language / subtitle handling on Amazon (RANT)

[Ryan Gallagher]

What the crap are these folks smoking as far as user experience goes. I don't watch a TON of amazon offerings, cause most of them are crap...

But a month ago or so I thought I'd give "Attraction (2018)" a whirl, only to find the listing it was presenting to me did not offer the original language version, only the english dubbed. I gave up and watched something else.

But today I decided to google search for where you can watch attraction with English subtitles, and google says Amazon. WTF. Sure enough they list a completely separate feature called "Attraction (English Subtitles)", but it's no where to be seen in the discovery or UI. You literally have to know that is how they list them, and go searching for it.

I mean I know an embarrassingly large portion of the US audience is unwilling to read subtitles, but to not even list the non-dubbed option anywhere on a feature page is crazy.

I expect/hope variants are handled a little better on other platforms. But I haven't gone looking for an example. MUBI certainly ignores the dubbed versions or offers them in a language dropdown as you should, but MUBI is a special case.

End Rant. Back to the movie.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Hmmm. Maybe Amazon could adopt this.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Hmmm. Maybe Amazon could adopt this.

I wouldn't know what feature i'm watching but at least I'd know what language the audio and subs were in. ;-)

[Bobby Henderson]

One of the things I hate most about streaming services is the awful user interface. Every one of them to some degree just shows random columns of stuff. So much time can get wasted by scrolling thru row after row of shows until something you want to watch comes into view. It's kind of like playing a slot machine (except your wallet isn't getting emptied in the process).

Far be it for them to offer a text-based master list of what's available to see. If they couldn't fit such a thing into the app they could at least offer it on a companion web site.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Most of them have a search function, but admittedly, those are also clumsy to use too...

[Bobby Henderson]

A search function is okay. But I'd like to see a text-based master list of what they currently have to offer. Obviously these streaming services do have such lists for their own internal purposes.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I also feel like most should take a page from MUBI and display when the film is leaving the “free/streamable” category. You can tell when they are gone, but not the few weeks before for your “ last chance”.

Hell if you have it in your watch list, I’d even appreciate an email to that effect.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

A search function is okay. But I'd like to see a text-based master list of what they currently have to offer. Obviously these streaming services do have such lists for their own internal purposes.

I agree! Just an alphabetical list of content with dates, because many movies have remakes. You should be able to click on a title and then it goes to the start page for that movie... Soooo much easier.

[Ryan Gallagher]

The problem with a list is you would instantly be able to judge how massive or inadequate their rights collection is. And use it to draw comparisons between platforms value. can’t have that!!

Other than the ones that intentionally limit their active catalog, the rest are in a pact to give you the impression they all have all the films, even though that is no where close to true.

And these days they’d prefer you not even watch the old “other” stuff, and heavily favor their own content in the UI, considering each platform is effectively a studio now too.

(and each traditional studio has effectively spun up a platform). We are actively headed towards a bunch of walled gardens, and no true warehousing/rental streaming services model.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I only have Prime because they have the most movies and TV shows. I also occasionally buy from them as well. They aldo do have some stuff at very good prices, especially if what you want is on sale.

BTW, Over 26,300 movies and 2700 TV shows including some of my favorite British TV shows and movies...

[Ryan Gallagher]

I only have Prime because they have the most movies and TV shows. I also occasionally buy from them as well. They aldo do have some stuff at very good prices, especially if what you want is on sale.

BTW, Over 26,300 movies and 2700 TV shows including some of my favorite British TV shows and movies...

I got prime for the shipping reasons (almost void now), and will occasionally rent stream-able titles there. But their "included with prime" selection is about the worst of all the services as far as offering up things I haven't seen that align with my viewing tastes.

The only other monthly/yearly billed one I still pay for is MUBI. (Ohh and Peacock briefly for the olympics, which I almost forgot to cancel). I had netflix and used hulu for a while in the early period, but figured one or two bills a month was enough, can only watch so much content, and dropped them. I will use both Apple and Amazon for occasional rentals depending on platform and quality availability.

I use Apple for other things "work related" on occasion too. Disney+ has also been used at work when the camp kids need something to interruptedly watch during their meal breaks. Honestly I don't know how any parent except the Amish can get out of a Disney+ subscription these days. Lol. I secretly hope parents coordinate and pool family plan resources.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Maybe i'm old school. But my "find something" process tends to involve navigating their clunky UIs, opening a bunch of tabs, and watching a bunch of trailers. Once i've found something I might watch it on a real device like a smartTV or appleTV to get the 4K or more intentional viewing experience.

Since you can't even use tabs within the apps or on smartTVs, maybe they need to lean into trailers for discovery a bit more (rather than just using them as moving background images in the UI).

I'd appreciate a "we think you will enjoy" trailers feed (one after another) that you can click on to trigger the feature or bookmark/add-to-list.

Beyond the "algorithm" for discovery, a smart trailers playlist that came from search results, categories, actors, directors, cinematographers, studios, etc, specifically designed to avoid things you have already watched or already saved to watch later. Could just throw it on in the background while doing other things until something catches your fancy. One should be able to filter based on "free" vs "non-free" of course too.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Ryan, Luke I said elsewhere, these streaming xompanies need to have a simple alphabetical list and the year the movie was made. Nothing more, nothing less. What we have now is when you turn the index over to Marketing idiots.

[Bobby Henderson]

We are actively headed towards a bunch of walled gardens, and no true warehousing/rental streaming services model.

When they make it too much of a pain in the ass to find anything good to watch I end up not even launching the app at all. Then I consider cancelling the service.

I don't have the time (or patience) to sit there browsing past rows upon rows of randomly organized stuff until I happen upon something I might actually want to watch. On multiple occasions I've been in rooms with groups of people (family or friends) where someone wasted a half hour or more browsing until a show, any show, finally got started. It's torture.

I could drive to a video rental store, find something good to watch and get back home in less time. But those rental stores and other movies-music retail stores don't exist anymore.

This situation just gives me more incentive to not waste time sitting in front of a TV screen. I'm already watching fewer movies and TV shows than ever before. I'll get home from work, maybe catch the top of the local news and then head to the gym to work out for a couple hours. When I get home whatever is left of the evening often gets spent doing other things, or even going somewhere else. If I do watch TV most of the time I'm turning on some sports broadcast. And then I'm only halfway concentrating on that while doing graphics work on my computer.

The old brick and mortar video rental stores were much easier to physically navigate than the shitty UI in these streaming apps. The video rental stores all had their "new and recent releases" sections, where all the copies of DVDs and VHS tapes were organized in alphabetical order. Then they had their older catalog releases sections, which were also in alphabetical order. Sometimes those sections would be divided up into genres. I could walk through the aisles and skim over the shelves, seeing far more movie titles faster than I could in any of these damned streaming apps.

A text-based master list on a web site would make a big difference. Just text. With filtering options for genre and sorting options for things like alphabetical order, year, etc. No space-wasting thumbnail images. Maybe have a thumbnail image of a poster appear off to the side when the mouse pointer hovers over the title. If it was possible to scrape the data needed off the web someone could conceivably make a web site that could quickly tell visitors what all was available on any streaming service. Currently we don't quite have such a thing. Some sites are hit and miss on their accuracy of titles available to watch. And they always have to have the space-hogging thumbnail images, which makes scrolling through a list more of a time-wasting chore.

[Mike Blakesley]

Another vote for a text-based list page. They could make it have sortable columns so you could list all the horror movies, or all the comedies, etc. But it will never happen because like Ryan says, they all want you to think they have everything.

I got my eyes opened early on when we first got Netflix. I thought, I'd like to watch Tom Hanks in something. I searched him up and the only one of his many movies they had was "The Burbs." So I decided to try Steve Martin. The only one of his listed was "Pennies from Heaven," I think. Or one of his other flops.

That's when I decided not to junk my DVDs and BluRays after all.