3 ms·

I hate "engagement". I am a weird person. When I used to go to a movie theater, I stayed and watched the credits at the end. There would be some closing music,

I hate "engagement". I am a weird person. When I used to go to a movie theater, I stayed and watched the credits at the end. There would be some closing music, and maybe a few outtakes. It was always interesting to see how many people it took to make a movie and what they all did. A nice way to unwind and acknowledge everyone who created the movie. Lately I've been watching The Sopranos on Amazon. As soon as the end credits roll, a "Next Episode" box pops up in the corner and I am in a race against time to click the teeny Cancel button. I think they give me five whole seconds before auto-starting the next episode. It pisses me off every time! If I were Tony Soprano, I'd be tempted to hit that corner of the screen with a pointed heavy object just to make it stop haunting me: "You really want to watch the next episode right now. You do NOT want to sit quietly and enjoy the end credits and the cool music the showrunner chose." But then I would have to buy a new monitor, so I restrain myself. This "engagement" makes me want to see a shrink.

Swenrekcah 5y ago
I don’t use Amazon but some of the services I use even minify the video and put up a next video countdown — before the episode has ended. Probably the start of credits is automatically determined (guessed at) there based on percentage completed with a minimum absolute time. In any case - pretty annoying.
tchalla 5y ago
> Lately I've been watching The Sopranos on Amazon. As soon as the end credits roll, a "Next Episode" box pops up in the corner and I am in a race against time to click the teeny Cancel button. I think they give me five whole seconds before auto-starting the next episode. There should be a global setting to switch Autoplay Off in your settings.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  mpv will often allow that. This of course is predicated on a site supporting MPV, often meaning the content is independently downloadable, even if not officially. Industry's track record with user-specified anti-dark-pattern preferences (DNT, prefers-reduced-motion, etc.) is not encouraging.
- Stratoscope 5y ago
  You are my hero of the day! I did find that setting for YouTube, but I didn't realize that Amazon had it too. To change it, go to Prime Video, click the gear icon in the top right, select Settings, then the Player tab to turn off Auto Play. Bada Bing! Now I won't have to feel like I should whack someone after each episode.
  - wdutch 5y ago
    I had an "I feel old" moment stood at the front of my classroom trying to figure out how to turn autoplay off on youtube (shockingly enough, after showing a carefully chosen video to my class I don't want it to start showing videos of Disney's Elsa). I clicked the gear icon and went through all the settings looking for the autoplay option. Then my TA pointed out the option is on the video itself. The UX is confusing because all the options there are specific to that one video but autoplay is global. I would have never thought to look there. Now it's right there where some sneaky kindergartener can switch it right back on when my back is turned... This is one small piece in the feeling that's been growing in me since leaving the tech industry that tech is hostile to me and the best interests of the children I teach.
- toast0 5y ago
  Turning off autoplay is helpful, but it'd still be nice for it to not shrink the credits to try to entice me to watch something else. Almost as bad as when I went to the cinema recently and the projector turned off when the end credits started scrolling. Ugh, turns out there was a mid credits scene I missed too.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
kmstout 5y ago
Likewise radio stations' playing songs back to back without a gap. "Stairway to Heaven" deserves a second or two of silence after finishing.
- Zelphyr 5y ago
  Or playing the beginning of one song over the end of another. Or talking over the last 15 seconds of a song.
- rablackburn 5y ago
  My understanding of this is that it’s done deliberately to prevent listeners from recording the full track. Made more sense when the radio was _the_ way to listen to new music. Less so now. There are places in the world where the DJ will literally come on in the middle of the song and play their station ident for the same reason.
relativ575 5y ago
> It pisses me off every time! If I were Tony Soprano, I'd be tempted to hit that corner of the screen with a pointed heavy object just to make it stop haunting me: "You really want to watch the next episode right now. You do NOT want to sit quietly and enjoy the end credits and the cool music the showrunner chose." Sorry that's me. I click Next Episode as soon as possible when binge watching, or exit if it's a movie. Occasionally I watch the credits when I want to know more about the actors/actresses, or music, or script. But only rarely. I guess you're the minority. Amazon cater to the majority, as they should, although perhaps it should be longer than five secs.

Swenrekcah 5y ago

I don’t use Amazon but some of the services I use even minify the video and put up a next video countdown — before the episode has ended. Probably the start of credits is automatically determined (guessed at) there based on percentage completed with a minimum absolute time. In any case - pretty annoying.

tchalla 5y ago

> Lately I've been watching The Sopranos on Amazon. As soon as the end credits roll, a "Next Episode" box pops up in the corner and I am in a race against time to click the teeny Cancel button. I think they give me five whole seconds before auto-starting the next episode. There should be a global setting to switch Autoplay Off in your settings.

dredmorbius 5y ago
mpv will often allow that. This of course is predicated on a site supporting MPV, often meaning the content is independently downloadable, even if not officially. Industry's track record with user-specified anti-dark-pattern preferences (DNT, prefers-reduced-motion, etc.) is not encouraging.
Stratoscope 5y ago
You are my hero of the day! I did find that setting for YouTube, but I didn't realize that Amazon had it too. To change it, go to Prime Video, click the gear icon in the top right, select Settings, then the Player tab to turn off Auto Play. Bada Bing! Now I won't have to feel like I should whack someone after each episode.
- wdutch 5y ago
  I had an "I feel old" moment stood at the front of my classroom trying to figure out how to turn autoplay off on youtube (shockingly enough, after showing a carefully chosen video to my class I don't want it to start showing videos of Disney's Elsa). I clicked the gear icon and went through all the settings looking for the autoplay option. Then my TA pointed out the option is on the video itself. The UX is confusing because all the options there are specific to that one video but autoplay is global. I would have never thought to look there. Now it's right there where some sneaky kindergartener can switch it right back on when my back is turned... This is one small piece in the feeling that's been growing in me since leaving the tech industry that tech is hostile to me and the best interests of the children I teach.
toast0 5y ago
Turning off autoplay is helpful, but it'd still be nice for it to not shrink the credits to try to entice me to watch something else. Almost as bad as when I went to the cinema recently and the projector turned off when the end credits started scrolling. Ugh, turns out there was a mid credits scene I missed too.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

kmstout 5y ago

Likewise radio stations' playing songs back to back without a gap. "Stairway to Heaven" deserves a second or two of silence after finishing.

Zelphyr 5y ago
Or playing the beginning of one song over the end of another. Or talking over the last 15 seconds of a song.
rablackburn 5y ago
My understanding of this is that it’s done deliberately to prevent listeners from recording the full track. Made more sense when the radio was _the_ way to listen to new music. Less so now. There are places in the world where the DJ will literally come on in the middle of the song and play their station ident for the same reason.

relativ575 5y ago

> It pisses me off every time! If I were Tony Soprano, I'd be tempted to hit that corner of the screen with a pointed heavy object just to make it stop haunting me: "You really want to watch the next episode right now. You do NOT want to sit quietly and enjoy the end credits and the cool music the showrunner chose." Sorry that's me. I click Next Episode as soon as possible when binge watching, or exit if it's a movie. Occasionally I watch the credits when I want to know more about the actors/actresses, or music, or script. But only rarely. I guess you're the minority. Amazon cater to the majority, as they should, although perhaps it should be longer than five secs.