[HN Gopher] Show HN: Netflix Calculator
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       Show HN: Netflix Calculator
        
       Author : attero
       Score  : 38 points
       Date   : 2022-07-17 16:09 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.netflixcalculator.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.netflixcalculator.com)
        
       | iLoveOncall wrote:
       | Keep 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 wrote:
         | I'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 wrote:
       | Pretty 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.
        
       | Meltiono wrote:
       | Didn'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)
        
       | blackoil wrote:
       | I watch a lot of content at 1.5-2X speed
        
         | Forge36 wrote:
         | What content are you watching?
        
         | djitz wrote:
         | This is the new "I read 4 books per week"
        
           | system2 wrote:
           | Reading requires effort.
        
             | hombre_fatal wrote:
             | I 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.
        
         | drexlspivey wrote:
         | Way 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 wrote:
           | I assume the OP is watching documentaries or likewise.
        
             | popotamonga wrote:
             | I watch everything at 1.5 movies seasons etc. Stuff is too
             | slow i just want to absorb it.
        
               | ngetchell wrote:
               | Can 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.
        
           | pearjuice wrote:
           | Too 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 wrote:
             | You 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 wrote:
               | I 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.
        
       | vishnuharidas wrote:
       | Good tool, but a sample result will be really helpful so that
       | people can see how it looks without sharing their private data.
        
       | anewpersonality wrote:
       | For shame if you watch Netflix.
        
       | irrational wrote:
       | I don't have a Netflix subscription, but I do have a Disney+
       | subscription. Is there a similar thing for Disney+?
        
         | abhinickz wrote:
         | I use tvtime.com
        
         | attero wrote:
         | No :), I'm not sure how hard would it to build it, but I
         | haven't built it yet (also because I don't use Disney+).
        
       | sys_64738 wrote:
       | Me? Zero hours per month.
        
         | just_for_you wrote:
         | Same 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.
        
         | attero wrote:
         | Good for you!
        
       | throwoutway wrote:
       | Zero. Cancelled it a long time ago and haven't looked back.
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | I 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
        
       | system2 wrote:
       | I can't believe people still watch netflix. Algorithm generated
       | content for simpletons.
        
         | hombre_fatal wrote:
         | There'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.
        
         | Meltiono wrote:
         | No 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 wrote:
         | The 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.
        
       | z9znz wrote:
       | Not 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
       | 
       | This is when we realize that our reality is a farce, perhaps
       | self-created.
       | 
       | You are welcome for this tour to the end times!
        
       | Couch_Surfer wrote:
       | Nifty usage of previous history, are you looking up Netflix's
       | title number against an OS database?
        
       | Phelinofist wrote:
       | idk 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 wrote:
         | Same 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
        
       | kiawe_fire wrote:
       | I 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.
        
         | Xeoncross wrote:
         | > 45 minutes later, I'm tired
         | 
         | I think you're tired to start with, just go to sleep. I
         | realized this with myself and others. Some kind of marketing
         | that "unwind and relax" means you have to watch some TV when
         | sleep will actually bring you more enjoyment.
         | 
         | You can always trade those 45 minutes when you wake up for a
         | movie if you actually want to watch one - and you'll enjoy it
         | more.
        
         | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
         | Same 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.
        
         | yreg wrote:
         | >But movies and video games I have severe analysis paralysis
         | that leads to a lot of browsing and no actual watching or
         | playing.
         | 
         | I suffered of this problem as well and I believe I managed to
         | solve it.
         | 
         | ## Netflix
         | 
         | - I only open Netflix when I know what I'm going to watch.
         | 
         | - When I don't know what to watch it means I'm not in the mood
         | for anything I'm currently planning to watch. So I don't open
         | Netflix, I go to YouTube instead.
         | 
         | - When I know what I want to watch (these days I'm binging Mr.
         | Robot) I favourite things that catch my interest while using
         | the app. This is the only time for new content discovery within
         | Netflix.
         | 
         | ## Steam
         | 
         | It might sound ridiculous but I've found that to power through
         | I need to approach games like work. I have to dedicate time for
         | it - a weekend, or even take a vacation (I found that the time
         | around the end of the year works best for me). Since it is
         | something I plan, I discuss what to play with my friends and
         | make a decision beforehand.
         | 
         | When the vacation comes, I make myself play at least 8 hours a
         | day on the same regime as if I was working. After a few days I
         | get into it and then I can continue the game in some normal
         | occasional schedule as well. I've been able to enjoy the Mass
         | Effect games in this way the last winter and Witcher 3 the year
         | before that. I don't think I've managed to enjoy a single
         | player storytelling game to such extent in the decade before
         | that.
         | 
         | I try to avoid opening my 500+ game 80% unplayed Steam library.
         | When I don't know what to play, I don't open Steam, I open
         | YouTube and watch some let's play instead.
        
           | pph wrote:
           | > I only open Netflix when I know what I'm going to watch.
           | 
           | Only to realize that it's not in their library (anymore).
        
             | yreg wrote:
             | I'm in EU and this didn't happen to me yet (although I've
             | watched Friends while I could).
             | 
             | It sometimes feels like I'm the only netizen who is happy
             | with the Netflix catalogue, but to be honest I think they
             | have a giant pile of great shows; many more than I have
             | time or mood to watch. I believe the issue is that they
             | produce an even bigger pile of shows that are utterly shit,
             | so if you just play something at random there is a high
             | chance of it being low quality. To me that doesn't matter
             | much as long as there is enough of the good stuff.
        
             | zamadatix wrote:
             | I solved this by simply not using the streaming services as
             | my catalog service. Make the list in something all
             | encompassing like IMDB so when you pull it up you can
             | quickly find what services have your content available
             | instead of the other way around. Jumping on Netflix so I
             | can find what I want to watch is just backwards. If I have
             | a catalog of movies marked watched later and I can't ever
             | seem to find any available on <x service> then why would I
             | keep an <x service> subscription.
             | 
             | This comes with the bonus that recommendations are based on
             | what you have liked across all services not what the
             | service has it thinks it can convince you is good enough
             | based on only what that service has convinced you to watch
             | before. It also keeps your watch history in one place which
             | makes referencing easier.
        
         | cmeacham98 wrote:
         | If 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").
        
         | game-of-throws wrote:
         | I have a list of movies/TV shows in a txt file. New entries go
         | at the end. I watch them in the order I added them. Zero
         | decision fatigue!
        
         | themodelplumber wrote:
         | This might seem weird but here's how I leverage this:
         | 
         | - 99% of the time it confirms tiredness. However it's also an
         | intriguing moment of interest, built into this time of waning
         | energy. And interests are important to seize on, and work with,
         | as they develop.
         | 
         | - I want to get the most entertaining result, for the time
         | being. The symbol processing part of the mind is back-and-
         | forthing with the physical circumstances of exhaustion, so I
         | have an opportunity to get the needed result via symbolic
         | means.
         | 
         | - I focus only on cover imagery and sort by favorite cover
         | images. I let myself decide not to focus on selecting a movie
         | to watch for the time being. I'm just browsing covers. This is
         | not a time to test the focusing attributes of your mind.
         | Instead, the mind is ready to take you for a ride.
         | 
         | - The images start to bring out imaginings or scenarios in the
         | mind's eye, which build on and depart from what's strictly in
         | the cover image. This is good. You can consider it a lucid,
         | pre-dreaming state as well.
         | 
         | - I frontdoor those moments and inner images [1] for rest,
         | interest-pursuit, and analysis purposes if desired.
         | 
         | Since I started doing that and got good results, I wrote a cron
         | script to randomly select sets of book covers from my Google
         | Play Books and Kindle libraries, and I use those the same way.
         | 
         | Another result is that this connection "browse thumbnails" ->
         | "watch or read that thing" is less strict or even necessary.
         | The covers often don't match the contents anyway, and were not
         | typically created by the director or author. So the
         | reading/viewing often hits like a disappointment. This isn't to
         | say that reading is bad though, and you can do the cover-
         | sorting activity above with textual passages from books, or
         | clips from movies.
         | 
         | 1. https://www.friendlyskies.net/maybe/frontdooring-a-new-
         | form-...
        
       | dxuh wrote:
       | Assuming 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.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-17 23:01 UTC)