Netflix Is Forcing Hollywood into a Talent War • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix Is Forcing Hollywood into a Talent War

#101

Post by mlthoughts2018 » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 10:14 PM UTC

clubm8 wrote: post #96

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could not disagree more. Prime Video is by far the best user experience for me, and Netflix is by far the worst. I can't stand how Netflix displays related results when they don't actually have a particular result in stock. I cannot stand the auto-start feature where if you're browsing and idle too long on one item, it will start playing a trailer or synopsis. The sideways scroll under different heading is horrible…

>Prime Video is by far the best user experience for me, and Netflix is by far the worst. Prime is good while watching . For finding content Netflix is superior IMHO. The recommendation algorithm is better, plus the search is better. Amazon Prime treats seasons as distinct entities - so you need to manually add each available season of a show.

It's funny how much variation of opinion there is about this. I find Netflix's search and discovery functionality to be borderline unusable. I get so frustrated when using the app, and many times have opened it with the intention of searching for something to watch, only to get so exhausted wading through crap that is not interesting that I just exit from the app and do something else.

Their algorithms heavily favor their own original content, and they clearly have stopped giving a shit about movies in general, and focus almost entirely on whatever latest and greatest darling shows they produce.

Very sincerely, the information retrieval experience of Amazon is the main thing that makes Amazon significantly superior, instead of just being a little better on small touches.

I should also point out that I pretty much hate Amazon as a company, and frankly it pains me to admit all this, but very truly they are running circles around Netflix with their streaming service.

Re: Netflix Is Forcing Hollywood into a Talent War

#102

Post by InclinedPlane » Sat, Oct 06, 2018, 8:33 AM UTC

TylerE wrote: post #73

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could not disagree more. Prime Video is by far the best user experience for me, and Netflix is by far the worst. I can't stand how Netflix displays related results when they don't actually have a particular result in stock. I cannot stand the auto-start feature where if you're browsing and idle too long on one item, it will start playing a trailer or synopsis. The sideways scroll under different heading is horrible…

The real star of Amazon Prime video: Skip forward button. So easy to skip past logos, titles, or even just plain boring bits.

You can skip forward and back with Netflix too.

Re: Netflix Is Forcing Hollywood into a Talent War

#103

Post by mlthoughts2018 » Sat, Oct 06, 2018, 3:50 PM UTC

drstewart wrote: post #67

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could not disagree more. Prime Video is by far the best user experience for me, and Netflix is by far the worst. I can't stand how Netflix displays related results when they don't actually have a particular result in stock. I cannot stand the auto-start feature where if you're browsing and idle too long on one item, it will start playing a trailer or synopsis. The sideways scroll under different heading is horrible…

Everyone knows that Amazon has hands down the absolute worst streaming video experience. Just because you have a very specific search use case does not change that fact. Talk about cheaply done streaming -- apparently sticking a retail UI meant for shopping for chairs and peanut butter on top of videos is premium to you?

This comment reads like you’ve never actually used Prime Video. The UI is not at all similar to their retail shopping UI, not even in the browser and certainly not in apps on other devices.

I would say I have a very generic use case of these services:

- I want to rent / buy content when it’s not part of what’s already in the streaming service.

- I don’t want algorithmically personalized results. I want “exact search” to always work.

- I want the top panel area when I log in to always have the content I’ve been actively watching, so that the easiest thing to do is to resume.

The video player, connectivity, lack of bugs, subtitles, non-Western content, ability to directly integrate premium add ons, etc., are all just superior to Netflix.

Netflix literally has one advantage: some of its original shows are good enough that I still want to watch them despite the Netflix app environment being unpleasant to use. I wish I could do even that through Amazon.

Re: Netflix Is Forcing Hollywood into a Talent War

#104

Post by namlem » Sat, Oct 06, 2018, 4:04 PM UTC

ggregoire wrote: post #53

I wish Netflix would force HBO Go and Amazon Prime Video into an UX war. It drives me crazy how bad the player and the general experience are on these 2 services. You can’t even pause with the space bar on HBO.

Netflix has pretty wonky UX as well. I'm always frustrated by it.

Re: Netflix Is Forcing Hollywood into a Talent War

#105

Post by aranelsurion » Sat, Oct 06, 2018, 4:38 PM UTC

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #55

ggregoire wrote: post #53

I wish Netflix would force HBO Go and Amazon Prime Video into an UX war. It drives me crazy how bad the player and the general experience are on these 2 services. You can’t even pause with the space bar on HBO.

I could not disagree more. Prime Video is by far the best user experience for me, and Netflix is by far the worst. I can't stand how Netflix displays related results when they don't actually have a particular result in stock. I cannot stand the auto-start feature where if you're browsing and idle too long on one item, it will start playing a trailer or synopsis. The sideways scroll under different heading is horrible…

Surprised to see no one mentioned "My List" thing.

I'm nearing a year as a Netflix user, yet I still have no idea how that list is sorted. It's not sorted by last added, last updated, recently watched, alphabetic or any other method that I can make any sense of. There is no button to change the sorting method.

Of course, this list is also re-sorted very often, so I simply have to look around and find where they placed my favorite show today in a list of 50~ items, while trying to have a breakfast.

Re: Netflix Is Forcing Hollywood into a Talent War

#106

Post by thrower123 » Sun, Oct 07, 2018, 9:24 PM UTC

gamblor956 wrote: post #94

da_chicken wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean, copy exactly what the same company did with Marvell, the most successful and profitable film franchise in history? You didn't think that those movie plots were original did you? Infinity Gauntlet is from the 70s.

Marvel comics are all cannon...And Disney acquired Marvel after it had a history of taking its decades of comics and turning them into movies. The Star Wars EU was not cannon. It was glorified fan-fiction. More importantly, with Marvel there was no need to maintain historical consistency since the comics themselves were continuously rebooted and retconned over decades. With Star Wars, there is only a single continuum…

Star Wars EU was canon until the Disney purchase. Lucas had to approve everything, and there were efforts to maintain consistency.

I'll never be convinced that Thrawn wouldn't have been a better storyline than this complete rehash.