Platforms not allowing for proper exhaustive browsing is really shitty. Sabotage search. Sabotage sorting. Pushing slot machine scrolling.
I would enjoy a feature akin to old-school “channel surfing.” Let me flip through the entire library, mid-program, so I can see if something new catches my interest. No algorithm, no needing to search for something specific, just a chance to try out a few minutes of a show when it’s in the midst of its progress the way we used to be able to do. Then if we like what we find, we can switch to watching the show/movie from the start.
Yeah, it could expose spoilers, or be confusing with continuity, but any good show is worth watching more than once. Jumping straight into a show/movie in progress also eliminates the “analysis paralysis” I sometimes get when forced to pick a show from a menu. It’s far easier to give a new show a try when I can casually jump in and out of it.
I think Pluto.tv does this
Ooh, yeah you’re right! Thank you
Leave netflix !
I did on their last price hike. So far no regrets.
And replace it with what?
Books, comics, sports, knitting, gardening, woodworking, video games, shitposting on Lemmy…
There are so many other things one can do besides watch Netflix.
I am sure those are nice hobbies but… they‘re different hobbies. Very hard to compare, really. But maybe your point was that there are no alternatives.
That was indeed my point. 😀
I really hate the whole “nobody is forcing you” argument, since it’s often used against people who’s agency is severely limited, but in this case I think it applies since Netflix is really easy to drop in favour of literally anything else.
Do you like watching TV at all? There is a lot of stuff on Netflix.
Honestly, of all the streaming services, I find Netflix to have the most dull catalog.
This would depend on your level of interest for internationally acquired titles, in my honest opinion. Netflix has the largest field here.
There is also a lot of stuff not on Netflix. You arent required to consume what they hype.
Yeah, I know. I was just trying to determine if the poster above was anti-Netflix specifically or anti watching-TV.
Going out into the big bright blue room and fondling the foliage? Piracy? Hookers and blow? I dunno man, we can’t do all your thinking for you.
I don‘t know where you get your hookers but I imagine they‘re magnitudes more expensive than Netflix.
Hookers and blow?
… continue
I started a Blu-Ray collection. The quality is just so much better and I don‘t waste hours sifting through garbage. The price isn‘t a big factor either. Especially if you buy used. Hell, you can even sell the discs again if you end up not liking a movie that much and get some of your money back.
Piracy…
They’ll cancel anything you start watching anyway, so may as well also treat it as a sampler.
https://rutracker.org/ or https://mazepa.to/ if you’re even more paranoid about getting caught using torrents.
Both resources support English search, have well seeded netflix content and English audio tracks are always provided for English language content (just set your player to default to english). Rutracker especially has lots of niche/older content you simply won’t find on streaming platforms. Mazepa has a lot less content (in context of niche/older productions), but its also less on the radar and netflix content is generally well covered.
I don’t know about North America, but in Europe you should be able to use both services via torrent streaming for most netflix content. Might even work in North America.
You’ll need to register on both, but it’s not difficult with a webpage translator. There is a solid number of english language users on rutracker.
Lot’s of other options as well if you don’t want to deal with foreign language; Usenet which requires a fee, private torrent sites (can be a pain to get into and maintain ratio though).
Set up a homelab. Doesn’t need to be big - a NAS with dual 18TB disks + OS disk will do. Try to stay away from off the shelf NASes (Synology, QNAP, etc. - though the recent Ugreen NASes are quite okay!).
Then simply install the “Arr stack” (if you Google it like that, you’ll find all the relevant info):
- the download client of your choice (for torrent I recommend qBittorrent: low memory footprint with reliable clients, sane defaults, nice web UI)
- Prowlarr for having more trackers and other media sources supported, with advanced filtering (e.g. you can limit a specific tracker for manual searches only, or for specific media types, and so on. I have it set up so auto searches only hit my main tracker that has known good media, while all the other trackers are on manual search for stuff I look up manually, this way quality is ensured)
- Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Readarr (although the official Readarr is EOL, there’s a bunch of projects taking up the staff to continue it) - these are the “brains” for handling media. You set them up: connect to Prowlarr and the download client, set the folders in which you store the specific media, set up the media profiles you want, and add what movies, TV shows, music, books, etc. you need, and it will just do its job
- Seerr - this app finally connects all the previous Arr stacks into a single interface, with multiple user support (through Plex or Jellyfin), and allow anyone you grant access to it, to request any media they want. You can even set up user roles so for some people requests go through automatically, and for some, you need to manually approve.
- Jellyfin, Plex - these are your media frontends. Think of the rest as the Netflix servers, well, these will replace the Netflix app. You log in and all the media you have downloaded is made available via these apps. It’s that simple! You can set up limited access here (e.g. if you have a nice big porn collection, you obviously don’t want your kids to have access to that… Or if you invite friends to access your server, you don’t want them browsing the family photo album).
There’s a bunch of online guides that are super useful and aren’t too technically involved, and most of the setup is going to be visual anyway.
stay away from off the shelf…
Honestly, Synology is great for an “it just works” platform. They also have the ability to run containers by default and built in backup mechanisms. It actually makes running the Arr stack pretty easy.
Plex?
Jellyfin
Emby
Pick whatever, just stop paying subscriptions. I understand that statement with Plex but I just bought a lifetime membership on sale after doing the research and what fit my needs.
There is a multitude of streaming services if you want one.
Streaming services and their user interfaces are such hot garbage. How were they able to make them so bad? I feel like, a room full of monkeys on typewriters could do a better job.
They remove searches and categories, then charge you an extra $15 for the privilege.
Fucking everything everywhere is hot garbage. Why do foil seals never have little pull tabs anymore? Why do I have to try and grip a half millimeter of material to pull them off every single time no matter how sticky, or dangerous it is? Why can’t I ever tear a paper towel off cleanly? Why did I spend 20 minutes trying to add a profile to Apple Plus, and Google have to tell me it requires a second account? Why couldn’t that just be written there? Why can no one anywhere just use words anymore? Why did brand new ice trays shatter after one use? Why have I seen frozen meals with plastic film say to put them in the oven? Wouldn’t it be smarter to not try killing your customers?
It’s like business schools tell you to make your product as terrible as humanly possible these days.
McKinley or Deloitte probably advise Netflix to make search worse so it takes longer to find what you want so you spend more time in their dumb app.
That results in less time in their app, not more.
For people like us, it’s 0 time in their app and an unsubscribe but for a lot of people it doesn’t make a difference. ಠ_ಠ
On the ice tray specifically, I noticed stuff that wasn’t ice in my ice, like white stuff that didn’t melt with the ice and would float on the top and make a film in drinks. It was particularly bad with these spherical ice molds that surrounded the ice entirely, other than a hole to add the water through. I’d also notice ice would have this flavour that I previously thought was just freezer burn but now suspect it comes from frozen veggies stored in those plastic packages.
I got a metal ice cube tray and my ice is just ice now. Melts clear, tastes like really cold water.
Anyways, at this point I’m trying to minimize the amount of contact between plastic and food I eat but packaging is proving difficult. Not just difficult, but I don’t know how to avoid it completely.
They make search horrible so you might stumble onto something you weren’t searching for.
Anything to hide the paucity of their library
or you can just Pirate whatever you watching and remove all that hassle.
Enshittification continues.
submit to the algorithm
When we had Netflix I would get extremely frustrated every time I tried to interact with it. Most descriptions are like “Benedict Cumberbatch is a grumpy detective in this British crime drama” - so the only information not contained in the cast list and genre are one character trait and the country where it was made? How the fuck is that supposed to help?
You will suckle at the algorithm’s teat or you will have NOTHING! and you will THANK US for the privilege!
Its worse because they don’t even try to do trailers anymore either. Its just the most boring 3 minute clip from the movie or show.
Right from the early days, that always made Amazon Prime Video feel so cheap compared to Netflix. I’m so confused on why they bother. You said it perfectly, it’s always a boring scene of the movie, with no real context of the story or even mood. It’s never appealing.
Now Netflix does it, too. Well, I say now but it’s obviously been going on for years at this point, as is the general decline in quality and value of Netflix.
and that’s why people pirate content.
The dying end of late-stage capitalism has a lot more own-goals than I anticipated.
Built me a Jellyfin server out of my old laptop. 300 movies and counting. Fuck Netflix.
Intentianal video consumption is dead.
They decide what you consume now.
I hatte it.
what lmfao i’m so glad i left them and all streaming years ago
cable before that as well
yup. it’s fine. tons of us know how to torrent and will continue or return to doing so. we gave streaming a chance and they ruined it. no surprise.
