Amazon cripples ad-supported tier

Recently, Amazon started showing ads on it's Prime Video service. They will remove the ads if you pay $3/month. But now there is word that Amazon has removed some functionality of the standard (now ad-free) plan.

According to Forbes, Amazon has dropped visual and audio quality for subscribers:

... the Prime Video with ads tier also denies subscribers the previously available benefits of Dolby Vision high dynamic range pictures and Dolby Atmos sound.

So as well as having to put up with adverts on a subscription they may well have taken out months ago out with no expectation that ads would be involved, basic tier subscribers now find that they also no longer get the same potential premium picture and sound performance features they once had.

This is just dirty. It says a lot about the character of the decision makers at Amazon.

My Streaming Life doesn't utilize Prime Video much, so I'm not really impacted, at least not much. Still, it's a bad thing that Amazon has done. And as soon as Walmart Plus gets the kinks worked out of its shipping, I'm done with Amazon Prime.