Sometimes you can't play HD TV shows and movies. Why not?

Many people use video streaming to watch TV shows and movies.  Video streaming is where the show or movie contents is sent over the internet and displayed on your TV or computer monitor.  One key requirement for streaming is that your internet connection is fast enough that the information needed to display the screen images arrives at your TV faster than your TV displays the images.  Otherwise, your show will lurch- start and stop- as the TV waits for the streaming information to be delivered.  I imagine most of you have experienced this.

Popular sources of streamed video include YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon.

I wanted to make you aware of one particular problem with streaming.  It has to do with viewing HD shows.  Sometimes, even though you have a fast internet connection and a monitor or TV that can display HD, you still can't see HD.  The following is a not I got from Amazon regarding this issue:

"At this time, playback for HD movies is not supported on the devices like Wii / Wii U GamePad / PC / Mac / Google TV / iPad / iPhone / iPod touch. 

However I've forwarded your feedback to our development team. They will work on it in next improvements. Customer feedback like yours is very important in helping us continue to improve the experience of using our digital video service. 

You can watch HD Movies and TV shows on the following devices: 

-- Wii U TV monitor. (The Wii U GamePad supports standard definitions video.) 
-- TiVo Series 3, HD, Premiere & XL 
-- Roku 2HD, 2XD, 2XS, LT, XD, HD-Streaming, HD Player 
-- Xbox 360 
-- PlayStation 3 
-- Kindle Fire HD models 
-- Certain HDTVs and Blu-Ray players from LG, Samsung, Vizio, Panasonic, and Sony 

If you attempt playback on a device that does not support HD, we'll automatically provide a standard definition version of the video to watch on that device. While HD movies cannot currently be accessed on a Mac or PC, you do have the option to stream HD TV shows. You can also stream HD TV shows on Google TV. 

To learn more about Amazon Instant Video compatible devices, visit: 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/video/ontv/devices "