They could probably honestly remove 10% of the catalog and nobody would miss anything.

It feels like 80% of the catalog is Netflix homebrewed garbage, another 10% is foreign dubbed garbage, and the remaining 10% you've probably already seen.

I honestly have never thought harder about outright cancelling Netflix. I'm very close...

Every time I log in to watch something, Netflix recommends TV Shows and Movies they know I have already watched because I watched them on Netflix. The rest of the recommendations are Netflix original content, of which I find maybe less than 10% to actually be worth the time to watch. I have never before left so many movies and TV shows unfinished... and the list continues to grow.

I cannot recall the last time I searched for a movie and found exactly what I was looking for.

The value of Netflix has decreased sharply in the past few years.

> another 10% is foreign dubbed garbage

Foreign to whom? Or do you mean, whatever your nationality, Netflix has a constant 10% of "foreign dubbed garbage" that will be foreign to you?

Poorly voiced overdubbed lines will ruin a movie regardless of it's national origin.

I don't disagree -- I dislike dubs, always. Subtitles for the win! -- but do you see my point?

Let me state it outright: I believe you're a native English speaker, likely from the US, and you believe "foreign" means "not made in America". Am I wrong? The point is: Netflix caters to a global audience. Korean shows aren't foreign to Netflix's Korean audience. So it's very unlikely that there's a constant 10% "foreign dubbed garbage" for any given spectator.

Also, I may be wrong, but every Netflix show I've seen is available in its original language (plus some additional dub options, of course). So you never need to watch the "garbage dub".

I cannot eat dinner and read subtitles without needing to pause/rewind over and over. It takes focus, and also distracts from actor's expressions and the overall scene. At least for me.

Dubs can be done very well - see Squid Game. The voices matched the characters in both body/expression and situation. The mouths fairly closely matched the voices as well, and in some scenes you might even forget they're dubs you're listening too.

The problem is, Netflix seems to push poorly done foreign films with even more poorly done dubs way too often.

> Netflix caters to a global audience

The catalog you see is what is available for your country. Which means it's curated for your country and it's interests, and/or allowed licenses. I have no doubt the Korean version of Netflix is filled with native Korean shows/movies. For some reason though, Netflix is pushing French and Belgian movies onto the US audience, mostly with horrible dubbing coupled with already atrocious acting. It feels like a "these are cheap, stuff them into the catalog!" sort of thing... meanwhile US viewers can't watch shows they actually want, like Better Call Saul season 6...

A-ha! Like I assumed, you're from the US and think shows not made in America are "foreign". You have to be careful when assuming everyone reading your comments in HN is from the US as well. Netflix is a global service, something may be foreign to you, but not to the person reading your comments here.

> The catalog you see is what is available for your country

That's not really relevant to my point, is it? In any case, I can assure I can see plenty of Korean, Turkish, Swedish, etc, shows listed on Netflix.. here in my Latin American country.

Any way you look at it, the assertion that Netflix has "10% foreign dubbed garbage" is poorly phrased and probably false.

The 10% of the catalog this removes is probably the only 10% of the catalog people really want to watch...

It's probably the most expensive 10% as far as licensing goes.

I wonder how many people actually just rewatch their favorite shows over and over. I definitely do that with a few shows when I just want something easy (e.g. I'm cooking and put on an episode of Bob's Burgers in the background even though I've seen it a few times)

I suspect a lot of people do this. A friend of mine listens to old familiar audiobooks they've heard dozens of times when they are trying to sleep. I can understand why people might find comfort in rewatching their favorite shows and listening to the same music they always have.

> another 10% is foreign dubbed garbage,

I'd honestly pay them extra for a good UI that showed ONLY that. Limiting yourself to english is extremely shallow.

If it's high quality, sure.

Most of the Netflix-made catalogue is garbage regardless of language.

> Limiting yourself to english is extremely shallow

I get what you and parent post are saying, but do remember Netflix caters to other audiences. "Foreign" is relative. To me, English is a foreign language.

The language isn’t the point - you are watching with subtitles. It’s the entirely different culture that you get to see. Sure, some french and spanish movies are tad too predictable and sweet, but still you get to see different world.

I don't disagree. I'm just making a point that if you're not American, movies not made in America are not "foreign". Netflix caters to a global audience, so it makes no sense to speak of "foreign" movies as if facts about them were universal, on a site like HN. What's foreign to you is not foreign to me (it may, in fact, be from my country!).

I agree that being exposed to movies and shows from all over the world is a good thing.

the 10% not available is due to licensing, i.e. stuff that doesn't want to be run with ads. Assuming that is the more premium content.

> 720p max That is definetly a deal breaker for anyone with a new device post ~2012. I'd class 720p as outdated given todays technology and I can't see anyone going for this. I'm going to make some shameless generalisations here, but a better pilot country would be one that is less ecnonomically developed where people are more likely to have outdated hardware, not the US.

> 10% of the catalog unavailable I wonder if this'll be hit Netflix shows (e.g Money Heist, The Crown, The Queens Gambit) or niche shows that have significantly less viewers.

I find 720p entirely OK at 8-10' from a 65" screen. But distractingly fuzzy/pixelly at ~5-6' from the same screen. And lots of people are on smaller, older screens (in the 30" and 40" ranges) and/or at viewing distances where 720p vs. 1080p isn't really a big difference.

And then there are young kids, who truly do not give a shit and if you've mainly got Netflix for them, 720p would definitely be fine. Though their kids' content is so bad, on average, and last I checked you can't narrow kids' accounts down to an allowlist instead of just "everything Netflix marked as for-kids", that I wouldn't recommend turning kids loose on it, personally, even with time-limits.

I’m guessing the 10% is from the non-Netflix stuff they have licensed from others.

720p is more than adequate for most shows and movies. I don't mind 720p at all.

Yeah, that's still a better-than-DVD level of quality.

You should see Netflix's 720p. It looks like 320p.

It may be adequate for you, but I don't have a 4k screen to watch low quality content, unless the content I want to watch cannot be had in a reasonable quality.

If you are watching it on your phone, then I completely agree with you, but I don't do that.

I don't own a 4k TV, just 1080p that's around a decade old now.

At some point I noticed that Netflix had created different priced packages for 4K, 1080p and 720p (I think) and automatically enrolled me in the 4K package. When I found this I just downgraded to 720p (I think) and ended up saving $5 a month. I haven't noticed the quality difference but my TV is from the 2000's.

Not really -- it's a fantastic price point for an individual subscription to watch on your laptop or iPad. Where most people don't care about 720p vs 1080p anyways.

If you're a college student or not making a lot of money, and therefore not traveling a lot -- this is awesome.

How so?

If you watch 10 hours of Netflix a week, you're watching about 3 and 1/2 hours of ads a month. All to save $3. Not to mention having access to less content.

I mean, across a 4 year college education, saving $3/mo is saving $144. That's like half the price of a cheap laptop or medium-priced cell phone. And when you have Spotify and whatever else, subscriptions add up. So it seems entirely reasonable to me.

And the catalog was anyway steadily going down...

That's mostly same as Basic, only downgrade is less catalog and no downloads, all for $3 per month savings.

I'd guess most people wouldn't notice really.

I wonder if the 10% is purposely vague so that they can use a random 10 percent of content to A/B test platform engagement (maybe plan upgrades) and ad engagement.