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

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

#381

Post by ArkyBeagle »

jccalhoun wrote: post #81
jhbadger wrote: post #5

While I'm sure it's not entirely Netflix's fault (media companies realizing their back catalog has a value), it seems to be a common evolution for movie services to move to providing their own content. Look at HBO. In the 1980s, it was all about showing movies (the name even meant "Home Box Office"). Now it is all about Game of Thrones and what not. With things like House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, etc., that…

I have noticed a lack of black and white movies on netflix. I know Hulu has the Criterion Collection which has some prestige black and white movies but there are tons of them that seem like they should be cheap for netflix to license. Has TMC bought them all up and refuse to license them to netflix or does netflix think no one wants to watch black and white movies?

Some of those may be (poorly resolutioned ) on YouTube. Yes, I think TMC is the dominant player in that niche.

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

#382

Post by jonny_eh »

sk5t wrote: post #77
TarpitCarnivore wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't want to subscribe to 10 different streaming services that all have their own original content Funny how so many people screamed for al la care programming and now that it's happening everyone is realizing it's actually worse. I know people hated it, but there is something to be said about traditional TV and how it's consumed. Having a centralized menu/guide of all the content you can view makes it much easi…

> Funny how so many people screamed for al la care programming and now that it's happening everyone is realizing it's actually worse. I wouldn't equate balkanization with a la carte. To stretch the restaurant metaphor, the current situation is akin to taking 5 cab rides between restaurants to cobble together a meal, there's a lot of overhead and waste. Traditional cable television is the restaurant with everything av…

Switching between Hulu and Netflix on my TV is hardly like taking multiple cab rides. It's actually a far superior experience to cable TV.

Let's not forget that we need healthy competition in this space. We can't, and shouldn't, expect Netflix to just have everything, as good as their product is.

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

#383

Post by dwc »

bcrescimanno wrote: post #304

TL;DR: A former Netflix employee isn't surprised because films very little business sense for Netflix. Former Netflix employee here--though I left in late 2013. I remember sitting at a company meeting and Reed Hastings explaining that AAA film content was never going to be the bread-and-butter for Netflix for several reasons. Most importantly: Between traditional, "linear" television and Netflix, the experience that…

Another point is that it's good to encourage viewers to watch popular shows, so that caching at the edge works better. Having a rotating, small number of AAA movies at a time encourages this. Multiple browse categories based on current popularity encourage this. While Netflix offers tons of choices, the network is most efficient if everyone is watching the same thing, and and it's not at all surprising if Netflix guides people toward that behavior.

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

#384

Post by dexterdog »

TarpitCarnivore wrote: post #96
dorfsmay wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it à la carte if you have to pay 10$ to five different providers in order to be able to choose what you want to watch? I'd be happy with a service that charge me 1$ per show but with real choice.

That exists now through Vudu, Amazon and iTunes. But that still breaks up the model of viewing all your content in one area.

It doesn't exist at all there because they don't have everything. The only place that service exists is via piracy. What we need is a donation page for shows/movies/bands/teams/etc where people who want to pay them for their content, but don't want to pay most of that money to a middle man and don't want to be blocked by the arbitrary distribution of said middle man.

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

#385

Post by alexland »

gautamdivgi wrote: post #75
Coincoin wrote: post #13

Here in Canada almost all English language content is licensed to a single company, Bell. They systematically deny any access to Netflix and started their own service, Crave TV. They are the one responsible for the great Proxy/VPN banning this year. They are taking advantage of a government granted monopoly they had in the 1900's and now control a disproportionate amount of the media in Canada.

So, I was in Toronto in August and used my Netflix account to view movies at the hotel. I think it may have given me the Netflix Canada catalog (since it was over the hotel WiFi). I found that Netflix Canada catalog to be way superior to the one I see in the US. E.g Star Wars TFA was on the catalog, but not there when I got back to the US. Same with Elysium, etc.

It's funny you say that because as a Canadian Netflix user, almost every single person I know prefers the American Netflix catalog. Star Wars TFA is pretty much a one-off, we rarely get new blockbuster movies added to the Canadian catalog this soon after release.

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

#386

Post by pmoriarty »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #292
Fogest wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if the front door was inconvenient and hard to find, and then I paid for it and the front door wouldn't work, then yeah maybe I would go in the back window. Your argument is so flawed, and it really seems like with your comment above that you just are looking for a reason to call the younger generation "entitled". Stop using physical examples, they don't correlate to a digital good that can be duplicated digital…

They got a refund. Then pirated. I understand they were frustrated in their efforts to be entertained. Then took what they wanted. Which is pretty much the definition of 'entitled' Everything is pretty much physical in the real world. Like the physical time and effort folks make to provide services and market them.

"Then took what they wanted."

The word "took" when applied to physical objects implies that only one person (the one who took it) has that object, and the one it was taken from no longer has it.

In the digital world that can only happen if the original is deleted or destroyed, which does not happen in the case of a copy or a "pirating". The original is still in the possession of the "owner", but now also in the possession of the copier. The "owner" does not lose his own copy, so nothing is "taken" from him.

It's analogous, in the physical world, to making a photograph of a photograph. The original photograph still exists, and the "owner" of the original photograph does not have anything "taken" from them by the existence of a copy in the possession of someone else (except perhaps in the legal or potential sense -- depending on the laws, the jurisdiction, and the interpretation of those laws -- but certainly not in any kind of physical sense).

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

#387

Post by nfriedly »

I recently set up a Plex server and started ripping all of my DVDs onto it. There were a couple of hiccups, but overall I've been pretty happy with it. You get a nice netflix-like interface for browsers, it still works great when my crappy internet drops to Ripping DVDs & renaming things to Plex-friendly form is still more work than I think it should be, I'd really like to see something equivalent to CD-ripping software that "just knows" what the disk is by fingerprinting or whatever.

In general, Plex doesn't provide anything that I couldn't do with existing (and mostly free) tools, but it provides a friendly enough interface that my wife can use it without help, and being able to sync content to my iPad before a trip and have it "just work" is really nice.

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

#388

Post by TheBeardKing »

wlesieutre wrote: post #73
TarpitCarnivore wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't want to subscribe to 10 different streaming services that all have their own original content Funny how so many people screamed for al la care programming and now that it's happening everyone is realizing it's actually worse. I know people hated it, but there is something to be said about traditional TV and how it's consumed. Having a centralized menu/guide of all the content you can view makes it much easi…

It's more like subscribing to 4 different cable bundles, each with one good show and 99% stuff you'll never watch just like a big cable TV package. Lookin' at you Mr. Robot.

Although the trend now is for streaming services to offer a subscription to that one good show, though at a pretty steep price. Mr. Robot was something like $25-30 on amazon for season 2.

edit: But some are included at no extra cost. Amazon Prime customers got AMC's Humans the day after it aired for free.

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

#389

Post by dexterdog »

eloisant wrote: post #305
jedberg wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason is that licensing works totally differently for music. For music, you go to a central licensing source and pay for the license. They will license to anyone with money. For movies, you have to negotiate separately with every movie producer for every title. In other words, to start a music service, you need money. To start a movie service, you need money and connections to every Hollywood studio.

In other words, licensing for movies suck and we need to force a change so they can work like music.

But with music the creators don't get paid squat for their content. The middle men make way too much. Part of that is because music is a background thing that is on a lot and repeated where a movies tend to be one-time.

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

#390

Post by ftrflyr »

peeters wrote: post #279
Xorlev wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah but you really don't need "UX designers" to tell you any of that, nor can UX designers fix it.

> Really don't need "UX designers" to tell you any of that

1.) Really? Would love for you to elaborate more. If you don't have a team trying to improve the user experience (i.e. user experience designers) then who will? Will you just wait for you users to tell you there is a problem? If so, then you aren't actively meeting the needs of your users insofar as you are not meeting their goals.

2.) If you are going to downvote me based on an opinion that you have about UX that defeats the primary purpose of downvoting. What I say is true, I work in HCI and UX. You very much need a team who is meeting / understanding the needs of the user. If not, the result is a disconnect between what the user actually needs and what you provide (you being Netflix).

3.) > nor can UX designers fix it. This is just not true. It is the job of UX designers to work closely with the engineering team to meet the needs of the users. I am not sure what experience you have with UX designers, but they should and often do work actively with engineers to "fix it."

So my question for you is: If you don't need UX designers (forgot about the term UX designers as it seems you clearly have a problem with how we are defining a group of people who are actively attempting to design experiences around meeting the needs of the user), then who will you rely on to ensure that the user's needs are being met? The engineers?

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