Amazon Prime Video quality may be getting worse and pirates are mad

People online have begun to notice something suspicious: Amazon Prime Video’s quality seems to be getting worse. On the television subreddit (May 05, 2018), one user wrote that “the quality was always great” for Amazon exclusive shows, but “this past weekend, I have noticed a significant drop in details compared to weeks before!”

This redditor isn’t the only one. TorrentFreak reports that video-pirating subreddits have noticed a similar trend. These pirates are now decrying the change in the release notes of the shows they are uploading online. Per one description: “Amazon, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to start fucking with the quality of their encodes.”

It’s unclear what caused this change–though some think Amazon is tweaking its encoding profiles, which would impact video quality. Why the company would do this is also unknown–although perhaps Amazon is trying to reduce file sizes.

I reached out to Amazon for comment and will update this story if I hear back.

Whatever the answer is, many have noticed a real decrease in some Amazon Prime Video quality, and the pirates are not having it. You can read the full TorrentFreak post here.