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Show HN: Netflix Calculator
- blackoil 4y agoI watch a lot of content at 1.5-2X speed
- Forge36 4y agoWhat content are you watching?
- drexlspivey 4y agoWay to reduce any artistic quality of the movie to 0. Could you explain the reason for this? Are movies/shows too boring in normal speed? Are you trying to watch as many as possible?
- kretaceous 4y agoI assume the OP is watching documentaries or likewise.
- popotamonga 4y agoI watch everything at 1.5 movies seasons etc. Stuff is too slow i just want to absorb it.
- ngetchell 4y agoCan you define what you mean by absorb? My wife loves the TV on in the background while doing other things. Are you after the same goal? I'm worried about everything being reduced to "content" like it is all interchangeable.
- popotamonga 4y agoNo, the opposite. I want all the content to enter my brain faster and fully focused.
- pearjuice 4y agoToo much filler cut scenes and slow dialogue. For example, Suits has notorious slow dialogue and lots of cut scenes hovering over city buildings which add nothing to the script. Watching it at 1.5x makes me miss absolutely nothing and reduces episodes of 45 minutes to roughly half an hour.
- least 4y agoYou miss almost everything, actually. The only thing you retain by watching it at 1.5x speed is the dialogue and some sort of vague approximation of the visuals. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't be able to enjoy tv as you do, but you're definitely incorrect to assert you're missing "absolutely nothing."
- bee_rider 4y agoI mean, they've reported that they miss absolutely nothing, and the experience of watching a TV show is a subjective one. While I don't mess around with the speed, I haven't seen any compelling arguments that somebody couldn't get it all watching at 1.5x speed.
- least 4y agoMy argument is that a movie or tv show is an art medium that coincides partly with time, just like music. Listening to a song at 1.5x speed fundamentally changes what you are listening to and is a significant deviation from what the artist intended. It could still be enjoyable but to say that nothing is lost is wrong.
- djitz 4y agoThis is the new “I read 4 books per week”
- system2 4y agoReading requires effort.
- hombre_fatal 4y agoI was surprised how much attention faculties reading requires once I started back up. I even read articles again instead of just the comments section. I didn’t realize how much I lost until I had to work to recover it. I now abhor cheap entertainment for that.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- irrational 4y agoI don’t have a Netflix subscription, but I do have a Disney+ subscription. Is there a similar thing for Disney+?
- sys_64738 4y agoMe? Zero hours per month.
- attero 4y agoGood for you!
- just_for_you 4y agoSame here. Like alcohol, drugs and smoking, endless streaming media is just something I don't touch. I know there's an insane amount of good content to watch out there, but I'm content with not knowing what it's like diving into that rabbit hole.
- Couch_Surfer 4y agoNifty usage of previous history, are you looking up Netflix's title number against an OS database?
- gumby 4y agoI have an injury and am spending more time watching video. I was surprised that Netflix isn’t that great in terms of content any more and their app has gone downhill (1.5x is great, but it often loses video synch if you press the back button repeatedly). The competition’s apps are mostly worse. Disney’s is probably the best, but content is also blah
- Something1234 4y agoDisney suffers from having bits and pieces of their back catalog and not scratching my personal nostalgia itch.
- dhosek 4y agoYeah, there’s a lot of live-action films that they haven’t put up yet.
- kiawe_fire 4y agoI might need something that tells me how much time I spend browsing Netflix only to not watch anything. My Netflix habit consists of aspiring to actually watch something as a way to relax before bed, opening the app, scrolling through a bunch of lists, deciding “that looks really good, I should probably save that to watch with my dad”, “this looks good but too heavy for me tonight”, “this looks good but only one season that ended 2 years ago, so probably cancelled”, “this looks like a candidate but I’ll keep looking just in case”… 45 minutes later, I’m tired, and either close the app or watch 5 minutes of something only to decide I’m too tired to follow it and that’s that. I don’t have this problem with short YouTube videos or music. Even books I can eventually power through and make a choice. But movies and video games I have severe analysis paralysis that leads to a lot of browsing and no actual watching or playing. It’s frustrating.
- djitz 4y agoIf you haven’t already, disable the preview auto play garbage by going to your profile settings on the website. The option is ONLY available on the website, but applies to all devices that auto play. You’ll never look back.
- cmeacham98 4y agoIf you actually seriously want this: I believe both Android and iOS have some method of tracking time spent in apps (assuming that's what you mean when you say "Netflix App").
- kiawe_fire 4y agoI was being partially serious - now that you mention it, between this project's ability to show my time spent watching something, and my phone's app usage, I could probably figure the difference to be the time spent browsing vs watching, which might actually be an interesting metric to track.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoSame problem. I’ve solved it by not watching Netflix unless a friend with similar tastes recommends something to me directly. I end up not watching much Netflix, which I’ve found is healthier for me anyway. A lot of the “browsing “ or watching in bed was escapism.
- iLoveOncall 4y agoKeep in mind it counts anything you ever played as watched, even if you dropped after one second. I'm surprised to see I have 100h throughout the whole year (including the caveat I mentioned above). I feel like I spent more time trying to find something decent to watch than actually watching stuff...
- Meltiono 4y agoI'm not browsing netflix regularly but we have a few tv shows which are worth keeping netflix anyway like the current Stranger Things, The Umbrella Academy, Russion Doll, Better Call Saul, ... Next to that we watch normally one old TV Show which is the easy way to go to. Right now its Friends. Bevor that it was Star Trek Voyager. Thats enough for me already to not feel bad for paying $10 per month for it. But than there is also something we don't have in germany: super weird tv shows like 'The floor is lava' or 'is it cake?'. I scroll through them and watch a whole season in lets say 1-2 hours by watching the start and forwarding to the end or so. And there are so many of them and surprisingly interesting like the glass stuff or the chocolate show with Amaury Guichon, which is crazy :D
- harles 4y agoPretty neat. For me, I’d love to see something like this for YouTube. Perhaps it’s just my bad habits, but I find I generally spend time on what I’d consider quality entertainment (that is, I don’t regret having spent time on it) for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and the like. YouTube on the other hand, I’ll usually start with something I consider quality like 3b1b and then end up watching much more of forgettable things I regret. Whenever I go to resume a video on YouTube via browsing my history, I’m always in shock of just how much crap I’ve watched.
- attero 4y agoThanks! YouTube can be a real time sink! Have you checked out https://watchlimits.com/ https://watchlimits.com/ - maybe that could help you use YouTube better? I would be very interested in hearing about your suggestions about the tool! Please DM me on https://twitter.com/attilczuk https://twitter.com/attilczuk or feel free to contact on justyna@watchlimits.com
- system2 4y agoI can't believe people still watch netflix. Algorithm generated content for simpletons.
- Meltiono 4y agoNo need for you to bashing netflix if you don't like their content. Its $10 per month, 2 coffees. I also do watch a lot of tv shows and movies for the last 15/20 years (also stuff besides mainstream) and there are pretty good tv shows on netflix. Stranger Things, The Umbrella Academy, Better Call Saul, Russian Doll, Love Death and Robots (the last season was weirder than usual though), Space force (super quirky, love it!), The Witcher, Arcane, Superstore, Squid Game
- bee_rider 4y agoThe vast majority of media is lowest-common-denominator trash, netflix isn't special in that regard. I dunno. I watch tv to shut off my brain, or more likely put it on in the background while doing something more productive. Lots of people have complicated enough day jobs, let's not begrudge their low-power regeneration state.
- hombre_fatal 4y agoThere’s plenty of good content. I think people who say this are stuck in a very narrow comfort bubble. The kind of person who gets mad when a single show gets taken away, like The Office. For example, just check out the best content from other countries. Should take you a while if you have a healthy life balance and don’t watch netflix all day.
- Krisjohn 4y agoThere's not "plenty" of good content. There's maybe two months of good content if you subscribed now and haven't watched anything on it before, ever. You're lucky if eight hours of good new content is added a month.
- hombre_fatal 4y agoDunno, that seems like complaining about there being no books to read.
- Phelinofist 4y agoidk seems wrong: Analysis results Found 2123 videos in the watch history. Assuming average 40 minutes per video... Recent stats 0 minutes this year so far 0 minutes on average per day during last 30 days All time stats (over last 0 days) 1415 hours 20 minutes during all time Infinity hours on average per day Infinity hours on average per week
- dhritzkiv 4y agoSame here: Found 5098 videos in the watch history. Assuming average 40 minutes per video... 0 minutes this year so far 0 minutes on average per day during last 30 days All time stats (over last 0 days) 3398 hours 40 minutes during all time Infinity hours on average per day Infinity hours on average per week
- attero 4y agoWhat is your data format? I noticed that in different countries the data is exported differently and the app currently supports 3 different formats. If you give me a sample, I would be happy to update the tool.
- dhritzkiv 4y agoHere you are: https://gist.github.com/dhritzkiv/5872d35313e58fef9ebdf32683ad0957 https://gist.github.com/dhritzkiv/5872d35313e58fef9ebdf32683...
- z9znz 4y agoNot lately. The quality of content has gone so far down that I would need such a tool for Disney or even Prime. We have entered the period of series-hell, where content has been algorithmically reduced to the minimum which will make someone come back. Even re-watching old series is dull. Granted, I still get a chuckle or two from My Name Is Earl (Hulu, and highly recommended if you're American and especially from the south). I'm also trained to lose focus easily, so making me wait a week for an update (or in the case of the latest Star Trek... waiting 1+ years!???) will basically make me forget it even existed. It feels a bit like a natural finality of television. Anything that could be done has been done. Any story that could be told has been told. They've upped the volume on any aspect - sex, violence, fear, whatever. I am no longer entertained. I've seen reasonable people mutilate people ("Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" I hate you) for no good reason. We might as well be watching people shove grenades up their bums (give porn sites 1-2 years, it will happen). It all reminds me of a Blackadder scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmk4PfuiPVY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmk4PfuiPVY This is when we realize that our reality is a farce, perhaps self-created. You are welcome for this tour to the end times!
- Akronymus 4y ago> The quality of content has gone so far down ... Could anime be to your liking? There is a LOT of good stuff out there, no matter what kinda story you are interested in, many of which simply wouldn't be made at all in the west. > I'm also trained to lose focus easily, so making me wait a week for an update... yeah, lots of shows are pretty much "wait until the season has been finished, then binge it" for me.
- z9znz 4y agoI wouldn't know where to begin with anime... there could be some of it which is great for me, but most anime is probably not for me.
- Akronymus 4y agoThats fair. Any genres you find interesting? Any specific story structure? Target age? I can probably list some that may strike your fancy. But yeah, I can definitely see/understand not liking most/any anime.
- throwoutway 4y agoZero. Cancelled it a long time ago and haven’t looked back.
- Meltiono 4y agoDidn't know netflix actually allows to download this. Very nice, but now i'm way more curious than before. Like prefered weekdays, top tv shows (i watch and others watch) etc. I would also like to see when its more or less 'netflix time'. Like right now we have stranger things, the umbrella academy and better call saul. Could easily be visualized and potentially even inform me when i can unsubscribe temporarily (not that it matters that much for a few bucks per month)
- dxuh 4y agoAssuming 40 minutes per entry is way off base imho. Most of the stuff I watched is sitcoms with 20 minutes per episode each. If you are just going to count the lines of the file I "Upload" to your website, maybe don't even do it at all. Also why does the button say "Upload" and right below it says "Your data is processed locally and not sent to any servers.". Upload implies precisely that data is being transferred. It's great that this page informed me about the existence of that CSV file though. Thanks for that.
- devanl 4y agoI've looked into this in the past. I would suggest using the full GDPR-style takeout-all-my-data request from: https://www.netflix.com/account/getmyinfo https://www.netflix.com/account/getmyinfo As one would expect, Netflix's tracking provides quite a bit more detail. Whereas "NetflixViewingHistory.csv" only provides the title and a date, the "ViewingActivity.csv" from the takeout includes: - Start timestamp with resolution down to the minute - Watching duration with resolution down to the second - The reason you watched it (e.g auto play or not) - If the thing was one of those autoplaying trailers, as opposed to a real video - What Netflix client type you used (e.g browser vs smart TV vs phone) - At what timestamp you stopped watching I've used it to summarize the series I was watching from week-to-week and how much time I sank into each show.
- attero 4y agoThank you for this tip! This is gold!
- thundergolfer 4y agoAnd for me, roughly 80% of my entries are feature length films, so 40 minutes is way, way too low. As long as Netflix avoids exposing actual watch time data per entry, this calculator is going to be very inaccurate.
- vishnuharidas 4y agoGood tool, but a sample result will be really helpful so that people can see how it looks without sharing their private data.
- anewpersonality 4y agoFor shame if you watch Netflix.
- vladdoster 4y agoI've been looking for something similar, but for YouTube. AFAIK the only way to graph viewing time is through the mobile app, bummer :^(. I'm curious how precise they calculate watch time (e.g., watching two 1 hour videos concurrently on different laptops, is that one or two hours?). Given the watch time graph's `Y` axis maxima is 24 hours, it counts as one hour. I average ~100 hours of youtube a week. Am I an outlier in Youtube watch time?
- marclou 4y ago[dead]
- mdrzn 4y agoI no longer have "Viewing activity" because once it's turned off, there's no way to turn it back on. And I never turned it off, but after fighting with customer support for months I gave up. The fact that they cannot reverse a simple db change is insane.