Amazon Prime Video tips, tricks and features

Whether you’re a Prime professional or just thinking of signing up, you’ll want to get the most out of the service. Here are a few tips and tricks on how to do exactly that. Setting up a ‘Household’ account

Amazon Prime Video will recommend content based on your viewing history - but what if you’re really into crime thrillers, your other half loves romantic comedies and the kids love cartoons? The answer is by linking together two Amazon accounts that will both have access to Prime Video. Go to Your Account > Shopping Programmes > Amazon Household. There you can add another adult or profiles for children, and then click ‘Create Household’.

Parental Controls

You can set up a four-digit PIN on the web by going into the ‘Settings’ of the Prime Video section and also in the mobile app’s settings.

Streaming Ultra HD video

On Amazon’s TV app there’s a category populated with Ultra HD content. You can also search for ‘4K’ or ‘Ultra HD’ in the search bar. However, the results might not be complete you can tell for sure if a TV show or movie is 4K only by clicking on it. Unfortunately, if you’re on a mobile device, this doesn’t show up at all.

Streaming HDR video

HDR video - and Dolby Vision on compatible televisions - is more difficult to spot than 4K. Amazon’s search function is also incomplete when typing in ‘HDR’ it recommends The Man In The High Castle, but leaves out other HDR shows. Much like finding 4K content, it’s a bit trial and error – clicking on shows to see if they come up with the HDR or Dolby Vision symbol seems the best way to find out.

Downloading shows

For those using tablets or smartphones, you can download content to your device for offline viewing. On select films and TV shows, you can tap the download arrow to save it to your device. Your offline titles can be found in the ‘Download’ tab in the menu at the bottom of the mobile app.

Changing resolution

If you want to save on space, try changing the quality of the download. Go to the app’s settings and click on ‘Download Quality’. There, you can switch between three tiers:

Good, Better or Best. And if you want to ensure content is downloaded only over wi-fi (saving you from using up your precious mobile data), there’s a toggle for that too.

X-ray vision

X-ray grants access to actor biographies, trivia and other information overlaid on your show. Tap anywhere on the screen on IOS, Android or Fire devices to bring it up.

De-registering devices

Rather than allowing someone else access to your streaming service if you sell or give away your device, go into the app’s settings on another device and click ‘Registered devices’. There, you can remove any unwanted devices from your account.