Netflix – Any good?

Never listened to Radio 4

You should give it a go.

I’ll bet you 20p you can listen all day and feel the need to moan about any of the music.

Listening to a teenager singing “call me baby” or some such doesn’t really resonate with me.

Or me but luckily it’s really easy to switch to another station when a song comes on I don’t like.

v8ninety

If you only ever listen to music that you have chosen by writing your own playlists, do you not worry that you’re missing out on music that you may enjoy, but just never hear?

Not at all. I still look for new music online, typically through a mixture of bandcamp, youtube and Facebook. The benefit of this is I can quickly sample multiple tracks from a band any time I want and listen to as little or as much as I choose to without having sit through a specific show by a specific dj at a specific time.

I wouldn’t say music is hugely important to me either (relative to some muso types I know) but listening to music I don’t like irritates me. More than half my time listening time is podcasts at the minute.

Drac – Moderator

Listening to a teenager singing “call me baby” or some such doesn’t really resonate with me.

Or me but luckily it’s really easy to switch to another station when a song comes on I don’t like.

You don’t have a lot of stations to choose from before you end up getting into franchised commercial stations which I presume we can both agree are dire, and it kind of diverts from the argument re the validity or worth of paying a license fee as opposed to on demand services.

Chromecast and couchtuner

and https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instantbits.cast.webvideo&hl=en_GB on your android.

I’ll bet you 20p you can listen all day and feel the need to moan about any of the music.

Unless it’s Friday.

luckily it’s really easy to switch to another station when a song comes on I don’t like.

Actually, not for me. Because all but two or three stations are full of shite I can’t stand. There was only one good alternative station in the UK and they recently gave up and relaunched it as a worse station.. at least it’s still slightly alternative.

My radio station consistently plays music or podcasts I want to listen to. Imagine that.

Problem with that is that you have to already know of it to be able to go and buy it. I would like to use radio to introduce me to good new music.

Commercial Radio is dire which kind renforces the point that the licence fee is worth paying for. 😀

Not at all. I still look for new music online, typically through a mixture of bandcamp, youtube and Facebook.

this is a fairly active process though, whereas if prefer to just listen whilst I am doing other things. R2 is a very long way from perfect, but it does play a fairly broad spectrum of music. And I’m not massively fussy, which helps, I can enjoy most music. It’s over repetition that fries my brain. (Strangely, a bit of repetition is a good thing; it must be a fine line for playlisters to tread).

Mol, Kerrang perchance? That was a sad day.

v8ninety

this is a fairly active process though,

It can be, and I know people who spend most of their time online doing just this (the aforementioned muso types). For me it’s not really. I subscribe to a few youtube channels who promote bands. If they put up a new video I’ll see this whenever I check my subscriptions, or I can be notified via the phone. I can listen there and then or bookmark them for later. The other way is a band or record label will stick a video or link on my news feed, I can watch it or not. It all comes to me, not the other way around.

Unless you’re listening to a radio show live, as it’s broadcast (do people still listen to steve lamacq?) then you’re doing something not dissimilar.

This is already the case. My 6 year old son is borderline, but my 2 year ild daughter has absolutely no concept of having to wait for something to be shown. She just assumes that everything is instantly available of whatever she wants to watch. And for the most part, with Amazon Prime, Netflix, and iPlayer, we’re covered.

Same here and I’m 45!
We haven’t had a TV for over a year, so pretty much everything we watch is on demand on the laptop (unless round the in-laws where the TV is always on, for example). The idea that something wouldn’t just be on when you want to watch it already seems strange.

Unless you’re listening to a radio show live, as it’s broadcast

Don’t listen to radio any other way, TBH, anything else is too much fuss. Thanks for the replies, it’s interesting getting an insight into other people’s habits from time to time.

Unless you’re listening to a radio show live, as it’s broadcast (do people still listen to steve lamacq?

Yip! Every day. Along with 2 million other people, every week

I’d happily pay the licence fee for BBC radio alone. I have my DAB radio on all day, every day. Either on 4, 5 live, or 6 music. Don’t know what I’d do without them.

Have you ever actually listened to commercial radio? It is beyond awful! All of it! Stick some on for an hour or so – see if you can endure a whole hour – then return to BBC radio.

You’ll never moan about the license fee ever again

The idea that something wouldn’t just be on when you want to watch it already seems strange.

Yeah it is some what thankful many broadcasters have on demand.

ooh, this is interesting. Could you explain for the hard of clicking please? ta x

@v8ninety Unblock-US.com costs me ~£3.50 a month and opens up all Netflix regions. I use it on my TV through Playstation 3. You just change the DNS server settings in the PS3 and hey presto.
But the really handy trick is to look up which region has the movie you want by going to moreflicks.com.

Unblock-US also has a handy app (on Android) to quickly switch regions (though you do still have to re-start Netflix on the PS3 before it takes effect).

In truth I don’t watch masses of stuff on it – unlike my kids – but if I suddenly fancy watching a particular movie there’s a good chance I can find it and watch it this way.

What we do in the shadows is a very funny film on netflix

Team UMI ZOOMI!!! that is all……we watch now…. and a bit of Paw Patrol. 😀
Worth it for those.

I’ve never listened to it. Ever. I genuinely have no idea what’s on it.

This is not something to be proud of. Give it a try – even if it’s just a selection of podcasts/ on demand programmes. But the ebb and flow of live R4 in the background finds you listening to quirky stuff you would not necessarily have chosen but is broadening and often enlightening. I can’t envisage life without the today programme in the morning – the depth of understanding and exposure to current affairs it provides is irreplaceable.

Convert +1000

I can’t envisage life without the today programme in the morning – the depth of understanding and exposure to current affairs it provides is irreplaceable.

Yes, it’s the only place to get anything substantial in the mornings. Plus they don’t repeat the same 15 minutes over and over again like BBC Breakfast does.

some of the interviewing though is terribly adversarial and challenging

Rather than let folk explain complex and nuanced positions they just attack them on a small point and then berate the shit put of them

The politicians dont help but some of the interviews are so badly handled i do switch them off

Getting back to the original netflix – any good question, I’m now 1 n’ a bit episodes into the documentary “making a murderer” after reading reviews in the press and from a few folk on my Twitter feed who’ve raved about it….so far it’s a “holy ****, how can the police/justice system be so corrupt/incompetent”.

Rather than let folk explain complex and nuanced positions they just attack them on a small point and then berate the shit put of them

Hmmm. Sadly I reckon it’s the Paxman effect. He’s seen as the style to aspire to, but it’s all to easy to fail and just come across as rude and arsey. But I could be wrong.

Onto my 3rd episode of making a murderer and I feel like screaming, read the reviews here then go watch it with utter disbelief, not only directed at the police dept/justice dept but also at the reporting by the American tv media.

We’ve had Netflix for about 6 months now…there are a few decent films on it, but it won’t take long to get through them.

The bulk of the films can also be found on the bargain DVD shelves in poundland.

You’ll find that deciding to watch something on Netflix will initially result in 30 mins of flicking through stuff …no…no…no…no… until you go back to one you dismissed earlier and think, “that’ll do”.

The series are good though…

If you base what you watch on the ratings you’ll never find a film to watch…some of the films with low ratings are still enjoyable.

I guarantee that if you put Radio 4 on then within an hour, no matter what is on, you’ll have involuntarily nodded to yourself, and said ‘oh… I didn’t know that….’

One of the good things about Netflix (compared to amazon prime) is that there’s no long contract to tie you in and they make it easy to stop and start your account month by month. I tend to open the activate the account for a 3-4 months over the winter which gives me plenty of time to watch anything that appeals then once the spring comes around I’ll suspend the account until the following winter.

I guarantee that if you put Radio 4 on then within an hour, no matter what is on, you’ll have involuntarily nodded to yourself, and said ‘oh… I didn’t know that….’

This is true.