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Home / News / You’ll have to pay Prime Video extra for Dolby Vision and Atmos

You’ll have to pay Prime Video extra for Dolby Vision and Atmos

The HDR and surround sound formats are also being locked behind Prime Video's new fee to remove ads from existing subscriptions.

Prime Video logo and titles

Despite ranking as one of the top streaming services, Amazon’s Prime Video is in the headlines at the moment for the wrong reasons. Other the past few months, the service added an extra charge for subscribers to remove ads, on top of their existing package. But there’s something else you’ll now have to pay extra for – Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

Your existing Prime Video subscription no longer includes either Dolby Vision HDR or Dolby Atmos surround sound. They’ve both been locked behind the new ad-removal fee that Amazon rolled out over the past few weeks. Subscribers now need to pay an additional $2.99/£2.99 on top of their existing subscription to remove ads, and to keep both of Dolby’s formats.

Amazon was less clear about the changes to Dolby Vision and Atmos. But Dutch news outlet 4KFilme discovered prime Video was only playing content in HDR10 and with Dolby Digital 5.1 rather than the better formats. After this, Amazon confirmed that this was a deliberate move, explaining “Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos capabilities are only available on the ad free option, on relevant titles”.

This move has irked most Prime Video subscribers. The fee has been whacked on top of existing subscription tiers, which previously promised not to display ads. Amazon’s streaming service starts at $8.99/£8.99 with ads, and there’s the $2.99/£2.99 fee to remove them and add Dolby’s hi-fi formats back. Price isn’t necessarily the issue here – Netflix’s top tier costs $22.99/£17.99 these days. It’s more the fact that your existing subscription is losing features that subscribers are upset about.

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About

Connor is a writer for Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website. He has been writing for around seven years now, with writing across the web and in print too. Connor has experience on most major platforms, though does hold a place in his heart for macOS, iOS/iPadOS, electric vehicles, and smartphone tech. Just like everyone else around here, he’s a fan of gadgets of all sorts! Aside from writing, Connor is involved in the startup scene. This exciting involvement puts him at the front of new and exciting tech, always on the lookout for innovating products.

Areas of expertise

Mobile, macOS, EVs, smart home