# Amazon streaming says 'included' but selecting content says it costs $$



## funchefchick (Feb 15, 2014)

I have recently had many streaming movies or content show up in the Tivo UI as "included with subscription" for Amazon but when I select Amazon and their UI loads, it shows up as costing money. What the heck?

Example: Search for Hitchcock's "The Birds" from 1963. It shows up as available to watch now through a few choices. When I select 'See all options' it shows:

Rent on XFINITY VOD HD $3.99
Rent on XFINITY VOD HD $12.99 (I don't know what's different here FYI)?
Rent on XFINITY VOD SD $2.99
Rent on XFINITY VOD SD $9.99 (Same .. . why are there two entries?)
Amazon Instant Video Included with subscription
VUDU Included with subscription​
I select Amazon since I have a Prime subscription. When the Amazon UI loads it shows:

24hr HD Rental $3.99
24hr SD Rental $2.99​
To confirm that my Tivo/Amazon accounts are actually linked up, I press the 'A' button for 'home' and yep, my Prime Instant Video account home is shown, with my video library available. All of my previously purchased content is there.

So what's up? Why the disconnect? Is this a Tivo data error or an Amazon data error? To whom do I report this as an issue?

If this was a one-off I wouldn't be too concerned but this has happened a few times now. Bull Durham. Transporter. We are Marshall. Prefontaine (which interestingly is also available on Netflix, which loads just fine (and for no cost) as expected.

What the heck? It seems like damn near every entry which is available on both Xfinity and Amazon is advertised as included with Amazon, but loads asking for more money.  This has only appeared in the last week (that I've noticed) and things all used to work as expected. This is a relatively new problem. Help!


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

I jsut checked, The Birds is not included with Amazon Prime, it is available for rent on Amazon. I am not sure what you are asking but I see nothing wrong with the options you are given. If you mean the message included with subscription is what has upset you, of course don't rent the movie.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Chris Gerhard said:


> I jsut checked, The Birds is not included with Amazon Prime, it is available for rent on Amazon. I am not sure what you are asking but I see nothing wrong with the options you are given. If you mean the message included with subscription is what has upset you, of course don't rent the movie.


Yes, but the OP's post does raise a question in my mind: What "subscription" is Amazon (or is it TiVo?) talking about (if not Prime)?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

dlfl said:


> Yes, but the OP's post does raise a question in my mind: What "subscription" is Amazon (or is it TiVo?) talking about (if not Prime)?


It is confusing. The Amazon app, if accessed directly, doesn't care about Prime until you get to the site. The 1P and Search of TiVo do pay attention to the Video Provider and recording options of rent/buy or free. In the example, The Birds, does not show when using Search. But the use of the Amazon app shows it for purchase. It's hard to fix blame since Amazon wants money and TiVo want to keep Amazon happy.


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## leswar (Apr 14, 2005)

I noticed this too. 

Probably the latest update has removed the pricing for VUDU and Amazon while still showing Infinity's pricings of movies and tv episodes.

On the initial screen that shows the small icons of available video providers (bottom right-side) when an episode or movie is offered I did notice the Amazaon Prime icon does
show up for those Prime offerings. However if you see just the Amazon icon then further navigation into the screens no longer indicates pricing for Amz and Vudu (just Infinity).

My mind suspects Comcast is behind this.


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## bbrown9 (Mar 12, 2011)

I have a 1P setup for including streaming but not rent or buy. I missed the first 2 episodes and wanted to be notified if they show up for a streaming service I subscribe to. They showed up in my 1P but when you highlight one of the episodes, the right side of the screen says "not available". Clicking in further shows that it's on Amazon but not Prime. Why show if it's not available under the criteria I specified? I find this incredibly annoying.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

OP, on your TiVo under Settings--Channels--My Video Providers there are 2 Amazon related entries. "Amazon Instant Video (Prime)" and "Amazon Instant Video". If you don't want the pay ones to show up in searches then make sure only the Prime one is selected.


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## Chuck_IV (Jan 1, 2002)

It definitely makes you wonder what Tivo is doing. If you look closely, it also says "included with subscription" for Vudu as well. Vudu is not a subscription service at all. Vudu is all PPV(minus access to your Ultraviolet movies).

This bothers me too.


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## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

One of the main reasons I did Not sign up for Prime was how often they tried to trick me into paying for content. I kept on searching for Prime content and end up selecting something that cost money. Then have to go back and unselect it Wasn't worth the effort to be so hyper aware. Netflix is soooo much easier and such a better deal. 

I am amazed that someone would pay $1.99 an episode, they must be making a lot of money.


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## funchefchick (Feb 15, 2014)

Aha - First, I had not noticed the subtle difference between the little box which says "Amazon" vs the little box which says "Amazon PRIME". Now that I see it that will make things clearer.

Second - I still find it misleading that when selecting content which shows various pricing options that Amazon's offering simply says "included with .. ." when really what it means is *"We have no idea what Amazon is charging to buy or rent this item, go ask them"*

Right? Basically the Tivo UI is failing to load the pricing options for Amazon AND VUDU, it seems. It's not so much a bug as an incredibly poorly designed feature. Or some sort of fail in the pricing data handshake.

I could have sworn that Amazon pricing used to be reflected in the Tivo UI. Did I hallucinate that? Or did we recently lose pricing for non-Comcast providers?

It seems that Netflix is the only accurately-reflected provider in this case, since it IS all subscription.

Whomever is in charge of this data ought to get a talking-to. :-/ !


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## Hallipr (Sep 25, 2015)

The most annoying effect is when I click play on an episode and TiVo chooses Amazon over Netflix because it thinks that both will provide the episode for free.

I have to exit the Amazon app, open the episode, then select Netflix from the Watch Now options.

No price data isn't the same as no price.
null !== 0


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## vjp (Feb 3, 2005)

I have a question about enabling Amazon Prime on my TiVo Roamio, that maybe someone in this thread can answer....

My son has Amazon Prime set up in his name, but my TiVo is set up in my name and my email address (he lives at home and we sometimes watch Prime videos on his PS4, but I find using the PS4 to be a PITA.) The other day when I tried enabling Amazon Prime on my TiVo, I expected to have a place where I could enter his Amazon account info.

INSTEAD, it immediately signed me up for Amazon Prime on MY Amazon account, and billed me (via my Amazon account) for a full year's membership at $99! It never asked me for my Amazon account info, it never told me I was about to be billed $99, and it never gave me a chance to confirm the transaction! Just "presto", and bang, a $99 charge hit my Visa, and suddenly Prime was enabled on my Amazon account!

I presume since my TiVo account uses the same email address that my Amazon account does, they linked the two this way. Luckily, I was able to go to Amazon's website and undo the Prime membership and the $99 was credited back to my Visa pretty quickly.

So, my questions:

- Can I even link my TiVo to my son's Amazon Prime account, since they're set up with two different email addresses?

- Why would TiVo's software designers ever create a "purchase" feature that would bill $99 to a linked Amazon account, without ever (1) telling you what the charge will be, and (2) giving you a "confirm purchase" opportunity, so you could back out?


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## alleybj (Dec 6, 2000)

Why haven't they fixed this yet? It used to work fine, but now what's the point of asking not to be shown pay videos and having them show up anyway?


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## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

Hallipr said:


> The most annoying effect is when I click play on an episode and TiVo chooses Amazon over Netflix because it thinks that both will provide the episode for free.
> 
> I have to exit the Amazon app, open the episode, then select Netflix from the Watch Now options.
> 
> ...


Can't you manually select the provider when playing an episode? My Roamio allows me to select the source first if there are multiple options for a streaming video, e.g. Xfinity, Amazon, or Netflix.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

PSU_Sudzi said:


> Can't you manually select the provider when playing an episode? My Roamio allows me to select the source first if there are multiple options for a streaming video, e.g. Xfinity, Amazon, or Netflix.


That is what mine does too. I select the streaming provider I want to use.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

alleybj said:


> Why haven't they fixed this yet? It used to work fine, but now what's the point of asking not to be shown pay videos and having them show up anyway?


 I don't understand the problem? If you have Amazon Prime selected as video provider and not Amazon then you won't get paid Amazon content showing up in searches.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

moyekj said:


> I don't understand the problem? If you have Amazon Prime selected as video provider and not Amazon then you won't get paid Amazon content showing up in searches.


The problem is a confusion between the Amazon App, which takes you to an Amazon site that includes everything, and the TiVo video provider selection when using Search. Search cares if Prime is the only selection, Amazon's app doesn't. Same applies to that Amazon icon at the bottom when you do select Find TV, Movies, & Videos. Search uses Video Providers, Amazon Instant Video doesn't.


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## alleybj (Dec 6, 2000)

moyekj said:


> I don't understand the problem? If you have Amazon Prime selected as video provider and not Amazon then you won't get paid Amazon content showing up in searches.


 The point is that it's not just Amazon, even though you request that the search not deliver videos that you have to pay for, the search now does, not just for Amazon, but also for Vudu. Yes, deselecting the regular Amazon fixes the problem with respect to Amazon, but then it removes the regular Amazon as a video provider that you can easily access and search for videos when you do you want them. Vudu should never show up since unless the video is in your personal library they charge for virtually everything, but it shows up for every single search. Since there's only limited space in the pop up screen on that first window, when you have all these irrelevant search results showing up, you have to click and go to the next screen and page through all the possible search results to get the ones that you want, trying to make an educated guess as to which ones are actually free and which ones aren't. I've had to resort to deselecting Amazon and Vudu and a couple of others, so that the search results that are most likely to actually be accurate are the ones that pop up. But when you deselect them, then you can't search them when you actually want to use them until you reselect them. It's a relatively minor inconvenience, but this feature used to work, and when it did it was really nice, so I don't see why they can't just fix it.


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## Squirrelgirl (Oct 12, 2015)

I read through what everyone said here and went into Settings-Channels-My Video Providers. It doesn't matter whether I check "Amazon Instant Video(Prime)" or "Amazon Instant Video" only the latter (and the "Amazon Instant Video" logo) will show up in my searches. It appears that "Amazon Instant Video (Prime) has been disabled and/or swallowed up by "Amazon Instant Video". So, I am not getting any of the free shows/movies available with my Prime membership to show up in my searches. Very disappointed that TIVO would allow this to happen, because it sure feels like they are trying to force feed paying for shows/movies. This thread has been going for three weeks and no on at TIVO has bothered to fix this issue???


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Squirrelgirl said:


> I read through what everyone said here and went into Settings-Channels-My Video Providers. It doesn't matter whether I check "Amazon Instant Video(Prime)" or "Amazon Instant Video" only the latter (and the "Amazon Instant Video" logo) will show up in my searches. It appears that "Amazon Instant Video (Prime) has been disabled and/or swallowed up by "Amazon Instant Video". So, I am not getting any of the free shows/movies available with my Prime membership to show up in my searches. Very disappointed that TIVO would allow this to happen, because it sure feels like they are trying to force feed paying for shows/movies. This thread has been going for three weeks and no on at TIVO has bothered to fix this issue???


I'm not see this. I've done a bunch of searches in the past week. And I had some results come up that showed it was free with Prime and some that showed there was a cost involved. What I don't know for sure it it was just specific to the Bolt or if it was the Roamio too.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Squirrelgirl said:


> I read through what everyone said here and went into Settings-Channels-My Video Providers. It doesn't matter whether I check "Amazon Instant Video(Prime)" or "Amazon Instant Video" only the latter (and the "Amazon Instant Video" logo) will show up in my searches. It appears that "Amazon Instant Video (Prime) has been disabled and/or swallowed up by "Amazon Instant Video". So, I am not getting any of the free shows/movies available with my Prime membership to show up in my searches. Very disappointed that TIVO would allow this to happen, because it sure feels like they are trying to force feed paying for shows/movies. This thread has been going for three weeks and no on at TIVO has bothered to fix this issue???


Are you using the Amazon search or the TiVo Search function?


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## sURFNmADNESS (Jan 8, 2003)

vjp said:


> I have a question about enabling Amazon Prime on my TiVo Roamio, that maybe someone in this thread can answer....
> 
> My son has Amazon Prime set up in his name, but my TiVo is set up in my name and my email address (he lives at home and we sometimes watch Prime videos on his PS4, but I find using the PS4 to be a PITA.) The other day when I tried enabling Amazon Prime on my TiVo, I expected to have a place where I could enter his Amazon account info.
> 
> ...


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