# Prime or Netflix or Both?



## ame8199 (Apr 4, 2010)

So I just started my free prime subscription and Im not sure if Im going to use it much.  I love the thought of streaming videos and tv show for free, but I have netflix.  Is there a reason really to have both? prime and netflix?  

I have no use for lending books so I won't really need it for that. 

Does anyone see the use for prime if you already have netflix?


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I have both.  There are videos available for free through Prime that aren't through Netflix and vice versa.  But I was a Prime owner long before I got my Fire, for the free shipping.  The free videos are my next favorite perk.  And the one free borrow a month is a nice bonus.  I suspect there will be other perks added over time, as well

Betsy


----------



## beachgrl (Nov 10, 2008)

I agree with Betsy. I too have both and have used the lending library for several great reads. Prime shipping is worth it if you shop on Amazon regularly, which I do.


----------



## fuschiahedgehog (Feb 23, 2010)

Both here at our house too.  I've been a Prime acct holder for years, and the husband is addicted to his Netflix and Hulu Plus.  Personally I rarely watch videos but the boys and the husband are addicted.  It does come in handy to have more than one option, as I believe all of them have a limit on how many concurrent users they allow per account.


----------



## ame8199 (Apr 4, 2010)

Thanks everyone.  I kinda forgot about the 2 day free shipping.  I do shop on Amazon regularly.  I guess I have 27 more days to decide.


----------



## laurie_lu (May 10, 2010)

We use to have Netflix for many years.  The choices for streaming free movies on Netflix are much better than Amazon Prime videos.


----------



## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

I have both - a lot of the streaming video choices overlap, but then there are those that are available on one and not the other.  There was enough on Amazon that I ended up buying a low-end Roku player so I could stream to my TV.  So we use both Netflix & Amazon.  I do enjoy borrowing books from the Prime lending program - there are entire series that I can read that way.  And of course it's great for the free 2-day shipping.


----------



## ame8199 (Apr 4, 2010)

So the lending program isn't just lending from 1 person to another?  You can get books from other places?  

I have apple tv and a Wii to stream netflix to my TV.  Maybe I'll just let it charge me the 79 dollars...I do enjoy the 2 day shipping.  I got my case and getting the USB cord that way.


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Lending through the Prime program works this way:

If you have kindles registered to an account that has Prime (which costs $79/year, billed yearly), you can borrow one book a month from the Kindle Owners Lending Library (KOLL). The list of books in the program can be found here: Prime Lending Eligible Kindle Books

You can also borrow books from various library systems if they use Overdrive.

SOME books have "lending enabled" which means if you buy it, you can lend it once to one other person for 2 weeks. While they have it, you can't access it on any of the devices on your account. Once they return it, they can't access it. And you can never lend that book again.

For me, Prime is mostly about quick shipping. I don't use the video streaming much, but I do take advantage of the free borrow each month.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> You can also borrow books from various library systems if they use Overdrive.
> ***
> SOME books have "lending enabled" which means if you buy it, you can lend it once to one other person for 2 weeks. While they have it, you can't access it on any of the devices on your account. Once they return it, they can't access it. And you can never lend that book again.


Just to clarify, borrowing from the library and lending books that you've bought, as Ann described above, are separate from the Prime program. You can do both of these even if you aren't a Prime member.

Betsy


----------



## fuschiahedgehog (Feb 23, 2010)

Slightly off-topic, but if anyone uses Hulu Plus and doesn't yet have a Roku (streaming internet TV device that lets you watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc on your TV) for $79 which includes 6 months of Hulu Plus (normally $7.99/month).  The kids are getting one for the husband for Father's Day.


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Just to clarify, borrowing from the library and lending books that you've bought, as Ann described above, are separate from the Prime program. You can do both of these even if you aren't a Prime member.
> 
> Betsy


thank you Betsy. . . .I know in my mind they're separate but I see that wasn't clear in the post.


----------



## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

Doncha hate when that happens, Ann?? 


As for the question -- both. Though I use Amazon Prime mostly for shipping, I do use it some for streaming as well (both free and purchased). My Roku box makes it so easy to get both Amazon and Netflix (and a gazillion other services that I rarely use) on my TV.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> thank you Betsy. . . .I know in my mind they're separate but I see that wasn't clear in the post.


I knew you knew. 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk


----------



## viennacoup (Dec 22, 2010)

Amazon Prime seems to have all of the Ken Burns documentaries which makes it a keeper for me.


----------



## Hadou (Jun 1, 2011)

For video?  Variety is the spice of life - Both.


----------



## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

I think it has been said – I have both.

There are just some movies and shows on Prime that you won't find on Netflix. And with the relationships across media companies in a constant up and down between Amazon and Netflix, the list of available content will keep changing.

For the price, the free shipping and eBook lending are reason enough for me to keep Prime. The Prime Video is a plus plus plus.

Now if only Amazon would put the Prime App on AppleTV like Netflix did. IMO, nothing beats the user experience delivered by that little AppleTV.


----------



## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

bxs122 said:


> Now if only Amazon would put the Prime App on AppleTV like Netflix did. IMO, nothing beats the user experience delivered by that little AppleTV.


Yeah, if they'd done that I wouldn't have gotten the Roku. Then again, we've got more channel options with the Roku than with Apple TV. Ends up being a good combo, though - streaming our digital music and movies from iTunes to the Apple TV, and Amazon, Pandora and other stuff through the Roku. Our BluRay player (which also streams Netflix) isn't getting much use these days....

Now if they'd come up with a remote with a "real" keyboard for them - there should be an app for that!


----------



## J.R.Mooneyham (Mar 14, 2011)

I'm not a fan of watching TV shows or films on my PC. I'd rather sit in the living room in front of a real TV.

Recently though, we got sick of our cable TV provider regularly jacking up prices while simultaneously reducing the number of channels we got, and canceled the TV part of our subscription, keeping only the internet access.

Beside those other gripes, what channels we did have were cutting way back on what new material they ever showed too. So for a year or two we'd just been spending a few hours every day holding the channel change button down in a vain hope to find something we hadn't already seen a zillion times before. And it just kept getting worse.

So we cut off the TV content, and cut our cable bill in half. Then we got a Roku set top box.

Most people put something like NetFlix or Hulu Plus or Amazon Prime on a box like this. But we haven't yet. Because there's quite a bit available for the Roku that's entirely free. Free channels of films and TV shows, that is. But the Roku box comes empty, and Roku tends to emphasize the paid channels over the free ones, so if you want to go free in a big way, it's all up to you.

I've enjoyed vastly more new stuff to watch on our Roku in the past couple months than I did during the whole last ten years combined of our cable TV subscription. It's sort of amazing to be able to sit and watch several straight hours of new content every night, night after night after night.

I believe if Roku went ahead and preloaded at least a few of the best free channels on the box for customers, people would better realize what it's about, and word would spread, and Rokus would sell out everywhere.


----------

