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by Semaphor 2706 days ago
Amazon has one huge problem for me: Language. I'm in Germany. I do not want dubbed movies/shows. I need English subtitles (translated subs are useless but I need subs to understand what's being said during loud scenes). Amazon usually (less than Netflix though) has OV, but subs are almost exclusively in German.

Netflix, on the other hand, has almost everything in English with English subs (exceptions are foreign language shows and most anime)

Of course, it doesn't help Amazon that their interface is atrocious and that they have ads. (Well, I mean Netflix is working towards making their interface worse, but for now, they are still miles ahead)

If I wouldn't get Prime Video for free with my normal prime subscription for shipping, I'd never use it. I barely ever use it as is.

1 comments

Amazon has issues with language, and I imagine some of it is licensing, but like several times I've done the "try to learn a foreign language by reading the same book in two different languages" thing, and it's really hard to do with the kindle. Like spanish and french and Japanese are mostly just not available to me on my US amazon account.

I mean, I can get an amazon.co.jp and amazon.fr and amazon.es account, and tie them to different kindles, but each time I want to switch kindles, i have to wipe the thing, and get rid of my english books.

I'm totally willing to pay a premium for kindle convenience, and deal with not being able to loan books so easily, etc, etc, the kindle walled garden actually works really well for me in English but once you move out of English, it's just not convenient anymore.

Yeah, Amazon reminds me of Google a few years ago: Language settings are a clusterfuck. My Amazon.de is in English, Alexa and generally digital accounts are connected to Amazon.de (otherwise I'd lose prime video and prime music without paying twice).

English books work fine, but for some reason, I can't add skills while Alexa is in English. I need to switch it to German, add skills, switch it back to English for it to work.