While streaming giants seem determined to make more money out of customers — like Amazon Prime’s 2022 price hike and Netflix cracking down on password sharing — the high cost of living and is causing more people to rethink how many streaming subscriptions they have.
According to Kantar, 38% of Netflix cancellations in the third quarter of 2022 were a result of subscribers 'wanting to save money' in the wake of rising costs. If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, however, as well as checking out the offers available in Amazon's next shopping event — Prime Deal Days — there are a few hidden features that could save you money that you might not already know about.
1. Prime Video Dialogue Boost
Do you ever watch TV and rewind the show because you didn’t hear what was said clearly? If you've been experiencing this issue and have decided you need to invest in some new TV speakers, there's no need. Amazon has launched a feature that improves sound quality at the click of a button.
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Dialogue Boost, as it is known, uses AI technology to adjust volume levels when someone is speaking so you can hear exactly what they are saying. This is great for movies and TV shows that have a lot of sound effects in the background, so you can hear dialogue properly. Here’s how to enable the feature.
Unfortunately, Dialogue Boost is not available for every show or movie on the service. To find out if your chosen movie or show is covered, start streaming and click on the subtitles icon in the top right corner.
Then, from the list of audio options on the right-hand side, you can either select ‘Dialogue Boost High' or 'Dialogue Boost Medium', depending on how big of a change you need. Then sit back and enjoy streaming.
2. Use the Amazon Prime Video download feature
Prime Video has a download feature that enables you to watch TV shows or movies on your phone without using your mobile data or when you don't have access to the internet.
The best way to use it is to download a bunch of movies and shows while you're connected to Wi-Fi, rather than using all your mobile data. You can then stream all of your downloads when you're offline. This is a great way of using Amazon Prime on your commute or on flights while your phone is in airplane mode, without using all your data.
3. Explore the Prime Video ‘Free to Me’ feature
When you're an Amazon Prime user, it can be super frustrating to find a really good movie on Amazon Prime Video, and then find you have to pay to rent or buy it. This is one of the disadvantages of Prime Video compared to other big streamers like Netflix and Disney Plus — not all shows and movies are free to watch and those costs can mount up if you regularly choose to pay extra.
To cut costs, try selecting the ‘free to me’ button in the top right-hand corner of the screen when you’re browsing Prime Video. Once you select it, you will only be shown TV shows and movies that are included in your subscription. That way, you won't be racking up any costs on top of your membership fees.
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