10:44 – As it turns out, Amazon Prime Video now provides a queue, which they call your watchlist. After I signed up for Prime, I started adding series that aren’t available on Netflix streaming to our watch list. I added series 3 of Downton Abbey and series 3 of Justified without any problem. Then I added Under the Dome. It showed up on our watchlist, but rather than having the Prime logo under the series icon, it had a note that it costs $2.99 per episode. I went back to the page for Under the Dome, which indeed showed that series as free with Prime. So I contacted Amazon tech support.
When I got to the page with contact information for Amazon tech support for Prime instant videos, there was no phone number. Instead there was a field to enter my phone number and there were two icons, one for “Call Me Now” and one for “Call Me in Five Minutes”. I clicked on the Call Me Now icon, and phone rang literally less than two seconds later. After about 6 minutes on hold (versus the 5 minute estimate) I was connected to a support person. I explained the weirdness about Under the Dome. She checked on her own system and said that she was seeing the same error that I was seeing and that she’d report it, but that I could indeed watch the series without being charged per episode. I verified with her that any time we attempted to watch video that was pay-per-view I’d have to enter my PIN number, so I didn’t have to worry about being charged unexpectedly.
So, I added Amazon Prime videos to my channel list on the Roku box and verified that my watch list showed up on the Roku. When Barbara got home from work, we decided to watch Downton Abbey. We watched the one-minute summary of series 3 and started the five-minute summary of series one and two. About two minutes into that, the screen went black. Not good. Then the Roku box rebooted spontaneously, something that had never happened before. I hope that was coincidental. We’ll try Amazon video again tonight.
14:27 – I just saw a report that yet another former NFL player, Tony Dorsett, has been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The only reason Dorsett’s illness is notable for me is that I met him once or twice when I was a photographer for my high school newspaper and yearbook. He played football and basketball for Aliquippa/Hopewell, which New Castle High School frequently played against. Tony was a year behind me. Back then, his name was Dorsett with the emphasis on the first syllable. I seem to remember that he changed the emphasis to the second syllable when he was in college or early in his NFL career. I was very sorry to read of his problem. He was, as I recall, a nice guy and a hell of an athlete.