

Netflix queue + Rotten Tomatoes = A Better Queue - xbryanx
http://abetterqueue.com/

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collisioncode
Doesn't this already exist?

<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/dvd/netflix/>

\-------------------------------------------

Edit:

The rottentomatoes version also returns way more results (given the same
parameters) -

Abetterqueue:
[http://abetterqueue.com/movies?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query[rati...](http://abetterqueue.com/movies?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query\[rating_q\]=75%25&query\[years_q\]=2010-2012&query\[genres_q\]\[\]=Action+%26+Adventure&commit=filter)

 _2 results_

\-------------------------------------------

Rotten Tomatoes:

75%+, Action Adventure, 2010-2012

 _29 results_

~~~
casualpro
This is because Rotten Tomatoes uses a more thorough criteria for "Action and
Adventure", whereas A Better Queue uses the first Netflix genre criteria
that's listed on the result from its api. So yeah, Rotten Tomatoes is more
thorough in this regard. Most of the movies listed by Rotten Tomatoes with
this criteria are under different genres in A Better Queue.

~~~
collisioncode
Rottentomatoes uses the netflix API, so I don't think it's anything you can't
do.

~~~
casualpro
You're totally right. I should do some more parsing through Netflix's schemas
to get to where Rotten Tomatoes is at. Thanks for pointing this out!

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eggbrain
Looks pretty cool, but how does it differ from <http://instantwatcher.com/>?

~~~
binxbolling
Differs from InstantWatcher by having less functionality.

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caryme
Setting the tomatometer to above 0% and the years to 1915-2012 with the filter
set to just Gay & Lesbian movies only returns 21 movies. Netflix has 256 Gay &
Lesbian movies available for instant streaming, many of which (among the ones
I quickly checked) are reviewed on Rotton Tomatoes.

Is there a technical reason for this or is this a bug?

~~~
casualpro
Good question.

Technical. A Better Queue's database currently takes in only the first genre
listed for a movie from the Netflix API. So those other 235 Gay and Lesbian
movies are present in A Better Queue, but in other genres. The choice to only
take in the first genre listed from the Netflix API was that, beyond trying to
keep it simple, the first genre seemed like the most accurate one. The choice
was in no way intended to be exclusionary.

I would be able to take in multiple genres during a database load so that each
movie could show up for all of its genres. So I will. Right now I'm waiting to
hear back from Rotten Tomatoes' API team so I can get a second API key for
development. (Using my production key to test new functionality would put me
over my API call limit.)

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david_shaw
Other than one major feature request, I haven't got too much to contribute.
The request would be sorting by Tomatoes score would be an excellent way to
(optionally?) display films.

Aside from that, I don't have any critiques - clearly there's more that can be
done, but already this is an excellent product! I will certainly be using it
to help me decide what to watch :)

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casualpro
Hey everybody. I made this thing. Thanks for posting, xbryanx! It's so cool
that my first web app is on the front page of HN.

ADDENDUM::

I'm somewhat new to all of this. Right now I'm learning BDD principles. So,
I'm going to use A Better Queue as a learning tool and blog about BDDing new
features, like an 'add to instant queue' button. I'll probably blog here:
<http://abetterqueue.blogspot.com/>

After that, I'll re-write ABQ using BDD principles and then I'll open-source
the thing.

Cheers, Dave

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phren0logy
Cool, this is a useful mashup. One more suggestion: filter for movies
available on Netflix Streaming.

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nollidge
Pretty sure that's the ONLY thing it shows. Tagline at the top specifically
says "Netflix _instant_ movies".

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dinedal
I've had it recommend two things that aren't streaming so far, so it
definitely isn't accurate.

~~~
dinedal
Creator responds quickly to resolve issues!

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jlgreco
Two sliders on the Tomato bar to let me set a low _and_ high cutoff would be
nice. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for a shitty movie.

~~~
StacyC
I laughed hard when I read this.

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mcrider
Looks great, but doesn't work in Canada (they have different movies). I'm not
sure if APIs exist for different countries or if a flag needs to be set
somewhere, but it would be great if you could detect the country and set it
accordingly.

~~~
Foy
Yeah, using this just reminds me of how much I hate copyright law and
geographic restrictions. Netflix is great, but the Netflix movie selection in
Canada is... paltry, in comparison.

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cpeterso
RottenFlix is a Greasemonkey script to inject Rotten Tomatoes ratings into
Netflix pages:

<https://userscripts.org/scripts/show/52589>

~~~
cpeterso
Unfortunately, the script hasn't been updated since 2010 and no longer seems
to work. :\

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pmr_
Has the Rotten Tomatoes API improved recently? A few years ago I tried to work
with their site to extract some data and automate some of my personal movie
recommendations and it turned out to be a huge mess. At a point their web
interface even inserted place holders inside the query strings. If they made
some improvements I would be happy to work with the site again.

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roryokane
Suggestion: supplement or replace the Rotten Tomatoes percentage text with a
graphic. It would be easier to skim the movies and compare them by glancing at
a representative graphic than by trying to parse the numbers - graphics are
less abstract. There are few enough possible values that we will usually not
need the precision of a number. Perhaps the exact number could be available on
hover, or in a tooltip.

I'm not sure what kind of graphic would be best. A meter like the Tomatometer
would be the most accurate, but it might be too big or too long and narrow to
fit well within the space you have for each movie. Other possibilities are a
square that fills from the bottom up, a circle that fills in radially, and a
circle that fills in with a smaller circle. (If you go with something 2D
instead of 1D, like a circle filling with a circle, make sure to avoid a
classic mistake by scaling the _area_ of the sub-shape, not the width or
radius.)

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joshuaheard
Love this, added to Favorites, I am ex-pat living in France so I am limited to
Instant Queue. Netflix's ability to find good movies in their current Instant
interface is lacking.

I would add a "select all" button next to the "clear" button.

I would also put the number of results returned underneath the "filter"
button, something like, "15 movies found". This would help one narrow a large
data set without having to scroll to the bottom of the page to determine if
too many movies are returned.

I would also have a "new releases" checkbox in genres and make that the
default.

I would also change the caption on the "filter" button to "find". "Filter" is
confusing because it assumes there is a full set already returned. Most users,
I believe, think they start with zero results, then "find" titles based on
their search criteria.

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egallardo
Cool site. Can I suggest adding Twitter/Facebook links to make sharing easier?

From a UI perspective - I'd reverse the slider so that it goes from highest
rating to lowest and most recent to oldest. Most people will likely want the
highest, most recent films.

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aggie
I would like to see a slider for minimum number of reviews counted in the
tomato rating. A movie that has a 100% rating but only 3 reviews is something
I'd like to be able to filter out.

~~~
casualpro
I agree completely. This is coming right after I get the 'add to instant
queue' button in there.'

~~~
planetguy
While we're making feature requests: I'd like it to work better on narrower
screens. I'm using the computer plugged into my TV (the one I use for Netflix)
and I only have 1024 pixels across.

~~~
casualpro
Responsive design coming soon!

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EternalFury
Whoever you are...thank you!

Now, start working on the real estate site that will allow me to find homes
based on price, location, school ratings, jobs, days of sunshine and crime
rating. This site should allow a national search and also allow the user to
assign weights to the various criteria. Presenting the result of a search as a
heat map would also be helpful.

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joesunga
Why isn't there any pagination on the site? I scrolled down to the bottom and
wanted to see more, but no more movies.

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xbryanx
I wish you could adjust for crappy movies also. Sometimes you want to see that
universal flop.

~~~
casualpro
...thinking about doing a 'bad movie night' feature ;-)

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fuzzythinker
= rotten queue? j/k, great job! 2 things:

I would enhance the 2nd bar to make one handle be able to push the other when
they meet instead of getting stuck.

Does Tomatoes not rate animes much? Filtering from '95 to today of 50%+ only
returned 3.

~~~
cube13
Rotten Tomatoes focuses exclusively on English language reviews from "approved
critics"(<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/help_desk/critics.php> ), so it's not
that much of a surprise that there aren't that many Japanese anime films rated
there. Since the 90's, the only major theatrical releases in the US have been
Studio Ghibli films, and that's because Disney handles the US distribution.

I would imagine that it's similar for the vast majority of foreign films as
well.

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kpozin
A few more feature suggestions:

\- allow sorting by rating, year, title

\- allow switching between "All Critics" and "Top Critics" ratings

\- show additional movie information (summary, etc.) on hover for desktop
users

~~~
fefzero
Agreed. I think there's a way to add in a few features like this and still
make it simple and user-friendly. One request when you do MPAA ratings is to
not make it a slider bar, but just use checkboxes like you do for genres.
Netflix tends to categorize lots of things as Unrated when you wouldn't
normally expect it.

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CJefferson
I wish Netflix UK had an API. It looks like we are not getting one. There
doesn't even seem to be a way to get a list of the current films available,
and the new ones which appear.

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recusancy
Please add a favicon. I like to bookmark sites and delete the name so I can
just recognize it by the favicon. Saves a ton of space. I assume I'm not alone
in this habit.

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zachkatz
Nice site! One thing that I've been wanting for a while is to see all the
Netflix streaming movies that are on the IMDB Top 250 list. That would be
awesome.

~~~
jaredsohn
<http://paulisageek.com/imdb-250-netflix/>

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MrMan
I believe in this! Screw collaborative filtering, it is garbage. Good job -
you should win the Netflix challenge retroactively.

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afterburner
Now do one with Metacritic! :) And for Canada.

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emiranda
Great idea! Outline of how you did this?

~~~
collisioncode
<http://developer.netflix.com/> <http://developer.rottentomatoes.com/>

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jgannonjr
I had this thought the other day, glad you got around to building it before me
:)

very cool, great work!

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jakejake
very cool i really dig it. one suggestion, the slider makes it a bit difficult
to find recent releases, once you slide past 2005 or so you can't really
easily adjust it.

even still, this is a great way to view movies - nice work!

~~~
casualpro
I'm teaming with a designer friend of mine for a redesign of ABQ. We'll keep
this in mind! Thanks.

~~~
jakejake
cool, i bookmarked it and already found some new movies to watch!

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guelo
Too bad a really high critic rating normally means a boring, pompous, overly-
artsy movie.

~~~
collisioncode
Some of the most entertaining movies I've watched were 'rated' as a failure
(<50)

'Professional' critics suck.

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comatose_kid
great idea.

