The bottom is dropping out of Netflix • Hacker News Board

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#501

Post by nhkcode » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:18 PM UTC

civilized wrote: post #267

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.

The recommendation system crash is coming. Name a recommendation system that shouldn't be replaced with simple rules based on obvious and transparent metrics like popularity and ratings, or by organizing things into categories. Less fancy ML nonsense, more working hard to gather high quality simple metrics.

https://movielens.org/ is the best one I've used so far. I find it almost creepy how good it predicts how I'll rate a movie.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#502

Post by john_minsk » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:19 PM UTC

sergiotapia wrote: post #135

unboxingelf wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having not touched this since early days of TPB, is there a decent overview to approaches in 2022 you could point me to? E.g. has torrenting moved to the cloud or are most running vpns? Asking for a friend.

Latest and greatest is "plexshares" just google that. I've been sailing the high seas since 2002 and this is my last stop. No fuss, no worrying about anything. Wife and kids are very happy.

Wow. Thank you very much. Any advise for noobs?

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#503

Post by cwkoss » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:19 PM UTC

conception wrote: post #437

serial_dev wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't cancel Netflix yet (have been thinking about it as I find that sometimes I just watch it for hours, and it's kind of a waste of life). I can say for sure, if they introduce ads, I'm leaving, I won't pay for watching ads, sorry.

They've said they are introducing a reduced subscription fee with ads, not adding ads.

I believe ads are fundamentally immoral. (Moral ads are theoretically possible, but in practice I almost never see ads which have the purpose of informing rather than emotionally manipulating. Ads destroy culture, make viewers less happy, and waste time).

The fact that they drew a line in the sand is why I have brand loyalty. If they cross that line, I'll no longer be "supporting a company bringing a moral perspective on content delivery" and turn off autorenew: just pick up a month or two a year.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#504

Post by digisign » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:19 PM UTC

bradly wrote: post #122

FpUser wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Resolution on its own does not mean much. To me all that matters if it is visually ok.

It is not. It's very clearly not HD and we gigabit internet. Other services do fine. Especially rented HD movies that are streamed. So instead of using my TV for Netflix, I watch on my laptop with a browser plugin to set a proper resolution.

Internet provider may be throttling you on purpose. Do they sell TV as well?

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#505

Post by ghaff » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:20 PM UTC

NearAP wrote: post #484

danans wrote: post #322

I doubt most of the subscription loss is attributable to reasons that most HN types go on about (the rants about wokeness, not enough scifi, carousel UI, pirating etc...). What's probably going on is after after a few years of pandemic isolation and Netflix binging, the arrival of pandemic triggered inflation, and overall higher employment rates, people just have less interest, time, and money to binge watch longer f…

I agree. - I recently realized I had only turned on my TV just about 4 - 5 times in about 6 months and yet I was paying close to $140 per month, so I downgraded my cable subscription to the minimal (combined cable & internet is cheaper than only internet). - Also realized I rarely watched Netflix (hadn't watched in months) cos I no longer found shows that I liked and I was paying $15.49 per month. And then I saw HBO…

I think a lot of people have become conditioned to monthly subscriptions that they don't need to think about. But, especially if you're more into films than TV shows, there's something to be said for cutting back on subscriptions and buying/renting a la carte. Netflix still even has their DVD by mail option although the back catalog isn't nearly as good as it used to be.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#506

Post by zeroonetwothree » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:20 PM UTC

jdlshore wrote: post #302

rybosworld wrote: post #249

The original content is 99% garbage. Every streaming service has this problem, though. The series that are really well made are few and far between. E.g. - Narcos - Ozark - House of Cards - Stranger Things For every good show, I see another few dozen that I can't bear to sit through. Stuffing the catalogue with filler is reminiscent of cable.

The problem with this analysis is that it assume everyone has the same tastes, and stuff you don't personally like is "garbage." The reality is that people have a lot of different tastes. I don't think you should judge Netflix by what you don't like; only by whether it has enough of the things that you do like. For example, I've been enjoying "Handsome Siblings," a Chinese wuxia show that's pretty shallow. It's not g…

Yes, I didn't like any of the shows the person you are replying to listed. Although Netflix still doesn't have any shows I like, I've only been enjoying Apple+/Hulu, hell even Amazon.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#507

Post by rjbwork » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

Stunting wrote: post #291

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…

You're stealing income, specifically from me and all of my coworkers. Perhaps you think that you're only stealing from Producers and A list actors, but there are entire departments that receive residuals on a production. - On screen performers, stunt performers like myself and actors who grind out a comfortable living. Those residuals also go to qualifying for health insurance through earnings. You are directly steal…

I, and nobody I know, has pirated games or music since Steam blew up about 12-15 years ago and Spotify/RDIO and similar blew up about 10 years ago.

There was about a decade when Netflix went full in on online streaming and was offering a fantastic service for a reasonable price with a far superior experience to piracy. That is no longer the case, and the unbundling to now a dozen+ of subscriptions is driving pretty much all my techie friends back to movie/tv piracy. I personally don't really watch much TV and might watch one or two movies a year, so I'll just not watch anything. I've already cancelled my Netflix subscription about a year ago, and I prefer playing video games and reading books anyway.

Until your industry can offer a product experience that is superior to piracy, people are going to pirate. The games and music industries have largely solved this problem. When will yours?

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#508

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

Stunting wrote: post #344

californical wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really stealing if they wouldn’t have ever paid for it in the first place? If it’s not easy to find and use on a subscription service that I already have, I’m just not gonna try to search for it or pay for it. What difference would it make if I pirated it and watched it anyways? (FWIW I personally don’t pirate anything, I just really don’t see the merit to the “stealing” argument)

Yes it is really stealing. You want something. You don't want to pay for it. You take it without paying. That's stealing. If you really truly didn't want to watch it, you wouldn't steal it.

[deleted]

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#509

Post by jaywalk » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

ozzythecat wrote: post #474

danans wrote: post #322

I doubt most of the subscription loss is attributable to reasons that most HN types go on about (the rants about wokeness, not enough scifi, carousel UI, pirating etc...). What's probably going on is after after a few years of pandemic isolation and Netflix binging, the arrival of pandemic triggered inflation, and overall higher employment rates, people just have less interest, time, and money to binge watch longer f…

I cancelled because it’s not worth the time investment. Good shows are not only difficult to find, but Netflix will release a season or two and unreasonably no longer continue on, without closing out the story. They try to cater to a mass audience and use a large net, but then due to capital costs or whatever reasons, they force their customer to feel stupid for getting invested into a show in the first place. I miss…

Entire seasons being released at once was such a massive positive for streaming. The fact that they're moving away from that just to boost numbers is very disappointing.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#510

Post by bcassedy » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

danans wrote: post #322

I doubt most of the subscription loss is attributable to reasons that most HN types go on about (the rants about wokeness, not enough scifi, carousel UI, pirating etc...). What's probably going on is after after a few years of pandemic isolation and Netflix binging, the arrival of pandemic triggered inflation, and overall higher employment rates, people just have less interest, time, and money to binge watch longer f…

I haven't canceled yet but am considering it. They have a few problems for me -

They don't make it easy to discover content. They still have quite a lot of good original content that isn't promoted and a slew of third party things that aren't promoted or discoverable at all unless they happen to make the trending list

The majority of their original, promoted content is watered down crap designed for mass appeal.

For TV shows, when they do produce something of quality they often dump it if it doesn't find an audience immediately or it doesn't drive "new subscribers". Leaving a bunch of stories half told doesn't give me the confidence that it's worth the investment to start on their new content. This is especially problematic because it is a vicious cycle where since they aggressively cancel stuff that isn't performing, people don't invest their time in new stuff because of the expectation it gets canceled, means more new stuff underperforms, leading to more cancelations, and further eroding the trust of viewers. It's also negatively impacted by poor discoverability.

Their UI is seemingly optimized to shove their latest broad appeal stuff in my face and seems to deliberately make it hard to find anything else.