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

#471

Post by deegles » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 7:44 PM UTC

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…

Has Netflix considered providing video hosting services for content owners? It could even be with no Netflix branding.

Customers would still have to sign up for multiple services but at least all the content would be available.

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

#472

Post by Larrikin » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 7:44 PM UTC

novaleaf wrote: post #452

jameslk wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted. This is actually a pretty good argument for why piracy is still relevant. There's been numerous occasions when I wanted to share something with a friend, but the content was blocked just because of geographical differences. These limitations create incentives to find the content elsewhere, which is usually illegitimate means.

I didn't downvote, but... well, honestly this is a bit of a strawman, if you consider that most of the internet using public is able to legally view the content in question. That a small percentage of people can't... OK that's true. but bringing that up as a reason why piracy can be justified doesn't really seem conductive to a cross-discussion.

What is a small percentage to you? Its extremely frustrating that there is basically no way to access large swaths of Japanese media because the companies don't think there is much market outside the country. They even go so far as to block their biggest stars on youtube. I thought it was extremely ironic that AKB's Fortune Cookie video was not watchable in the US on youtube, when the entire premise of the video was that people all around the world were posting videos on youtube doing the dance featured in the video because they had such a global reach.

Good luck finding anything but the most popular animes legally in the US. I don't think I've ever even seen a Japanese drama through a legal means.

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

#473

Post by Finnucane » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 7:46 PM UTC

cybernytrix wrote: post #408

karpodiem wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'I'm not particularly ashamed to say I turn to unlicensed torrents for this purpose, but I would prefer if it weren't necessary.' No studios will collectively give a tech company the majority of the licenses to make this possible - so torrents it is.

Renting a movie is less than what you will spend in Starbucks (most of them).

How could it be less than zero?

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

#474

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 7:48 PM UTC

gregmac wrote: post #470

dragonwriter wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DVD players are cheap, so that's an easily solved problem.

My willingness to deal with physical media, let alone the postal service (any more then I am forced to, anyway) disappeared a few years ago. How is Netflix able to get rights to send physical media, but not stream? It seems to me that literally the only real difference is physical media means there is a limit on number of concurrent viewers.

Physical media is subject to the Doctrine of First Sale, which means Netflix doesn't have to get a special license for DVD rentals.

From a copyright perspective, that's a fundamental difference from streaming.

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

#475

Post by blakeyrat » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 7:49 PM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #329

paol wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's the case, that leaves the problem (from the consumer's point of view) of where to get access to a complete(ish) catalog of films. Netflix actually achieved this back in the disc-by-mail days. So we're actually moving backwards. I'm not particularly ashamed to say I turn to unlicensed torrents for this purpose, but I would prefer if it weren't necessary.

"Netflix actually achieved this back in the disc-by-mail days." Netflix's DVD service still exists.[1] They have a fantastic selection, compared to their streaming service. [1] - https://dvd.netflix.com/

I'm nostalgic for Blockbuster's disk-by-mail service, which had a much better selection than Netflix's ever did. (Ironically; considering how poor the selection in actual Blockbuster retail stores was.)

Whenever I wanted some mega-obscure Japanese or Thai movie, Netflix never had it and Blockbuster always did.

Oh well.

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

#476

Post by bogomipz » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 7:49 PM UTC

manachar wrote: post #459

bogomipz wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you recommend some that have deep catalog? I find the that iTunes and Amazon don't have anywhere near the deep catalog that I once enjoyed at my local video store. For a real film buff being able to go rent F. W. Murnau's "Noseferatu", Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blowup" or Polanski's "Knife in the Water" was really important to me and something I took for granted. Almost every large city had a least one such fil…

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Nosferatu-Silent-Max-Schreck/dp/B001O... https://www.amazon.com/Blowup-Vanessa-Redgrave/dp/B000I157KO https://www.amazon.com/Knife-Water-Leon-Niemczyk/dp/B004D22R... Amazon + Netflix + Blueray player has become my perfect combination. The few titles that I can't get streaming I just buy the discs.

Ha, wow. OK I guess I need to give Amazon another look then. I think I maybe looked for these or similar ~ 1 year ago and went away disappointed. This is great. Thanks.

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

#477

Post by whatusername » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 7:49 PM UTC

coldcode wrote: post #420

manuelflara wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there's iTunes (a PPV service, of course). I'd like to know how big of a catalog iTunes have in terms of % of the 1,000 most popular movies they have.

Not all movies on iTunes are rentable. Been waiting for the third Hobbit movie forever.

I'm pretty sure that's streaming on Netflix. (Australian catalogue)

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

#478

Post by serge2k » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 7:52 PM UTC

paol wrote: post #318

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…

If that's the case, that leaves the problem (from the consumer's point of view) of where to get access to a complete(ish) catalog of films. Netflix actually achieved this back in the disc-by-mail days. So we're actually moving backwards. I'm not particularly ashamed to say I turn to unlicensed torrents for this purpose, but I would prefer if it weren't necessary.

If you're willing to stream then buying from Amazon is an okay option.

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

#479

Post by Someone » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 7:53 PM UTC

Nadya wrote: post #413

brown9-2 wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not particularly ashamed to say I turn to unlicensed torrents for this purpose, but I would prefer if it weren't necessary. It's not necessary if you accept the cost that the makers of these films want to charge you.

This assumes the product can still be purchased or is for sale in the country. Not every country has a licence to sell certain movies. Literally can't pay the money the makers of the films what they want to charge me because they don't want to charge me . This also applies to music and other products (though other products can't necessarily be pirated). My options are: a) Pirate the movie at no cost to the creator b)…

  c) Watch another movie, paying its creator
     (possibly the same as in option a)

If the minority's of people do that, the shared culture is going to stay, but it will ignore the movie of options a) and b), and include that of option c).

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

#480

Post by blakeyrat » Wed, Oct 12, 2016, 7:57 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #328

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…

Do people not binge watch movies on Netflix because of something inherent in the form, or because Netflix doesn't make continuous play of related sets of movjrs, especially serial franchises (where it would make sense just as it does for TV series) possible, both because it doesn't support it as the default (or even an optional) mode in the UI as it does for TV series and because it also rarely has whole franchises i…

I really wish Netflix had the YouTube-esque ability for users to make and share playlists.

All the Star Trek series and films are on Netflix. Wouldn't it be great to have a playlist of every episode by original air date? (So you don't get confused when Deep Space 9 refers to an event in First Contact?) Wouldn't it be awesome to have a playlist of only the top 20 Voyager episodes, so you don't have to suffer through the awful ones?

It surprises me they haven't implemented this. If they did, any user could solve your problem of putting a movie series in order.

Of course I also wish they had a "back 30 seconds" button for when you miss a line of dialog, and that's never been done either. Sigh. It seems like all their revenue is going into making Marvel shows and zero into software development.