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On January 29, Amazon started showing ads to Prime Video subscribers in the US unless they pay an additional $2.99 per month. But this wasn't the only change to the service. Those who don't pay up also lose features; their accounts no longer support Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos.
As noticed by German tech outlet 4K Filme on Sunday, Prime Video users who choose to sit through ads can no longer use Dolby Vision or Atmos while streaming. Ad-tier subscribers are limited to HDR10+ and Dolby Digital 5.1.
4K Filme confirmed that this was the case on TVs from both LG and Sony; Forbes also confirmed the news using a TCL TV.
[...]
Amazon announced in September 2023 that it would run ads on Prime Video accounts in 2024; in December, Amazon confirmed that the ads would start running on January 29 unless subscribers paid extra. In the interim, Amazon failed to mention that it was also removing support for Dolby Vision and Atmos from the ad-supported tier.
[...]
As Forbes' John Archer reported, "To add a bit of confusion to the mix, on the TCL TV I used, the Prime Video header information for the Jack Ryan show that appears on the with-ads basic account shows Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos among the supported technical features—yet when you start to play the episode, neither feature is delivered to the TV."
Previously on SoylentNews:
Amazon Adding Ads to Prime Video in 2024 Unless You Pay $2.99 Extra
[I chose to pay the $2.99 extra, because why else am I using a streaming service? In the event I feel like it's not worth it, I'll just dump them.]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Tork on Sunday February 18 2024, @04:05AM (10 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by EJ on Sunday February 18 2024, @04:26AM (2 children)
Meh. Probably just give us a few dollars in digital credits if they lose. The lawyers are the only ones who get paid.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Tork on Sunday February 18 2024, @04:48AM (1 child)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by weirsbaski on Sunday February 18 2024, @11:36AM
Not totally true. For the part that Amazon pays the lawyers, they have to pay actual dollars.
For digital credit to the plaintiffs it either blanket-credits customer accounts (which means subscribers have to stay on longer even if they considered dropping, which is an Amazon win) or worse it gives credit toward purchases made within the service (and what's it cost Amazon to stream an extra "$5" movie purchase? 50 cents?).
I've thought that class-action wins that pay plaintiffs entirely in company-credit should also pay the laywers mostly in company-credit, because clearly the lawyers agreed that credit is acceptable. But there's probably a down-side I'm not seeing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:33AM (5 children)
Fortunately in my case, my subscription was set to renew before they decided to start this shit. I did not renew.
The value proposition was questionable after the last price increase, since the store is not nearly as useful anymore since it's so flooded with garbage products.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:45AM (3 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 18 2024, @09:19PM (2 children)
> I feel like a coward in comparison to anybody who has actually cancelled.
Here's some encouragement to just stop doing business with Amazon, completely--
I've never bought anything at all from Amazon*, going back to the time that they bullied the publisher of my engineering reference book. When the publisher didn't give in, Amazon listed their books as "out of print" which was a complete lie, and reduced book sales. This was back when Amazon was primarily a book seller. They were a rogue company then and I don't see much difference now, so they aren't getting my business.
I haven't had any problem buying things from many other sellers, online and local...and for fun I sometimes check Amazon prices and I'm finding better pricing anyway.
* Some things I've bought on eBay came in Amazon packaging, I didn't realize the seller was using Amazon fulfillment.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Monday February 19 2024, @06:37AM (1 child)
Amazon used to have good prices but now they're almost always more expensive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2024, @12:23PM
And the reason they had good prices (on books) was very simple. Based on experience by my small, technical publisher, Amazon bullied the publisher by:
- Demanding a much lower price than the long standing wholesale price paid by any other book seller
- Demanding free returns back to the publisher for books that didn't sell
- Listing books from the publisher as "out of print" (a lie) when the publisher didn't roll over and accept Amazon's terms
(Score: 1) by captainproton on Sunday February 18 2024, @07:33PM
For the little that it's worth, I cancelled my renewal on being presented with my first ad. I hope, but don't expect, that this will result in an overall loss of paying users.
(Score: 5, Informative) by driverless on Sunday February 18 2024, @08:04AM
And another layer of enshittification is added to the existing mound.