this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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I’m currently using windows but my Prime streams stutter a lot and are all jittery. it’s really annoying. So I’m wondering if getting a mac mini or something a bit more powerful than my PC would help.

Obviously there are DRM issues, those can be fixed on windows by turning off Hardware Acceleration in my browser. Is it easy to get around DRM on Mac?

Anyone have any experience or know where I can go to get help/talk about it with people?

System Specs: Intel Core i5 10400, GTX 1050 TI, 16gb Ram, 500gb SSD (for OS) and another 1tb SSD for recordings

I use Bandicam to record my Edge browser. Prime is a bit smoother when I make sure my PC is not running on efficiency mode, but still stutters a bit.

Other streaming services only run in 720p or worse, can't get them to get to 1080p which is my target. I have to use a 4k monitor to get Prime to play at 1080p.

I should note that I purchased all of this content and I only use it for personal use as it's more convenient for me to have a video file than always streaming the edited content.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don’t really understand why you’d want to censor the content. If your kids are really young, then they probably shouldn’t see the film to begin with, and if they are in their teens, then they have probably seen worse already.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I've never heard of "Clear Play" ... but it's sooooo American.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

SOLUTION: I ended up going with Audials. Based on my quick testing it seems like this is the smoothest and best option to record edited content from Prime and other sources (I can have hardware acceleration turned on and it can still record just fine). This will be great for my home use recordings!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why screen record? Just download the AMZN WEB-DL from one of the multitude of torrent sites that exist. What you're getting from there is a literal direct copy of what Amazon streams to you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I edit the streams with Clear Play when streaming, so unless there is a way to get those files directly (that would be amazing) streaming is my only choice...

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Probably just easier to nix the Prime subscription and just download scene releases... Most of them are h265 these days and are released same day as on Prime.

I just checked a list of "new to prime" and my tracker and they were all there. No reason to give money to Amazon.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Unfortunately I have to screen record as I want edited content, unless you know of a place I can torrent edited content then you would be a life saver

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago

I guess it depends on what you mean by "edited content."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

You can use ffmpeg or handbrake. They would allow you to edit any video (remove sections). Though it can be slow if you have an older machine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That PC can stream anything basically, it sounds like your browser isn't properly using hardware acceleration maybe.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Yeah I turned Hardware Acceleration off so that Bandicam can capture the stream, if it's on then the stream is black when recorded (it's protected)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Why bother with screen recording Prime when you could torrent it? I feel like I'm missing something.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I like to watch edited movies, and I edit them via browser extensions (Clear Play) or through other sites (VidAngel) where they edit them while streaming them. So you're definitely right - that would be easier, but for what I am trying to accomplish unfortunately screen recording seems like the best option...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Ah, so it's so you can edit out inappropriate stuff for your kids or students or something? Yeah, that's hard.

You'd think there'd be some sort of extension or database with a crowdsourced filtering system like SponsorBlock for this purpose where you could just look up the timestamps for the stuff you don't want. I don't have a reason to edit out content so I haven't looked into whether such a thing exists or not.

Edit: Check out Clean Media Player or Movie Content Filter. It looks like one of them might have at least some of what you're looking for.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Exactly, need to cut out all inappropriate stuff for kids and family members.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will certainly check those out!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Anyone ever used the app Audials? https://audials.com/en/home Seems like maybe an option for screen recording movies...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There is an app called playon which allows you to record shows from streaming services. It has both a Mac and a Windows version.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Thanks, I'll check it out

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That PC should be able to play a stream just fine. I'd check if there background apps hogging resources and make sure hardware acceleration is active. Scale the resolution down (no point of upscaling 1080p content) and record to a lower resource intensive format, perhaps h.264 vs h 265/HEVC.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I actually only use the PC for recording content so no other tasks are active aside from Bandicam which is recording the stream.

If I enable Hardware Acceleration then Bandicam records a "black box" the content streaming from Prime Video is protected and I can't capture it. So that has to be turned off in order for this to work. Although it does seem to help the stuttering... I am using h.264 as well with NVENC from the GTX 1050 TI.

Do you know of another way to get around DRM and be able to screen record content from sites like Amazon Prime Video?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Try using OBS for the screen capture, it should work with hardware acceleration on. Install on yr existing windows system.

If not try downloading a linux mint iso and burning that to a usb (instructions on the mint homepage). It's a "live" boot you can just boot off it and try without installing. I'm fairly sure you can boot it, install OBS on it and then test a screen capture (ie open a browser, start prime, open obs and start a screen capture). Be aware you've made a bottleneck on the USB (slow throughput compared to ssd) so you won't go long before it chokes through not being able to write fast enough. Proof of concept.

However if it works then look at installing a dual boot mint next to windows a full install will use the hard drive and not bottleneck

Basically, it's free and it won't break anything to try the live disk. If it works it'll be a lot cheaper than buying a whole extra Mac

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

That's an interesting idea, I will give it a try and see if it works and report back here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Ah bummer. That's most of my software tricks. I'd break out my hardware equipment next step, but that's pricy.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

All good, bummer it's so difficult.

By hardware equipment do you mean just a stronger CPU / GPU?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Since you can't use GPU for rendering or recording, a faster CPU couldn't hurt and is probably your best bet, but it isn't really thaaaat old. (There being no other hardware bottlenecks of course)

There are, cough cough I think, ways to decrypt and record HDCP protected streams but I'd imagine you'd have to have a render unit and recording unit in your setup. Sort of complicated.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Also question is, what is your internet speed? as that might be a bottleneck there. The streaming services might just be lowering the resolution due to a bad internet connection. Also might be worth trying chrome as the browser.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

It's pretty fast ~800 down and ~800 up. Should be plenty for uninterrupted streaming even when others are using the internet

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If anyone knows if it's easy to get around HDCP protected streams and record them on a Mac that would be awesome to know. I'm considering purchasing a mac mini and trying it on MacOS...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Before you do that I'd first try out a few cheap capture cards. Especially the cheap no name ones sometimes don't implement HDCP (copy protection), so recording Prime should work well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Will do, thank you!