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Media

Amazon Prime Video Drops Dolby Vision, Atmos Unless You Pay Extra 90

Posted by BeauHD from the nickel-and-dimed dept.
Amazon Prime Video has cut Dolby Vision and Atmos support from their ad tier subscription. "That's on top of the ads that Amazon injected into the service on January 29th," reports The Verge. "Now, when you pay $2.99 a month to remove those ads, you can get Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos back as well." The Verge reports: That's the word from 4KFilme, which discovered that their smart TVs from Sony, LG, and Samsung were now displaying content in HDR10 with Dolby Digital 5.1 as opposed to the higher fidelity options they'd enjoyed previously. Amazon spokesperson Katie Barker confirms to The Verge that it's a deliberate move: "Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos capabilities are only available on the ad free option, on relevant titles."

While price hikes are no longer remotely unusual in the streaming video space, where Netflix now charges $22.99 a month for its 4K tier, it's a bit harder to compare Amazon's prices to Netflix. Prime Video is also available as an $8.99-per-month standalone subscription; if you subscribe that way and add $2.99 per month, it's more like a 28 percent price hike. If you prefer ads, Prime Video's $8.99-per-month is a dollar less than Disney Plus with ads at $9.99 per month, though Netflix currently offers its 1080p service with ads at $6.99 per month.
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Amazon Prime Video Drops Dolby Vision, Atmos Unless You Pay Extra More

Amazon Prime Video Drops Dolby Vision, Atmos Unless You Pay Extra

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  • While I get the concept of asking more money for the added bandwidth and not least the added production cost of these technologies, I gotta wonder how much chutzpah these streaming services have to test their customers' patience.

    As far as I am aware, streaming is not the cash cow you can milk as much as you want.

    • They seem to be doing something like price fixing, but instead of a single price, they are all making a frankensteinian unholy combination of
      ...cable TV/broadband packages (in terms of package offerings/complexity)
      ...freemium tactics (pay little bit here little bit there)
      ...bait and switch tactics (started with no ads, moving to ads, removing features)
      ...converting features to subscription (remember BMW heated seats).

      What would possibly go wrong.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HBI ( 10338492 )

        It's just oligopoly pricing. They teach it in business school. If it smells like collusion, it's because it is, without the required telltales for criminal prosecution. The phone calls and mob-like conversations in smoke filled back rooms.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 )

      The vast majority of people who use Amazon Prime Streaming get it for free as part of their Prime membership for 2 day shipping. They aren't paying for it in the first place.

    • While I get the concept of asking more money for the added bandwidth and not least the added production cost of these technologies, I gotta wonder how much chutzpah these streaming services have to test their customers' patience.

      As far as I am aware, streaming is not the cash cow you can milk as much as you want.

      The thing is, so far it seems it is to the streaming companies. They promise one thing, deliver another, and nobody balks. They raise rates month over month, and nobody balks. They throw in ads on previously ad-free services, and nobody balks. I mean, those of us who have canceled services aren't even registering as a blip on their radar. Until they see a real impact on the bottom line for continually raising the bar on egregious behavior, they aren't going to stop trying to raise that bar. And thus far it

  • I dropped Amazon Prime long ago. With price hikes continually it became non essential with today's cost of living. And the few things I really need I can buy locally be it at estate sales, garage sales or thrift stores or local retailers. Amazon is no longer needed anymore. Buh-Bye Amazon. Meanwhile Bezos is dumping all his stock.
    • Unfortunately I have found that I can get less things locally in time. For things like small parts in house repair, I used to be able to go to my local hardware store that day. But the smaller and unique the part, the less likely the hardware store has it. It is available for pickup/ delivery in a few days or weeks. Or from Amazon next day. When repairing something, sometimes I cannot wait days or weeks to a part.

  • A strange game (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Arnonyrnous Covvard ( 7286638 ) on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @05:23AM (#64236026)

    The only winning move is not to play.

  • We have prime for the shipping.

    Most of their shows suck, the ones we do watch are usually background noise.

    Also, these technologies rarely make a huge difference anyway in most content. Even if you have the very large tv and nice full surround sound there are very few shows that take advantage of that in any meaningful way. It's really cool when some action sci-fi thing does but very rare.

    Ads? Mute button and was already barely looking at the screen. Their advertisers are completely wasting their money.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by munehiro ( 63206 )

      How long before the mute button is a premium option?

      • lol, thankfully that's at my end on my denon. They can't control *that*.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hjf ( 703092 )

          Remember when DVDs had trailers and ADVERTISEMENTS, and players respected the PUA (Prohibited User Actions) that disabled fast forwarding?

          Expect new generations of audio devices to respect Amazon's wishes of disabling certain buttons on your remote unless you pay extra.

          And in a few years we'll get to the point of smart TVs with subject recognition and eye tracking cameras that will detect if you aren't looking at the screen when the ad is playing. You WILL look at the ad AND listen to it, or else you won't

          • I would rather have the ads in the DVD, because as long as I own that DVD I can rip a digital copy for personal use. As long as I own said DVD, this is permitted by law as long as I do not attempt to use said copy (or the DVD, for that matter) for anything beyond personal use... and there are always various types of software for playing those ripped copies that will ignore the ads, unskippable trailers, etc.

        • Thanks to HDMI, the device might very well be able to detect volume level (and maybe, just purely hypothetically use that to know when to pause ads on mute.

          • In some future version, probably, but mine is too old for that. It predates the era of total control of my audio/visual entertainment experience jammed into every device like they're trying now. My tv is also several years old. It doesn't have a camera, doesn't jam its own commercials in, etc.

            Also, the denon is the center point of the system. The TV, game box, etc all plug into that and it controls sound out to the speakers, so I have good odds that as long as I keep that, even a new fuck-you-we-own-you

            • Well what i'm referring to is the ability for devices using HDMI to control one another, for example:
              We have also have a Denon AVR (thank you craigslist!), and a Roku. using the volume control on either the Roku or the AVR will adjust the volume -- as reflected on the OSD from the receiver. Or if you turn off the Roku, it'll put the receiver and tv to sleep, and conversely wake them both up by hitting play on the Roku's remote -- stuff of that nature. (granted it can be disabled in the receiver's settings,

              • If that happened and there was literally no way to watch tv without mandatory commercials with volume on, I'd just stop. I probably wouldn't be the only one.

                • Oh, same. Minus the probably bit. I'd absolutely stop watching...
                  At least what I wasn't able to "borrow" from that one website whose name i simply cannot remember at present.

                  They really do seem to be intent on killing the goose with their constant enshittification of entertainment.

    • Actually, the Atmos thing does make a difference, although maybe it takes a decent soundbar to hear it. Apple TV mostly has Atmos, and you can definitely hear it (maybe they put too much bass-y stuff on it, I don't know).

      If Amazon want to homogonise their content into the same level of dross as youtube, freevee and crap off twitter, then that's their prerogative. It doesn't mean we have to watch it.

      As for ads... I was looking for something to watch, and Amazon found me an "Amazon Original", which told me it

      • To clarify: atomos is great, but I don't get much value from it on Prime shows.

      • Atmos would be good but it requires the content and equipment. Some people I know do not have 5.1 speakers much less the minimum of 7.1 for Atmos. Content wise, Barbie would not have much added with Atmos. Oppenheimer might. Dune (2021) would.

    • We have prime for the shipping.

      Most of their shows suck, the ones we do watch are usually background noise.

      Also, these technologies rarely make a huge difference anyway in most content. Even if you have the very large tv and nice full surround sound there are very few shows that take advantage of that in any meaningful way. It's really cool when some action sci-fi thing does but very rare.

      Ads? Mute button and was already barely looking at the screen. Their advertisers are completely wasting their money.

      What good is Prime for shipping? I can't remember the last time I got anything more than a laser pointer of a pen in less than ten days. I can order from about anywhere else and get packages faster. I'm not sur why we pay for Prime. After Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and The Boys, there's really not much to latch onto. We watch Reacher for lulz, but it's not a must watch by any means. We left Netflix a few months back. I think we're probably a few good nights of reading away from canceling the rest. At the moment

      • Free shipping and for something they still ship fast.

        If you take note who the seller is, you'll get those big delays from Chinese or other unknown third party places selling through Amazon. But if it says you're buying direct from Amazon it -usually- arrives quickly.

        I just bought a 20 ounce gorilla glue bottle. It showed next day. My rubber front door mat from uh "someone" is already late and got pushed back another 3 weeks the other day after already 3 weeks waiting. If something has a far future ship

        • I agree with almost everything you're saying. Just don't parrot their "free shipping" marketing. It's not free. It's not even cheap. It's just included in a very high fee that is also enough to subsidize movie and TV production.

          • Totally but we buy enough random stuff every year and also share the account with about 5 friends and family who use it a lot too that it only takes a few free ships to cover the whole thing.

            My wife also has a 5% discount card with them so there's that, too.

            It's not as good as it once was but used carefully it's still good for certain things.

        • Free shipping and for something they still ship fast.

          If you take note who the seller is, you'll get those big delays from Chinese or other unknown third party places selling through Amazon. But if it says you're buying direct from Amazon it -usually- arrives quickly.

          I just bought a 20 ounce gorilla glue bottle. It showed next day. My rubber front door mat from uh "someone" is already late and got pushed back another 3 weeks the other day after already 3 weeks waiting. If something has a far future ship date the odds of even later arrival are much higher. If it says tomorrow then odds are much lower of very late arrival.

          But the free shipping is key, not eta. It's often hard/impossible to get free shipping on the same item at a reasonable price elsewhere. When I find it I'll take it, though.

          We may get free shipping, but quick? Never happens around here. Granted, I don't live in a large city. "Biggest city in South Dakota," which means we get one Amazon distro center, that has a few minor items in it. Everything else will take days to weeks to arrive. Maybe the shipping is different in bigger cities?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by skam240 ( 789197 )

            I live about an hour away from San Francisco and it's pretty rare I get anything from Amazon within the 2 day advertised window so I dont think it's your location.. This was part of the reason I canceled Prime last month.

      • If you live near a shipping hub, Amazon still provides 2 day shipping.

        For me it's more like 5 day shipping. I regularly get stuff from eBay faster than it would come from Amazon, and at its best stuff even from aliexpress gets here in only a day or two longer than with Prime. I live in coastal Humboldt county CA, which means I'm far from everything except Eureka, which is a bit of a shithole. And that's where I work, whee.

        • Holy shit, how do you get Ali express stuff so fast? I've ordered quite a lot from them over time but ship times are so long it's more like, fire-forget-surprise! when it finally shows up. My typical Ali express time is 4-6 weeks.

          Do you have an extra dimensional portal to China or something? Damn....

          • My time to get stuff from aliexpress varies from one week up to about five weeks, with most of it arriving in the 2-3 week timeframe. In general I get most stuff in about 2 weeks, but if I need replacement parts, they usually take about 3. The only thing that's taken five weeks lately was some reflective door stickers (red reflectors to mark when a door is open) while I got my android head unit for Nissan Versa (with a 9.6" vertical LCD and the necessary plastics to integrate it) in two weeks, but then had

            • 8 days.... I think my shortest was about 2 weeks but just the one time. My normal is 4+. Doesn't matter what the object is, how many, etc.
              You must live near some Ali express transit or storage hub or something.

          • Yeah - it's always a fun suprise when my Aliexpress stuff shows up.

            I have so many unstarted projects that ordering on Amazon for a lot of those projects is a waste of money.

      • "What good is Prime for shipping? I can't remember the last time I got anything more than a laser pointer of a pen in less than ten days."

        Good heavens. What are you buying? I'm an extremely frequent flyer on Amazon, and this is so foreign to my experience that I can't really reconcile it. If I had to throw a dart, I get about half of what I need "next day", and 90% of the rest within three days. Sure, some things take time, but I usually know it when I start. For instance, it's going to take 4 days to get

        • "What good is Prime for shipping? I can't remember the last time I got anything more than a laser pointer of a pen in less than ten days."

          Good heavens. What are you buying?

          Cookware, houseware, guitar gadgets, computer doo-dads, board games, books, CDs (yes, they still exist), movies. We're in fly-over country. We have *A* Amazon warehouse in town, but apparently it only stocks diapers or some other shit I never order, because it's damn near impossible to get anything within less than a week. I did order some laser pointers for the pets to play with, and those came next day, but it's the first thing in I don't know how long.

          • Well, under those circumstances I fully understand your position. I'm pleased that our warehouse outside of town is pretty vast in comparison!

      • I have a couple warehouses less than 10 miles from me. I can get stuff in two days, or if I need the right items, I can get same-day or overnight at no extra charge. There is one show on Prime that I spend about a week a year catching up on (Upload). But I am still going to pay $150/yr. for now. If they mess up the deal, I'm gone. But it's definitely not for the streaming.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          I have a couple warehouses less than 10 miles from me. I can get stuff in two days, or if I need the right items, I can get same-day or overnight at no extra charge. There is one show on Prime that I spend about a week a year catching up on (Upload). But I am still going to pay $150/yr. for now. If they mess up the deal, I'm gone. But it's definitely not for the streaming.

          For be, the biggest problem with Prime is that if you can buy it at a Walmart store, it will be 15% cheaper there and will be delivered a day sooner. So a lot of things that I used to buy at Amazon, I no longer do. And for electronics, B&H's card will give me over 9% cash back (sales tax refund) versus Amazon's 5% with Prime or 3% without.

          And now, they want more money to not get bombarded with ads.

          The reasons for paying to Prime keep dropping, and the cost keeps going up. I already attempted to cancel

  • "...Pray I do not raise your prices further." /heavy breathing.
    I tried Prime but stopped when I found all the videos I wanted are "not available in your country". That is honestly the biggest pain in the ass. Even if you are a citizen of whatever country it is quite painful if not impossible to use the relevant app stores or cloud purchase platforms if you are overseas. You can buy DVDs from overseas but not rent, it seems. Anyway, I use Amazon a great deal for Kindle Unlimited (super value, super impulse b

    • I tried Prime but stopped when I found all the videos I wanted are "not available in your country".

      It is actually far worse.. .Travel abroad and they will simply deny you access to *everything* because you're not coming from your geo-locked region.

      Same garbage with Disney+

      Yaaaargh indeed.

    • Emptiest vader threat ever. :)

      "Pray I do not raise your prices further..."

      Please go ahead and discontinue service.

      "I'm altering the... wait... what?"

      Yeah, we'll do without, thanks.

      "... I actually don't have the ability to cancel it myself. Let me get the Emperor on the line to chat with you."

    • "...Pray I do not raise your prices further." /heavy breathing.

      I can't tell what type of heavy breathing. It's either Vader or an investor getting turned on by ripping people off.

    • You can buy DVDs from overseas but not rent, it seems.

      They tried to block that too. When DVD was first invented, they added "region code" to each disc and region lock to standalone players and soon also DVD drives in computer. Open source projects took effort to circumvent/bypass them. Cheap players manufactured by China ignored them. And now you forget what the film industry have done in the past.

  • Easier to use than all the streaming services and the day something lands, you will get an ad-free copy of the very same product which you can keep forever if you want to. Plop them on a spare Raspberry Pi with a VPN and welcome to a world of convenience no other service provides! I once argued in favour of unnecessarily paying these corporations when they were being reasonable, now they have all collectively screwed the pooch, my former position is completely unjustifiable. Whether you watch the shows or n

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Calydor ( 739835 )

      Yarr.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      I dunno, I still think there's something to be said for putting ones money towards what one wants to see as if production companies dont make money on something they arent going to make any more of it. Hence me still having my Hulu account as they tend to have the most programming that I enjoy watching of any streaming service and they are going to keep ordering whatever is getting the most views.

      If all a streaming service does is offer 1 or 2 shows that I want to watch though I'm fine with hitting the high

  • Nickel and diming (Score:3)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @06:32AM (#64236084)

    While some on here are whining it's not a big deal because . . . reasons, this is another in the continuing saga of companies nickel and dimining people for the most petty of services. Remember when BMW was charging a monthly subscription for heated seats [arstechnica.com]? Sure, they dropped it, but you'll note they are pursuing other ways to extract blood from a stone.

    Mercedes locks the full capacity of their vehicle behind a yearly $1,200 subscription [theverge.com]. You want that extra power? You're going to pay through the nose.

    Tesla has done something similar [electrek.co] where it locks battery capacity unless you pay to get the full range. But you still have to carry around the extra weight of all those batteries if you don't pay.

    And of course there are video games. You want to look pretty? Pay up.

    The bad part will be in a decade or so people will consider this normal because they won't have grown up in a time when companies offered "features" as part of the whole deal because they wanted your business. Where a company couldn't decide on a whim to neuter the product your purchased. Where components weren't interlinked so tightly that one of them failing brings down the entire house and you either have to pay through the nose for a repair or buy a brand new product.

    • While some on here are whining it's not a big deal because . . . reasons, this is another in the continuing saga of companies nickel and dimining people for the most petty of services. Remember when BMW was charging a monthly subscription for heated seats [arstechnica.com]? Sure, they dropped it, but you'll note they are pursuing other ways to extract blood from a stone.

      Having the subscription option along with an upfront purchase as it gave you a choice. Where I live there is no need for heated seats; however once every year or two I might drive to a climate where they would be nice. being able to pay for aa month every now and then is cheaper than paying upfront for something I don't usually need, or forgoing it and wishing I had it once in a while.

      The bad part will be in a decade or so people will consider this normal because they won't have grown up in a time when companies offered "features" as part of the whole deal because they wanted your business. Where a company couldn't decide on a whim to neuter the product your purchased.

      That is nothing new, it's been around a whilel. Cars had a base, AKA stripper model, that you could option out how you w

      • This is a change of contract affecting also current subscribers.
        That's you having had a car with heated seats for a year (within your subscription plan), and one day the manufacturer going "nah, you don't" .

        > Even computers did that, with under clocked or binned chips. It's not a new phenomena. The frog has been boiling a long time, so to speak.

        But we all understood we got what was advertised, not "subject to change" and definitely not with a "keep paying me, or else" clause.
        It was a delicate balance, an

        • This is a change of contract affecting also current subscribers. That's you having had a car with heated seats for a year (within your subscription plan), and one day the manufacturer going "nah, you don't" .

          > Even computers did that, with under clocked or binned chips. It's not a new phenomena. The frog has been boiling a long time, so to speak.

          But we all understood we got what was advertised, not "subject to change" and definitely not with a "keep paying me, or else" clause. It was a delicate balance, and it shifted.

          Here you go for a CPU equivalent: https://www.intel.com/content/... [intel.com]

          While I agree with you and am pissed about the change, I do not recall them advertising it as ad free. A better approach, IMHO, would be to keep existing content ad free for current subscribers and perhaps announcing a sunset date; and add the ad tier as an add on with new shows. New subscribers would simply be switched to the new model on the sunset date knowing it would happen. Most of the stuff I watched on Prime was niche automotive or history stuff; so my viewing was very limited so the impact to me

          • What are you on about? This is about removing Dolby unless you pay extra.

            • What are you on about? This is about removing Dolby unless you pay extra.

              I'm pissed about ads and never bother to RTFA. I'll ad being pissed about Dolby, even though I can't tell teh difference, because isn't what the internet is about is being pissed off?

              • For now there is not much lost as most content is not impacted by missing Dolby Vision and Atmos. Movies like Dune (2021) would be impacted if the consumer had the equipment to take advantage of Vision and Atmos. More TVs can display HDR these days but fewer consumers have Atmos setups at home.

      • Thank the consumer desire for smaller, lighter, cheaper.

        Fuck you for acting like Apple. The consumer didn't demand the headphone jack removed and the consumer didn't demand everything be tied together. Both of those actions were taken by companies to extract more money out of you and to further their control of the market. Just fuck you for trying to lay it on the consumer. Asshole. (leaving my name on this one even if it does undo mod points I have spent. I am sick and fucking tired of us eating each other while the corporate rats chuckle at our stupidity and t

        • Thank the consumer desire for smaller, lighter, cheaper.

          Fuck you for acting like Apple. The consumer didn't demand the headphone jack removed and the consumer didn't demand everything be tied together. Both of those actions were taken by companies to extract more money out of you and to further their control of the market. Just fuck you for trying to lay it on the consumer. Asshole. (leaving my name on this one even if it does undo mod points I have spent. I am sick and fucking tired of us eating each other while the corporate rats chuckle at our stupidity and take all of our resources.)

          Here, have another "fuck you" in case my position on your behavior is unclear.

          Well, if you bothered to read for comprehension you've noticed I never defended the moves, just pointed out that as long as consumers buy the stuff they will do what they want. Until people vote with their wallets we will get the same shit. And if you've bought anything from Apple, a car company, appliance, well you are also part of the problem so fuck you too for supporting their fucking shit. If you haven't, then, good for being part of the resistance.

    • Pay premium money for shiny turd-shows. What a deal! Gimme two

      Now is not the time to to get a deal for Amazon Prime Video. Wait a little.

      Wait until MGM's properties distribution rights slowly revert to Amazon. And wait until new movies/shows based on those IPs are slowly developed by Amazon/MGM.

      Then, and only then, will APV be a deal.

      For the time being, I sugest you stay clear.

      • I recently misclicked and got Amazon Prime for a year, rather than for a month, the joke's on me! But their video shitshow of a service, nope, refusing to use that
  • And by that, I mean support it in a way that's measurably different than SDR and 5.1. Most consumers are not watching streaming video on a TV at home. Amazon is just optimizing for its market.

    • Most consumers are not watching streaming video on a TV at home

      Reportedly, over 50% of Amazon users are watching on a computer. That leaves the remainder split between phone and Smart TV or similar.

      Amazon is just optimizing for its market.

      Most high end phones have HDR support [3g.co.uk], and so do plenty of cheapies. The Screen HDR Checker app says that my Moto G Power 2021 supports both HDR10 and HLG. That's an old phone (obviously) that cost me under $300 with a 2 year added insurance plan against drops and breakage.

  • Amazon did the same recently, with a popup saying something like "We're adding ads to the ad-free video plan you bought earlier. Now pay me 3$/mo more, and pray I don't change it further!"

    • Amazon did the same recently, with a popup saying something like "We're adding ads to the ad-free video plan you bought earlier. Now pay me 3$/mo more, and pray I don't change it further!"

      Not really. this is part of the same move, except that some bright spark forgot to write in the pop-up that you were losing Atmos and Vision at the same time you were getting the adds. the $3/mo will get rid of the ads and bring back atmos and vision in one fell swoop.

      Habing said that is a shitty move, made even shittier by the way Amazon handled the whose situation.

  • ... and can pay for that: Do you really subscribe to the basic plan? Come on!

    Having said that, It was a shitty move from Amazon, made even shittier by the way they handled the situation.

    Amazon did it, because they know that the bulk of APV people got the service as part of the broader Prime membership, so, they are going nowhere (i.e. captive audience).

    Thank god for HDR10, and Let's hope Amazon moves to HDR10+ for the basic plan in the near future. Beyond 1080p, I'd rather have HDR in a any way shape or for

  • That's the word from 4KFilme, which discovered that their smart TVs from Sony, LG, and Samsung were now displaying content in HDR10 with Dolby Digital 5.1 as opposed to the higher fidelity options they'd enjoyed previously.

    Hang on, so they got HDR10 instead of Dolby Vision. Two different HDR formats? I bet few to no people notice. Most people canâ(TM)t tell the difference between 1080p and 4K or just a shitty quality encode.

    Same for the switch in the multi-channel audio. Unless youâ(TM)ve got

  • I hope Cory Doctorow gets a cent (Score:4, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @08:42AM (#64236266)

    each time someone uses the word enshittification. Because if he is, he must be getting filthy rich right now.

  • At the last push of enshittification, I said I'd cancel Prime, but I almost forgot. This reminded me, something like six days before renewal. The membership is now on pause. Not that I care about either of these technologies, but it's a matter of principle/pushback on a service that already suffers from dog-shit UX. Ad-laiden UI aside, the Prime player is just utter garbage in terms of seeking, responsiveness, and stability. I might know someone who pirates every Amazon show they watch (despite paying for

  • Those Dolby licensing fees aren't cheap! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Tuesday February 13, 2024 @09:32AM (#64236374) Homepage
    If only credit card swipe fees could be made visible in a similar way so that the victim, oops, I mean customer sees what it really costs everyone.
  • I can understand them not telling customers about this, but if advertisers paid to have their ads alongside content, and then find out that the ads will always have lower broadcast quality and are only ever aired alongside content with lower broadcast quality, that sounds like a misrepresentation. OTOH, there is the opportunity for advertisers to buy an upgrade in return for "Brought to you in Dolby Vision by" messages.

  • They're in a death spiral.

  • Now they're going to nickel and dime us to death.

  • They saw the bandwidth charges on their AWS bill.

  • This is only the first is a series of many price hikes to come. Next up, you'll have to pay even more if you want 4K. It'll be a new, even higher-priced, tier. Just wait, it'll happen.

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