Even With A Better Queue, Good Luck Finding Netflix Winners

better-queue

Having problems finding winners on Netflix? A Better Queue just launched which hopes to improve your experience by linking Rotten Tomatos meta movie rankings to Netfix streaming inventory. Unfortunately, it proves what we already know – there aren’t many recent, mainstream hit movies available for just $7.99/month. But A Better Queue, which doesn’t actually connect to your “queue,” might help surface more obscure, independent, or foreign fare you may not have otherwise easily found.

After taking it for a quick spin this AM… I went ahead and cancelled my Netflix account. I’m sure I’ll return as I always do. Yet, in the interim I’ll attempt to find enjoyment from my Amazon Prime Instant streaming “gift” and, once again, spend some quality time with physical media given recent streaming frustrations. Also, I continue to contemplate a TiVo Premiere XL4 — adding more tuners and drive space to preemptively record more of what I seem to end up buying after the fact via Amazon.

(via The Verge

18 thoughts on “Even With A Better Queue, Good Luck Finding Netflix Winners”

  1. “After taking it for a quick spin this AM… I went ahead and cancelled my Netflix account … and, once again, spend some quality time with physical media given recent streaming frustrations.”

    Even though Netflix doesn’t seem to want you to actually use their Kwighkstoer service, it’s actually a pretty good deal for having Blu-Rays around to watch.

  2. I’m glad they have reviewer info again, they used to — about a year ago the ‘Critic Reviews’ tab disappeared and only ‘Member Reviews’ remained, nice to have it back as I found my self using Metacritic.com to get the info instead.

  3. For what it’s worth, the abetterqueue.blogspot.com mentions that it will connect to your queue soon.

    Good point about the mainstream hit movies.

    Thanks for the post.

    Cheers,
    Dave

  4. In response to this post, one of our readers has suggested those of us who catch video from multiple sources (Netflix, Redbox, Amazon Instant) should also check out http://Whichflix.com which culls their catalogs and also includes Rotten Tomato scores. Any others?

  5. I’m with you, Dave. While Netflix may offer 35,578 or 920,345 titles…or whatever the number is, the reality is that quality content is hard to come by. A few years ago when I first opened a Netflix account, I was quite satisfied with the service; more specfically, the novelty of being able to place long forgotten movies in a queue via my computer or iPhone and have it show up on my TV moments later.

    Unfortunately, now that I have seen all the old, long forgotten movies I want to – and I can find newer titles on other services – the appeal is gone. If it wasn’t for the fact my wife likes to do weekend marathon sessions of past TV episodes – and the low cost of $7.99/month – I would cancel tomorrow.

    When I turn on my Xbox (or Roku occasionally) these days seeking video entertainment, I rarely go to Netflix. These days I find other streaming services (e.g. Hulu Plus, HBO GO, ESPN, Vudu, Zune Movies, Epix and Amazon) much more appealing.

    I am somewhat surprised that Netflix hasn’t tried to incorporate a PPV componenet (e.g. Amazon) to their service. It seems to me that Netflix needs to make some serious changes in the near future or they will become one of those companies that defined a market early on only to be passed and forgotten by others.

  6. “If it wasn’t for the fact my wife likes to do weekend marathon sessions of past TV episodes – and the low cost of $7.99/month – I would cancel tomorrow.”

    Given the high licensing cost of recently released movies, marathon sessions of TV series seems to be the core value of Netflix streaming.

    “I am somewhat surprised that Netflix hasn’t tried to incorporate a PPV componenet (e.g. Amazon) to their service.”

    Keep it simple. There are 100 different companies offering a la carte streaming. Netflix seems to be trying to carve out a spot as an indispensable and cheap all-you-can-eat service. The strategy may be right or wrong, but I do understand why they’re doing what they’re doing.

    —–

    As far as automated “discovery” goes, I never understand why folks are disappointed in how badly it works. If you don’t know what you want to watch, no algorithm is going to be of much help. De gustibus non est disputandum, and all that. Algorithms and art don’t mix. If you want human curation, old-fashioned HBO does a decent job. Look at the HBO schedule for the next two weeks, and you can generally find a few things to schedule a few things for your DVR.

  7. Since when were mainstream hit movies “winners”?

    If you want to watch new movies, there’s ways to do that. If you want to watch good movies, there are good ones on Netflix that you haven’t seen yet.

    It’s absolutely weird to me that people so willingly play into Hollywood’s economy by attributing value to recent big budget flicks. Not entirely unexpected, but still weird.

  8. I dunno I hear Avengers, a mainstream hit movie, is fun and worth seeing. But doubt it’ll be on Netflix within say the next three years. But it will be available via Amazon On Demand, cable on demand, HBO, etc. For unlimited streaming of older, more obscure, or children’s fare, Netflix probably can’t be beat. But I have enough random stuff to pick amongst via Amazon Prime (for essentially free) and will probably re-up with Hulu Plus to augment lazy DVR scheduling. Meanwhile, I’m revisiting physical media for movies because just about every film is available without something of a scavenger hunt as we find with online video.

  9. Drive is coming to Netflix. Iron Man and Iron man 2 were on it. Those not mainstream releases?

  10. If you want a particular movie, new, old, popular or obscure, its almost a certainty that Netflix streaming does not offer it. They only have some stuff, not close to all stuff. They can’t beat anyone on selection of anything…that’s not what they do.

    I get wanting to watch a particular movie at a particular time, I don’t get thinking your $7.99 all you can eat service under any circumstance possible would fill that need. If you want to watch”a movie” Netflix streaming can help, if you want to watch “that movie” Netflix probably can’t. That seems to me to be a characteristic, not a problem. But that’s for me.

  11. Richard, that sums it up great. Might have to steal it for some other story some time. :)

    If you want to watch ”a movie” Netflix streaming can help, if you want to watch “that movie” Netflix probably can’t.

    I’d rather pay HBO prices ($15-$20/month) for an HBO selection. So, at the moment, Netflix isn’t the best solution for me. But, of course, I always flip it off then on. I’m sure I’ll be back. But will quite likely flip on Blu-ray disc rentals any day now if they still let you do it without streaming. Otherwise, it’s going to be Redbox.

    Steve, the Starz relationship may be over but it looks like the SD-only new releases aren’t. Iron Man 2 is SD with stereo as opposed to say episodes of United States of Tara which is 5.1 and HD. I recognize licensing this stuff is increasingly difficult and expensive – especially new releases.

  12. Wow, I could have sworn Iron Man 2 was in HD, but you’re right. I never watched it on NF because I own the Blu-Ray :). I’m hoping Drive will be in HD to save me a rental.

    I ended up resubbing to the NF blu-ray rentals too. Just too many other movies I wanted to see and renting through iTunes and Vudu was getting to be more expensive with my viewing habits.

    I love NF for the TV Shows (Doctor Who!), especially those that may never see Blu releases but I get to see them in HD like Friday Night Lights. I also have enjoyed the independent and special genre films…most I’ve watched actually had a high likelihood of being in HD. However, even that selection seems to be getting thinner now.

  13. Take a look at our universal movie search and queue at http://Gowatchit.com. You can look up movies you are interested in to see availibilities and queue them to get alerts when they are available on new services.

    We have also widgetized the site and are working with a growing list of prestigious partners like Sundance, Tribeca FF, Roger Ebert, and others.

  14. I have netflix streaming on my my phone as it is so straightforward (and I have a grandfathered unlimited data plan) I find it great for streaming TV shows I never had a chance to watch all the way through in order – like farscape. Also movies every now and then – but I have a 2 disc Netflix as well for more movies.

  15. All those movies (including Iron man 2) WERE in HD at one time and I wasn’t crazy. It was removed, but HD just showed back up for all of them today…so Iron Man 2, et al are in HD again and…

    Netflix IS getting The Avengers AND Hunger Games. You were saying? ;)

  16. I’m saying there’s not enough streaming stuff that I’m interested in… Not at the moment, anyway. Incidentally, earlier this week I turned on a disc-only Netflix subscription for the first time. Now I just need a good deal on another Blu-ray player. I missed out on that last Sony refurb clearance, about two weeks ago.

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