Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Debuts Mixed Bag of Original Comedy Pilots
itwbennett writes "Amazon sent out a press release over the weekend announcing that the pilots for their original shows 'held 8 spots on the list of 10 most streamed Amazon VOD episodes.' So blogger and entertainment junkie Peter Smith decided to spend a couple of hours seeing if they were worth watching. He managed to sit through 4 of the 8 comedy shows and found a mixed bag — one a clear miss, two meh, and one he'd like to see turned into a series. Have you watched any of the pilots? What did you think?" The quality of these the pilots is not the only way they're a mixed bag: for many Linux users, they're simply not watchable. Watch soon for unknown_lamer's screed on the fat lot of good(will) Amazon is generating by making it harder to legally get these shows.
Here's what I did in Ubuntu 12.04 to watch them:
1. Use Firefox.
2. Make sure Firefox is closed.
3. Run: sudo apt-get install libhal1 hal
4. Run: rm -rf ~/.adobe/Flash_Player/NativeCache ~/.adobe/Flash_Player/AssetCache ~/.adobe/Flash_Player/APSPrivateData2
5. Launch Firefox and enjoy.
After I did this in Firefox, I was able to watch them in Chromium too but ran into problems trying to get it working in the first place in Chromium. I've read that Google Chrome simply won't play them on Linux because of some recent changes Google made. So, yea... not as easy as it should be but it should be watchable unless I've missed a different reason why they're not watchable for so many users.
Amazon should pick up Futurama, now that Comedy Central has dropped it.
Let it die with what dignity it has left. The last season shows that the magic it once had is dead or dying.
"...predictable junk food..."
Fixed.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Watchable on Fedora 17 with Firefox 20. No issues at all.
You don't have to watch them.
So, this guy is trying to be at least semi-pro about this, and we're supposed to care what he thinks and says, but he can't be bothered to watch one episode each of eight different shows before writing an article about it?
How long are these? I'm guessing an hour. You can't spend eight hours WATCHING TV before writing an article you're being paid for?
And then it gets put up on Slashdot?
Has online journalism/tech news fallen so low that this qualifies as worth a front-page mention?
Agreed, while people may love them, lets leave them on Network television which has become a vapid wasteland of derivative narratives for simple people
There is no point for Netflix to duplicate network garbage. If Netflix can't rise above the average POS sitcom and crime scene show on networks then there is absolutely no point for Netflix to do original programming..
Netflix should set the integrity of their original programming to not just be about ratings or top 10 lists, the way the network television has corrupted content. Shows on Netflix do not make money, the money has already been made. Reward subscribers with content that you can't see anywhere else, or at least drop a little nudity and a few f-bombs in them to avoid the over Disneyfied family crap found everywhere else. I want a story that spans multiple episodes, not telling me the same friggen' plot over and over and over again. Simple people can't follow a plot that spans two episodes which is why shows like CSI have boomed. I don't want Netflix to become a wasteland or more simple serialized garbage.
I don't need Netflix to become NBC or ABC 2.0. I want "original" content that is edgy and different than the crap on regular TV.
Netflix should set themselves to compete with HBO or Showtime, not to compete with whatever garbage is currently scheduled for the the 8pm primetime slot on Wednesday nights.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Until linux has something resembling a decent marketshare on the desktop, stop expecting publishers to care about or support it. It's simply not worth their time to devote the time of their engineering teams to support Linux when they're not likely to see a huge return on that investment.
Most folks running Linux are smart enough to run a Windows VM if they want to watch Amazon videos, and if they don't want to because of pride or some other "belief", then that's THEIR decision.
Also, I don't have any statistics, but I've got to believe that a large portion of Amazon clients are STBs, not computers.
So, buy a STB that supports Amazon, or buy an OEM Windows license and spin up a VM.
Now, if only Amazon would release an iOS app. That's a huge market segment that they're alienating by not having their content available. I want to be able to watch Amazon video on my phone just like I can watch Netflix and Hulu on my phone.