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Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs

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Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs

#161

Post by tracker1 »

Alupis wrote: post #4
echelon wrote: post #3

I'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…

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…

On Amazon: Reacher, The Boys, Terminal List, Jack Ryan

All of which took top viewership levels. Of course they're all pretty good shows.

Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs

#162

Post by joshspankit »

soco wrote: post #153
joshspankit wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the service. For Disney and Paramount+ they already own the IP and the costs then would be storage + bandwidth + metadata/transcoding servers + engineer time. Of those, the bulk would be bandwidth. Similar for content that’s owned by the platform. Netflix, Apple, and others invested in to original programming and in those cases there’s again no need to license.

However the prices of all those are similar. By this interpretation, either Disney does a very bad and expensive engineering job, or Netflix is losing big money. And I don't think either is the case... so there must be something else (and I can't tell what).

In this case you can’t look at prices as an indicator of profitability. Pricing is all marketing right now, and only barely connected to real business numbers.

Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs

#163

Post by tracker1 »

ilikecakeandpie wrote: post #43
jeffbee wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the real problem with Prime Video. The first party content is terrible .

The Boys is great, but I can't really say there's anything else that I'm excited about

Invincible, Reacher, Terminal List and Jack Ryan are all pretty good as well.

Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs

#164

Post by hollerith »

jeffbee wrote: post #10
zelos wrote: post #7

> 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.

This is the real problem with Prime Video. The first party content is terrible .

Disagree. The Boys is the most fun I've had with video entertainment all year.

And I like The Expanse better than I like most sci fi. (And it's the only one I know of that actually cares about portraying space travel true to physics.)

Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs

#165

Post by wccrawford »

crazygringo wrote: post #127
wccrawford wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, 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.

Yeah, 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…

Weather effects are pretty immersive that way, too. But most scenes are indeed pretty flat.

Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs

#166

Post by oehpr »

gentleman11 wrote: post #27

This 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 th…

I'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.

Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs

#168

Post by echelon »

woobar wrote: post #75
echelon wrote: post #3

I'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…

Traditional studios was also "propped" by unrelated business. Seagram/Unviersal, Gulf+Western/Paramount, Transamerica/UA, (Time,AOL,AT&T)/WB, Sony/Columbia, News/Fox. On what grounds a business should not be allowed to buy another unrelated business?

While true and a good counter point, the tech companies own both the means of distribution (platforms) and the devices used to consume.

These are subsidized across unrelated business unit profit, enforce the moat of these businesses, and create substantial barriers to entry for businesses across all sectors, including entertainment businesses.

It's really weird that my grocery store is producing Lord of the Rings, selling me the router and TV with which to watch it, and shipping it to me.

Or that the device I use to pay for dinner pops up a notification for Ted Lasso, which also gets prime real estate across several screens that all cross-sell first party experiences.

We've strayed really far from the regulations that produced dealerships and mandated that movie studios couldn't own theaters. Now these companies own everything and can force your hand on distribution and marketing.

Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs

#169

Post by paulmd »

VanTheBrand wrote: post #109
paulmd wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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,…

not saying I agree with the OP but player install base would be the infrastructure hurdle more than the discs

Late reply but yup probably fair.

Re: Prime Video cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos support from ad tier–and didn't tell subs

#170

Post by razodactyl »

VanTheBrand wrote: post #113
razodactyl wrote: post #58

This 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%

Damn you and your amazing insight. Have a star *
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