Amazon Prime Video for iPad Review

Amazon has fully entered the digital arena, with the Kindle Fire going head-to-head against the iPad and other major tablet makers. Amazon Prime Video, the company's content service, competes with iTunes, Netflix, and other content services.

Amazon Prime Video Features

Amazon Prime Video brings Amazon's collection of movies, videos, and TV shows to mobile devices through the free Amazon Prime streaming app. This is a great added benefit for Amazon Prime members, which also allows thousands of Kindle books to be checked out and offers free two-day shipping on select items purchased from Amazon.com.

Features Amazon Prime members get with their subscription include:

• Streaming Amazon Prime movies and television to your iPad.
• Buying or renting on Amazon, and watching video on your iPad.
• Saving movies and TV shows to a watch list to playback later.
• Syncing with Amazon's website and Amazon Prime Video applications on other platforms.

Amazon Prime Video also offers an alternative to buying movies and TV shows through Apple's iTunes store. Amazon Prime Video will sync with Amazon's website and the Amazon Prime Video app on other devices, allowing playback of movies and videos that are purchased or rented from any device to any device.

Where Amazon Prime Video Excels

Amazon Prime Video takes some of the good bits from Netflix and Hulu Plus and combines them with a slick interface that loads fast and doesn't bog down. 

The speed at which videos begin to play is impressive. Rather than waiting through a few seconds of buffering, each video starts quickly.

The playback itself is what you would expect, with videos playing in full screen and the familiar video controls available at the touch of a finger.

Amazon Prime Video is available as an app on Apple TV, which wasn't the case for quite a while. But Apple TV users who are also Amazon Prime members have access to both Apple and Amazon's immense catalog of original content, movies, and TV shows.

You can find recently watched shows and movies in the Watch Next section when you open the app, making it easy to find what you've seen recently and to return to videos you haven't finished or series with more episodes to watch.

The app is great for anyone who has built up an Amazon video collection or likes to rent videos through Amazon. It is the only way to watch these videos on the iPad, and getting at your video rentals and purchases is actually rather easy in the app.

Amazon Channels Subscription Services

Amazon has partnered with several familiar cable and subscription content providers you'll likely recognize, including HBO, Starz, Showtime, and CBS. You can subscribe to these through Amazon, and manage your subscriptions from a central location. 

You can view the movies and shows available from these channels through the Amazon Prime Video app when subscribed through Amazon.

Amazon Prime Video: Worth the Download?

If you are an Amazon Prime member, it is well worth downloading the Amazon Prime Video app. After all, you've already paid for access to the collection of free movies and TV shows, and the app is free, so take advantage of the additional perks that come with your Prime membership. 

There are plenty of great streaming services available on the iPad, and the Amazon Prime Video app has become one of the best of the bunch. Amazon's growing list of original content continues to make it a strong service.