The bottom is dropping out of Netflix • Hacker News Board

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#561

Post by Stunting » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 6:08 PM UTC

kmeisthax wrote: post #513

Stunting wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Ugh. Never before have I seen a comment that I've agreed with so much but also wanted to yell at at the same time. To put it really bluntly, pointing out how piracy is easier than paying again is not literally stealing money out of your pocket. The whole "lost sales" and "stolen income" thing doesn't always hold water, because you can't measure all the counterfactuals involved. A lot of pirates are either just data h…

It is literally stealing money out of my pocket. Even if they don't watch it themselves, they will provide it free of charge or even for a personal fee I will never see to someone else.

The concept that Pirates wouldn't have paid for it anyway is valid. Part of my problem with piracy is that so much bullshit gets consumed that without stealing, those things would be much less part of pop culture and we'd have a lot better stuff to entertain us.

However for definition sakes. Taking a service that you wouldn't have consumed by paying and using it for free is stealing.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#562

Post by jeffdn » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 6:08 PM UTC

f0e4c2f7 wrote: post #40

sudden_dystopia wrote: post #22

Interesting analysis. I find it interesting that so many people spend so much time watching tv in the first place. Growing up, I was one of those people but about a decade ago I lost interest in pretty much anything on television. There are certain shows that I will watch on occasion that get me hooked, but I usually struggle to find anything that is actually worth my time and end up just turning the tv off after sur…

I don't watch stuff unless it has ended and is reccomended by someone who watches shows I generally enjoy. Here's my pitch for the golden age of TV, though most of these are from a few years back. Most on HBO. The Wire The Sopranos Generation Kill The Deuce Treme Show me a Hero Luck The Expanse Sillicon Valley (not actually that funny but like a documentary of our field) Mad Men

Band of Brothers? Succession? Severance?

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#563

Post by ryanmcbride » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 6:09 PM UTC

The reason I cancelled was a combination of not being particularly interested in most of the content (I liked Bridgerton though) and the fact that while they were boasting record profits, they hiked their price up. I remember back when their streaming service was new it seemed like they had every movie under the sun (or at least a lot more than they do now) but since every studio has decided to have their own streaming service, it's mostly Netfilx's own movies/shows. Some are good but they miss way more than they hit.

On top of that, raising the price in the same month that they announce record profits left a really bad taste in my mouth. I know they're a business, and businesses love to chase infinite growth, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or give them my money.

The best streaming service for my particular usecase, which is primarily watching wide release movies, has been hbo max/go/whateverthey'recallingitthisweek. They get most of the wide release movies I'm interested in, and for the older weirder niche stuff that they don't get, I just buy the dvd/blu-ray and throw it on plex.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#564

Post by sngz » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 6:09 PM UTC

I haven't had netflix subscription for years now since they stopped carrying movies and TV shows other networks had and shifted towards producing their own shows. I'm not interested in any of their original series / movies and just used it to avoid going to the movie theater and watching TV ads.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#565

Post by kyriakos » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 6:12 PM UTC

rhino369 wrote: post #323

hardwaregeek wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how to phrase this nicely, but this is precisely the type of Hacker News nerd-blindness that I find amazing. It's "easier"? Is it? For young children who want to watch their kids shows and don't know what 4k means? For grandparents who want to see some k-dramas and have no clue about DRM or geo-locked? Sure, Netflix has issues and it's made some bad decisions, but let's not delude ourselves here. The gro…

It's not easier. I've got a BS in EE and am old enough to have downloaded episodes of the TV show 24 over 56k using early BitTorrent. I've successfully set up plex (which requires an in house server/spare pc), sonarr, radarr, usenet, etc. I'm probably the 99% percentile in ability to pirate. And its not easier than netflix. 90% of people I know probably couldn't set this up. And the other 10% would spend more time di…

I would gladly pay for a service I am currently getting through piracy if there was a legal way to have it though. Availability of all content, no geoblocking (I live in a country where Disney+ and HBO Max is not available but I do pay for Prime and Netflix). For me if there was a way to have what I'm getting in a legal way I'd go for it but it is not an option. What I'm getting at is that its not a matter of money/pricing its also a matter of convenience, availability and not having to track 4+ subscriptions and apps when you can watch it all under a single platform.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#566

Post by kderbyma » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 6:15 PM UTC

it has nothing I want...they seem to think their algos work which they do not....the political Tinge was a tad too much to stomach after a while, and when they no longer supported deep searching and reduced their catalogue and trimmed out almost all value....it was not a hard decision to cancel.

And....nothing seems to be changing...

TIP. wanna survive. give me a build my own tv service.....with timeslots and my own show cycles that I put together from the content.........that would fix binging and would allow me to have a real value add......simple easy fixes....but they are going to try and market their stuff to look better rather than fix it....

fix it....it's busted...

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#567

Post by ehsankia » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 6:17 PM UTC

sylware wrote: post #130

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…

... and you are not forced to use those grotesquely and absurdely massive and complex google(blink/geeko) or apple(webkit) based browsers (and their SDKs), in other words, open source drm software which is "obfuscated" via complexity and size: you can use the media player you like, and in my case my shmol media player I wrote (using ffmpeg). This issue is actually critical as it is not really piracy as it narrows dow…

Hell, even those browsers only get 720p...

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#568

Post by asciimov » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 6:17 PM UTC

julianbuse wrote: post #545

asciimov wrote: post #242

The only think that keeps me subscribed is my partners addiction to Asian dramas (K-dramas, J-dramas, C-dramas, etc). Yes, we also have several other dedicated Asian Drama streaming services, but Netflix has some exclusives.

What is a C-drama?

Chinese Drama's. Interesting thing about them is that they usually dub over their local accent with Standard Mandarin.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#569

Post by mattferderer » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 6:18 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…

This is underrated.

I recall hearing a discussion on the extreme desire humans have to hear a story's ending, even when they aren't that interested in the story. There is simply a need to know how it ends. I've caught myself to often watching something I think is a waste of time but needing to know how it ends. This is as much of a weakness as the reciprocity rule.

Netflix burned me to many times on this. It's bad taste to re-use the same story time & time again to pump out tons of content. It's unforgiveable to not finish the story though.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#570

Post by Kye » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 6:19 PM UTC

e40 wrote: post #231

CabSauce wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. It's also stealing. And doesn't provide any money for future shows that you might enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I've done it for some things that I wanted to watch, but wasn't willing to pay for. But let's not pretend that everyone torrenting is a reasonable solution.

There were a few years were I literally stopped all torrenting. Netflix and Amazon had everything I wanted. Sure, there were a few things that didn't exist, but I was too lazy to go after that minor amount of content. I was fully legal and paying for everything. I was fine with it. Then, the great splintering happened. I currently pay for 5 services, but that doesn't cover even 1/2 of what I want to watch. All the co…

JustWatch is good for this, but it mostly reveals how sparse most of their catalogs are. It confirmed for me, at long last, that the reason I couldn't find anything to watch is because there wasn't anything to watch. Paramount+ at least has all the Star Treks after pulling it from every other service, but it seems like all they have other than that is 30 seasons of 5 cop shows.