I'm a Mac family and I'm begining to hate Apple, and possibly Amazon prime as well

Another vote for trying Chrome or Firefox instead first before trying to install Silverlight.

That said, I've hadn't had any issues with installing third-party software that's not from the App store, I just had to set Security & Privacy -> General -> Allow apps downloaded from to "App Store and identified developers". If Silverlight doesn't install it is likely to trip another security mechanism (package not cryptographically signed or something similar), which isn't good.

BTW, Microsoft has an article about troubleshooting a Silverlight install here, that might help.

I'm pretty much getting frustated with all the "big" OSs - I've got Mac OS X Sierra, Win7, Win10 and Linux here. Oh, and FreeBSD on my servers, which just seems to work. Finally got fed up with Ubuntu/Debian enough to switch to a different distro (Manjaro) and that has increased the Linux happiness quotient.

scardeal wrote: Just FYI - There's an App Store application that should be on the Mac. Icon looks like this:

This. I'm not happy with the current requirements, but there is an App Store, well, application that handles it all, just like on an iPhone or iPad.

nderwater wrote: Did you try to stream the video from the Amazon Prime app on one of your phones or tablets? I'm curious to know whether that would also cause your Roku to crash. PS - Which Roku version do you have? I've noticed that the older/cheaper models with lower hardware specs seem to be more problematic lately.

In my case, it was a recently bought and updated Roku 4 and I had been using it all day to stream various shows and the like, right around 5pm PST the app crashed and after a reboot for the Roku didn't seem to fix it, I tried Hulu and that worked so I figured I'd get back to it later.

Its working fine this morning and I've watched the latest episode of TGT (better than previous episodes, but it still feels off somehow) and I'm watching a documentary on the Motown Mafia. So I suspect they had some sort of issue on their end.

The problem here is Silverlight. It's got security problems. I use Firefox to watch Grand Tour on my Mac. Safari isn't the best of the browsers.

As for the applications from third party developers, you can usually run them by choosing Open from the context menu IIRC. It'll give you a security warning, but you should be able to override it.

I'm still a big fan of my Macbook Pro. I like the OS, particularly that it's a Unix box under the hood for when I'm doing things like logging into cars via SSH. The hardware is excellent. Mine's in the sweet spot, though - old enough to be upgradable, but new enough to be fast. Stuff it full of RAM and add a SSD as well as a HDD, and it's perfect. In fact, I just built a 13" version for my wife because she wanted a laptop. I have my dad on a Mac because I like Time Machine and it makes it easy for me to support him 2000 miles away. AirPlay and AppleTV is a nice side bonus.

Tom_Spangler wrote:

ProDarwin wrote: The Amazon Prime interface is the.worst. I'm not sure I could think of a less intuitive way of organizing things or pair it with a less responsive interface.

Have you looked at the HBO Go app on Roku? It's worse.

No, we use phone/chromecast for HBO Go. That said, the app was bad enough that I just ended up pirating part of Westworld to make watching it easier.

Another +1, we were also having issues with Amazon Prime video last night on our Roku.

I was blaming our internet but I rebooted it and everything else was working fine. Ended up watching something on Netflix instead.

nderwater wrote: Did you try to stream the video from the Amazon Prime app on one of your phones or tablets? I'm curious to know whether that would also cause your Roku to crash. PS - Which Roku version do you have? I've noticed that the older/cheaper models with lower hardware specs seem to be more problematic lately.

No I didn't try any of our mobile devices. Difficult for three people to watch a phone. Grand Tour is family viewing as it's a buddy show with a back drop of cars.

If Roku is still giving me fits I'll watch it on Chrome or Firefox tonight.

It's a newer Roku. We had an older XT model I think it was for years that died and we replaced it with a gen 4 Roku 4 (4400) a year ago so it's pretty new. Never had any luck with the voice commands though.

Spend $30 and buy an Amazon Firestick. It works without issue. I have two of them. Roku (and/or the amaIn app on roku) or your internet connection seem to be the culprit here.

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

nderwater wrote: Did you try to stream the video from the Amazon Prime app on one of your phones or tablets? I'm curious to know whether that would also cause your Roku to crash. PS - Which Roku version do you have? I've noticed that the older/cheaper models with lower hardware specs seem to be more problematic lately.

No I didn't try any of our mobile devices. Difficult for three people to watch a phone. Grand Tour is family viewing as it's a buddy show with a back drop of cars. If Roku is still giving me fits I'll watch it on Chrome or Firefox tonight. It's a newer Roku. We had an older XT model I think it was for years that died and we replaced it with a gen 4 Roku 4 (4400) a year ago so it's pretty new. Never had any luck with the voice commands though.

Sorry not to be clear, I was referring to streaming from your mobile device to your TV instead of using the Amazon app on your Roku. While it's crappy that you were having any degraded experience at all, there are a couple of other options you might try if the problem persists.

I think we will soon see a major disruption in the computing device space because lately it seems that no major player is at all well regarded.

I have a Macbook, and also had to download the updated version of Silverlight when I started watching Grand Tour. However, I had no problems - the little update thingy popped up on my screen, I clicked on it and the download was successful. Maybe it has to do with the particular version of Safari you're running, or the Apple operating system or something.

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

slefain wrote: I've retired our Mac Mini HPTC hooked to our projector and replaced it with a hacked Amazon Fire Stick with Kodi sideloaded. It gives me problems sometimes running Kodi, but after I pried the case off it the overheating problems stopped.

You lost me at 'hacked' All I want is computers and electronics that just work. Apple was there from about 2000 to 2010 or 2012ish, now just like everyone else they are a PIA. What the berk is wrong with something that just works when you want it how you want it.

It worked just fine before I messed with it. In fact, it never had any problems. I just saw the potential to dump my Mac HTPC so I hacked the Fire Stick. I mess with every gadget I own, it's an addiction.

JamesMcD wrote: I think we will soon see a major disruption in the computing device space because lately it seems that no major player is at all well regarded.

That's also the nature of internet discussion. Discontent with all abounds.

SWMBO might use a Windows PC, but she REFUSES to use anything other than a damn iPhone. And that stupid iPhone has been replaced under warranty THREE FREAKING TIMES NOW for battery issues, and it still doesn't work right. All she does is complain about it, yet she refuses to even try an Android phone.

/rant

It took me 3 hours to finally get to stream prime on my android tablet through an app. Take about totally convoluted.

Keith Tanner wrote:

JamesMcD wrote: I think we will soon see a major disruption in the computing device space because lately it seems that no major player is at all well regarded.

That's also the nature of internet discussion. Discontent with all abounds.

That, and we're so used to everything working so well that anytime it doesn't it is a HUGE DEAL. Even if it is as simple as changing browsers.

Seriously, if we were using Windows 98 we'd be in hell right now.

T.J. wrote: Spend $30 and buy an Amazon Firestick. It works without issue. I have two of them. Roku (and/or the amaIn app on roku) or your internet connection seem to be the culprit here.

And if you travel often, the Fire Stick can connect to hotel wifi with log-in pages, which is very handy.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: No I didn't try any of our mobile devices. Difficult for three people to watch a phone.

You can stream to the phone - and screen mirror to the TV. I do this all the time for sports stuff. Play on phone, watch on 60" smart TV.

FWIW my Vizio runs Amazon prime videos just fine...
except for TGT.

SnowMongoose wrote: FWIW my Vizio runs Amazon prime videos just fine... except for TGT.

You aren't the only one having that problem. I can watch anything I want through the Amazon app on the TV except the grand tour. I popped in an old Roku stick that I had retired when I got the TV and I was able to watch right away.

Btw, my wife just had our fourth child so we spent a few days in the hospital. I wasn't able to watch TGT either. I had an android tablet I'd borrowed from my brother, and it just wouldn't do anything when I hit the play button. I have no idea if I'm supposed to use a special app to watch Amazon prime videos on a Android tablet (I went looking for one but didn't find anything); the only Amazon prime app I found was described as being for shopping - no mention of video. So I watched the new Gilmour Girls on Netflix with my wife, which was probably the smarter choice in that circumstance.

IIRC TGT has been recorded in 4k - maybe that's the issue with people having problems watching in on devices that otherwise stream Amazon video just fine?

In reply to JamesMcD:

There's a separate Amazon Video app.