What 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?
Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
111–120 of 170 posts
Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
#112Having 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…
The 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.
I 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.
Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
#113This 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.
There 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%
Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
#114[deleted]
Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I meant Prime Video. But even the store part of Prime is not that convincing anymore to me, shipping times feel much more random to me now than they used to. So maybe there is a significant speed advantage in Prime, but it's just hard to perceive it when at random times you have slow shipping anyway. And the price advantage only comes into play if you order lots of small stuff individually.
My bad. I misread your post. I agree with that.
Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
#116The 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.
Prime 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.
Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I cancelled when they announced limited ads ( or however they phrased it ) to create new content. I did not watch Prime and was using Amazon less and less ( after actually going through my orders, it turned out not to be enough to spend on Prime membership ) and they still had to balls nickel and dime me. I suppose I should thank them to kinda force me re-evaluate this relationship. I suppose Cory was right; enshitif…
I just started a siriusxm trial (never used before) on a new truck and the audio quality is so atrocious that I can’t bear to listen to it. Maybe for like sports talk it might be tolerable but definitely it’s so much worse than even radio (seems like 4x worse than terrestrial radio) for the audio quality that how can anyone pay for this service?
I use it to listen to listen to talk radio, which does not have to be great quality. Business news/talk are also somewhat interesting. In other words, it has moments. It is ok for music if you are half deaf like me:D
Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can 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…
Ted 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.
Ted Lasso is a Warner Brothers production licensed to AppleTV more accurately.
Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
#119It 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.
Too bad they’re unwilling to seriously consider P2P distribution for streamed media. Would cut costs way down.
My residential wired home internet in Silicon Valley has an unreasonable data cap that I hit every month, so I would not be able to use a service that also requires upload.
(Which is very intentionally anticompetitive because they will happily sell you access to their streaming service that doesn’t count towards the cap).
Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs
#120I'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…
> Both of these are propped up on the profits of unrelated business units and offered below cost to viewers Do you have evidence of this ? Apple has historically chosen not to use the loss-leader approach.
I agree. Apple offers TV+ in their Apple One bundle. Their services revenue is huge and this is a big driver of it. News+ and TV+ on their own are not necessarily profitable but I would bet the bundle that includes them is more profitable than the iCloud extra storage only tiers and more than makes up for the cost.
This is very different from they make a lot of money on iPhones so they can afford to waste it on TV shows.