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Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
- 1970-01-01 3y ago5.1 audio channels is all you really need.
- bombcar 3y agoI would be interested to know the actual audio setup of most video watching ... I suspect that even if you ignore whatever (probably huge?) percentage is on mobile, that much of it comes out of whatever TV speakers are being used. Even my 7.1 receiver is down to a single laughable channel, because I've not been arsed to fully set it up and a wire is loose.
- stuaxo 3y agoBought a receiver years back, only ever bought two speakers - whole thing isn't plugged in since I moved two years ago, just the little speaker in the TV with no bass.
- solardev 3y agoJust wait a few years and you'll be like me, seven speakers and one good ear.
- woobar 3y agoMy guess is a lot of people with bigger TVs are getting soundbars. They are easy to setup and doesn't require wires. I won't switch from 5.1 setup but if I ever move I would give it a try. Built-in speakers I've used in hotels/airbnbs are not great.
- recursive 3y agoSoundbar marketing has a lot of snake oil about bouncing soundwaves around a room to simulate 13 discrete speakers or something. I've got no science, but I do have some serious doubt whether the bouncing stuff works at all. In my imagination, soundbars are basically stereo, or maybe 2.1
- bombcar 3y agoI've always considered them the "Bose" of our generation (built on shitty engineering) - they sound better and bassy and so they sound "good enough".
- woobar 3y agoI was skeptical for a while. But I have a friend who is used to a 5.1 setup and moved to a much smaller apartment. He has switched to a soundbar with Atmos and says it is on par. The fact that he "downloads" Dolby Atmos versions of movies even when they are available for streaming added some weight to his opinion. I still did not compare myself so would not go to fight over this.
- recursive 3y agoI don't know your friend, but people are not good at listening. There's a whole industry catering to audiophiles with products that can't pass a blind test. Cynically, I might suspect that your friend is trying to justify their purchase to themselves. Or maybe I'm wrong. But the anecdote doesn't convince me either way.
- o11c 3y agoI expect most people use at most a soundbar. Which, regardless of what it advertises, is really just 2-3 channels and maybe a subwoofer. And the rise of phones means there's a lot of stereo or even mono.
- catchnear4321 3y agojust in case anyone is wondering what happened to the audio on their ad tier videos next month…
- juliusdavies 3y agoI recently streamed the Taylor Swift Eras concert movie through Apple TV (Dolby Atmos) and Amazon Prime (Dolby DDS I think?) to compare (through a Denon X6200W with a 9.1 speaker setup). Yes, I paid the $19.89 two times. For science. The audio quality with Atmos was substantially better.
- randgoog 3y agoThe confusing thing about Atmos is that there are basically two versions of it. There is the TrueHD version that you get on BluRay discs which is the highest, uncompressed quality. And then there is the streaming version which uses Dolby Digital Plus as a wrapper for a compressed version of the audio signal. Atmos on its own really just tells you that there are height channels. Dolby has made all this stuff quite misleading and confusing to the average user.
- echelon 3y agoI'd really like for regulators to look at Apple and Amazon and their interest in the film business. Both of these are propped up on the profits of unrelated business units and offered below cost to viewers. This behavior has led to existing film studios folding and getting bought out by these giants. Now they're jacking up prices to healthy levels. They literally just ate an entire unrelated industry because of their scale. They should be split up again.
- Alupis 3y agoCan you elaborate on this a bit? The pricing for the services seem to be in-line with the rest of the industry[1], and I'm not aware of any "block buster" TV Shows or Movies released on either Prime Video nor AppleTV (in fact, Prime Video has one of the biggest TV failures of all time[2] under it's belt, titled "Citadel"). > This behavior has led to existing film studios folding and getting bought out by these giants. Netflix, Paramount and the rest are swallowing up small productions too. From an industry-outsider's perspective - now seems to be the best time in history for small, quirky, weird, niche productions to get in front of huge viewership numbers. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/29/amazon-prime-video-ads-streaming/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/29/amazon-... [2] https://gamerant.com/citadel-prime-video-expensive-failure-explained https://gamerant.com/citadel-prime-video-expensive-failure-e...
- bombcar 3y agoDisney did a few "direct to Disney+" releases (and eventually on DVD, Blurry, etc). The third Hotel Transylvania movie was direct to Prime (Amazon bought it fully made).
- sleepybrett 3y agoTed Lasso was an AppleTV+ production. One of the biggest streaming success stories, right up there with your stranger things, etc. The Boys was an Amazon production. Also a huge success story.
- VanTheBrand 3y ago
- tpowell 3y agoI’m letting my Prime lapse for the first time in well over a decade. I don’t watch Prime Video much, but this rubbed me the wrong way when they’re making money hand-over-fist on top of recent Prime increases.
- enobrev 3y agoJust dropped it as well after maybe a decade of membership. Waiting an extra couple days for shipments has been fine. We don't trust Amazon as a store anymore anyway so we don't order much from there.
- Larrikin 3y agoI don't use Prime Video much either but this was the straw that broke the camels back and made me really consider the value I was getting from Prime. I realized I was actively avoiding buying from Amazon for multiple fears. Lately fear of getting absolute junk drop shipped from China. I didn't trust them to get anything to me that was sensitive. I had a hard drive delivered in a static bag and one single bubble. They still do OK if you have a specific brand or model in mind. Despite HNs insistent that all they do is deliver counterfeit goods, I've never gotten any, just lately cheap junk or occasionally clearly used items being new. And Prime doesn't even mean two or one day delivery anymore, just free shipping and we'll get it to you when we get it to you. I'll save the 100+ dollars and just pick up from target when I need something quick.
- jacurtis 3y ago> And Prime doesn't even mean two or one day delivery anymore, just free shipping and we'll get it to you when we get it to you. I laughed at the final sentence. My wife and I were talking with friends last week and both of us have independently decided to cancel prime on the next renewal because the prime shipping is random. We summed it up the same way, "For $12 /month we will deliver your product for free... eventually". Sometimes I get it stuff the next day (rare but does happen), sometimes I get it in 3 days, sometimes a week, sometimes several weeks. I have a book that I ordered 3 weeks ago. It never shipped, so I cancelled it. Then as soon as I cancelled and went to the product page, I saw that it was available to get the next day, so I ordered it again and sure enough the new order arrived the next day. We had a package that arrived about a week ago. We weren't expecting a package, but we opened it up, and it was something that we had ordered 6 weeks earlier and had forgotten that we ordered. Furthermore, we used to have Amazon Key delivery into our garage. I know a lot of people think its creepy but we loved it. Packages were always safe, we had a camera in the garage we could see whenever the driver dropped it off, plus packages always were delivered to the right house since they could see the garage door open, the knew it was the right place. Then randomly, Amazon started charging either $3 extra per delivery for this a few months back, or you had to wait an extra week to get it for free. What? We pay a premium subscription for delivery already, why do we have to pay more for a delivery that is more secure, costs Amazon nothing, and was more reliable? So we started just getting stuff delivered to the door. Since then, we have only received about 2/3 of our deliveries. They are consistently delivered incorrectly. So we are forced to either a) pay a $3 premium per order to get it delivered reliably, b) wait a week to get it delivered without a surcharge (only the cost of our subscription), or c) roll the dice with the door delivery. Keep in mind, UPS and FedEx never have problems with deliveries, only Amazon because they are random gig-worker drivers who are not experienced, just delivering as quick as possible to get the next gig shift. On top of the "eventual" delivery, now Prime Video, which was already the worst of all the streaming services started doing ads. I bit my tongue on it, but now the loss of Dolby Vision and Atmos pisses me off, because I have an amazing home setup that supports both of these and we really appreciate and notice these technologies. All in all, we are cancelling Prime. Prime Video was not that great anyway. And if I am just going to get random delivery times that can take upwards of several weeks to arrive, then I see no reason to pay for that. I can still get free shipping on $35+ orders from Amazon that will also arrive in a week without a prime subscription. Or I'll just pay the surcharge when I need a faster delivery. This all leads to us using Amazon less, which I am honestly fine with.
- zelos 3y ago> The Rings of Power... now in HDR10+ for ad-tier users. I'm not sure even the power of Dolby Vision could make Rings of Power worth watching, though.
- jeffbee 3y agoThis is the real problem with Prime Video. The first party content is terrible.
- dualboot 3y agoThis is not even remotely true. Patriot is amazing.
- sleepybrett 3y agoAlso 'The Boys' is quite popular, 'Bosch' and 'Reacher' are very popular.. there are a few others that do well. If you are old enough think back to the haydays of the network television evening programming. There were hits, there were misses, there was tons of stuff in between. For every 'Friends' there is a 'Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place'.
- manquer 3y agoFor every “Friends” there are thousands of ‘Two guys a girl and a pizza’
- nytesky 3y ago2GGPP launched Ryan Reynolds and Nathan Fillian and Susan Cryer from Silicon Valley. It’s a bit of a gem in its own way
- sleepybrett 3y ago... but it didn't do well overall.
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- Animats 3y ago"I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further."
- hnburnsy 3y agoAltering the deal was the ads, removing Dolby is altering it further. A year from now the ad load will increase, altering it even further. All consumer prayers go unanswered.
- commandlinefan 3y agoIt looks like these streaming services have been hemorrhaging cash for years now and they just can't hide it any more. They're going to have to take drastic steps to try to become profitable - remains to be seen whether customers will bite. OTOH, we don't have the infrastructure to go back to the days of DVD rentals.
- paulmd 3y ago> OTOH, we don't have the infrastructure to go back to the days of DVD rentals. amazon is perfectly capable of doing the old disc-based netflix/blockbuster model if they want - actually it would complement their pivot into distribution and shipping perfectly. Just some mylar mailers and a bunch of BD-R blanks - licensing is another matter but what is the logistical problem? Print QR code and put on disc, send it out, get it back, scan QR code when it's "returned" and goes back to inventory...
- schlauerfox 3y agoI suppose they mean that your phone, tablet, laptop or smart TV have no optical drive so no way to watch physical media unless it came on a new format like a usbC device or something which the studios historically refuse on copyright infringement reasons.
- VanTheBrand 3y agonot saying I agree with the OP but player install base would be the infrastructure hurdle more than the discs
- paulmd 3y agoLate reply but yup probably fair.
- joshspankit 3y agoToo bad they’re unwilling to seriously consider P2P distribution for streamed media. Would cut costs way down.
- fabian2k 3y agoI canceled Prime after they added ads. I might have canceled it anyway at some point, but this was a very clear and significant reduction in value. They never really competed all that well, but there were some interesting original shows on there that kept me interested enough to keep a subscription. But they were really bad about having the original language audio, and they rotate content out pretty fast, my watchlist is always half-gone.
- TigeriusKirk 3y agoI did the same. I know it won't matter to them, but I feel better not paying for a product they're actively and intentionally making worse. It does also mean I'll be doing much less frequent business with their store.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago<<They never really competed all that well I respectfully disagree. Amazon became Amazon, because it really did some things well and forced some good standards ( 2 day shipping, almost zero friction when it came to purchases -- and returns ). It is not a horrible experience yet, but the direction is clear.
- basisword 3y agoI think OP is referring specifically to their Prime Video product which is awful compared with every other streaming service both in terms of content available and UI/UX.
- Tallain 3y agoThey do have one feature that I love and wish other services implemented: the x-ray (or whatever it's called), which lets you pause and it will show you info on the actors in this scene, trivia, etc.. This is great for when you see someone and you're like "wait I know that actor... what's their name again?" -- or if you're just a weird trivia junkie. It kind of reminded me of Pop-Up Video like that.
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- gentleman11 3y agoThis is called segmentation. People with home theatres are more likely to be willing to pay extra, so they’re squeezing those users for more money. Likewise, other people are more price sensitive and are more likely to be willing to watch ads to save money, so they’re squeezing them in a different way. With ai and mass surveillance in the future, companies will be able to segment at an individual level. What would they squeeze you or your kids for one day?
- oehpr 3y agoI'm surprised the advertisers are playing ball here. Advertisers want access to people who are willing to pay more money and they want the service that does show their ads to be as accessible as possible. And they're able to more effectively negotiate for consessions as they're less diffuse. I think the fact that higher priced subscriptions that promise "no ads" exist at all is a good indication that even advertisers are losing power to monopoly gatekeepers. Following the inevitable enshitification pipeline I guess.
- ado__dev 3y agoThe greed knows no bounds. Amazon Prime cancelled.
- Czarcasm 3y agoI cancelled my Prime within 24hrs of them adding the ads to the base tier. Just isn't worth it anymore.
- WXLCKNO 3y agoI only have prime for the actual amazon purchases and don't really use prime much except for the boys and invincible from to time to time. But even with that, this move makes me consider cancelling just to spite them.
- steveBK123 3y agoI think Man in the High Castle was the last Prime content I watched.. I guess that was 5 years ago, lol.
- thiht 3y agoI cancelled my whole Prime subscription. The few things I’ve ordered since then have been delivered in 2 days with free shipping, so I’m still not sure what I was paying for before.
- sleepybrett 3y agoTechnical question, a typical 2 hour movie represents how many bytes of stereo audio signal, how many bytes if atmos. How many streams served with stereo, how many with 5.1/atmos/whatever. Are they actually saving any real money here or is it just a pain point to milk the whales? I'd be willing to bet that 80%+ of households don't even have equipment that can properly render atmos or even 5.1.
- razodactyl 3y agoThey're one of the largest providers of cloud compute in the world. I doubt they care about bandwidth. I remember back around 2015 they had a problem and half the internet went down.
- josho 3y agoI suspect it’s the licensing fee to Dolby that is the cost driver.
- samtho 3y agoIts amusing to think that part of this decision is to save on bandwidth costs.
- cma 3y agoMaybe if their egress prices were based on real costs
- vlozko 3y agoIt wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a licensing issue more than a data one. Atmos support for my Xbox headset, for example, has a monthly subscription cost.
- bpye 3y agoAtmos and DTS:X for home theatre setups don’t have any additional licensing fees however.
- TylerE 3y ago
- ChrisArchitect 3y ago[dupe]/Related: Amazon Prime Video Ad Tier Sparks Class Action Lawsuit from Subscribers More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39350257 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39350257
- causality0 3y agoI'd be happy to give up Prime Video entirely for five dollars off my yearly subscription.
- lnxg33k1 3y agoI salute with happiness everything that is disliked by people, multimedia is a waste of time, free shipping is shallow consumerism, well done amazon!
- razodactyl 3y agoThis is a bit of a petty way to artificially widen the value gap between tiers no? We're not really in the era of customers not knowing any better anymore.
- VanTheBrand 3y agoThere are 167 million prime subscribers. If only 5% don’t know better that’s over 8 million subscriber. If you surveyed 100 random Amazon customers what percent do you think would actually know what Atmos and Dolby Vision are? I doubt it’s even 50%
- razodactyl 3y agoDamn you and your amazing insight. Have a star *
- tootie 3y agoI have genuinely no clue what Dolby Atmos is even for. I assume it's for some specific sound setup? And I also assume I don't have that.
- randgoog 3y agoAtmos has height channels added to the audio track. So you'll either need speakers in your ceiling or a setup which tries to emulate that by bouncing the sound off the ceiling to really benefit from it.
- wccrawford 3y agoYeah, it adds speakers above you. It sounds dumb, but even crappy speakers really did make our sound more immersive. That said, we moved the TV to another room and decided against installing Atmos speakers there... So I guess it's not compelling enough to really care. A good 5.1 setup is enough.
- crazygringo 3y agoYeah, it's really not much meaningful benefit over 5.1. If you want cool effects in a war movie of a plane flying by overhead, then awesome. But in most television and movie scenes, the sound is coming from a circle around you on the ground. Putting another 2 (or 4) speakers on the ceiling isn't usually going to make much of a difference. It's truly just diminishing returns. For the war or action movies where it does, my advice is just to go see it in the theater.
- wccrawford 3y agoWeather effects are pretty immersive that way, too. But most scenes are indeed pretty flat.
- ggm 3y agoThe fifth paragraph goes directly to Qui Bono: It costs them licencing fees to people like Dolby Laboratories. So, it's the kind of choice which drives directly to outflows of revenue. They made a bet less people will cancel, than the net outflow of licences, and those who pay $2.99 are on their way to being made to pay more rather than meeting the licence-tax.
- steveBK123 3y agoYes, it's interesting how fast streaming has rotated from fierce competition to be better (more content, exclusive content, big name productions, dolby, 4k, ad-free, etc) to being worse (reduce ability to share / insert ads / what can we cut / slowing the new content pipelines). Feels like a super accelerated version of seeing capital rush into a space and then right back out. Everyone is now desperate to stop burning money, and will either cut or merge themselves into break even.
- makeitdouble 3y agoPrime Video is in that weird spot where most people have low expectations and don't feel like they paid for it. There were already pre-roll ads (for other prime shows) under some conditions, so people who stuck through them will probably also stick through the new sponsored ads I guess. I think this will be the straw in the camel's back for only a small slice of their members, especially as Netflix is also enshittifying their service.
- soco 3y agoPrime Video is for me the worst compared to the other streaming services I use (Netflix, Disney, HBO). Why? Here in Switzerland they skimp on languages, which means half the catalogue is in only one language and most irritating, not even in the original one - imagine Hollywood movies only available dubbed in German, or Korean dramas only in French (with bad syncing). And the same with subtitles, sometimes there's none, sometimes they pick some random language as sole available... it's a dumpster fire.
- sys32768 3y agoI cancelled due to ads a few weeks ago after 10+ years of Prime. I was also sick of yelling at Alexa who pretends not to understand me. Streaming has lost its appeal to me compared to owning the discs. eBay is especially affordable now with so many Goodwill sellers offering used blu-rays.
- sakopov 3y agoSeems like we made a full circle back to cable-like services but more expensive.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- harrylepotter 3y agoI cancelled my Prime membership 3 years ago after moving to Australia. Haven't missed it in the slightest. I make far fewer impulse purchases and found prime video anaemic at best.
- nelblu 3y agoI had a trial subscription of Prime couple of years ago and I hated that they showed skippable ads about other Prime content at the beginning. That was enough for me to never join Prime.
- crazygringo 3y agoHaving less features on a cheaper tier is entirely normal. Should Amazon have been more up-front about it? I guess. But most people don't even care. If you have the money and space for a full Atmos-enabled surround-sound setup at home and/or true mega-bright HDR screen and regularly watch Prime Video, you're probably already paying the extra $3/mo. for no ads anyways. It's not like any of those features matter if you're watching on an iPad or a regular TV or even regular surround sound speakers. Of all of the corporate outrages to upvote here on HN, this one feels like the absolute tiniest.
- donohoe 3y agoThe cheaper tier was the normal tier. They they downgraded the normal tier when the added ads and you had to pay extra to remove them. This is just adding insult to injury.
- crazygringo 3y agoI mean, I'm happy they introduced tiers rather than raise prices for everyone which was the alternative. If I subscribe to Prime just for the shipping, I don't want to be subsidizing people who are heavy video watchers. I see neither insult nor injury, just normal market segmentation.
- galleywest200 3y ago> Atmos-enabled surround-sound setup Headphones. You dont need a full setup to enjoy this feature.
- crazygringo 3y agoI don't think Prime Video supports even 5.1 surround sound over headphones. I tried pulling up content in Prime Video on my iPad with my AirPods Pro and the sound output in iPadOS says "Spatializing Stereo". Not "Spatial Audio" which indicates receiving an actual 5.1 source. So with certain other apps yes, but with Prime Video specifically it seems like no. (Nor can I find anything reputable online confirming it's supported.) Also, the vast majority of content is only 5.1 surround sound anyways. Atmos is still only used in a minority of modern films, and only the tiniest sliver of TV shows.
- tech_ken 3y agoI cancelled Prime many months back with the fortuitous expiration date of the last subscription coming up in early March. Feels really great to be leaving as this massive wave of enshittification comes crashing down.
- joemi 3y agoWhat would it take to have an open alternative to the various license-required Dolby formats? Are there any initiatives already underway? Is it just algorithms and software or do they also make codec chips or some other kind of required hardware?
- soco 3y agoI don't think the Dolby licenses were the cause here, but rather as all other comments underline, new segmentation.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- SergeAx 3y agoTricks like this is enough for me to never pay Amazon a penny for digital content.