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The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

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Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#231

Post by e40 »

CabSauce wrote: post #160
cercatrova wrote: post #101

It's easier just to pirate than keep up with all these streaming services. - You get the benefit of high quality (true 4k, not stream compressed "4k") and no buffering. - Plex, Radarr, Sonarr automatically downloads and categorizes your content for you, you can just sit back and enjoy your content. - Edit: Plex et al are not the *only* ways to download content, not sure why some replies are thinking so. I too can typ…

Sure. It's also stealing. And doesn't provide any money for future shows that you might enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I've done it for some things that I wanted to watch, but wasn't willing to pay for. But let's not pretend that everyone torrenting is a reasonable solution.

There were a few years were I literally stopped all torrenting. Netflix and Amazon had everything I wanted. Sure, there were a few things that didn't exist, but I was too lazy to go after that minor amount of content. I was fully legal and paying for everything. I was fine with it.

Then, the great splintering happened. I currently pay for 5 services, but that doesn't cover even 1/2 of what I want to watch.

All the content owners said to themselves "we can be Netflix or Amazon Prime, too" and they pulled their content into their own services.

But the biggest problem: the user experience absolutely sucks now. It's so hard to find stuff and remember where things are, there's no universal search. I have to use justwatch.com on my phone when I want to sit down to watch something new, which might mean a trip to the computer to download it if one of the many services I already pay for don't have it.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#232

Post by nevi-me »

halfnormalform wrote: post #168
CabSauce wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. It's also stealing. And doesn't provide any money for future shows that you might enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I've done it for some things that I wanted to watch, but wasn't willing to pay for. But let's not pretend that everyone torrenting is a reasonable solution.

Quoted post unavailable.

It doesn't matter how you rationalise it. Someone created content with the intention of it being consumed for a fee. You downloaded it, likely from someone who illegally copied/reproduced it.

Maybe I didn't "steal", but I contributed to criminal activity.

Sure, copyright laws can seem absurd, but if you disagree with the laws, consider the ethics.

How would you feel if you have a business, I steal from you, and then go give random people your content? This especially when it starts to drive into your revenues.

"Only digital copy" is disingenuous. If the cost of producing the digital copy is say $40mm (an amount article says some Netflix movies can cost).

They're making copies from a digital copy, and their business is to sell access to them. If their model is "we'll replicate this copy 500 million times, and charge users $0.10 a view", every 10 copies viewed elsewhere is $1 lost.

Should a service raise the fee to say $0.12 to better cover costs?

Ultimately, theft is often subsidised by paying customers.

I'm also guilty of this. I download torrents where:

* I can't buy something because it's not available due to region restrictions, and I can't buy it via VPN (looking at Disney+)

* I can't buy it anywhere altogether.

Where I used to download maybe 50 torrents a year a decade ago, I probably do it The pricing strategies of big corp is a separate accessibility issue.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#233

Post by hatchnyc »

itronitron wrote: post #142
regularfry wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long tail works as long as the people in the tail can find the content relevant to them. If browsing and search is bad enough that it doesn't seem to be there, it might as well not be.

Their UI, or the service itself, is also flaky. It's fairly common for us to start watching a series and the next day Netflix will show us as having already watched all of the episodes, despite our changing to a complex password and also not enough hours passing for us to have watched them all. I wonder if they are juicing the numbers for some reason or if it's just an error.

> It's fairly common for us to start watching a series and the next day Netflix will show us as having already watched all of the episodes

Wildly off-topic but perhaps you’re turning off a TV without the streaming device itself shutting down?

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#234

Post by orangepurple »

roody15 wrote: post #137
pojzon wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can assume Netflix does not have this kind of browsing simply due to amount of content they have. Offering of Netflix is extremely poor if you crop out all the duplicate shows popping on your feed. Ive decided to drop Netflix simply because: - new interesting shows are popping up so rarely, there is no point to pay the monthly sub - there is too much political agenda sold even in children shows (Kids really dont ne…

"there is too much political agenda sold even in children shows" Yes sadly this has become much more prominent in the last couple of years. It has blatant political propaganda inserted into all of their original content that is clearly forced and hurts the quality of the programming.

This is designed to shift the overton window. I'm not sure who benefits from it or why it's being rammed through though.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#235

Post by 1minusp »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #77
sudden_dystopia wrote: post #22

Interesting analysis. I find it interesting that so many people spend so much time watching tv in the first place. Growing up, I was one of those people but about a decade ago I lost interest in pretty much anything on television. There are certain shows that I will watch on occasion that get me hooked, but I usually struggle to find anything that is actually worth my time and end up just turning the tv off after sur…

I only use Netflix and Prime, and both feel really stale to me. It's all "content" - good to very good production values designed to fill a gap and appeal to a demographic. But very repetitive and production line, with no passion projects, nothing too arty or quirky, nothing outside of the box, no surprises. Some of it is quite watchable, but none of it is exciting or fresh. It's all some combination of stock soapy c…

This exactly. Across a LOT of their anime, crime drama espcially (in my limited view, probably applies to other genres as well), I feel they have this minor variation on a theme, sort of algorithmically built, almost. Everytime i watch some new series i get this "wait a minute..." feeling. I occasionally find new stuff to watch that is interesting (of late, noir crime drama shows on Prime) but those also have the same ingredients. A lot of those are not prime original anyway. That original content seems rare.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#236

Post by chx »

yosito wrote: post #109
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #92

Honestly for me I just do not know all the content Netflix has because the browsing is so bad. I wish instead of pushing shows to me best on algorithms, it would just let me browse categories and recent additions etc in a simpler way. Maybe categorised by year.

Absolutely, Netflix would be 1000 times better if they just let me sort, filter and find content based on concrete metadata. Instead, I'm forced to rely on their recommendation algorithms that purport to know what I want to watch, but for some reason keep recommending low quality content in languages I'm just not interested in. I'd be happy if I could just filter Netflix to only show me content with original audio in…

I actually want to search for "action series with female leads" but I have no idea how to do it with Netflix nor does Netflix carry most of them. Instead, I "search" on Reddit and pirate them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ifyoulikeblank/comments/rdpmp9/tv_i...

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#237

Post by zupzupper »

eatbitseveryday wrote: post #183
nradov wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when Netflix had DVDs the recommendation algorithm worked pretty well, at least for me. It's gotten gradually worse over the years. Or perhaps they no longer have much good content, so no recommendation algorithm would work well? Either way I guess it's time to cancel my subscription.

They still do rent discs. I am a subscriber thereof. dvd.com

Same here, much better selection on DVD / BluRay than their streaming.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#238

Post by ODILON_SATER »

pojzon wrote: post #125
yosito wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, Netflix would be 1000 times better if they just let me sort, filter and find content based on concrete metadata. Instead, I'm forced to rely on their recommendation algorithms that purport to know what I want to watch, but for some reason keep recommending low quality content in languages I'm just not interested in. I'd be happy if I could just filter Netflix to only show me content with original audio in…

I can assume Netflix does not have this kind of browsing simply due to amount of content they have. Offering of Netflix is extremely poor if you crop out all the duplicate shows popping on your feed. Ive decided to drop Netflix simply because: - new interesting shows are popping up so rarely, there is no point to pay the monthly sub - there is too much political agenda sold even in children shows (Kids really dont ne…

`- there is too much political agenda sold even in children shows (Kids really dont need this kind of crap)`

This is what pushing me over the edge. I have both Netflix and Amazon prime subscriptions. I have thought several times to drop one. The only reason I still have Netflix is because my wife and kids watch their shows. But I have had a hard time finding good shows because everything is political, and I hate when the trailer deceives me and they just inject pure political propaganda in the middle of the show.

Suddenly I found myself reading about Synology NAS and how to set up Plex on it. I am very close to buy a Synology NAS, and to boot I can get host my own VPN server, seems like a good idea.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#239

Post by dj_mc_merlin »

barkerja wrote: post #216
dj_mc_merlin wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose is to be a signal to the distributor: "fix your payment model or we're not paying". I pirated for a long time. When Netflix became a thing, I stopped pirating (since it was easier). Now I pirate again. If a new company came along with a good model, or the industry as a whole decided this streaming debacle is stupid, I would definitely stop pirating and give my money to someone. Until then, why would I pay…

What is a "good model" to you?

Effort of buying legally Netflix did it (once upon a time. no, not the movie). I don't really care for reasons why this is hard for the industry or really anything else. As long as it doesn't economically make sense for me to give money to someone (doesn't reduce my own effort/time expenditure or provide something I can't have otherwise), I will not give money to someone. Morals be damned.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#240

Post by bhaney »

Joeri wrote: post #207
halfnormalform wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Steal verb 1: to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice Yes, piracy is stealing according to the dictionary, especially if done habitually. That the owner is left with a copy of the work is immaterial to the act of theft.

Oh, are we doing argument by dictionary now? Here's another one then:

Take verb

1: remove (someone or something) from a particular place.

Piracy doesn't remove something from a particular place, so it is not taking, so it is not stealing. You know, "according to the dictionary"

(My point here is to show that quoting dictionary definitions to resolve technicalities is a worthless argument. I don't actually care whether or not piracy is classified as theft)

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