# Amazon Instant Video TV Pass



## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

I have a "TV Pass" on Amazon Instant Video to The Walking Dead in HD. The "pass" saves me 5% per episode. It automatically bills me each week when a new epsidoes comes out. Using the amazon website I can download it to my S3 or Premiere from work so it is ready on my Tivo when I get home. But they download in SD! 

I recall reading here if you purchase an Amazon Instant Video using the Tivo menu instead, it will download the HD version.

So, my question is, must I cancel my "TV pass" and just download them via the Tivo menu if I want them in HD on my Tivo?

Tonight I tried "repurchasing" an episode to see if it would recognize I already own it and download in HD. Of course, silly me, it charged me a second time for the episode.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Be sure its listed "[HD]", there may be another series listed, 1 in SD and other in HD.

For Example:

IRT: Deadliest Roads: Season 2
IRT: Deadliest Roads: Season 2 [HD]

I paid for the HD version and my Tivo gets it, not in SD, but HD.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

Yeah, it's the HD one. Even says HD in the title when it arrives on the Tivo, but it's not really.

In fact, when you click the Download to Device link on the web page, it says it is downloading in SD. Pretty sure it is just a limitation of using their website to initiate the download. Just disappointed downloading from the Tivo (using same Amazon account), doesn't recogonize it is already purchased. Not to mention, it still hasn't even started downloading yet my second purchase.  I think it is as confused as I am!


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

ThAbtO said:


> I paid for the HD version and my Tivo gets it, not in SD, but HD.


Is it actually HD? If you use the info button on one of the episodes, how large is the file size?

I will have to look again, but I think mine was roughly 1GB. Seems rather small for 43 minutes of HD. If so, must be extremely low bitrate.

(Wasn't there some secret remote shortcut to show you the resolution of the playing video? Doesn't seem to say it in the info details.)

Edit: was thinking of this code. But it doesn't actually tell you the resolution like I thought. Maybe it was another one?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

About 1.6 gb for HD, and .9 SD.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

Hmmm. Yeah, mine is 1.6GB as well. I guess that is what they consider HD. IMO, looks really bad (smeary). 

It never did download via the Tivo menu, so I can't tell if it would be different, but sounds like it wouldn't.

Most of my HD recording from cable average >3GB/hour, and the over-the-air recording average >6GB/hour.

Thanks for your input!


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

In my Amazon Video Library, there were 2 seasons of IRT: Deadliest roads season 2, 1 in HD and other in SD. When I went to the SD version to try to download, it wouldn't, but in the HD version, it does work.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

greg_burns said:


> (Wasn't there some secret remote shortcut to show you the resolution of the playing video? Doesn't seem to say it in the info details.)


The code you want is Select, Play, Select, Instant Replay, Select. (May not work on Premiere?)

I have an ~2 .5 hour HD movie from Amazon that shows as using 4.74 GB of space.
Using the code above, the Tivo displays:
Output Source - 1920x1080 @ 23.975 FPS

Compare that to a copy of a DVD movie, which takes up 5.21 GB of space with info that shows: 720x480 @29.970 FPS.

That tells me that Amazon's HD downloads might be h.264.


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