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This is strongly in tin-foil hat territory but: streaming video costs a lot more money than streaming some JSON to populate a UI. Every minute you spent browsin

by kilian 1y ago

This is strongly in tin-foil hat territory but: streaming video costs a lot more money than streaming some JSON to populate a UI. Every minute you spent browsing the catalogue over playing a video is probably a significant costs saving for Netflix.

nottorp 1y ago
But they play those previews automatically... and that's still bandwidth used.
- tonightstoast 1y ago
  And tragically most users prefer the auto playing previews. Theprimeagean has a YouTube video about how he tried to a/b test it before release thinking "no way that's what users would prefer" and was unfortunately wrong.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago
    Well, there is a setting to turn it off.
    - zerd 1y ago
      My problem with turning it of is that if you _do_ want to watch the preview it's very cumbersome. Clicking on it goes to the movie/episode. So to get to the preview you have to go to the list of Episodes, scroll down (and try not to get spoiled) to trailers then play it. So I have one profile with it on and one with it off, depending on if I'm browsing or not.
  - nottorp 1y ago
    Who's that and do they work for Netflix? Tbh I don't mind the previews as long as they don't make the UI lag*. I was just pointing out that they don't save bandwidth. * I'm also aware that they're blatant lies and have little connection with what's in the actual movie.
    - tonightstoast 1y ago
      100%. Wasn’t trying to contradict your statement - just giving some additional context. And he is a semi popular tech YouTuber that has risen to popularity in the last couple of years. I think he also streams on twitch but I’m not on that site so I can’t say. But he worked for Netflix for about 10 years.
- kilian 1y ago
  A short, compressed, small video that's edge-cached beats always out a 4K stream, so it even works as a tactic to keep you in that overview longer.
Cthulhu_ 1y ago
At this stage the cost is probably more in licensing fees and production costs than data streaming though.

by kilian 1y ago

nottorp 1y ago

But they play those previews automatically... and that's still bandwidth used.

tonightstoast 1y ago
And tragically most users prefer the auto playing previews. Theprimeagean has a YouTube video about how he tried to a/b test it before release thinking "no way that's what users would prefer" and was unfortunately wrong.
- HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago
  Well, there is a setting to turn it off.
  - zerd 1y ago
    My problem with turning it of is that if you _do_ want to watch the preview it's very cumbersome. Clicking on it goes to the movie/episode. So to get to the preview you have to go to the list of Episodes, scroll down (and try not to get spoiled) to trailers then play it. So I have one profile with it on and one with it off, depending on if I'm browsing or not.
- nottorp 1y ago
  Who's that and do they work for Netflix? Tbh I don't mind the previews as long as they don't make the UI lag*. I was just pointing out that they don't save bandwidth. * I'm also aware that they're blatant lies and have little connection with what's in the actual movie.
  - tonightstoast 1y ago
    100%. Wasn’t trying to contradict your statement - just giving some additional context. And he is a semi popular tech YouTuber that has risen to popularity in the last couple of years. I think he also streams on twitch but I’m not on that site so I can’t say. But he worked for Netflix for about 10 years.
kilian 1y ago
A short, compressed, small video that's edge-cached beats always out a 4K stream, so it even works as a tactic to keep you in that overview longer.

Cthulhu_ 1y ago

At this stage the cost is probably more in licensing fees and production costs than data streaming though.