Amazon Prime Video ads

HeparGirl24

Hi. Although I have Prime for the free delivery I've never really been interested in Prime Video but while I was on holiday at a friends we started watching The Mentalist series on her ad free Prime account but never finished the series.  Back at my home I thought I'd carry on watching it just to the end of the series -  I understood my version would include ads but they have become intolerable.  More and more ads appear the more you watch.  So much so I started turning the volume down or muting the ads when they came on - only to then receive an on screen message saying I'm breaking their terms and conditions by doing this!!!

Does anyone know what happens if I ignore this message and carry on muting the ads?  Will Amazon cancel my Prime subscription if I don't co-operate? 

flaneurs_lobster

What device are you watching Prime Video on?

I know Amazon's computers are far cleverer than me but can they detect me turning the telly down while watching Prime Video via a Firestick? 

Is there really something in the T&Cs that says that you have to play the ads with the volume up??

la531983

Use your actual telly remote to mute and not the firestick one.

HeparGirl24

I haven't got firestick.  It's a Hisense TV.  

HeparGirl24

And I am using the TV controller to mute it.

la531983

I see. I'm baffled how it even knows then.

HeparGirl24

Me too.  I've got round it by using ear buds and I just take them out whenever the ads come one. It's a bit fiddly but I only want to see the next few episodes.  All they've achieved is me never watching anything on there ever again. 

flaneurs_lobster

I can imagine how the technology works to actually feedback volume levels to Amazon Control, I could probably even work out a way it could use your Hive home security setup to grass you up if you pop to the loo during the ad breaks.

I'm just rather surprised that they might consider this kind of information gathering could ever be considered as anything other than intrusive and offensive.

Amazon must have asked for (and had granted) permission for the volume level to be monitored, I wonder how they worded this to allow for "violation of terms" messages to be popped up. 

flaneurs_lobster

HeparGirl24 said:

Me too.  I've got round it by using ear buds and I just take them out whenever the ads come one. It's a bit fiddly but I only want to see the next few episodes.  All they've achieved is me never watching anything on there ever again. 

Ear buds have sensors that detect when they are removed from the ears, Big Prime will still know you are ad-dodging.

financies

Recommend using a laptop and ublock extension. No ads nor smart-tv feeding Big Prime...

I am considering buying a dumb monitor in the future, since smart-tv's become advertising machines.

And on top of that after a few years, you can't even update anymore, forcing you to buy a new one.

Emmia

I hate ads so much I just pay for the ad free prime - not MSE but worth it.