Netflix - Not bad! Qwikster - uh, never mind...

i suspect they found via testing that people like it better when you give them fewer choices

thats generally true

obvs giving them the right choices is key

I go to instantwatcher.com on my iPad while sitting on the couch. Add movies and them just refresh the queue on tv.

"The whole recommendations feature is also kind of useless 95% of the time."

Really? I think it works really well on the website.

Agree that Roku's interface is crappy too, but I don't use it.

http://instantwatcher.com/titles/all

13,500 titles

― johnny crunch, Tuesday, October 25, 2011 11:50 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

instant watcher is a sweet site 4 browsing

― ice cr?m, Tuesday, October 25, 2011 11:53 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

#protip

― ice cr?m, Tuesday, October 25, 2011 11:53 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yo good looks! i never knew about that site

yeah the netflix recommendation algorithm works really well ime, one of the best things about the site, i wish spotify had a similar feach

true most of my queue is populated through endless recommendation strings

Can you add movies to your Netflix streaming queue directly via instantwatcher, or do you have to do it through the Netflix site?

The former, according to a button on each film's page. Though I haven't tried it myself yet.

yah it works, uses netflix apis same as ps3 or w/e

Truth

its more of a browsing experience than a place you can find the thing youre looking for

This is my issue w/ streaming.

Does Kevin John Bajingo still post around here? He often said how much he hated Netflix, but I never asked why, and now I'm curious.

yah obvs itd be better if it had everything... someday

Y'all should convert this into an ILX instant view recommendations thread.

There already is one of those.

Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

at least 2 of them actually

Netflix Streaming Film Recommendations: Because You Can't Always Play With Yourself

Ya u really gotta use the website or wtv if you're watching via ps3.

There isn't everything but there is a lot. All twilight zone eps in HD!

I find the HD stuff to be dubious, at best. Either it's not true HD, or it's been altered from its original format (ie HD, but cropped from 'Scope to 1.85). Basically, Netflix streaming is standard DVD quality, to my eyes.

I know what HD looks like yall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKYKyIObXyM

Also do you have your vid quality settings on high?

I find the HD stuff to be dubious, at best. Either it's not true HD, or it's been altered from its original format (ie HD, but cropped from 'Scope to 1.85). Basically, Netflix streaming is standard DVD quality, to my eyes.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, October 25, 2011 6:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah it's not HD and it's miles away from bluray.

still way better than I thought it would be, though.

im telling you guys, buy buy buy, i wish i had money

― max, Wednesday, September 21, 2011 3:07 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah if it werent for my total opposition to individuals owning individual stocks, still tempting

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, 21 September 2011 12:55 (1 month ago) Permalink

Well I hope you guys didn't.

Problem is it still is/was priced based on expectations of high growth. Yesterday we found out they actually are losing subscribers, which is way worse than just not growing really fast, obv. I guess the case for buying would be that they're going to grow internationally, but it's kind of hard to guess whether Netflix will take in, say, Latin America in 2012 the way it did in the US years earlier.

Reed's interview in NY Times yesterday suggested that folks who want DVDs soon will be a) people in rural areas and b) "film-school types." Leaving out c) people who want to watch all those movies that aren't available for streaming.

Dude's ahead of the curve, but speaking to someone associated with Goldman Sachs yesterday, Netflix is approaching pariah status to the extent that there are predictions that Blockbuster will ultimately take it out on the streaming front. Which would be very ironic.

Though to be fair, the more distribution heads to a streaming model and away from physical discs, the more films will be available for streaming. At least in theory. If no one rents, then studios aren't going to let thousands of films go unseen. Well, OK, they probably won't.

I still think u should buy Netflix stock. I also don't think u should buy stocks for the short term.

If Netflix can maintain market share and pricing power as the streaming video pie grows, then I think it's a buy - but that's a big 'if'. It's hard to think that streaming is going to be anything other than a low-margin business. It seems like the only necessary participants are the content producers and the content consumers, and anyone in between is going to get squeezed.

I heard a piece on the radio yesterday that explained Netflix's erratic behavior later as a desperate, pre-emptive attempt to avoid being the next AOL - that is, opening the door for others to take over. But Netflix may be predestined to do just that, because surely what it does is neither proprietary nor unique. It's value is its name, but its behavior is, ironically, devaluing that name.

its a little worrying that they're losing so much market capitalization since their big advantage right now is that they have money to spend on deals--amazon doesnt, really, and i dont think hulu has the desire much less the cash--hastings says his strategy is to lock up content in exclusive deals at high prices, which is smart business but not great for the consumer, unfortunately.

i mean if yr buying stocks on a month-to-month basis you probably shouldnt buy netflix, as the last year has shown, but im willing to bet on it in the long-term. not 100 percent confident but then again im not actually spending the money on the stock

not 100 percent confident

You don't say.

im telling you guys, buy buy buy, i wish i had money

― max, Wednesday, September 21, 2011 3:07 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah if it werent for my total opposition to individuals owning individual stocks, still tempting

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, 21 September 2011 12:55 (1 month ago) Permalink

Well I hope you guys didn't.

Problem is it still is/was priced based on expectations of high growth. Yesterday we found out they actually are losing subscribers, which is way worse than just not growing really fast, obv. I guess the case for buying would be that they're going to grow internationally, but it's kind of hard to guess whether Netflix will take in, say, Latin America in 2012 the way it did in the US years earlier.

― pass the duchy pon the left hand side (musical duke) (Hurting 2), Wednesday, October 26, 2011 6:59 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol hurting im sympathetic to yr new explaining things persona but one bad quarter does not a pattern make

Dude's ahead of the curve, but speaking to someone associated with Goldman Sachs yesterday, Netflix is approaching pariah status to the extent that there are predictions that Blockbuster will ultimately take it out on the streaming front. Which would be very ironic.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, October 26, 2011 7:40 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

blockbuster tried to take netflix dvd by mail business as did walmart and it didnt work so good, if someone is going to supplant nexflix its gonna be a technology company who knows wtf theyre doing

Yeah, but tbf, both of those guys only tried the mail part of the equation, not the streaming. But your point still stands.

w/the streaming its more important that they not be the companies that they actually are

Yeah, I'm talking about streaming. Blockbuster rules home video, Netflix supplants Blockbuster, Netflix switches to streaming, Blockbuster comes back from the dead and supplants Netflix. This all presupposes physical media is dead, which is pretty much is.

what if physical media comes back from the dead and supplants THEM

point is blockbuster is not going to turn into some other company thats makes an amazing streaming product overnight, might as well say mcdonalds is going to be the next netflix, there just no correlation between blockbusters old retail rental business and streaming video

i could see amazon gaining some traction, def apple if they went w/subscriptions, idk who else some startup prob

...except they have relationships with every content provider out there pretty much?

the problem in getting these businesses off the ground isnt the tech, its trying to twist studios' arms into letting u actually do it

Night of the Living Physical Media 2 - Return of the Content

maybe if all the movie/tv studios formed a consortium and refused to licence their shit to anyone else, seems p unlikely theyd be able to play well together and make a product that anyone actually wants to use tho

blockbuster/dish will probably make a run at netflix but they have a lot of shit to work out first

the problem with blockbuster/dish is that theyre THE ENEMY, the last thing we want is cable companies involved in this

But see, that's sort of it: streaming is something that doesn't take much know-how, right? What's going to win is not the technology but the exclusivity and muscle, which Netflix is currently losing. It could turn it around, sure, but I wouldn't bet on it against someone like Amazon or Apple or Google or whomever.