[SGVLUG] End of Amazon Streaming for Linux

[Claude Felizardo]

That is a bummer.

I wonder if they have gotten rid of Amazon Download as well?  I'm used to
instant replay with my TiVo and hate streaming because you have to wait for
the stream to reset when all I want to do is go back 6 or 8 seconds to
rehear the dialog because someone coughed or laughed or the dog wanted in
or out or we're watching some show with hard to understand accents or the
guy actually mumbled.  I much preferred downloading the full movie and
watching as many times as I wanted within the few days but they started
cutting that down as well.  Now, when we stream Netflix, I have to put the
remote down and have to make a conscious decision, is it worth restarting
the stream just to hear what was said.  It's usually easier to ask the kids
to repeat what was said and if we miss yet more dialog then we hit rewind
and wait for the buffer.  God, that's probably why I don't like going out
to see a movie anymore because there is no rewind and somebody's phone
beeps and they have to pull out their phone to check lighting up everyone
around them -- why can't people just be considerate and not disturb people
around them?

I'll have to check to see if the Amazon streaming on TiVo is still working.
 According to Amazon's website I still have three TiVo's linked to my
amazon account.

As for DRM, I used to be able to transfer all of my TiVo recording to my
fileserver and watch favorite shows whenever I wanted.  Then they came out
with the digital tuner which looked much better but they they added the
stupid copy-protect flag and TiVo honored it so they wouldn't get their
butt sued out of existence like ReplayTV.  So now my TiVo's are filling up
with recordings that I might want to watch again and are not all are
available without paying extra if at all.  In fact I have some recordings
that just aren't even available on DVD and I would gladly pay for a copy
even if the media will become unplayable in the not to too distant future.

So I guess what it comes down to is enjoy stuff while it is available
because eventually someone will figure out it's time to start charging more
for it.




On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 2:53 PM, Braddock <braddock at braddock.com> wrote:

> Buried in a rambling article at slashdot is news of the apparent end of
> Amazon Prime streaming for Linux.  They have turned on hard DRM.
>
> http://news.slashdot.org/**story/13/04/23/1615219/the-**
> dark-side-of-amazons-new-**pilots<http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/04/23/1615219/the-dark-side-of-amazons-new-pilots>
>
> My wife and I both use(d) Amazon Prime under Linux.  It does not work now
> - I get an "Updating Player" message followed by an error. Not sure it is
> DRM, or the outdated abandoned Linux Flash version.
>
> According to the article all Android support (except for Kindle Fire) is
> also now dead.
>
> Very sad news.  Hopefully we will have some legal way to watch content in
> the future, but it looks bleak for anything without a locked bootloader
> (even Google Chromebooks refuse to play Netflix if you unlock them).
>
> -braddock
>
>
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