While streaming giants seem determined to make more money out of customers — see Amazon Prime’s recent price hike and Netflix cracking down on password sharing — the high cost of living and fears of a looming recession are causing more people to rethink how many TV subscriptions they need, or even to cancel them all.
According to Kantar, 38% of Netflix cancellations in the third quarter of 2022 were a result of subscribers 'wanting to save money'.
If you have Amazon Prime, however, the good news is that it contains some hidden features that could save you money. Read on to find out what they are.
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Amazon Prime dialogue boost feature
Do you ever watch TV and rewind the show because you didn’t hear what was said clearly? If you were thinking of investing in new speakers for your TV, there's no need. Amazon Prime has released a new feature that improves sound quality at the click of a button.
The new feature is called Dialogue Boost. It 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.
Dialogue Boost is available on selected shows and movies on Prime. To find out if your chosen movie or show is covered, start streaming and click on the subtitles icon in the top right corner.
From the list of audio options on the right-hand side, select ‘Dialogue Boost High' or 'Dialogue Boost Medium'.
Then sit back and enjoy streaming.
Use the download feature
Amazon Prime 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. 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.
The ‘free to me’ feature
When you're an Amazon Prime user, it can be super frustrating to find a really good movie, and then find you have to pay to rent it. This is one of the disadvantages of Amazon Prime Video compared to other big streamers like Netflix and Disney Plus — not all shows and movies are free to watch. The 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 through your options on Prime. Once you select it, you will only be shown TV shows and movies that are included in your subscription, which come at no extra cost to stream.
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