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I had a Netflix account for a long time and eventually cancelled after I realised I spent more time surfing the menus than watching anything. Conversely, I wat

I had a Netflix account for a long time and eventually cancelled after I realised I spent more time surfing the menus than watching anything. Conversely, I watch YouTube all the time and somehow have not spent the money to get rid of ads. The other service I pay for is Britbox - good value. For movies, I just order the DVD from eBay - it costs or 4 bucks and arrives in a day or two.

eurticket 4y ago
I felt the same way when I had it. Netflixs engineering blogs were always really well documented, I wonder why their search was always so bad. Does anyone have an idea? Also this made me wonder how many people on HN don't actively use an ad blocker. Is there a reason why you don't use one?
- andirk 4y ago
  Netflix had a hack day and one guy made a really cool and simple keyboard shaped in a circle with the cursor in the middle. Every letter was one joystick movement from the center. They buried it. That and other UI blunders convinced me the difficulty searching for things is by design so you give up and watch their absolute shit piles of "original" content where the title and thumbnail tell the entire story. I pay for OK Google mainly so it will play Youtube library music tracks. It also includes no ads and some sort of payment for content creators.
- readthenotes1 4y ago
  there was a recent comment thread on why recommendations are so bad and the most likely reason seem to be product placement and other monetary considerations.
- andrewstuart 4y ago
  >> Also this made me wonder how many people on HN don't actively use an ad blocker. Is there a reason why you don't use one? I’d rather pay.
- sp332 4y ago
  It's hard to run an adblocker on my Tivo where I watch most of my youtube videos.
  - oaththrowaway 4y ago
    SmartTube Next?
- heavyset_go 4y ago
  It's a way to hide the lack of content, especially if they lack whatever it is that you're searching for. They're hoping that you'll settle with their catalog, anyway.
baron816 4y ago
I pay for YouTube. Definitely worth it.
- sergers 4y ago
  I had a family plan... 25$ cad monthly. Seems alot. Just canceled last week
  - noahtallen 4y ago
    I know, it’s pretty ridiculous compared to other streaming services! It’s $23/mo for two people. Which is more expensive than practically everything else out there. That’s the same cost as the Apple One family plan, which includes cloud storage and games! (And if you get YouTube premium with the Apple tax, it’s $30/mo…) And here are some other plans which support multiple people: - HBO Max is $16 - Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ together is $20 - Netflix is $16 - Amazon Prime (huge list of benefits) is $15 This is the main reason I don’t have it. As streaming / bundle services go, its value add is pretty small. If it included cloud storage, maybe. I don’t get how google one doesn’t include it.
    - baron816 4y ago
      Yes, but I watch YouTube more than all the others combined.
kqr2 4y ago
I wish Netflix would integrate IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings and allow you to filter.
- teej 4y ago
  JustWatch is a good standalone mobile app that can do this.
  - achow 4y ago
    Thanks for the pointer. Downloaded it. But it shows only IMDB ratings; that is good, but I was hoping for both IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes.
tshaddox 4y ago
The value I get from YouTube Premium is enormous compared to the other streaming services I pay for. I’ve been paying for YouTube for a long time, since it was released as YouTube Red (in 2015, I believe?). Whenever I happen to see someone watch a YouTube video with ads I just can’t imagine how they can tolerate it.
- shortcake27 4y ago
  I just whip out my phone to check socials. Probably a bad habit TBH. But I always let < 2 minute ads roll to support the creator. I cancelled Netflix as soon as that password sharing stuff was announced even though they backpedalled in most countries. So I’ve been thinking about getting YouTube Premium. The offline feature would actually be quite useful to me as I’m often without signal.
- ttul 4y ago
  Not to mention being able to listen to videos. I can’t imagine losing that feature…
morelinks 4y ago
>I spent more time surfing the menus than watching anything. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Bm2WUYBxU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Bm2WUYBxU
- andrewstuart 4y ago
  Oh lord.

eurticket 4y ago

I felt the same way when I had it. Netflixs engineering blogs were always really well documented, I wonder why their search was always so bad. Does anyone have an idea? Also this made me wonder how many people on HN don't actively use an ad blocker. Is there a reason why you don't use one?

andirk 4y ago
Netflix had a hack day and one guy made a really cool and simple keyboard shaped in a circle with the cursor in the middle. Every letter was one joystick movement from the center. They buried it. That and other UI blunders convinced me the difficulty searching for things is by design so you give up and watch their absolute shit piles of "original" content where the title and thumbnail tell the entire story. I pay for OK Google mainly so it will play Youtube library music tracks. It also includes no ads and some sort of payment for content creators.
readthenotes1 4y ago
there was a recent comment thread on why recommendations are so bad and the most likely reason seem to be product placement and other monetary considerations.
andrewstuart 4y ago
>> Also this made me wonder how many people on HN don't actively use an ad blocker. Is there a reason why you don't use one? I’d rather pay.
sp332 4y ago
It's hard to run an adblocker on my Tivo where I watch most of my youtube videos.
- oaththrowaway 4y ago
  SmartTube Next?
heavyset_go 4y ago
It's a way to hide the lack of content, especially if they lack whatever it is that you're searching for. They're hoping that you'll settle with their catalog, anyway.

baron816 4y ago

I pay for YouTube. Definitely worth it.

sergers 4y ago
I had a family plan... 25$ cad monthly. Seems alot. Just canceled last week
- noahtallen 4y ago
  I know, it’s pretty ridiculous compared to other streaming services! It’s $23/mo for two people. Which is more expensive than practically everything else out there. That’s the same cost as the Apple One family plan, which includes cloud storage and games! (And if you get YouTube premium with the Apple tax, it’s $30/mo…) And here are some other plans which support multiple people: - HBO Max is $16 - Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ together is $20 - Netflix is $16 - Amazon Prime (huge list of benefits) is $15 This is the main reason I don’t have it. As streaming / bundle services go, its value add is pretty small. If it included cloud storage, maybe. I don’t get how google one doesn’t include it.
  - baron816 4y ago
    Yes, but I watch YouTube more than all the others combined.

kqr2 4y ago

I wish Netflix would integrate IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings and allow you to filter.

teej 4y ago
JustWatch is a good standalone mobile app that can do this.
- achow 4y ago
  Thanks for the pointer. Downloaded it. But it shows only IMDB ratings; that is good, but I was hoping for both IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes.

tshaddox 4y ago

The value I get from YouTube Premium is enormous compared to the other streaming services I pay for. I’ve been paying for YouTube for a long time, since it was released as YouTube Red (in 2015, I believe?). Whenever I happen to see someone watch a YouTube video with ads I just can’t imagine how they can tolerate it.

shortcake27 4y ago
I just whip out my phone to check socials. Probably a bad habit TBH. But I always let < 2 minute ads roll to support the creator. I cancelled Netflix as soon as that password sharing stuff was announced even though they backpedalled in most countries. So I’ve been thinking about getting YouTube Premium. The offline feature would actually be quite useful to me as I’m often without signal.
ttul 4y ago
Not to mention being able to listen to videos. I can’t imagine losing that feature…

morelinks 4y ago

>I spent more time surfing the menus than watching anything. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Bm2WUYBxU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Bm2WUYBxU

andrewstuart 4y ago
Oh lord.