The Netflix Bible
January 9, 2016 1:39 PM Subscribe
What's on Netflix? You know how, when you go to Netflix, it shows you what IT thinks you want to watch..and how finding anything else (or even browsing other categories) is next to impossible...
"What's on Netflix" has a page where, by inserting the number from any of the many, many categories listed on the pages from the first link (note, there are three pages of categories, the navigation is at the bottom of the page) you can browse stuff you never knew existed!
Note, folks... I realized after I posted that you can just click on any of the category links to get to that section.... no cutting and pasting the numbers required (unless you like that sort of thing)...
posted by HuronBob at 1:49 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by HuronBob at 1:49 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm getting different answers from different accounts. Are they still limiting answers to what they think I'll want to watch?
posted by merelyglib at 1:58 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by merelyglib at 1:58 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
There's an extended hypertext list for UK Netflix users here.
posted by biffa at 2:05 PM on January 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by biffa at 2:05 PM on January 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
NVM, figured it out.
posted by merelyglib at 2:08 PM on January 9, 2016
posted by merelyglib at 2:08 PM on January 9, 2016
I'm coming across the odd miscategorized title (Tom Clancy knock-off films showing up under Rock & Pop Concerts, also A Brony Tale showing up in the same subsection).
posted by stevil at 2:09 PM on January 9, 2016
posted by stevil at 2:09 PM on January 9, 2016
I'm surprised this story has so much legs. I've seen it posted on a bunch of sites, and, like, it is not helpful at all. I suppose getting to choose which (mostly useless) categories you get to pick from is better than the default here-are-some-random-categories, but it's still basically just putting a sparkler in a turd.
How about a list of everything on Netflix, sortable by release date, date added, running time, et cetera?
posted by Sys Rq at 2:28 PM on January 9, 2016 [58 favorites]
How about a list of everything on Netflix, sortable by release date, date added, running time, et cetera?
posted by Sys Rq at 2:28 PM on January 9, 2016 [58 favorites]
Am I totally misremembering, or did they used to have this as a readily accessible feature that you could access directly from Netflix? I remember seeing much more specific categories than you can see in their genre categories now, anyway.
They've been steadily moving toward a push model, removing user controls and including more advertising like features for their own content. If it were just me, I'd have cancelled Netflix a while ago, but I live with other people who aren't quite as pissed about it as I am.
I am kind of liking going through these categories, and I already found a movie I'd really been wanting to see (they had it rated at an objectively incorrect one star, so I guess it was buried or something), but since I am finding it useful, I assume they'll find a way to make it inaccessible before long.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:34 PM on January 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
They've been steadily moving toward a push model, removing user controls and including more advertising like features for their own content. If it were just me, I'd have cancelled Netflix a while ago, but I live with other people who aren't quite as pissed about it as I am.
I am kind of liking going through these categories, and I already found a movie I'd really been wanting to see (they had it rated at an objectively incorrect one star, so I guess it was buried or something), but since I am finding it useful, I assume they'll find a way to make it inaccessible before long.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:34 PM on January 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
Netflix doesn't want to create that kind of catalog, because its hold on content that it didn't produce is EXTREMELY tenuous, and catalogs remind you of what is lost.
posted by MattD at 2:39 PM on January 9, 2016 [23 favorites]
posted by MattD at 2:39 PM on January 9, 2016 [23 favorites]
since I am finding it useful, I assume they'll find a way to make it inaccessible before long
This is nearly universal anymore. If you want to do something that is objectively simple and obvious, but you can't, it is never a technical limitation; it is always an artificial constraint.
posted by yesster at 2:39 PM on January 9, 2016 [17 favorites]
This is nearly universal anymore. If you want to do something that is objectively simple and obvious, but you can't, it is never a technical limitation; it is always an artificial constraint.
posted by yesster at 2:39 PM on January 9, 2016 [17 favorites]
You all know about instantwatcher.com, right?
posted by kiltedtaco at 2:41 PM on January 9, 2016 [37 favorites]
posted by kiltedtaco at 2:41 PM on January 9, 2016 [37 favorites]
(The Amazon experience is equally intentionally hobbled.)
posted by yesster at 2:42 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by yesster at 2:42 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
If you want to do something that is objectively simple and obvious, but you can't, it is never a technical limitation; it is always an artificial constraint.
I'm pretty sure this is one of those things that works as a caption for every single New Yorker cartoon
posted by oulipian at 2:45 PM on January 9, 2016 [13 favorites]
I'm pretty sure this is one of those things that works as a caption for every single New Yorker cartoon
posted by oulipian at 2:45 PM on January 9, 2016 [13 favorites]
No Canada. Worthless.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 2:51 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by ethnomethodologist at 2:51 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
(The Amazon experience is equally intentionally hobbled.)
At least in terms of the interfaces I get via Roku, the Amazon one is far worse. The Netflix one isn't great, but the Amazon one is just laughably terrible.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:52 PM on January 9, 2016 [7 favorites]
At least in terms of the interfaces I get via Roku, the Amazon one is far worse. The Netflix one isn't great, but the Amazon one is just laughably terrible.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:52 PM on January 9, 2016 [7 favorites]
Ugh, the Amazon experience. I just can't stand how you cannot sort alphabetically (to browse Amazon, I always use the browser on my laptop). It's hard to believe that they do it that way for any reason other than making it difficult to see just how limited the offerings really are, in the end.
I do respect that they had the "things you can't watch on Netflix" category--I know they do it to show off "LOOK! It's EXCLUSIVE to us" but I use it to decide if it's worth bothering to swap over--as much as I hate the Netflix browsing (we use a PS3 for streaming), the Netflix interface is far superior to the Amazon one.
posted by crush-onastick at 2:54 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I do respect that they had the "things you can't watch on Netflix" category--I know they do it to show off "LOOK! It's EXCLUSIVE to us" but I use it to decide if it's worth bothering to swap over--as much as I hate the Netflix browsing (we use a PS3 for streaming), the Netflix interface is far superior to the Amazon one.
posted by crush-onastick at 2:54 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
The UI of the Netflix app on the new Apple TV is borderline unusable. It's much worse than the UI of the Netflix app on the last gen Apple TV and it's almost impossible to find anything besides what Netflix recommends for you.
posted by gyc at 2:55 PM on January 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by gyc at 2:55 PM on January 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
So I have not used Netflix since they stopped sending you DVDs. Is this that you can't search all the movies they have and pick what you want? You can only pick from a list generated for you by some algorithm? What is even the point of this? Is there a service where you can pick your content for yourself? I don't understand why, if it's all pixels or whatever, they can't let you pick from all the pixels. What is the business reason for this? (I mean, even if they don't actually have everything, why not let you pick from what they do have?)
If this is the case, I no longer feel like such an old fogey for not having streaming set up.
posted by Frowner at 2:56 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
If this is the case, I no longer feel like such an old fogey for not having streaming set up.
posted by Frowner at 2:56 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I remember when Youtube stopped showing the most recent uploads, it felt like something was lost there. I can see why there might be technical limitations when you're getting so many videos uploaded per second, but when your owned by freakin' google there has to be some element of choice in removing that. Now everything I see on the front page of youtube is either a) a thing just like the things you watched the other day (or ten thousand things like that one thing you clicked on) or b) what everyone else is watching now because everyone else is watching it because everyone else is etc etc. And adverts. When I want to find new things, I have to go to other websites, Youtube isn't going to help me. It's like when I buy something from an online store and the next day or so I get adverts showing that I can buy that exact same thing from the exact same shop. It's meant to feel like it's a customised experience of the stuff I want, but all it really feels like is that the walls of the internet are closing around me and they don't want me to see anything without already knowing it exists.
posted by eykal at 3:01 PM on January 9, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by eykal at 3:01 PM on January 9, 2016 [10 favorites]
Netflix will still send you DVDs if you want, but it costs extra.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 3:02 PM on January 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by Elementary Penguin at 3:02 PM on January 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
At least Netflix isn't as bad as Amazon's streaming UI on the web.
But Netflix does need to stop minimizing your movie the instant the credits start to roll to show you what else you can watch. Or have an option to disable it.
posted by starman at 3:11 PM on January 9, 2016 [10 favorites]
But Netflix does need to stop minimizing your movie the instant the credits start to roll to show you what else you can watch. Or have an option to disable it.
posted by starman at 3:11 PM on January 9, 2016 [10 favorites]
Netflix doesn't want to create that kind of catalog, because its hold on content that it didn't produce is EXTREMELY tenuous, and catalogs remind you of what is lost.'
This is true, and it's not their fault. Netflix just rents most of the films it shows. The real owners want to squeeze every dime out of their property, just like everybody else. It's an ongoing contest played out in contracts. Sometimes Netflix has the rights to show a film, and sometimes those rights expire. In this respect, Netflix is a lot like HBO and Showtime.
posted by Modest House at 3:21 PM on January 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
This is true, and it's not their fault. Netflix just rents most of the films it shows. The real owners want to squeeze every dime out of their property, just like everybody else. It's an ongoing contest played out in contracts. Sometimes Netflix has the rights to show a film, and sometimes those rights expire. In this respect, Netflix is a lot like HBO and Showtime.
posted by Modest House at 3:21 PM on January 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
So I have not used Netflix since they stopped sending you DVDs. Is this that you can't search all the movies they have and pick what you want?
You can search in a search bar by movies names/keywords - i.e, "The Shining", "Kubrick", "horror", etc.
You can also search through a large number of categories and sub-categories: "documentaries" "political documentaries" "romantic comedies", "critically acclaimed foreign films", "trending", "newly released."
What doesn't exist within the system is one long list of everything that exists. Sometimes it has stuff that you don't realize it has, and it's not displayed right away, so that can be not great.
People hate on Netflix's content but I think it has a lot of good quality stuff. It's not a good place if you're like "I want to watch this one specific movie and I don't know it's there or not" but it's a good place if you're in the mood for, say, a romantic Bollywood story or a documentary about chefs or hear that they got Tangerine and have been meaning to check it out or whatever. The original content is also top notch. Considering how easy they make it for multiple people to share one account, I'm okay with the value for price.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 3:27 PM on January 9, 2016 [7 favorites]
You can search in a search bar by movies names/keywords - i.e, "The Shining", "Kubrick", "horror", etc.
You can also search through a large number of categories and sub-categories: "documentaries" "political documentaries" "romantic comedies", "critically acclaimed foreign films", "trending", "newly released."
What doesn't exist within the system is one long list of everything that exists. Sometimes it has stuff that you don't realize it has, and it's not displayed right away, so that can be not great.
People hate on Netflix's content but I think it has a lot of good quality stuff. It's not a good place if you're like "I want to watch this one specific movie and I don't know it's there or not" but it's a good place if you're in the mood for, say, a romantic Bollywood story or a documentary about chefs or hear that they got Tangerine and have been meaning to check it out or whatever. The original content is also top notch. Considering how easy they make it for multiple people to share one account, I'm okay with the value for price.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 3:27 PM on January 9, 2016 [7 favorites]
Is this that you can't search all the movies they have and pick what you want?
With both Netflix and Amazon you can always search by title. What people are complaining about is the ways both services present their suggestions/selections, which tend to be both arbitrary, repetitive, and limited.
posted by Dip Flash at 3:29 PM on January 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
With both Netflix and Amazon you can always search by title. What people are complaining about is the ways both services present their suggestions/selections, which tend to be both arbitrary, repetitive, and limited.
posted by Dip Flash at 3:29 PM on January 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
The biggest frustration, probably, is that a lot of the features I want used to be there, but they keep removing them, and adding other anti-features, with each new UI design.
I used to be able to go to a dedicated page to see my queue from the app I watched it in. That is now gone, and on the Roku app, for example, 80% of the screen is now taken up by that GIANT title card section and lists that I don't give a shit about. I have to scroll vertically through my own queue, five at a time, because they're using most of my screen to advertise other stuff I don't care about.
I'm also 90% sure that I used to be able to see, from my queue, if something was expiring soon. That doesn't seem to be available anywhere on any Nefflix UI I use anymore.
Then, they started including animated title cards for some of their own content, so I'd have stupid things moving on an otherwise static page all the time.
And they started autoplaying ads WITH SOUND from the main screen.
And they 'merged' the star ratings so that it's, uhhhh, I don't know but The Ridiculous Six showed up on my recommendations (because I watched Jauja!) with a five star rating, so it's obviously useless.
And then, movies started autoplaying from the detail screen, and I honestly cannot fathom how anyone would not hate that. You've already got your finger on the play button from when you navigated to the detail screen. It's not a big deal to press it again if you just want to play it immediately.
All those new 'features' are advertising. The fact that the ads are for Netflix's own content and not for cars and dish soap doesn't change the fact that they are ads, and they are taking over the content that I pay for.
Obviously, their available licensed content expires at some point, and I at least don't have a problem with that. It's still worth the price for the catalog that is available, and I don't mind checking my queue every now and again to see if something on there is expiring. But their insistence on pushing content to users, removing user controls, and just generally making the process opaque, is slowly changing it from a pull service where the user has access to the catalog and can choose what they see, and more into a push service like cable TV where people turn on their TV to see what's on.
posted by ernielundquist at 3:33 PM on January 9, 2016 [19 favorites]
I used to be able to go to a dedicated page to see my queue from the app I watched it in. That is now gone, and on the Roku app, for example, 80% of the screen is now taken up by that GIANT title card section and lists that I don't give a shit about. I have to scroll vertically through my own queue, five at a time, because they're using most of my screen to advertise other stuff I don't care about.
I'm also 90% sure that I used to be able to see, from my queue, if something was expiring soon. That doesn't seem to be available anywhere on any Nefflix UI I use anymore.
Then, they started including animated title cards for some of their own content, so I'd have stupid things moving on an otherwise static page all the time.
And they started autoplaying ads WITH SOUND from the main screen.
And they 'merged' the star ratings so that it's, uhhhh, I don't know but The Ridiculous Six showed up on my recommendations (because I watched Jauja!) with a five star rating, so it's obviously useless.
And then, movies started autoplaying from the detail screen, and I honestly cannot fathom how anyone would not hate that. You've already got your finger on the play button from when you navigated to the detail screen. It's not a big deal to press it again if you just want to play it immediately.
All those new 'features' are advertising. The fact that the ads are for Netflix's own content and not for cars and dish soap doesn't change the fact that they are ads, and they are taking over the content that I pay for.
Obviously, their available licensed content expires at some point, and I at least don't have a problem with that. It's still worth the price for the catalog that is available, and I don't mind checking my queue every now and again to see if something on there is expiring. But their insistence on pushing content to users, removing user controls, and just generally making the process opaque, is slowly changing it from a pull service where the user has access to the catalog and can choose what they see, and more into a push service like cable TV where people turn on their TV to see what's on.
posted by ernielundquist at 3:33 PM on January 9, 2016 [19 favorites]
In the UK at least, findanyfilm is fairly helpful, although it tends to overestimate what is on Sky. This is taking exactly the opposite tack from the fpp, though.
posted by fizban at 3:43 PM on January 9, 2016
posted by fizban at 3:43 PM on January 9, 2016
So I have not used Netflix since they stopped sending you DVDs.
Go to http://dvd.netflix.com . The old service still exists, same as it ever was, but they don't draw attention to it from the main Netflix website. I have 2 discs out at a time for $12 a month, and I don't pay for streaming at all since I don't use it.
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:46 PM on January 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
Go to http://dvd.netflix.com . The old service still exists, same as it ever was, but they don't draw attention to it from the main Netflix website. I have 2 discs out at a time for $12 a month, and I don't pay for streaming at all since I don't use it.
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:46 PM on January 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
Netflix does need to stop minimizing your movie the instant the credits start to roll
It was after they made that change (on the PS3 client) that I first started thinking Netflix was maybe not so much worth paying for any more. Often it would do that *before* the credits, in one case during the first third of a movie. I found that if you skipped to the very end of the movie, hoping that it would be well into the credits and you'd see no spoilers, waited for it to do that, "maximized" the movie again, and then skipped back to the start, it would disable this. A fairly awkward ritual to start playing a movie, but worth it.
Then there was the "auto-play" misfeature, which also had no option to disable it for many months after it was introduced. They kept on making the UI slightly worse in many small ways with each iteration.
The recommendations for me started out pretty bad, then at some point switched to implausibly terrible. I think they were based on things I'd watched the first few minutes of just to see what they were about, and then rated 2 stars (rarely 1, that was reserved for the very worst). Netflix would recommend that I'd watch these other shows, and predict that I'd also rate them 2 stars, and it would be right.
To browse randomly through the catalogue I would go to the search page and type in random words. The search didn't work particularly well if you were trying to actually find something specific, but it was pretty good for that.
posted by sfenders at 4:02 PM on January 9, 2016
It was after they made that change (on the PS3 client) that I first started thinking Netflix was maybe not so much worth paying for any more. Often it would do that *before* the credits, in one case during the first third of a movie. I found that if you skipped to the very end of the movie, hoping that it would be well into the credits and you'd see no spoilers, waited for it to do that, "maximized" the movie again, and then skipped back to the start, it would disable this. A fairly awkward ritual to start playing a movie, but worth it.
Then there was the "auto-play" misfeature, which also had no option to disable it for many months after it was introduced. They kept on making the UI slightly worse in many small ways with each iteration.
The recommendations for me started out pretty bad, then at some point switched to implausibly terrible. I think they were based on things I'd watched the first few minutes of just to see what they were about, and then rated 2 stars (rarely 1, that was reserved for the very worst). Netflix would recommend that I'd watch these other shows, and predict that I'd also rate them 2 stars, and it would be right.
To browse randomly through the catalogue I would go to the search page and type in random words. The search didn't work particularly well if you were trying to actually find something specific, but it was pretty good for that.
posted by sfenders at 4:02 PM on January 9, 2016
It never occurred to me that I should feel pissed off that I'm so often shown recommendations for Netflix's own content, but now I will feel righteously indignant at these advertisements, thank you.
posted by HeroZero at 4:07 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by HeroZero at 4:07 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
It amazes me when people don't realize that Netflix still sends out Blu-Rays/DVDs, same as always. That's the only place you can get virtually all new releases! The entire reason Netflix is pushing their OC so hard is that their streaming library sucks and the amount of suckitude grows with every passing year as studios hold back streaming rights.
posted by Justinian at 4:17 PM on January 9, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 4:17 PM on January 9, 2016 [10 favorites]
MetaFilter: works as a caption for every single New Yorker cartoon
posted by deadaluspark at 4:59 PM on January 9, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by deadaluspark at 4:59 PM on January 9, 2016 [5 favorites]
I have a Sony Bravia TV, I had to do a hard reset and reload to get Netflix to work.
posted by Narrative_Historian at 5:17 PM on January 9, 2016
posted by Narrative_Historian at 5:17 PM on January 9, 2016
Hulu is also a thing.
posted by box at 5:33 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by box at 5:33 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
"The Risky Business Of Netflix Bible Translation."
posted by Bob Regular at 5:38 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Bob Regular at 5:38 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
it's a good place if you're in the mood for, say, a romantic Bollywood story or a documentary about chefs
Or if you're up for an evening of browsing the kind of B-grade nonsense you can find behind the cashier at Safeway. Once you've watched the documentary about chefs (The Search for General Tso, right?), there isn't a whole lot more that we haven't watched. Maybe come back next year? (I live in Canada, but still. I don't even think we have General Tso's chicken in Canada.)
posted by sneebler at 5:43 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Or if you're up for an evening of browsing the kind of B-grade nonsense you can find behind the cashier at Safeway. Once you've watched the documentary about chefs (The Search for General Tso, right?), there isn't a whole lot more that we haven't watched. Maybe come back next year? (I live in Canada, but still. I don't even think we have General Tso's chicken in Canada.)
posted by sneebler at 5:43 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
All these categories do for me is make me boggle at just how many movies and shows I've already seen.
posted by Jalliah at 5:45 PM on January 9, 2016
posted by Jalliah at 5:45 PM on January 9, 2016
Honestly, the muddying of Netflix content and lack of other real options (I refuse to pay Hulu to make me watch commercials, and I refuse to pay a premium to get away from them to the same company.) has left me turning back to those awful torrents.
Cinemageddon has become my new Netflix.
Deadly Prey is where it's at.
I'm also fairly sure most folks are aware of Samurai Cop by now. (I'm still waiting to find a copy of Samurai Cop 2. Still disappointed that Robert Z'Dar died right before they started shooting the sequel. Still, Tommy Wiseau only kind of makes up for it. RIP Bobby Z.)
Tonight I'm getting this old Will Shatner flick, The Intruder, that looks like it might wind up pretty great.
I used to be a film nerd, but then I went around the bend and really started to enjoy the worst of the worst because modern film has become so staid and boring.
posted by deadaluspark at 5:55 PM on January 9, 2016
Cinemageddon has become my new Netflix.
Deadly Prey is where it's at.
I'm also fairly sure most folks are aware of Samurai Cop by now. (I'm still waiting to find a copy of Samurai Cop 2. Still disappointed that Robert Z'Dar died right before they started shooting the sequel. Still, Tommy Wiseau only kind of makes up for it. RIP Bobby Z.)
Tonight I'm getting this old Will Shatner flick, The Intruder, that looks like it might wind up pretty great.
I used to be a film nerd, but then I went around the bend and really started to enjoy the worst of the worst because modern film has become so staid and boring.
posted by deadaluspark at 5:55 PM on January 9, 2016
You know how, when you go to Netflix, it shows you what IT thinks you want to watch..and how finding anything else (or even browsing other categories) is next to impossible
Uh... no? Is this a complaint about the non-website interface or something? I find it very easy to browse non-suggested videos on Netflix.
If I want to watch a documentary, I go to the top of the page, hover over Browse, and select Documentaries. If I want to watch some stand-up comedy, I click Comedy, and select Stand-Up from the subgenres. I can then sort the results of the subgenres via recommended for me, release date, alphabetical, etc.
Netflix actually has much better non-discovery related browsing than many, many other video providers - mentioned in this thread already Amazon, and, significantly worse, YouTube.
I've seen many articles decry, and websites "fix," the Netflix interface. But I don't understand what's so broken about it.
posted by notnamed at 6:05 PM on January 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
Uh... no? Is this a complaint about the non-website interface or something? I find it very easy to browse non-suggested videos on Netflix.
If I want to watch a documentary, I go to the top of the page, hover over Browse, and select Documentaries. If I want to watch some stand-up comedy, I click Comedy, and select Stand-Up from the subgenres. I can then sort the results of the subgenres via recommended for me, release date, alphabetical, etc.
Netflix actually has much better non-discovery related browsing than many, many other video providers - mentioned in this thread already Amazon, and, significantly worse, YouTube.
I've seen many articles decry, and websites "fix," the Netflix interface. But I don't understand what's so broken about it.
posted by notnamed at 6:05 PM on January 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
Once you've watched the documentary about chefs (The Search for General Tso, right?)
Chef's Table. Seriously. It is the best.
posted by jeoc at 6:34 PM on January 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
Chef's Table. Seriously. It is the best.
posted by jeoc at 6:34 PM on January 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
The way I find things for Netflix (I use the DVDs as well as the streaming) is frequently through Letterboxd.
posted by immlass at 6:42 PM on January 9, 2016
posted by immlass at 6:42 PM on January 9, 2016
Instantwatcher.com and canistreamit.com are great search websites. Roku also has a good search function.
posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 7:04 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 7:04 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Anyone who's not getting DVDs from Netflix is missing most of the best movies and TV shows available from Netflix.
It's increasingly weird to me that the main folks who don't seem to understand this all appear to work at Netflix.
posted by mediareport at 7:17 PM on January 9, 2016 [5 favorites]
It's increasingly weird to me that the main folks who don't seem to understand this all appear to work at Netflix.
posted by mediareport at 7:17 PM on January 9, 2016 [5 favorites]
My problem has never been finding things to watch on Netflix, it's finding the time to watch them.
posted by octothorpe at 7:29 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 7:29 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
I think they know it, mediareport. But they want as few of us to know that as possible. They make more money per customer for streaming.
posted by Justinian at 7:33 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Justinian at 7:33 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
We have amazon prime, but never watch it, even though there's good stuff there. (Thanks for the heads up to instantwatcher PPaBC and kiltedtaco.) I've not gotten Netflix for two reasons; one, because I figured it would be just another monthly charge for something I forget to use, but mostly because every time I've tried to find out what was available in their catalog, it was impossible to do from their website. Maybe if you're a member, there's some searching or something you can do, but if you aren't, and you go to the netflix site, there is virtually no way to figure out what their catalog contains. I hadn't realized the dvd side of things was still ongoing. I'll go check that out.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 8:15 PM on January 9, 2016
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 8:15 PM on January 9, 2016
We use MoreFlicks.com (and UnblockUs) to find what movies are playing on all the Netflix countries, and watch them on that countries Netflix. It's pretty simple.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:26 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by blue_beetle at 8:26 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I have Amazon Prime mostly because I forgot to cancel it before I renewed, but Amazon's interface is soooo f'd up compared to Netflix. Compare the highest rated documentaries on Netflix with Amazon. I can see 15 on Netflix's page, and 3.25 on Amazon's page. On Netflix, I can mouse over the thumbnails for a description; on Amazon I have to click each one to find out what the hell it's about. Wh... why would you do that?
posted by desjardins at 8:28 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by desjardins at 8:28 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Indeed, some of the best movies and shows on Netflix are not available in your country (unless you want them to be).
posted by prinado at 8:28 PM on January 9, 2016
posted by prinado at 8:28 PM on January 9, 2016
The other thing is if you watch Netflix on, say, Xbox One, they won't even show you all the movies even in the categories they are recommending. You have to pull out your laptop, add it to your list, and THEN it will pop up for you on your console.
posted by corb at 9:16 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by corb at 9:16 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Or if you're up for an evening of browsing the kind of B-grade nonsense you can find behind the cashier at Safeway. Once you've watched the documentary about chefs (The Search for General Tso, right?), there isn't a whole lot more that we haven't watched.
Nope! Haven't seen it and wasn't thinking of it. I was thinking of the Chef's Table series or The Mind of a Chef or Jiro Dreams of Sushi or some of the Bourdain ones. But thanks for adding another example to that list!
posted by Solon and Thanks at 10:24 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Nope! Haven't seen it and wasn't thinking of it. I was thinking of the Chef's Table series or The Mind of a Chef or Jiro Dreams of Sushi or some of the Bourdain ones. But thanks for adding another example to that list!
posted by Solon and Thanks at 10:24 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Netflix on the new Apple TV is terrible enough that I'm considering cancelling all together. Terrible content badly presented. House of Cards is inexplicably appearing under new releases almost a year after the last season, you can't browse by genre in any way shape or form and they insist on showing my Adam Sandler films in my recommendations.
I know it's all just there to hide how little content there actually is on the service these days but I know there are some hidden gems out there that never ever seem to pop up in recommendations. If I'm watching nothing but obscure European films with subtitles, maybe recommend more of those, and not, like, Ace of Cakes.
posted by mikesch at 10:58 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I know it's all just there to hide how little content there actually is on the service these days but I know there are some hidden gems out there that never ever seem to pop up in recommendations. If I'm watching nothing but obscure European films with subtitles, maybe recommend more of those, and not, like, Ace of Cakes.
posted by mikesch at 10:58 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I’m surprised so many people browse for things to watch. I don’t think I’ve ever done that.
It's not a good place if you're like "I want to watch this one specific movie and I don't know it's there or not"
No, it is not. This one specific movie is almost certainly not there.
posted by bongo_x at 12:46 AM on January 10, 2016 [4 favorites]
It's not a good place if you're like "I want to watch this one specific movie and I don't know it's there or not"
No, it is not. This one specific movie is almost certainly not there.
posted by bongo_x at 12:46 AM on January 10, 2016 [4 favorites]
No, I can't remember the last time I searched for a movie in Netflix and it actually showed up. Its like we burnt through everything worth watching in the first six months and all that's left is Netflix own new content as it dribbles out. The UK version seems to have given up on new tv shows from other sources, even where they had the previous series. I think this links to issues like mikesch mentions where some shows stay marked as new releases for ages. Peaky Blinders season 1 is still shown as new even though season 2 was on TV months ago.
posted by biffa at 2:19 AM on January 10, 2016
posted by biffa at 2:19 AM on January 10, 2016
Go to http://dvd.netflix.com . The old service still exists, same as it ever was, but they don't draw attention to it from the main Netflix website. I have 2 discs out at a time for $12 a month, and I don't pay for streaming at all since I don't use it.
Same... Speaking of which, when I paste in the link and category ID from the 'bible' it just drops me back to http://dvd.netflix.com/MemberHome. I guess this is relevant for streaming users only. I can get the same effect by choosing Browse from the top menu and then View All under any subgenre in it, like always.
This new interface change is awful though, it just auto-loads image view of posters now like tumblr when you scroll down. Wow.
posted by heatvision at 5:46 AM on January 10, 2016
Same... Speaking of which, when I paste in the link and category ID from the 'bible' it just drops me back to http://dvd.netflix.com/MemberHome. I guess this is relevant for streaming users only. I can get the same effect by choosing Browse from the top menu and then View All under any subgenre in it, like always.
This new interface change is awful though, it just auto-loads image view of posters now like tumblr when you scroll down. Wow.
posted by heatvision at 5:46 AM on January 10, 2016
Go to http://dvd.netflix.com . The old service still exists, same as it ever was, but they don't draw attention to it from the main Netflix website. I have 2 discs out at a time for $12 a month, and I don't pay for streaming at all since I don't use it.
Most definitely not the same as it ever was. They stopped processing DVDs on Saturday resulting in a pretty impressive decrease in movies sent per week significantly altering the value.
posted by srboisvert at 8:36 AM on January 10, 2016
Most definitely not the same as it ever was. They stopped processing DVDs on Saturday resulting in a pretty impressive decrease in movies sent per week significantly altering the value.
posted by srboisvert at 8:36 AM on January 10, 2016
Just put Miss Marple back, goddammit (I have never seen it). I have watched all the Poirot at least twice. Except the last one. You know why.
posted by Glinn at 10:55 AM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Glinn at 10:55 AM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
>> Or if you're up for an evening of browsing the kind of B-grade nonsense you can find behind the cashier at Safeway. Once you've watched the documentary about chefs (The Search for General Tso, right?), there isn't a whole lot more that we haven't watched.
I grew up in a small town where it was frequently raining. Our local newsagent had a VHS stand where you could rent one of 30 films, rarely updated, and keep it for three days for a couple of pounds. I think I watched Gremlins 2 thirty times when I was about fifteen.
Just a quick look at my list on Netflix shows that Force Majeure, The Magnificent Seven, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and Sex, Lies and Videotape are on there. The Guest is on there. Blue Ruin is on there. Touch of Evil, The Parallax View, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Still Alice are on there. Fruitvale Station is on there and so are 4 series of The Thick of It, along with Hoop Dreams, Bad Leiutenant and Down Terrace. No Country for Old Men. Rififi, 12 Angry Men, Hard Target. Miller's Crossing and Crank 2: High Voltage. Locke. To Kill a Mockingbird and A Hard Day's Night. Harold and Maude is on there along with The Raid 2, Powaqqatsi, Berberian Sound Studio, Fish Tank and Von Trier's Nymphomaniac Duology. Last Tango In Paris. There Will Be Blood, Fargo, Donnie Darko (both cuts!). Winter's Bone. Adventureland.
It's in your living room, and it's cheaper that three VHS rentals from the local newsagents. If there are only 50 good movies on there then you can watch them in 50 or 100 days and unsubscribe, having paid £12/24.
I agree with the frustrations with the interface – a catalogue would be great. Still, for the money Netflix is absurdly good value.
Digital rentals here are £2.49 for a single recentish film like, say, Magic Mike XXL via Google Play. If I wanted to watch a specific film like Haywire or Slow West then subscribing to Netflix for a month even just for that is close to a no-brainer. Don't forget that if you really have drained its catalogue, then it's fine to unsubscribe.
Also, Gremlins 2 still holds up.
posted by Cantdosleepy at 10:56 AM on January 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
I grew up in a small town where it was frequently raining. Our local newsagent had a VHS stand where you could rent one of 30 films, rarely updated, and keep it for three days for a couple of pounds. I think I watched Gremlins 2 thirty times when I was about fifteen.
Just a quick look at my list on Netflix shows that Force Majeure, The Magnificent Seven, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and Sex, Lies and Videotape are on there. The Guest is on there. Blue Ruin is on there. Touch of Evil, The Parallax View, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Still Alice are on there. Fruitvale Station is on there and so are 4 series of The Thick of It, along with Hoop Dreams, Bad Leiutenant and Down Terrace. No Country for Old Men. Rififi, 12 Angry Men, Hard Target. Miller's Crossing and Crank 2: High Voltage. Locke. To Kill a Mockingbird and A Hard Day's Night. Harold and Maude is on there along with The Raid 2, Powaqqatsi, Berberian Sound Studio, Fish Tank and Von Trier's Nymphomaniac Duology. Last Tango In Paris. There Will Be Blood, Fargo, Donnie Darko (both cuts!). Winter's Bone. Adventureland.
It's in your living room, and it's cheaper that three VHS rentals from the local newsagents. If there are only 50 good movies on there then you can watch them in 50 or 100 days and unsubscribe, having paid £12/24.
I agree with the frustrations with the interface – a catalogue would be great. Still, for the money Netflix is absurdly good value.
Digital rentals here are £2.49 for a single recentish film like, say, Magic Mike XXL via Google Play. If I wanted to watch a specific film like Haywire or Slow West then subscribing to Netflix for a month even just for that is close to a no-brainer. Don't forget that if you really have drained its catalogue, then it's fine to unsubscribe.
Also, Gremlins 2 still holds up.
posted by Cantdosleepy at 10:56 AM on January 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
They stopped processing DVDs on Saturday
To be fair, when they did this it looked like USPS was going to shortly stop processing mail on Saturday, so it wasn't a totally dickish move.
And they have partly mitigated that by sending the next DVD when USPS informs them that I've given them the last one, even though they haven't received it yet. And anything that doesn't come from the closest distribution center comes out of band -- it's the third DVD out because they can't control exactly when I'll get it. I'm also not obsessed with maximizing my bandwidth from the system, and feel that I'm getting my $12 worth each month without complaint.
posted by Bringer Tom at 12:00 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
To be fair, when they did this it looked like USPS was going to shortly stop processing mail on Saturday, so it wasn't a totally dickish move.
And they have partly mitigated that by sending the next DVD when USPS informs them that I've given them the last one, even though they haven't received it yet. And anything that doesn't come from the closest distribution center comes out of band -- it's the third DVD out because they can't control exactly when I'll get it. I'm also not obsessed with maximizing my bandwidth from the system, and feel that I'm getting my $12 worth each month without complaint.
posted by Bringer Tom at 12:00 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
And they have partly mitigated that by sending the next DVD when USPS informs them that I've given them the last one, even though they haven't received it yet. And anything that doesn't come from the closest distribution center comes out of band -- it's the third DVD out because they can't control exactly when I'll get it. I'm also not obsessed with maximizing my bandwidth from the system, and feel that I'm getting my $12 worth each month without complaint.
I suspect that your experience may be better because you were on the two DVD plan. On the single plan, like I was for two years, if they had a processing screw up, they say the didn't receive it or sent you a damaged disc the delays add up. I ended up with about 2 months worth of no movies and they offered next to no compensation other than the damaged disc replacements being sent the next shipping day once you notified them and twice they doubled up the discs. The impression I got was that they didn't really want me as a customer and it was an easy decision to oblige them when I did my quarterly budget trimming.
I do miss it because the DVD catalog has way more of the long tail movies I want to watch and because I always watched what sent right away which is a nice way to save yourself from decision stress.
posted by srboisvert at 12:42 PM on January 10, 2016
I suspect that your experience may be better because you were on the two DVD plan. On the single plan, like I was for two years, if they had a processing screw up, they say the didn't receive it or sent you a damaged disc the delays add up. I ended up with about 2 months worth of no movies and they offered next to no compensation other than the damaged disc replacements being sent the next shipping day once you notified them and twice they doubled up the discs. The impression I got was that they didn't really want me as a customer and it was an easy decision to oblige them when I did my quarterly budget trimming.
I do miss it because the DVD catalog has way more of the long tail movies I want to watch and because I always watched what sent right away which is a nice way to save yourself from decision stress.
posted by srboisvert at 12:42 PM on January 10, 2016
Yeah, I was on the single disc plan until they split the services, and I imagine that the no Saturday thing does mess up that rhythm badly. When they split the services I didn't have an internet connection that could support streaming so it was a little boon, and instead of taking the savings I decided to splurge a bit to go to two DVD's. That turned out to be a very good decision, it's just a couple of bucks more than I was paying before and I get a lot more content and things don't screech to a halt if a disc is lost in the mail.
posted by Bringer Tom at 12:51 PM on January 10, 2016
posted by Bringer Tom at 12:51 PM on January 10, 2016
The DVD offerings are nowhere near complete, but they're miles better than the streaming service. We have streaming, and use it frequently, but we supplement heavily with DVDs from both netflix, and our local library.
Our workflow (jesus, a workflow for watching TV…yikes) for months was to have the 2 dvd tier; every monday morning, I would rip the dvd's that showed up on saturday (they still mail your shit on saturday, they just don't process them…this just means you need to be aware of when you're sending stuff in). Rip them to the HD with handbrake, drop them on our media-server, and let them sit until we want to watch them. Then we drop the dvd's in the mail that same monday (i'm lucky to have a later pickup blue mailbox on the corner near my work). Then by Wednesday, I have a new set to repeat with, and then usually on Saturday we get our next infusion.
We've built up a small library to buffer this (on purpose; we didn't watch any of them for a month or two). And we just dropped down to the single-disc plan. Its really great.
We view this strictly as time-shifting, and delete the files after we've viewed it.
Online streaming movies and television is basically the only thing I've ever wished for a monopoly to take over. If I had access to anything I wanted to watch, you're damn sure I'd be paying more than our netflix/prime memberships per year. I like a-la-carte streaming services in theory, but even the 'best' streaming services just seem to be really shitty overall.
I do, however, really enjoy that when we take my son over to his grandparents houses, he starts getting confused, and pissed at the commercials (even when they're for cool shit that he would totally like). It is SUCH AN AWESOME THING that so much kids programming is available on netflix; its one of the reasons we won't ever give it up. Commercial-less kids TV is MANA FROM HEAVEN.
posted by furnace.heart at 1:24 PM on January 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
Our workflow (jesus, a workflow for watching TV…yikes) for months was to have the 2 dvd tier; every monday morning, I would rip the dvd's that showed up on saturday (they still mail your shit on saturday, they just don't process them…this just means you need to be aware of when you're sending stuff in). Rip them to the HD with handbrake, drop them on our media-server, and let them sit until we want to watch them. Then we drop the dvd's in the mail that same monday (i'm lucky to have a later pickup blue mailbox on the corner near my work). Then by Wednesday, I have a new set to repeat with, and then usually on Saturday we get our next infusion.
We've built up a small library to buffer this (on purpose; we didn't watch any of them for a month or two). And we just dropped down to the single-disc plan. Its really great.
We view this strictly as time-shifting, and delete the files after we've viewed it.
Online streaming movies and television is basically the only thing I've ever wished for a monopoly to take over. If I had access to anything I wanted to watch, you're damn sure I'd be paying more than our netflix/prime memberships per year. I like a-la-carte streaming services in theory, but even the 'best' streaming services just seem to be really shitty overall.
I do, however, really enjoy that when we take my son over to his grandparents houses, he starts getting confused, and pissed at the commercials (even when they're for cool shit that he would totally like). It is SUCH AN AWESOME THING that so much kids programming is available on netflix; its one of the reasons we won't ever give it up. Commercial-less kids TV is MANA FROM HEAVEN.
posted by furnace.heart at 1:24 PM on January 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
35800 = Steamy Romantic Movies
972 = Steamy Thrillers
A bead of sweat pops up on the forehead of HBO's Cinemax division, and not for the good reason.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:21 PM on January 10, 2016
972 = Steamy Thrillers
A bead of sweat pops up on the forehead of HBO's Cinemax division, and not for the good reason.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:21 PM on January 10, 2016
it's still basically just putting a sparkler in a turd
My new favorite analogy! Thanks, Sys Rq!
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:57 PM on January 10, 2016
My new favorite analogy! Thanks, Sys Rq!
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:57 PM on January 10, 2016
Still, for the money Netflix is absurdly good value.
Agreed. Honestly, I'm baffled by people who think Netflix has a low-quality selection, because it has a huge number of relevant/trendy independent and critically-acclaimed films that are hard to find elsewhere. I follow a lot of film criticism podcasts/blogs/authors/think pieces and I'm constantly seeing the movies they discuss pop up. The selection is superior to Amazon streaming, and in my experience only bested by services like Mubi, which only has a pool of about 30 movies at a time. If your problem is that Netflix doesn't have the movies you want to watch, fair point, but it's hardly entirely full of B-roll content.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 10:51 AM on January 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
Agreed. Honestly, I'm baffled by people who think Netflix has a low-quality selection, because it has a huge number of relevant/trendy independent and critically-acclaimed films that are hard to find elsewhere. I follow a lot of film criticism podcasts/blogs/authors/think pieces and I'm constantly seeing the movies they discuss pop up. The selection is superior to Amazon streaming, and in my experience only bested by services like Mubi, which only has a pool of about 30 movies at a time. If your problem is that Netflix doesn't have the movies you want to watch, fair point, but it's hardly entirely full of B-roll content.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 10:51 AM on January 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
Netflix Shutting Down Unblockers and Proxies Soon, but Hopes to Eventually End Regional Streaming
posted by homunculus at 8:10 PM on January 14, 2016
posted by homunculus at 8:10 PM on January 14, 2016
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posted by destro at 1:43 PM on January 9, 2016 [6 favorites]