Fire HD 8 2016

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

You can now download HD using the Android app.

download but not stream maybe, as a recent change.
I rechecked the help page that I'd posted but it's not explicit. for fire it says download HD yes, for other android it says nothing at all.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I've actually found that the Kindle app is better on Android than the Fire tablets. The Android app lets you have two columns in landscape, but you can't do that with a Fire tablet.

Hmm- I can - I read like that all the time using the native Kindle app in landscape for azw / mobi , and using bookari premium for epub. so maybe its a screen size thing, or a HDX thing.
I have an option to select 2 column landscape in the kindle reader app settings on my HDX. it works for books and for sent to kindle documents, though for some reason it draws a virtual centre crease as part of the background only on documents.
What I miss having is the ability to customise where I can tap for next page. Kindle app forces me to tap near the right edge, or swipe. In Bookari I can customise so that either left or righr screen is next page, with previous page tap assigned to top to screen, centre tap for menus... and Bookari lets me disable hyphenataion ( aka enhanced typesettings) & has more colour options
I like the lilac option in the Kindle app though - I spent ages trying to exactly match that in Bookari

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by stumped

download but not stream maybe, as a recent change.
I rechecked the help page that I'd posted but it's not explicit. for fire it says download HD yes, for other android it says nothing at all.

Yes it is a recent change to be able to download in HD on Android. I checked the US help page but that didn't say anything either.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by stumped

Hmm- I can - I read like that all the time using the native Kindle app in landscape for azw / mobi , and using bookari premium for epub. so maybe its a screen size thing, or a HDX thing.
I have an option to select 2 column landscape in the kindle reader app settings on my HDX. it works for books and for sent to kindle documents, though for some reason it draws a virtual centre crease as part of the background only on documents.
What I miss having is the ability to customise where I can tap for next page. Kindle app forces me to tap near the right edge, or swipe. In Bookari I can customise so that either left or righr screen is next page, with previous page tap assigned to top to screen, centre tap for menus... and Bookari lets me disable hyphenataion ( aka enhanced typesettings) & has more colour options
I like the lilac option in the Kindle app though - I spent ages trying to exactly match that in Bookari

I have the HD 8, so I would think that should be big enough. The only thing I use the Kindle app for is Prime borrows because I prefer Moon±(and Android). Bookari hasn't worked well for me in years. I doesn't do left justify on most books, and if you use any of their built-in fonts any italics are in a different font.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by stumped

Hmm- I can - I read like that all the time using the native Kindle app in landscape for azw / mobi , and using bookari premium for epub. so maybe its a screen size thing, or a HDX thing.
I have an option to select 2 column landscape in the kindle reader app settings on my HDX. it works for books and for sent to kindle documents, though for some reason it draws a virtual centre crease as part of the background only on documents.
What I miss having is the ability to customise where I can tap for next page. Kindle app forces me to tap near the right edge, or swipe. In Bookari I can customise so that either left or righr screen is next page, with previous page tap assigned to top to screen, centre tap for menus... and Bookari lets me disable hyphenataion ( aka enhanced typesettings) & has more colour options
I like the lilac option in the Kindle app though - I spent ages trying to exactly match that in Bookari

What version of the Kindle app is on your HDX? I think it used to do two columns.

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I've actually found that the Kindle app is better on Android than the Fire tablets. The Android app lets you have two columns in landscape, but you can't do that with a Fire tablet.

I'm not surprised it is better. It was pretty good back when I had my Nexus 7" generation 2 tablet. Darn I wish I had kept that! I hadn't even tried landscape on my Fire HD 6, so wow, no two column view! That sucks. Of course they don't even have that feature on the Kindles either, which also sucks.

Stumped, The Prime Video app on the Vizio TV certainly doesn't allow for HD streaming. My Fire TV box gen 2 definitely does, but not the Vizio TV. SD streamed to a HD TV looks like garbage. The old VGA TV sets handled low resolution SD very well, but HD TVs cannot display it well at all. As far as renting/purchasing videos, Amazon charges more for HD than SD quality, so it makes no sense that they would block out HD from so many devices, yet they do.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I'm not surprised it is better. It was pretty good back when I had my Nexus 7" generation 2 tablet. Darn I wish I had kept that! I hadn't even tried landscape on my Fire HD 6, so wow, no two column view! That sucks. Of course they don't even have that feature on the Kindles either, which also sucks.

Stumped, The Prime Video app on the Vizio TV certainly doesn't allow for HD streaming. My Fire TV box gen 2 definitely does, but not the Vizio TV. SD streamed to a HD TV looks like garbage. The old VGA TV sets handled low resolution SD very well, but HD TVs cannot display it well at all. As far as renting/purchasing videos, Amazon charges more for HD than SD quality, so it makes no sense that they would block out HD from so many devices, yet they do.

I'm not surprised either.

I can get HD thru the Amazon app on my Tivo, but it's a recent model. It's ridiculous that they won't let you pay for better quality. I would much rather watch HD on my Samsung tablet because the screen is way better than the Fire "HD" tablets.

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I'm not surprised either.

I can get HD thru the Amazon app on my Tivo, but it's a recent model. It's ridiculous that they won't let you pay for better quality. I would much rather watch HD on my Samsung tablet because the screen is way better than the Fire "HD" tablets.

Hey I just noticed you have a Sony PRS-950. That was my all time favorite eInk reader! Another item I wish I had never parted with. But at the time the Sony bookstore ecosystem was pretty much a joke. I really wish Amazon would bring out a 7" Kindle without stupid light layer that could do two-column landscape, but I doubt they ever will.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Hey I just noticed you have a Sony PRS-950. That was my all time favorite eInk reader! Another item I wish I had never parted with. But at the time the Sony bookstore ecosystem was pretty much a joke. I really wish Amazon would bring out a 7" Kindle without stupid light layer that could do two-column landscape, but I doubt they ever will.

That was my favorite eink as well. But I got tired of reformatting so it would look good to me. I now use Moon+ so I don't need to reformat anymore. I also discovered that if I keep the brightness real low and use a colored background a tablet is much easier on my eyes. I also use ScreenDim to make it darker at night by adjusting the contrast.

[Barbara1955]

Originally Posted by stumped

that is NOT true - the fire tablets are the ONLY android devices that stream amazon video in HD
on all other android tablets it is SD only. ipad has HD but no other android make.
the HD8 also have netflix HD- there are very few other devices that have that, , pixel C, samsung s / s2 , Ndvidia K1 have it but most are SD only, no matter how good the tablet spec

so if you want both netflix and amazon video in HD your only choices are the latest Fire HD models or the recent ipads, and fire is 5x cheaper.

update - except for the exploding Samsung?:
this from amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201460880#GUID-A26847E2-6607-43A6-ADB3-07D2FF1C8C20__SECTION_AD39FD5180154C489F3956F95BDF 8F84
Android Phones & Tablets
We recommend using the Amazon Video app for Android phones and tablets. For installation instructions, open our Get Amazon Video for Android page directly on your Android device.

Streaming Video Quality: HDR & HD on Samsung Galaxy Note 7; SD on all other Android devices

Fire Tablets
Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire HDX, Fire HD & Fire HDX models

Streaming Video Quality: SD, HD
Download Videos: Yes, in HD

PS please keep it factual, I get that you hate amazon, but specs are what they are.

Well Dang I just watch an amazom Movie on my New Galaxy Tab A... It played it in HD!

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Katie1

Well Dang I just watch an amazom Movie on my New Galaxy Tab A... It played it in HD!

and you know that for sure how ?
impressive if true as the TAB A does not have a HD screen:

Resolution 768 x 1024 pixels

HD usually means 720p , & full HD 1080p. you need a 1280 x 800 tablet screen for 720P

On my Fire HDX, when I bring up the seek bar - it will show ( HD) and then 1080p once it's built up a buffer.

some SD quality still looks pretty good in SD, a lot depends on ths specific content and how well it upscales.

the TAB A has only a 720P screen so it cannot physically deliver full ( 1080p) HD

Scaling images and video is not that big of a feat, unless of course you are Amazon and hire the worst programmers in the world. There is no excuse why SD quality video cannot be properly scaled up to look decent on 720 HD and even 1080 HD. It won't be as sharp or have the detail of true HD, but it shouldn't look blotchy and blurry like it does when Amazon scales it, or fails to scale it. The opposite is true too. It is easy to scale down HD to SD screens. Unfortunately, the idiots at Amazon's Fire group don't seem to understand that, nor much of anything else IMO. Fortunately for me I don't have to worry about that as my iPad has way more resolution than necessary, and Apple knows how to scale up/down video properly. I'm guessing my Fire HD 6 will show HD Prime videos, but I'm not going to waste my time with that device as it is barely able to open the Alexa app in under 30 seconds! You get what you pay for. Cheap tablet equals tons of compromises, and video tends to be one of those compromises.

[stumped]

You are making a huge assumption as to where the upscalcing is done. Can you back that up with facts?
With SD, the Amazon or Netflix server sends 70x480 pixels, that is the meaning of SD.
For that to map to a screen that has more pixels, I would expect the tablet OS to assign the task to an on-board graphics chip, aka hardware rendering, wherever possible.
Nothing to do with Amazon code. Netflix on my ten inch lenovo looked crap also.

If you use MX player, you can force HW or SW decoding. Software takes more cpu but looks exactly the same to my eyes

In your post you seem to want to have it both ways, you blame amazon for doing it badly, praise Apple for doing it well.only one of the two is managing the task.

We could Google Android upscaling ?

Originally Posted by stumped

You are making a huge assumption as to where the upscalcing is done. Can you back that up with facts?
With SD, the Amazon or Netflix server sends 70x480 pixels, that is the meaning of SD.
For that to map to a screen that has more pixels, I would expect the tablet OS to assign the task to an on-board graphics chip, aka hardware rendering, wherever possible.
Nothing to do with Amazon code. Netflix on my ten inch lenovo looked crap also.

If you use MX player, you can force HW or SW decoding. Software takes more cpu but looks exactly the same to my eyes

In your post you seem to want to have it both ways, you blame amazon for doing it badly, praise Apple for doing it well.only one of the two is managing the task.

We could Google Android upscaling ?

Whatever dude! You seem to be too stubborn to accept the facts, so enough. And BTW, VGA is 640x480 not 70x480. Sorry if my Apple hardware poops all over your cheap Fire/Android hardware, but I got what I paid for. I'd rather pay a lot for something I can enjoy for many years than throw away $100 on a cheap tablet with weak specs. If you buy a good Android tablet (about what my iOS devices cost) then you will have top quality too. But yes, Amazon sucks at FW and SW, if you cannot see that then you need to pull the blinders off of your eyes.