Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List

#131

Post by fixermark » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 2:13 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #110

roboguy12 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last weekend my wife and I wanted to watch the movie Goat. It was pretty recently in theaters, so we didn't expect it to be on Netflix. We searched HBO Now, Hulu, Starz, and all of the other video streaming services that we have (and pay money for!). We found two options - rent it on Google Play Movies, or rent it through Amazon Prime. Now, we wanted to Chromecast it, and Amazon (to the best of my knowledge) does not…

Yeah I'm not sympathetic. The alternative to finding (and failing to find) a service to watch the show could possibly be - not watching it? The conclusion 'naturally we then had to steal it' isn't entirely justified. Shoplifting is easy and convenient too. Next time you forget your wallet at the corner store. Just sayin.

FWIW, sometimes when I forget my wallet at the corner store, the clerk will just let me take the stick of gum because he knows I'm good for it later.

There's a lot of reasons that analogies between mom and pop face-to-face businesses and massively-middleman'd intermediary transactions break down; this is just one of them.

Re: Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List

#132

Post by icoder » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 2:14 PM UTC

epistasis wrote: post #111

roboguy12 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last weekend my wife and I wanted to watch the movie Goat. It was pretty recently in theaters, so we didn't expect it to be on Netflix. We searched HBO Now, Hulu, Starz, and all of the other video streaming services that we have (and pay money for!). We found two options - rent it on Google Play Movies, or rent it through Amazon Prime. Now, we wanted to Chromecast it, and Amazon (to the best of my knowledge) does not…

There are two issues here, the fragmentation of the services, and poorly implemented services. I have really really tried to use Google Play for video because it seems to work on the broadest array of devices, but the service itself is a second rate experience. Too many clicks, laggy unresponsive UI, silly JS driven pages that require reloading in order to start working again... I too really want to do things the way…

I have HBO Go now for a while next to my Netflix account (that I have longer). Man I hate that app.

Re: Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List

#133

Post by karyon » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 2:14 PM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #116

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I'm not sympathetic. The alternative to finding (and failing to find) a service to watch the show could possibly be - not watching it? The conclusion 'naturally we then had to steal it' isn't entirely justified. Shoplifting is easy and convenient too. Next time you forget your wallet at the corner store. Just sayin.

The analogy between shoplifting and copyright infrigement gets really, really old.

I've made that argument myself, but agree that the current video streaming situation is just dumb. Could you explain me why that analogy is wrong? I understand there is no damage done as in, they don't have less money than they had before, but they still have less money than they would have if i bought/rented the video.

Re: Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List

#134

Post by billmalarky » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 2:14 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #110

roboguy12 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last weekend my wife and I wanted to watch the movie Goat. It was pretty recently in theaters, so we didn't expect it to be on Netflix. We searched HBO Now, Hulu, Starz, and all of the other video streaming services that we have (and pay money for!). We found two options - rent it on Google Play Movies, or rent it through Amazon Prime. Now, we wanted to Chromecast it, and Amazon (to the best of my knowledge) does not…

Yeah I'm not sympathetic. The alternative to finding (and failing to find) a service to watch the show could possibly be - not watching it? The conclusion 'naturally we then had to steal it' isn't entirely justified. Shoplifting is easy and convenient too. Next time you forget your wallet at the corner store. Just sayin.

Devils Advocate: The alternative of "not consuming" digital products is less valuable to creators than "consuming for free."

Allow me to reference a very famous Bill Gates quote on Chinese piracy of software:

"And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

There are more ways to monetize a media property than pay-per-view so to speak. Merchandising is a big one, not to mention word of mouth marketing.

Re: Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List

#135

Post by hamax » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 2:14 PM UTC

roboguy12 wrote: post #85

SCdF wrote: post #28

It sucks that Netflix is pushing their own content as a solution. Don't get me wrong, some of their own content is great, but I don't want to subscribe to 10 different streaming services that all have their own original content, I want to subscribe to one. Netflix--and others, like Amazon Prime--are becoming less and less worthwhile, and piracy is becoming more and more convenient again.

Last weekend my wife and I wanted to watch the movie Goat. It was pretty recently in theaters, so we didn't expect it to be on Netflix. We searched HBO Now, Hulu, Starz, and all of the other video streaming services that we have (and pay money for!). We found two options - rent it on Google Play Movies, or rent it through Amazon Prime. Now, we wanted to Chromecast it, and Amazon (to the best of my knowledge) does not…

> We really, really tried to do it the legal way and pay money for the content we wanted to watch, but it was far too complicated to even find a place to watch it, let alone actually successfully watch it.

Why didn't you just stream Amazon or Play Movies from the computer since you plugged it in anyways? How was stealing it more convenient?

Re: Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List

#136

Post by andybak » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 2:15 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #119

ekianjo wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The analogy between shoplifting and copyright infrigement gets really, really old.

I know; I have to keep bringing it up because people keep pretending they're owed entertainment. This entitled generation is just disappointing.

The reason the comparison is objectionable is because 'theft' is not the same as 'failing to pay a fee'. Theft implies a non-duplicatable object has passed from the possession of one entity to the possession of another thus depriving the first entity of any use or advantage from it.

While we might disagree on the moral shading of copyright infringement can we agree that piracy and theft are different things?

Re: Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List

#137

Post by SolaceQuantum » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 2:15 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #119

ekianjo wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The analogy between shoplifting and copyright infrigement gets really, really old.

I know; I have to keep bringing it up because people keep pretending they're owed entertainment. This entitled generation is just disappointing.

This kind of piracy existed before. Remember sharing music CDs with friends? Remember libraries over buying books? Remember letting your friends borrow your comics or reading photocopies?

Re: Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List

#138

Post by Xorlev » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 2:15 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #115

ftrflyr wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We really, really tried to do it the legal way and pay money for the content we wanted to watch, but it was far too complicated to even find a place to watch it, let alone actually successfully watch it. Hey @Google, @Amazon, @etc., you have UX designers (tons of them). If this problem isn't fixed soon, more will do the same.

Robotguy12 did not describe a UI problem. First there was a licensing problem, then there was a technical playback problem. The movie was nominally legally available, but it might as well not have been, for how hard it was to find and then playback. The technical problem is relatively easily fixed and probably just an isolated local issue. The licensing problem is a bigger one. For rentals, you have the problem of ha…

Parent said "UX" not "UI" problem. UX broadly encompasses all aspects of the experience, not just the UI. Sucky licensing hiccups, buffering, etc. all lead to poor UX.

Re: Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List

#139

Post by warfangle » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 2:16 PM UTC

roboguy12 wrote: post #85

SCdF wrote: post #28

It sucks that Netflix is pushing their own content as a solution. Don't get me wrong, some of their own content is great, but I don't want to subscribe to 10 different streaming services that all have their own original content, I want to subscribe to one. Netflix--and others, like Amazon Prime--are becoming less and less worthwhile, and piracy is becoming more and more convenient again.

Last weekend my wife and I wanted to watch the movie Goat. It was pretty recently in theaters, so we didn't expect it to be on Netflix. We searched HBO Now, Hulu, Starz, and all of the other video streaming services that we have (and pay money for!). We found two options - rent it on Google Play Movies, or rent it through Amazon Prime. Now, we wanted to Chromecast it, and Amazon (to the best of my knowledge) does not…

With the chromecast extension on chrome, you can cast amazon prime just fine from your computer.

Re: Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List

#140

Post by pkroll » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 2:16 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #115

ftrflyr wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We really, really tried to do it the legal way and pay money for the content we wanted to watch, but it was far too complicated to even find a place to watch it, let alone actually successfully watch it. Hey @Google, @Amazon, @etc., you have UX designers (tons of them). If this problem isn't fixed soon, more will do the same.

Robotguy12 did not describe a UI problem. First there was a licensing problem, then there was a technical playback problem. The movie was nominally legally available, but it might as well not have been, for how hard it was to find and then playback. The technical problem is relatively easily fixed and probably just an isolated local issue. The licensing problem is a bigger one. For rentals, you have the problem of ha…

Is that Hulu making the decision, or the content owners? I'm guessing they're going to keep making the wrong decisions, while the various services throw up their hands trying to deal with the insanity.