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My household has one streaming service at a time. We have lists (shared reminder lists in iOS) that we make for whenever a friend mentions a good movie - it goe

My household has one streaming service at a time. We have lists (shared reminder lists in iOS) that we make for whenever a friend mentions a good movie - it goes on the Apple TV list, or Disney plus list, etc. then once enough films build up (can take 2-6 months sometimes) we purchase a subscription and watch all those shows for one month.

__jem 4y ago
this sounds economical but also a major chore
- j33zusjuice 4y ago
  I wish I had the discipline to manage things that way.
  - microjim 4y ago
    This implies there is something about """you""" that is inherently lacking rather than the habits currently in your brain and "more discipline" often means """if only I would castigate myself more"""
- voisin 4y ago
  Seems like it could be an opportunity for a website with all the news shows and movies on each platform. You check off the ones that seem interesting. It tells you what service to subscribe to after you hit a threshold. Not sure if any of the services have affiliate programs for revenue.
  - JamesSwift 4y ago
    Justwatch provides a lot of that and I bet you could automate the rest
- olex 4y ago
  Not at all. I do the same thing, and the key is to cancel the subscription immediately upon signing up. You keep the one month you've already paid for, and don't need to worry about recurring cost.
  - Kiro 4y ago
    Still sounds stressful and like a chore. I would feel "forced" to burn through as much of the backlog as possible during that month, even if I don't feel like watching something from it right now.
    - olex 4y ago
      May be. To me it's easily worth the hundreds of Euros in savings from not having running subscriptions to more than one service at a time. Oftentimes I have no running streaming subscriptions at all. I guess I watch a lot less than many people do.
    - jerf 4y ago
      Related to what olex said, if you're "saving" over $100/month because you don't have 8 other subscriptions running, you can tell yourself quite reasonably you're already saving a lot of money and you don't need to squeeze the value out of a monthly subscription that's less than one fast food meal's worth of money. The whole point is to enjoy the service; if you feel stressed because you feel forced to binge everything to get your "value", well, cancel that service too. It is apparently not bringing you that value. That will help you get over it pretty quickly.
    - Roverlord 4y ago
      Just automate the watching process too, and get ChatGPT to summarise the content. Even better if you can let it watch with you, give it feedback, and tune it over time so it can make a value call on shows and save you the effort - "yeah I watched that, so you don't have to, you'll hate it". (/s, but I imagine it won't be in a year or two or with a skilled coder).
  - OJFord 4y ago
    But that's literally (literally 'literally', not an annoying turn of phrase) a monthly 'chore' to sign up for (and cancel) the next one.
- lordswork 4y ago
  Auto-expiring temporary credit card numbers can help automate cancellations after N months, but figuring what shows are on what services and signing up for them as needed is still a major chore.
  - redbar0n 4y ago
    The Playpilot app helps to get an overview over where (on what streaming services) a movie or show is available.
    - dmje 4y ago
      We use JustWatch[0]. It's good for keeping a "want to watch" list and also tells you which of your services has which films at any one time. [0] https://www.justwatch.com/ https://www.justwatch.com/
  - foobarian 4y ago
    Do you have more details? I found that in my case the credit card provider has ways to continue paying for the subscription through the magic of recurring charges that is very difficult to stop (survives credit card cancelation/number changes).
    - jesuscript 4y ago
      Right, getting a new card number has nothing to do with the fact that it is the same account. The numbers point to the same account.
      - foobarian 4y ago
        It seems the credit card providers would have an anti-incentive to provide this kind of consumer friendly functionality. Maybe Apple's card does? Any first-hand accounts?
        lordswork 4y ago
- 7402 4y ago
  Because I view them via an AppleTV, I subscribe to Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, and AppleTV at various different times all through my iTunes account. It's easy to turn them on and off all through one account interface. The Account Settings page lists both Active and Expired accounts for all the services, along with next billing or expiration dates. It's just a few clicks.
- 778hbff 4y ago
  Market opportunity! A meta streaming service that dispatches you towars the service that has the show you want to watch. Of course it needs to work in colaboration with the actual streaming services and diatribute revenue proportional to services' use. It would create much more real-time competition.
0x4974h 4y ago
This in a few sentences summarizes everything that sucks about the current streaming landscape
- bartread 4y ago
  It does, and it feels quite high effort to maintain. I'd rather simply disengage and find something else to do. The plus side of all this BS is it might force me back toward more interesting and worthwhile pasttimes than just bingewatching TV shows and films. From that point of view, I suppose, long may the suck multiplication continue.
Buttons840 4y ago
I'd love a website I could enter my account info for these streaming sites and turn each one on, one month at a time, with a click of a button. This would attract the ire of streaming companies though.
- zeroonetwothree 4y ago
  Realistically it’s already very easy to do this. Sure it’s not one click, but it takes all of 30 seconds.
- rvschuilenburg 4y ago
  This would be a fun idea. Especially if this was combined with your watchlist. The website could decide you have most stuff on your wishlist for service X, automatically cancel/subscribe, and send you an e-mail with a summary of what you can watch in the upcoming month.
  - judge2020 4y ago
    This is what Plex has branched into, kinda, although there's no automatic subscription management since no service wants to give up control of cancellations and whatnot.
- stuntkite 4y ago
  The DoNotPay app does that. You can make a card for a specific account or trial and share account access through it too.
FullMetalBitch 4y ago
Considering how frecuently movies (and third party shows) disappear from one platform to appear in other that seems hellish. It's easier to pirate stuff.
- gorjusborg 4y ago
  I do the same thing as the parent commenter, I pay for service, but will move from one service to another based on content and what I've watched. Funny that the proliferation of streaming services has just decreased the duration of my subscription to any one of them.
  - FullMetalBitch 4y ago
    I said in another comment I pay for some services too, but if my online experience have taught me anything is that I can't trust them to be around, or be good forever. I used House of the Dragon as an example, I watched it on HBO max but I also downloaded it and shared it online. One of my favorite shows (Future Man) is now on D+ but I am not going to delete it from my collection. It all comes to: "I don't trust others with the data I care for"
- tnel77 4y ago
  It depends on the movie. Friends might drop from Netflix, but there’s a lot of content being made that’s wholly owned by the streaming service itself that will stick around forever. Especially with Disney.
  - LiquidInsect 4y ago
    HBO is proving that to not necessarily be the case.
  - kudos200 4y ago
    HBO is removing many: https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/westworld-hbo-max-the-nevers-canceled-1235458657/amp/ https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/westworld-hbo-max-the-never... Apparently to make them available on other ad supported networks: https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/23513277/westworld-hbo-where-to-stream-max-shows-removed https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/23513277/westworld-hbo-...
mromanuk 4y ago
it's too much work for entertainment, that's the whole problem. We as users, shouldn't be doing anything clever to get our content. I have 5 streaming services, and sometimes I hope from one to another, searching for a movie to find out that no one of them have it. Then going to google and find out that the movie is hosted on a different streaming service. No fun.
albrewer 4y ago
The JustWatch app can sort-of do this. It aggregates the library index of all the streaming services so you can see what movies are where.
browningstreet 4y ago
https://www.justwatch.com/ https://www.justwatch.com/ automates this.. great service
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
Are there any products or tools for managing this kind of thing? I generally want my lists of books/films/music playlists whatever that I've seen, reviewed or marked as "to watch" to be managed seperately from any one particular vendor, and owned by me. There seems to be some movement towards this with e.g. smart TVs that will search all your apps for shows, and sites that will tell you where a specific film or show is available, but I've not seen anything either super geeky, or super easy to use.
- barrad0s 4y ago
  I don't know if this is what you're asking specifically, but I use justwatch.com to see where I can watch stuff. Sometimes (it happened to me last night) one of those weird internet channels has what you're looking for...
- 29083011397778 4y ago
  Without telling you to pirate: What you're describing is Sonarr / Radarr with Plex / Jellyfin. The former lets you put in a list of shows / movies you want it to download, and it'll check against public and private trackers periodically until it finds what you're after. The media you want doesn't even have to be released - an IMDB or TVDB link is enough. The latter makes it easy to stream anywhere, download ahead of flights, and tracks watched status. Plex especially is fantastically easy for family to use. Setup is "easy" in that it's an afternoon or less for the kind of people browsing HN, and using it is actually easy for anyone else you care to share the service with. Combined, it checks all your requirements of pulling in reviews from you and others, watched status tracking, and owned by you.
- addandsubtract 4y ago
  Trakt.tv lets you bookmark, rate, and keep track of the sites and movies you watch. They also have an API which is used by other apps, such as kodi.
  - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
    That looks like exactly what I was thinking of, the fact that they use the verb 'scrobble' to describe this tracking suggests they're on the same wavelength as me, so thanks for the tip.
drewcoo 4y ago
When clever people start creating their own personal systems to deal with it, movie streaming has a serious problem. What about the rest of us who aren't so clever?

__jem 4y ago

this sounds economical but also a major chore

j33zusjuice 4y ago
I wish I had the discipline to manage things that way.
- microjim 4y ago
  This implies there is something about """you""" that is inherently lacking rather than the habits currently in your brain and "more discipline" often means """if only I would castigate myself more"""
voisin 4y ago
Seems like it could be an opportunity for a website with all the news shows and movies on each platform. You check off the ones that seem interesting. It tells you what service to subscribe to after you hit a threshold. Not sure if any of the services have affiliate programs for revenue.
- JamesSwift 4y ago
  Justwatch provides a lot of that and I bet you could automate the rest
olex 4y ago
Not at all. I do the same thing, and the key is to cancel the subscription immediately upon signing up. You keep the one month you've already paid for, and don't need to worry about recurring cost.
- Kiro 4y ago
  Still sounds stressful and like a chore. I would feel "forced" to burn through as much of the backlog as possible during that month, even if I don't feel like watching something from it right now.
  - olex 4y ago
    May be. To me it's easily worth the hundreds of Euros in savings from not having running subscriptions to more than one service at a time. Oftentimes I have no running streaming subscriptions at all. I guess I watch a lot less than many people do.
  - jerf 4y ago
    Related to what olex said, if you're "saving" over $100/month because you don't have 8 other subscriptions running, you can tell yourself quite reasonably you're already saving a lot of money and you don't need to squeeze the value out of a monthly subscription that's less than one fast food meal's worth of money. The whole point is to enjoy the service; if you feel stressed because you feel forced to binge everything to get your "value", well, cancel that service too. It is apparently not bringing you that value. That will help you get over it pretty quickly.
  - Roverlord 4y ago
    Just automate the watching process too, and get ChatGPT to summarise the content. Even better if you can let it watch with you, give it feedback, and tune it over time so it can make a value call on shows and save you the effort - "yeah I watched that, so you don't have to, you'll hate it". (/s, but I imagine it won't be in a year or two or with a skilled coder).
- OJFord 4y ago
  But that's literally (literally 'literally', not an annoying turn of phrase) a monthly 'chore' to sign up for (and cancel) the next one.
lordswork 4y ago
Auto-expiring temporary credit card numbers can help automate cancellations after N months, but figuring what shows are on what services and signing up for them as needed is still a major chore.
- redbar0n 4y ago
  The Playpilot app helps to get an overview over where (on what streaming services) a movie or show is available.
  - dmje 4y ago
    We use JustWatch[0]. It's good for keeping a "want to watch" list and also tells you which of your services has which films at any one time. [0] https://www.justwatch.com/ https://www.justwatch.com/
- foobarian 4y ago
  Do you have more details? I found that in my case the credit card provider has ways to continue paying for the subscription through the magic of recurring charges that is very difficult to stop (survives credit card cancelation/number changes).
  - jesuscript 4y ago
    Right, getting a new card number has nothing to do with the fact that it is the same account. The numbers point to the same account.
    - foobarian 4y ago
      It seems the credit card providers would have an anti-incentive to provide this kind of consumer friendly functionality. Maybe Apple's card does? Any first-hand accounts?
      - lordswork 4y ago
7402 4y ago
Because I view them via an AppleTV, I subscribe to Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, and AppleTV at various different times all through my iTunes account. It's easy to turn them on and off all through one account interface. The Account Settings page lists both Active and Expired accounts for all the services, along with next billing or expiration dates. It's just a few clicks.
778hbff 4y ago
Market opportunity! A meta streaming service that dispatches you towars the service that has the show you want to watch. Of course it needs to work in colaboration with the actual streaming services and diatribute revenue proportional to services' use. It would create much more real-time competition.

0x4974h 4y ago

This in a few sentences summarizes everything that sucks about the current streaming landscape

bartread 4y ago
It does, and it feels quite high effort to maintain. I'd rather simply disengage and find something else to do. The plus side of all this BS is it might force me back toward more interesting and worthwhile pasttimes than just bingewatching TV shows and films. From that point of view, I suppose, long may the suck multiplication continue.

Buttons840 4y ago

I'd love a website I could enter my account info for these streaming sites and turn each one on, one month at a time, with a click of a button. This would attract the ire of streaming companies though.

zeroonetwothree 4y ago
Realistically it’s already very easy to do this. Sure it’s not one click, but it takes all of 30 seconds.
rvschuilenburg 4y ago
This would be a fun idea. Especially if this was combined with your watchlist. The website could decide you have most stuff on your wishlist for service X, automatically cancel/subscribe, and send you an e-mail with a summary of what you can watch in the upcoming month.
- judge2020 4y ago
  This is what Plex has branched into, kinda, although there's no automatic subscription management since no service wants to give up control of cancellations and whatnot.
stuntkite 4y ago
The DoNotPay app does that. You can make a card for a specific account or trial and share account access through it too.

FullMetalBitch 4y ago

Considering how frecuently movies (and third party shows) disappear from one platform to appear in other that seems hellish. It's easier to pirate stuff.

gorjusborg 4y ago
I do the same thing as the parent commenter, I pay for service, but will move from one service to another based on content and what I've watched. Funny that the proliferation of streaming services has just decreased the duration of my subscription to any one of them.
- FullMetalBitch 4y ago
  I said in another comment I pay for some services too, but if my online experience have taught me anything is that I can't trust them to be around, or be good forever. I used House of the Dragon as an example, I watched it on HBO max but I also downloaded it and shared it online. One of my favorite shows (Future Man) is now on D+ but I am not going to delete it from my collection. It all comes to: "I don't trust others with the data I care for"
tnel77 4y ago
It depends on the movie. Friends might drop from Netflix, but there’s a lot of content being made that’s wholly owned by the streaming service itself that will stick around forever. Especially with Disney.
- LiquidInsect 4y ago
  HBO is proving that to not necessarily be the case.
- kudos200 4y ago
  HBO is removing many: https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/westworld-hbo-max-the-nevers-canceled-1235458657/amp/ https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/westworld-hbo-max-the-never... Apparently to make them available on other ad supported networks: https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/23513277/westworld-hbo-where-to-stream-max-shows-removed https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/23513277/westworld-hbo-...

mromanuk 4y ago

it's too much work for entertainment, that's the whole problem. We as users, shouldn't be doing anything clever to get our content. I have 5 streaming services, and sometimes I hope from one to another, searching for a movie to find out that no one of them have it. Then going to google and find out that the movie is hosted on a different streaming service. No fun.

albrewer 4y ago

The JustWatch app can sort-of do this. It aggregates the library index of all the streaming services so you can see what movies are where.

browningstreet 4y ago

https://www.justwatch.com/ https://www.justwatch.com/ automates this.. great service

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

Are there any products or tools for managing this kind of thing? I generally want my lists of books/films/music playlists whatever that I've seen, reviewed or marked as "to watch" to be managed seperately from any one particular vendor, and owned by me. There seems to be some movement towards this with e.g. smart TVs that will search all your apps for shows, and sites that will tell you where a specific film or show is available, but I've not seen anything either super geeky, or super easy to use.

barrad0s 4y ago
I don't know if this is what you're asking specifically, but I use justwatch.com to see where I can watch stuff. Sometimes (it happened to me last night) one of those weird internet channels has what you're looking for...
29083011397778 4y ago
Without telling you to pirate: What you're describing is Sonarr / Radarr with Plex / Jellyfin. The former lets you put in a list of shows / movies you want it to download, and it'll check against public and private trackers periodically until it finds what you're after. The media you want doesn't even have to be released - an IMDB or TVDB link is enough. The latter makes it easy to stream anywhere, download ahead of flights, and tracks watched status. Plex especially is fantastically easy for family to use. Setup is "easy" in that it's an afternoon or less for the kind of people browsing HN, and using it is actually easy for anyone else you care to share the service with. Combined, it checks all your requirements of pulling in reviews from you and others, watched status tracking, and owned by you.
addandsubtract 4y ago
Trakt.tv lets you bookmark, rate, and keep track of the sites and movies you watch. They also have an API which is used by other apps, such as kodi.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  That looks like exactly what I was thinking of, the fact that they use the verb 'scrobble' to describe this tracking suggests they're on the same wavelength as me, so thanks for the tip.

drewcoo 4y ago

When clever people start creating their own personal systems to deal with it, movie streaming has a serious problem. What about the rest of us who aren't so clever?