files. What a waste of code and memory.


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## Jed1 (Jun 18, 2013)

JoeKustra said:


> That's sad. I have a R7000 refurb still in the box I bought by accident if you want it. It probably won't help, but I just got the R8000 and it seems to have fixed my issues on my computer failing to connect.
> 
> I'm tired of TiVo's support too. How to see a lot of junk: on the System Information screen, hit Clear, Clear, Enter, Enter, 0. Look at all the junk in the log files. What a waste of code and memory.


I have been in the logs on my Premieres and I actually found the error that was causing my Premieres to stop decoding the MPEG video streams. TiVo replaced my two Premieres with two Roamios.

I had major issues last night with Prime streaming again. I could not get HD at all and I kept getting a message that stated my bandwidth was to low. I rebooted my entire network from the modem to the TiVos and this made no difference. My speed tests are perfect and I have no issues with any other apps.
Instead of gong through the 1P I had for The Wire I launched the Amazon app and then selected the Wire on the Amazon page. By doing this I got it to play in 1080p.
So it looks like the issue is with the 1Ps on the TiVo as it will only allow SD streaming. I deleted the 1P on the TiVo and I will finish watching the series by going directly to Amazon instead.
I actually had no issues until two weeks ago. I actually watched two full seasons before this started to happen.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

Jed1 said:


> I have been in the logs on my Premieres and I actually found the error that was causing my Premieres to stop decoding the MPEG video streams. TiVo replaced my two Premieres with two Roamios.
> 
> I had major issues last night with Prime streaming again. I could not get HD at all and I kept getting a message that stated my bandwidth was to low. I rebooted my entire network from the modem to the TiVos and this made no difference. My speed tests are perfect and I have no issues with any other apps.
> Instead of gong through the 1P I had for The Wire I launched the Amazon app and then selected the Wire on the Amazon page. By doing this I got it to play in 1080p.
> ...


Strange. Just to see, I just created a streaming-only 1P for The Wire and then used it to go directly into S1E1 in Amazon Prime. I immediately got 1080p. Then I exited back to the My Shows menu and went directly into S5E1. Again, I got 1080p. Also got 1080p on E9 of Man in the High Castle last night, which I reached from my 1P in My Shows. So I can't replicate your issue.

That said, glad you've found a way to access 1080p in Amazon, even if it's not ideal.


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## Jed1 (Jun 18, 2013)

NashGuy said:


> Strange. Just to see, I just created a streaming-only 1P for The Wire and then used it to go directly into S1E1 in Amazon Prime. I immediately got 1080p. Then I exited back to the My Shows menu and went directly into S5E1. Again, I got 1080p. Also got 1080p on E9 of Man in the High Castle last night, which I reached from my 1P in My Shows. So I can't replicate your issue.
> 
> That said, glad you've found a way to access 1080p in Amazon, even if it's not ideal.


I set up the streaming only 1P right after Christmas and I had no issues at all with the first two seasons. It is only with in the past week or two I started to have issues were it would not lock onto 1080p right away. It has degraded to the point in the past week where it would only stream in SD.
If I try a preview on Amazon like Fury Road, it will go to 1080p pretty quickly. But as soon as I go back to the Wire it will not do anymore than SD.
What is odd it is sending Dolby Digital Plus surround sound while in SD mode.
I hope it is not the Ethernet port that is going bad as I just got these two new Roamios on the 18th of December.


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