Home Articles 5 tips and tricks to elevate your Amazon Prime streaming experience
Amazon Prime Video is one of the most popular video streaming services in the country. Apart from the fact that it comes bundled with many other Amazon perks, there is another reason why the service is popular. From international blockbusters and animated series to homegrown Indie films and vernacular language content, Prime video offers a large variety of content packed into its service.
We have put together a series of tips and tricks that will elevate your binge watching experience.
Build up your watchlist to know what to watch
Amazon Prime Video isn’t the only service that offers a large variety of content for its audience, there is a myriad of OTT platforms out there, all competing with each other with a variety of content. While this variety is definitely a good thing for consumers, it also makes it very difficult to decide what you want to watch.
One way to get around this and know exactly what you want to watch is to build up your watchlist. Each time you see or hear of a movie or series that you think you should watch, go to Amazon Prime Video and search for it. If you find it, add it to your watchlist. If you keep building your watchlist like this, all you have to do is open it when you want to watch something, and you can pick from a smaller number of choices.
Use X-Ray to learn more about what you are watching
Amazon Prime Video has a feature called X-Ray: when you pause a video while watching it, the service’s UI presents an “X-Ray” overlay which lets you know more about what you are watching. This feature can be used to identify the cast and characters, learn trivia about the show or movie, access bonus content and identify what music is being played in the content at any given point in time.
Use IMDb for better search, reviews and categorisation
X-Ray is powered by IMDb, which is an Amazon-owned online movie database. You can also leverage IMDb’s extensive database to search for movies, find reviews and learn more about them. If the movie on IMDb is available on Prime Video, there will be a link on the movie’s IMDb page that will take you to its Prime Video page.
IMDb makes it easier to search by directors, cast, crew and more.
Being a database, IMDb has a much better search functionality than Amazon Prime itself. Do you not remember a movie but know the director’s name? Maybe you don’t know the name of the director or the movie, but you remember the name of the writer. In all these scenarios, searching on IMDb and then following the streaming link to respective sites is much more likelier to lead to better results.
Adjust subtitles and audio based on your preferences
“Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” said Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho when he won the golden globes in 2020. While it is difficult to argue with him, it is not always necessary for your subtitles to be one-inch tall and your favourite movie might even have audio in a language that you are more comfortable with, if that is what you like.
Apart from changing the language of the audio and subtitles, Amazon Prime’s UI also allows users to change the size of the subtitles and also overs four presets that help you change the subtitles’ font, colour and background.
Select the “Subtitles and Audio icon on the overlay.
Here, you get the language options for audio and video. Click on the “Subtitle Settings” button to change how subtitles look.
Here, you are offered some subtitle size and preset options.
Download content that you would like to watch on the go
As pandemic restrictions ease and the world starts opening up, the chances that you spend time waiting for something outside of your home get much higher. If you are one of the people who like to watch movies or TV shows during those times, say while commuting or waiting in line at the bank, the lack of a strong internet connection wouldn’t stop you from streaming high-quality videos on your mobile with Amazon Prime Video.
All you need to do is to download the content that you want to watch when you have a strong internet connection so that you can watch it in high definition even when you don’t. Amazon Prime Video also offers options to download videos in different qualities, so that you can make the choice based on your viewing preferences and storage space on your phone.
