The Amazon Prime Video free tier recently got a big downgrade, when it started showing ads for the first time, but it seems that’s not the only bad news.
German site 4KFilme first spotted that Dolby Vision and Atmos were no longer active on their smart TVs, and the company has now confirmed that this is a feature, not a bug …
The Verge got confirmation from Amazon that the move is a deliberate one.
Amazon has confirmed it’s not a mistake — your Amazon Prime Video subscription no longer includes Dolby Vision HDR or Dolby Atmos surround sound.
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.”
Top comment by Ben Lovejoy
To those saying Prime Instant Video isn't free ... Prime was launched as a delivery service. Amazon later added in extras, like video, without increasing the price. So I video was a freebie when it was added, and I think it's reasonable to say it still is now. (Yes, you can now subscribe to the video service as a standalone, but I doubt that anyone on the planet does that – it makes no sense as a value proposition on its own.)
Content for free users is now falling back to HDR10 for video and Dolby Digital 5.1 for audio.
It follows hot on the heels of the introduction of the ad breaks, which started in the US just a couple of weeks ago.
The ecommerce giant will obviously be hoping that the combined moves will persuade people to upgrade to the paid tier. The reality is more likely to be a lot of dissatisfied customers, and rather few upgraders.
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