Amazon has quietly locked Dolby Vision and Atmos behind its recently launched ad-free membership option.
As first spotted by 4KFilme, Prime Video on Sony, LG and Samsung smart TVs has been displaying content in HDR10 with Dolby Digital 5.1 versus the previous higher fidelity options. Following that initial report, The Verge confirmed with Amazon that you will indeed need to pay for the $2.99/month add-on not only to remove ads but to get Dolby Vision and Atmos as well.
When Amazon first announced the introduction of ads, it made no mention of the Dolby changes. Instead, it only touted the many benefits of Prime Video and the need to increase prices to continue to invest in original content.
Prime Video is included with an Amazon Prime membership, which costs $9.99/month or $99/year. That doesn’t include the $2.99/month additional fee you’ll need to pay for ad-free streaming and Dolby Vision and Atmos.
For context, Netflix’s most expensive ad-free tier, Premium, costs $20.99/month, while the Disney+ equivalent, which is also called Premium, is priced at $14.99/month or $149.99/year. Finally, Bell — when it’s not pretending to care about mental health while laying off 4,800 people — charges $22/month or $220/year for its Premium 4K ad-free membership.
Image credit: Prime Video
