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Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

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Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#431

Post by rkk3 »

OskarS wrote: post #83
slibhb wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I can tell they've succeeded at becoming HBO. I admire how the company has evolved over the years. It's cool that they distribute (and sometimes fund) movies made by excellent directors (Coens, Scorsese, Sorrentino). It does seem like a precarious business model: they have to keep picking or making winners but so far they're doing well.

> As far as I can tell they've succeeded at becoming HBO. Have they? Have they really? As far as I can tell, nothing that Netflix has ever done in-house has ever come close to the best of the cable channels. Like, The Witcher is fine, but Game of Thrones it is not, neither in quality nor buzz/cultural significance. House of Cards is no Succession and Ozark is no Breaking Bad. Nothing they have could even come close t…

> in terms of cultural impact. The closest they've ever come, in my opinion, is probably with Making a Murderer

Tiger King & Squid Game were both pretty impactful.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#432

Post by rkk3 »

Semaphor wrote: post #186
jitix wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Netflix's product is not software but content. I understand what you're referring to but if Prime Video's UX is any indication, content trumps software product quality in this market segment. If I were Netflix I'd probably divest the technology side of the business (which is arguably the best in the market) and sell that "software product" as a white label streaming platform to the myriad of media houses acro…

> I understand what you're referring to but if Prime Video's UX is any indication, content trumps software product quality in this market segment. Netflix consistently made their UX worse, they started far beyond Prime Video, nowadays, it’s a tossup. I canceled Netflix for that reason alone.

Really? Amazon Prime had(has?) one of the worst UX issues I've ever seen... with Auto Starting episodes from a shows page (if you had partially viewed) and if you x out of the episode auto starting again - with no way to navigate to other episodes of the show. Like being stuck in an MC Escher painting.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#433

Post by FalconSensei »

rightbyte wrote: post #352
FalconSensei wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about US, but here in CA the Netflix catalog is way better than the alternatives (expect maybe for Crave, but that's more expensive)

Depends on what we are comparing to. I used to have a movie rental around the corner. For like 3USD I could rent any movie I wanted from all major publishers. Old and new. 9USD/month for a rather small selection of those is just bad. The buffet fallacy is strong with how people value all you can eat streaming vs. one of rentals.

If you want a specific rental, you can still get that with apple/google/amazon, right? You don't need to sign up for the all-you-can-eat buffet.

Although I kinda agree a bit with prime-video channels. Apart from the basic service you get (if you have prime), you can get specific add-ons for more focused content.

Another note on the rental: I really don't understand why we are able to rent movies, but not TV shows. For TV, you have to buy the episode/season, and buying a 20-min TV episode costs same or more than renting a 2 hour movie. I guess I'll just get it 'somewhere else' if it's not available on my platforms and I really want it

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#434

Post by chihuahua »

FalconSensei wrote: post #266
UnpossibleJim wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of global, I have noticed that Netflix is one of the few who offers a variety of non-English/American targeted shows. There are quite a few Indian, Mandarin and Latino focused programs in their lineup, which I haven't seen on the other channels (except for HBO en Español). Could it be that Netflix has seen that they can't compete in a crowded market with "the big boys" (though their bank share might disagree…

> Speaking of global, I have noticed that Netflix is one of the few who offers a variety of non-English/American targeted shows. That's something I love about Netflix. Watching German, Russian, Spanish, Danish TV shows is really cool for change

"Fauda" from Israel is a good show. 3 seasons so far. Some of the writing is questionable, but it's good overall.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#435

Post by imbnwa »

cosmojg wrote: post #408
imbnwa wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We talkin Peaky Blinders and The Last Kingdom? Anything else?

I would love if Netflix picked up Utopia[1], and given current events, now would be a very interesting time to do so. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(British_TV_series)

Amazon has the rights atm and even tried making an American version that really really sucked and had nowhere near the cinematography and editing chops of the British version

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#436

Post by chihuahua »

Semaphor wrote: post #177
Gustomaximus wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't write them off yet. Disney, Apple and Amazon seem the only real competitors as this is a game of scale. Disney is even more content limited and better for kids. Apple never got it right, cant see them fixing it now. And Amazon stuffed it between their mixed model where half the stuff you want to watch has extra fees + generally limited inclusive content, though the prime membership might buy that back. Bot…

> Wild card is sport, that can be attractive and sticky if someone merges that in. Amazon Prime Germany has been showing me adverts, that they have soccer/football games (not sure what league or if there is an extra cost associated as I don’t watch sports), so they are at least in some regions already there.

I know some people in Germany who are watching football on Amazon Prime Video. They get some Champions League games, but not all.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#437

Post by FalconSensei »

ethbr0 wrote: post #405
FalconSensei wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Speaking of global, I have noticed that Netflix is one of the few who offers a variety of non-English/American targeted shows. That's something I love about Netflix. Watching German, Russian, Spanish, Danish TV shows is really cool for change

Agreed! La casa de papel (aka Money Heist) and Dark were both super enjoyable. Do you watch anything particular in Russian or Danish?

Danish: I watched The Rain, and Chestnut Man is on my list to watch soon. I'm also interested in Elves and The Killing.

Russian: I loved Road To Calvary and To The Lake, and watched some of Better Than Us and liked it.

German: One of my favorite shows of all time is Babylon Berlin :)

Norwegian: Ragnarok is kinda interesting.

Egyptian: Paranormal is good, and only 5 episodes long.

Spanish: Cathedral of the Sea is interesting, and I loved Ministry of Time - although this one vanished from all online streamings :/

Swedish: The Restaurant is available on Sundance/Star or some other channels. Like Downton Abbey. Just watched a couple episodes, but it was nice

French: Lupin and Les Revenants (The Returned) - although I think the second is not on Netflix now, but somewhere else. Watched it many years ago

Belgium: not fantastic, but Thieves of the Wood is just one season long and enjoyable.

Italian: I liked Curon, although it didn't seem to please too many people, I think?

On my list: Trapped, which is Icelandic.

Cheat: Hinterland - it's made in both English and Welsh

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#438

Post by nirvdrum »

dehrmann wrote: post #309
nirvdrum wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OLEDs can display true black whereas standard LCDs cannot. If the black regions are compressed and blacks become something close to black, but not quite, it looks bad on an OLED as that region is illuminated. Netflix appears to compress blacks very heavily, so you end up with large rectangles of slightly different dark shades, none of which are really black. I'm not an expert on panel technology, but I think because…

I want to trust that the codecs know that it's hard to see dark, so I wonder if the displays are being calibrated incorrectly, maybe to pump up the brightness for the showroom.

Fortunately, Netflix is the only service exhibiting this issue. Blu-rays look great in 1080p and UHD. Other streaming services look good as well. I've also tried Netflix on multiple devices connected to the TV. In all cases, the Netflix HD stream is distractingly blocky during dark scenes.

My best guess is their choice of codec and compression settings predate OLED availability and they don't want to re-encode and just expect people to upgrade to their 4K plan. I've never had their 4K plan, so I can't say whether that truly addresses the problem.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#439

Post by prirun »

zuminator wrote: post #396
ethbr0 wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the minor things that jump out to me. Peacock uses a white glow around the preview picture as their selection indicator. No border. Just a faint glow. HBO Max has no way of navigating to a show page from your most recently viewed carousel. You have to find or search the show separately. It's death by a thousand cuts, but jesus... use your competitor's app. See what UX works and what doesn't. I can't imagine any…

Paramount+ has subtitles that are almost impossible to read with some videos. And you're forced to watch an unskippable ad for their other content when you start your first show of the day, even if you have the commercial free plan. Amazon Prime awkwardly splits their shows into individual seasons ('series' in UK) in such a way that it's difficult to ascertain how much of the show you'll actually be able to watch on…

The thing I hate most about Amazon Prime is that I added shows to my watchlist that were free at the time, then when I went to watch them later, they cost. IMO, Amazon makes things free until they see if they're successful, then switch them to paid. This pissed me off so bad that I no longer spend any effort looking for shows to watch. If I don't find something in 10 minutes, I turn off the TV. Which is most of the time.

I split my Amazon Prime with my neighbor so she can get free shipping. She doesn't care about the TV part, and to me, it's not worth much either.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#440

Post by dns_snek »

bilater wrote: post #319
discardable_dan wrote: post #2

I said this again recently, but it's worth repeating: Netflix is on the very fast downward slope. Their catalog is wilting, the space is heating up with well-established competitors moving in and serving the precise content that Netflix originally built their brand on, and their efforts to fund a new catalog with new IP (and taking ownership of old IP) is destroying the business model that made them so appealing in t…

Respectfully, this is a lazy take. If you even slightly dig into the numbers the price increase makes complete sense. Netflix spent 17 billion dollars on content last year. They are outspending competitors 2 to 1 if not more. Their catalog is thriving - you have big names like DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, The Rock etc signing on for movies. You have shows like Squid Game attracting ridiculou…

I honestly don't see how their catalog is thriving. A lot of popular TV series and movies have moved to their own streaming services and I can only speak for myself, but I find the vast majority of Netflix Originals to be big budget, but at the same time low quality content. They produce some real gems, but I find that those are usually few and far between.

Combined with how frustrating their library is to explore, at least on desktop, I'm really having trouble justifying a Netflix subscription.

Endless horizontal scrolling which repeatedly presents the same movies/TV shows on sequential pages, extremely limited information before you click on a show and various other quirks in their UI add up to an extremely frustrating experience, to the point when I'm strongly considering going back to piracy.

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