4 ms·

I hate to spoil the celebration, but I've wanted a basic text interface to Netflix for years. Can I just get a list of movies and shows available? Click a link,

I hate to spoil the celebration, but I've wanted a basic text interface to Netflix for years. Can I just get a list of movies and shows available? Click a link, see a page with a description, use the back button and I'm back exactly where I was? The technical implementation really doesn't need to be this complex. Also, the interface itself has gotten worse and worse too. As a customer, just offering HTML links, a search box and then using HTML5 to stream the video would be great.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
stock_toaster 11y ago
Agreed. I am not a fan of carousels in general. Combined with the awful jawbone shrink+expand+flyin thing, I find the new interface to be quite awful. I really dislike using it. I would vastly prefer a simple paginated grid of videos with a "click to show info in a little overlay box", and then a close link to simply dismiss the overlay and go back to the grid.
- BuckRogers 11y ago
  That design should be the default graphical interface. Just click anywhere but on the overlay box and it takes you right back. Then offering my basic HTML text interface for those who want it as well. I really like just using the native browser controls in the vast majority of use cases. No one is going to reinvent those wheels and do better. Rather than building all of this garbage on top of it.
- mbesto 11y ago
  I second this. The new UI lacks a massive amount of whitespace. Everything is so clumped together making the affordance for reach individual movie (or series) much higher than a user would expect. I can imagine a lot of users will get frustrated with this and leave the app.
molloy 11y ago
I completely agree. In the meantime if you aren't using it already then I recommend checking out instantwatcher.com for a better Netflix interface. I'm not affiliated with it in any way, but I do use it anytime I want to search Netflix content.
Ollinson 11y ago
I was honestly shocked to find out that there are almost 8000 movies available right now on netflix streaming. Their "custom tailored" selection screen gives the impression that they have 300 films available at most.
- gravity13 11y ago
  This really is a flaw in netflix's design, I believe. I was surprised to find a movie I wanted to see on Netflix the other day and only found it via a roku search across multiple catalogues. Here I thought I knew their catalogue after searching for movies to watch several times. It's like going to a movie store and only browsing one section. Over and over.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- girvo 11y ago
  This is one of the reasons I'm a massive fan of JustWatch[0]. The other reason is that it searches across everything that's available on other services in Australia; most of these tools ignore us Down Under! [0] https://www.justwatch.com https://www.justwatch.com
  - IshKebab 11y ago
    That's really nice. It would be amazing if you could add IMDb ratings though, and the ability to sort/filter by them (e.g. only show me films with a rating >7). You can download the IMDb rating database, although I think it has a very restrictive licence. Alternatively there is this: http://www.omdbapi.com/ http://www.omdbapi.com/ - but I wouldn't count on it being around forever. It seems like they would be on shaky legal grounds (but at least it would be them getting sued rather than you).
    - Ollinson 11y ago
      I should have included this in my original post but InstantWatcher sounds like what you're looking for. That website is how I discovered netflix has thousands of movies in the first place.
ewzimm 11y ago
They used to have exactly that. You could list everything available as basic text and sort by whatever criteria you wanted, click the link for a description, and use the back button to return to the text list. Their star system isn't always perfect, but it was great to be able to sort by what they thought I would like most and scan through the list for something good. Worked nearly perfectly, and I found a lot of great material that way. Then they removed the option to use the rating system they spent so much time and money they spent developing in favor of a visual carousel. It is a lot more visually appealing and a lot less efficient.
mzs 11y ago
Is there even a way to link to just one film anymore?
intopieces 11y ago
Are you familiar with instantwatcher.com? It appears to meet your requirements, unless I'm missing something in your description.
mamerhst 11y ago
My wife can't even find movies on netflix!

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

stock_toaster 11y ago

Agreed. I am not a fan of carousels in general. Combined with the awful jawbone shrink+expand+flyin thing, I find the new interface to be quite awful. I really dislike using it. I would vastly prefer a simple paginated grid of videos with a "click to show info in a little overlay box", and then a close link to simply dismiss the overlay and go back to the grid.

BuckRogers 11y ago
That design should be the default graphical interface. Just click anywhere but on the overlay box and it takes you right back. Then offering my basic HTML text interface for those who want it as well. I really like just using the native browser controls in the vast majority of use cases. No one is going to reinvent those wheels and do better. Rather than building all of this garbage on top of it.
mbesto 11y ago
I second this. The new UI lacks a massive amount of whitespace. Everything is so clumped together making the affordance for reach individual movie (or series) much higher than a user would expect. I can imagine a lot of users will get frustrated with this and leave the app.

molloy 11y ago

I completely agree. In the meantime if you aren't using it already then I recommend checking out instantwatcher.com for a better Netflix interface. I'm not affiliated with it in any way, but I do use it anytime I want to search Netflix content.

Ollinson 11y ago

I was honestly shocked to find out that there are almost 8000 movies available right now on netflix streaming. Their "custom tailored" selection screen gives the impression that they have 300 films available at most.

gravity13 11y ago
This really is a flaw in netflix's design, I believe. I was surprised to find a movie I wanted to see on Netflix the other day and only found it via a roku search across multiple catalogues. Here I thought I knew their catalogue after searching for movies to watch several times. It's like going to a movie store and only browsing one section. Over and over.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
girvo 11y ago
This is one of the reasons I'm a massive fan of JustWatch[0]. The other reason is that it searches across everything that's available on other services in Australia; most of these tools ignore us Down Under! [0] https://www.justwatch.com https://www.justwatch.com
- IshKebab 11y ago
  That's really nice. It would be amazing if you could add IMDb ratings though, and the ability to sort/filter by them (e.g. only show me films with a rating >7). You can download the IMDb rating database, although I think it has a very restrictive licence. Alternatively there is this: http://www.omdbapi.com/ http://www.omdbapi.com/ - but I wouldn't count on it being around forever. It seems like they would be on shaky legal grounds (but at least it would be them getting sued rather than you).
  - Ollinson 11y ago
    I should have included this in my original post but InstantWatcher sounds like what you're looking for. That website is how I discovered netflix has thousands of movies in the first place.

ewzimm 11y ago

They used to have exactly that. You could list everything available as basic text and sort by whatever criteria you wanted, click the link for a description, and use the back button to return to the text list. Their star system isn't always perfect, but it was great to be able to sort by what they thought I would like most and scan through the list for something good. Worked nearly perfectly, and I found a lot of great material that way. Then they removed the option to use the rating system they spent so much time and money they spent developing in favor of a visual carousel. It is a lot more visually appealing and a lot less efficient.

mzs 11y ago

Is there even a way to link to just one film anymore?

intopieces 11y ago

Are you familiar with instantwatcher.com? It appears to meet your requirements, unless I'm missing something in your description.

mamerhst 11y ago

My wife can't even find movies on netflix!