Resolved MacMini + Amazon Prime Video = HD?

[mrkapqa]

Hello ,

i was wondering if it is possible on a Mac Mini running MAC OS to stream Amazon Prime Video Movies (not Documentaries or Series) in "HD Quality".

tried on a MacMini 2012 in very possible ways but could not achieve such a result.
Amazon would play Movies only in SD quality.

No such problems with iMac that has "internal" display.
No such problems whenever i would boot in BootCamp partition with the same setup (DVI to HDMI cable, HDCP compliant Monitor, no second-adapter(VGA or grabbing card) attached)

Am wondering if also newer Macs like the 2018 or 2014 models suffer of such a fate (or also: MacPro 2013 or 2019).

 

[Boyd01]

Haven't watched Prime on my new 2018 Mini but just tried and got the following error from everything I clicked on. My only screen is a new BenQ 1440p monitor with Kensington USB-C to DisplayPort cable, was using Safari 13.1. Weird. No problems with Prime on my iPad, MacBook Air or two Apple TV's.

Tried watching the new Tom Hanks movie on Apple TV+ and there was no problem with that. Also streamed a bit of Kubrick's 2001 from my iCloud purchases and it worked fine too. So obviously there are no HDCP issues with my setup.

 

[mrkapqa]

yes, safari 13 does not install the silverlight plugin anylonger;
you could try with firefox quantum or with chromium (latest + widevine) or google chrome (if you trust installing it) to see if this solves it.

 

[Boyd01]

Thanks, that explains it. Don't really need to watch Prime on the Mini, so am not going to worry about it.

 

[mrkapqa]

It's always nice when things functions as one would expect from expensive hardware

Keeps me wondering how things turn out when one is no longer able to boot into Windows for HD streaming (Armacs?)

 

[Boyd01]

Just for fun, I tried using Edge in Windows 10 under Parallels on the same 2018 Mini. No problem watching Prime that way.

 

[iluvmacs99]

Hello ,

i was wondering if it is possible on a Mac Mini running MAC OS to stream Amazon Prime Video Movies (not Documentaries or Series) in "HD Quality".

tried on a MacMini 2012 in very possible ways but could not achieve such a result.
Amazon would play Movies only in SD quality.

No such problems with iMac that has "internal" display.
No such problems whenever i would boot in BootCamp partition with the same setup (DVI to HDMI cable, HDCP compliant Monitor, no second-adapter(VGA or grabbing card) attached)

Am wondering if also newer Macs like the 2018 or 2014 models suffer of such a fate (or also: MacPro 2013 or 2019).

When I took advantage of the 1 month Prime offer to buy everything I needed from Amazon to take advantage of their fast shipping, I watched Prime Video for a month and I could watch it on HD (1080p) on my Mini 2011, Mac Pro 5,1 and my Windows 10 PC all in 1080p. The Mini 2011 was running El-Capitan then when I tried it and watched the entire Jason Borne series (the 2nd season one) and John Wick (all series) all on HD. My Mini was using the mini HDMI to dual link DVI adapter, the first original Apple one. I used Opera then with the Mini and Mac Pro and also on my Win 10. Didn't have much success with Safari on my Mini, which was why I switched to Opera. I now use Microsoft Edge to standardize my browsers across all my platforms (Mac, Windows 10 and Linux) and works for many streaming videos at higher definition. I didn't test Microsoft Edge on Prime as I switched from Opera to Edge after my Prime membership had lapsed, but I don't see why it wouldn't work as it works all my other streaming services all the way to 4K.

 

[mrkapqa]

that was maybe a long time ago, when you tried that, or am i wrong?
certainly more than 2-3 years would be my guess.
as of now, i tried with catalina, same issue, even with hdmi-to-hdmi (certified hdcp cable) connection, so i am wondering how other users fare nowadays.

 

[iluvmacs99]

that was maybe a long time ago, when you tried that, or am i wrong?
certainly more than 2-3 years would be my guess.
as of now, i tried with catalina, same issue, even with hdmi-to-hdmi (certified hdcp cable) connection, so i am wondering how other users fare nowadays.

Nope not too long ago. In fact, it was April 2020 of this year during the lockdown that I last watched Prime.

 

[mrkapqa]

thats fairly recent;
you mentioned that you watched the "series", yes , those would stream in HD, but not "Movies",
was hoping that was clear from the first post.
Everything Documentaries, Series etc. would stream also in HD on my MacMini, but Movies only SD qaulity in MacOS (and HD in Windows (Bootcamp).

 

[mrkapqa]

Just for fun, I tried using Edge in Windows 10 under Parallels on the same 2018 Mini. No problem watching Prime that way.

hello, just for testing purpose, tried the same, for "Movies" on a MacMini 2012 with Parallels with Windows 10/8.1 it would still not stream in HD ... Edge would show HD logo for a second or so, and then turn it off.
i am beginning to doubt my setup; but again, when booting into Bootcamp (tried on a MacMini 2009), no such issues.

using original Apple MiniDP-to-DVI Adapter; using HDCP-Compliant HDMI-to-DVI cable; using HDMI-to-HDMI cable(connecting to TV), all the same result: only SD quality.

 

[mrkapqa]

most probably it is not possible to stream HD content for Films on Amazon Prime with MacPro with MacMini with an external display on MacOS from what i have in gathered.
it functions when booted directly into Bootcamp partition, but not under MacOS, and neither when loaded the Bootcamp partition with Virtualization Software like Parallels/VMWare Fusion.

Please correct me if wrong and newer models (which i have not tested) are able to stream Film content from Amazon Prime in HD on MacOS when using an external display.

 

[watakoola]

2018 Mac mini and eGPU with Asus VE248 Displays at 1920 x 1080.

Just tested an Amazon Prime movie...

In Firefox, I get "HD Video Unavailable", with a "Best" quality option of "Uses about 1.17 GB per hour"

In Safari, it plays the same video in "best" (HD) quality and "uses about 6.84 GB per hour"

 

[mrkapqa]

@watakoola, thanks for the updated info!

which Safari do you use if i may ask?
i still have a Catalina partition around but have not bothered trying with Safari (bad testing from my side then, i guess).

 

[Kaida]

I was able to use "best" (HD) quality and "uses about 6.84 GB per hour" in Chrome with 2018 mini, will try on my 2012 later tonight too

 

[mrkapqa]

Thank you all, i just tried with HighSierra and Safari 11, it is really functioning with Safari;
can be marked "solved".
Glad to see the HD logo there.

 

[mrkapqa]

after some more testing it seems however that the HD logo does not "fill" up, so it seems even with Safari there is no real HD streaming, and the mentioned 6,84 or so GB of streaming data per hour is one level below true HD streaming; infact the quality of picture seems less crisp than on the Mini when booting into Windows partition and streaming from there with HD logo full-on.
[automerge]1600681689[/automerge]
also, after updating to Safari 13 (HighSierra), Safari does not stream Amazon Prime any longer here.

 

[mrkapqa]

here a screenshot from a Movie in Windows 7 (running in BootCamp)

 

[mrkapqa]

here the same Movie seen in Safari 11 on Mac OS HighSierra (HD Logo is shown, but never fills up?)

i am just using a small monitor so i am not very good able to discern the effective quality on the Mac OS side /(may try on a TV Set later)