

Show HN my weekend project - Browse Netflix Watch Instant faster - pragmar
http://www.qwikstant.com/

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pragmar
The developer here. Moreso it's a vacation project. I started it after the
Netflix redesign and put it down until two weeks ago when I was motivated to
finish. I woke up and saw the Netflix Prize article on HN, and thought it was
an interesting foil. It contains absolutely no elements of the recommendation
system - relying on search speed as the main benefit.

Edit: grammar.

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jdefr89
Really Cool. What did you build it with?

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pragmar
Thanks, I wrote the backend in Django - but most of the heavy lifting is
javascript. Django more or less is just populated by a cronjob and then caches
the results of the Netflix odata API.

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dmils4
Have you seen InstantWatcher (<http://www.instantwatcher.com>)?

Probably the best use of the Netflix API I've seen - accounts for the search
areas where Netflix lacks, without losing discoverability.

Your project is obviously much closer to the netflix design than IW is, but
check it out, might give you some ideas!

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pragmar
I did stumble on to Instant Watcher midway through development. It's a great
concept - I especially like the aggregation of review information. IW covers
the full spectrum of search, recommendations and queue management. Qwikstant
is much simpler by comparison, partially by virtue of not cutting off more
than I could chew (also working fulltime), but also because I was scratching
my own itch and search was the issue I was trying to solve.

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zachkatz
I would love if I could view all of the movies in the IMDB Top 250 that are
available on Watch Instant.

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pragmar
Thanks for the suggestion, I'm definitely considering some form in independent
verification of the Netflix user rating system and was considering a series of
icons that would display underneath the program info. The only concern is that
I'd want to keep it visually not too busy - there's some visual design
considerations that would need to be thought through.

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K2h
I would like the ability to present the Netflix streaming titles with their
associated imdb ratings... And filter accordingly. I find the high imdb
ratings a better indication of what I actually enjoy than the Netflix rating.

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etcet
There a lot of things the iMDB would be useful for but unfortunately their
terms don't allow for free use.

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coffeedrinker
This really makes searching so much better than what netflix offers. My only
suggestion would be to keep the search options open since there are not that
many and modifying the search requires opening and closing to verify settings.

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pragmar
That's a good point, and one I've struggled with a bit. I'd envisioned it
being mobile friendly (android only so far) which places serious constraints
on available screen real estate. On my tablet, the existing search filters run
up against the limits. I'm not sure how far a one size fits all approach goes,
and forking the display for desktop might be one way to solve that - but it
has it's own set of issues.

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jsuchal
In SynopsiTV we are doing something similar in our advanced search
functionality.

<http://blog.synopsi.tv/post/17773566495/histogram>

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ck2
I like it - will use it in addition to instantwatcher and streamingsoon.

I just hope I can remember the url next week though, not sure how to recall
"stant" (or what it means).

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stevenp
"stant" is for "instant".

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aprescott
Tiny suggestion: the initial description disappears because the films load so
quickly. Maybe make it available on the right or somewhere else?

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pragmar
Excellent point - I'd noticed that too, but hadn't gotten around to delaying
the transition or alternatively placing it elsewhere. I just wrote it down on
the todo list. Thanks!

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GoofyGewber
That's really cool! The magnifying glass looks kind of like it doesn't belong.
But, that's just my opinion.

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pragmar
Thanks! Yeah, I can see how it looks a little out of place. It's clickable
(hides the filter sidebar), but the fact that wasn't obvious is good input..

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LiquidSummer
Not much to say except that's awesome!

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dholowiski
Doesn't work with Canadian Netflix.

