7

When renting a movie from Amazon Instant Video, it says you have 24 hours to finish watching it. If I start watching a 2 hour video at the 23 hour mark, will it let me finish watching, or will it interrupt me halfway through? I'm using the PS3 version of the application if that makes any difference.

1
  • I've often wondered this. It's kind of like the santa claus question that kid's ask. If they stay up they'll never see him because he only comes when they're asleep. Sep 10, 2012 at 17:50

8 Answers 8

6

To answer my own question: No, it will not interrupt you. Even if you go over the time limit, you can watch the entire movie as long as you start before the 24 hour mark.

Apparently this is no longer true, and the movie will stop playing as soon as it expires.

2
  • Just confirmed that this is indeed true.
    – mattdm
    May 19, 2014 at 2:13
  • This is incorrect as of 6/16/14. I was just stopped in the middle of my movie.
    – user72362
    Jun 16, 2014 at 22:05
2

I haven't tested this hypothesis enough to confirm it: but there was at least one time when I resumed a rental which had more than an hour left on it with the ticker telling me I had 20 minutes or so left, and yet I was able to finish the movie uninterrupted. Based on that info, I think the way it works is that the ticker is measuring how much time you have until you can start resuming the video, and watch it uninterruptedly until the end. If you were to start it with 20 minutes left, though, and then pause it for an hour, you'd be cut off.

1

As of 2016, I was able to watch the final 45 minutes of a movie after it expired and I was able to pause for 5 minutes and resume play with no issues.

1

Yes, your playback will be interrupted. At least mine was. I had 28 minutes left on my X-Men Apocalypse rental and decided to watch it a second time. At the 27:07 mark the playback stopped and would not restart. Keep in mind, this was my second viewing and I had already seen it completely two days earlier, and I only had 28 minutes left on the rental when I started the second playback.

1

I just had a movie stop playing in the middle when I hit the expiration time, and then the movie was no longer accessible.

0

I just finished watching The Other Guys on Amazon. My rental only had 45 minutes left when I restarted the film from the beginning. I never paused or anything, out of fear that it would end, but I was able to watch the whole thing; technically exceeded my time limit by a little over an hour, but it didn't stop the video and I got to watch the whole thing.

0

If you have already started the movie, then stop it and restart again close to the 24 hour expiration time, it won't show the whole movie. I started it one evening, then started it again an hour before the 24 hour expiration time and it quit at exactly 24 hours, leaving another hour of film I missed. Sigh... live and learn.

0

Yes, the rental expiration deadline will interrupt movie playback. I started a movie last night, then attempted to finish it tonight but it stopped streaming when the deadline hit.

Rather than give Amazon more money for the same movie, I found the movie on Google Play Movies and bought it there the second time. And it was a 48 hour rental for the same price as the Amazon 24 hour rental. Fail.

I really think all streaming movies should be at least 48 hour rentals.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.