How do you manage your watch lists?

Cafe Society
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1

If you have a bunch of streaming services, how do you deal with finding something to watch? I find I’m spending a minimum 20 minutes before I can settle on a title to watch, every single time. It’s becoming a problem.

Part of it is my own fault having so many streaming services: Prime (with Starz), Netflix, Hulu, Max, Paramount+ (with Showtime), Peacock and Tubi. Each time I want to watch a movie I keep going in and out of all the different services to see what I want to watch the most. Textbook analysis paralysis.

I have long wished for a unified streaming service that would put all my titles from all the streamers in a single list I could browse. That is, of course, a pipe dream that will never happen.

A partial option is to sign up for Amazon channels instead of getting the full fledged services. But that doesn’t work for all of them; you can’t add a Netflix channel to Amazon Prime, for example.

So first I’d like to hear what you guys do. Do you just randomly pick a service, go in, and pick the first thing that catches your eye and watch it? If so, I envy you. I seem to be wholly incapable of doing that.

I’ve just started a super labor-intensive project to unify all my watch lists, and I think it’ll work pretty well once I’m done. I created a list on IMDb and am manually going through each of my streaming services and adding every title from “My List” to a unified IMDb list. Doing this on my phone, it’s a big help that I can just say a title instead of having to type it in.

So far I’ve added a dozen titles, and it looks like around 10-15 seconds to add each one. I have hundreds to add, but google says an IMDb list can hold up to 10,000 titles. I’m thinking if I can add them all in a few hours total, it’ll be worth it in the end.

Manually adding each title is a major drawback. However, once complete, the interface has some really nice features. You can set your preferred streaming services, which means if you select a title it’ll tell you which of your streaming services you can watch it on. You can filter your list by genre, so if I’m in the mood for horror I can just tap horror to see only / all those titles. You can filter for movies, TV shows, or both. And finally, of course, you can open the IMDb entry if you want to read a blurb about it, see who’s in it, what year it was released, and even watch the trailer.

2

I’m afraid I don’t have an answer, but if anyone else does, I’m interested in hearing it! I tend to regularly watch things on just a couple of the services for a while, then move to watching things on others for a while. Sometimes I think I’d do better just subscribing to a few at a time, then canceling when I run out of things I want to see.

3

I’ll spend hours adding things to my watch lists and then…mostly ignore it.

4

For proof of concept I just spent 50 minutes adding all 131 movies from my Amazon My List to the IMDb list. But I had already added the first dozen, so that’s 25 seconds per title, 144 per hour.

It’s every bit as tedious as you imagine it would be, but with grim determination I think I can get through this. Pretty sure my Amazon My List is the longest one I have, so I’m happy to have gotten that out of the way.

5

I keep a careful mental list of movies and TV shows that have been recommended by critics and/or my social circle, or that have some other relevant quality that makes them a potentially interesting watch.

Then I hand the remote to my wife and we watch whatever grabs her interest after she randomly surfs menus for two minutes.

6

Extremely poorly.

I use a pencil and paper, and every once in a while think of something I forgot about.

Sometimes for years.

Yes, the menu systems will guide me eventually in the right direction, but I don’t trust all that crap, so I make entries in my daily calendar that either will or will not be recalled as desired.

7

I have the same problem, although I have nowhere near as many want-to-watch titles as you seem to.

I am intrigued about your IMDB solution and will investigate. I have no problem with the tedium of entering data.

mmm

8

We’re not really that organized, and certainly don’t have a watch list. (hope I’m not posting here improperly). It typically goes something like this.

“I’m sick of watching MSNBC, let’s watch a movie.”

“I heard Boys on the Boat is out.”

“Alexia, what streaming service is showing Boys on the Boat?”

Tune in and watch.

9

Let me state this up front: I’m a bit OCD and also a spreadsheet fan, and I watch a lot of TV and movies. What I’m about to describe will seem quite extreme to many, but it’s what I do. :slight_smile:

Over the course of many years I’ve built a large Google Sheets file to track what I own (both physical media and titles I’ve bought on Amazon or iTunes), what I’ve seen, and what I want to watch. I’m currently at 865 titles, in alphabetical order. The initial setup was a bit labor-intensive, but these days maintenance is pretty easy.

The columns are:

  • Title
  • Year
  • What (movie or TV)
  • Genre
  • Where (DVD, Amazon, iTunes, etc.; if something is available in more than one place, all are included)
  • Seen? (either “y” or blank)
  • Rating (0-3)
  • Notes

Most of the time I have “Seen?” filtered so that only unwatched titles are viewable (current number: 246). “What” and “Genre” are the other columns I usually filter on, if I’m in the mood for something in particular (sitcom, documentary, reality competition, etc.).

I also have a color-coding system for some of the titles:

  • yellow = not available yet (including upcoming seasons of TV shows, with notes about when they will be available; upcoming movies have “RENT” in the “Where” column and a note of the theatrical release date)
  • blue = I’m in the process of watching a series (with notes about when new eps are available)
  • green = I particularly want to remember to check this title out

I don’t have cable but I have a digital antenna, and I still TiVo some network shows – which helps me remember to watch them the next day (I usually stream them vs watching the recording). For other shows that are currently releasing new episodes each week, I have a simple Google Keep list: what becomes available each day, and on what service. I can sit on the couch at the end of the day and pull up that list with two clicks on my iPad, and I’m in business.

Just remember/note that IMDb isn’t yet integrated with all of the streaming services: so if won’t tell you when a title is available on, say, Disney+.

I love IMDb; it’s my go-to for “where can I watch this?”, but I know it’s limited in that regard. :slight_smile:

10

This is probably my biggest issue with leaving Tivo. Tivo had this figured out and, for the life of me, I don’t understand why Roku can’t figure it out.

With my Tivo, I could pick the shows/movies I want to watch (along with a bunch of options not relevant here) and each time an new episode (or the movie) aired on TV or showed up on a streaming platform that I’m subscribed to, it would jump to the top of the list. It worked perfectly too. Turn the TV on and see a list of recently aired shows to choose from.
Now with a Roku, I have to jump in and out of each streaming service since the “What to watch” section, which IMO should work the same way as Tivo’s Now Playing menu, just seems to have random stuff in it. Add to that the fact that the Roku itself as well as each streaming platform’s app all work entirely differently and it’s a mess.

I’m regularly completely forgetting about shows since the Roku doesn’t seem to have any good way of notifying me when something I want to watch is available.

The way this is handled is one of the big reasons I regret cutting the cord. Don’t get me wrong, I’m saving a boatload of money, but if I could go back to cable and a tivo for a reasonable price, I would. No question.

Having said that, I have to assume this is a Roku issue. Surely one of the other streaming devices handles this more elegantly (other than Apple TV since I’m not in, the Apple/iTunes ecosystem).

11

Looks like Apple TV, unlike Prime, actually can incorporate all other streaming services under one umbrella.

Then I ran across this article that I don’t have time right now to read, but looks promising:

12

That’s me as well. I don’t know that I’d say I ignore, it’s more a matter of “this kinda’ looks like something I want to see…when I get around to it.” The problem is, I seldom get around to it. I do, but I barely have the time to watch the current items I follow, and the “add to watch list” accumulates faster than I have time to chip away at it.

Hopefully I can clear the backlog when I retire.

13

Second update: I added the 50 or so movies from my Netflix watch list, and already I’m starting to feel like the IMDb list is becoming unwieldy. I think I’m going to keep going just to see what it’s like once I’ve added everything, but I’m much less enthusiastic right at this moment.

14

I’m fairly certain I’d have to live to several hundred years old to make it through all my bookmarks. I’ve pay for Disney+, Netflix and Amazon Prime and I also fire up Tubi once and a while. I was with Crave for a long time, but the least user-friendly search function drove me away, which is a shame because I really want to watch the last few years of Letterkenny at some point.

Sometimes I’ll start watching the first episode from some show I’ve bookmarked, but at this point in my life, if I’m not sold on it within half an hour, I’m turning it off and unbookmarking it. I have a TON tagged on Tubi, lots of foreign and classic American exploitation trash, that I keep thinking, some evening I’m going to force myself to watch Killer Nun or The First Great Nudie Musical, but somehow I never do.

Just because of the comicon circles I travel in, I always make a point of checking out the new Marvel and Star Wars shows on Disney+, though I often get to them a month or two (or more) late. I just started Echo, and I still have to watch Mando season 3 and Ahsoka. Since I’m trying not to become a total couch potato, my style of marathoning is one episode a night, but I can do more than one show at once. End a season, next night I fire up episode one of something in the queue.

15

If I hear about a show that’s getting a lot of buzz from critics, or recommendations from my peers (including this board) I add it to my watch list. Then I try to watch them in first-in-first-out order. That is, when I need another show to watch I will try to watch the show that’s been languishing in my watch list the longest. Of course, that means I usually don’t actually get around to watching a new show until months after it came out, when no one is talking about it anymore (Whenever a new show comes out and immediately there’s a thread here discussing it, a part of me always wonders how you guys are able to make room in your TV viewing schedules to watch it right away). And yes, it does get difficult to remember what show has been in my list the longest when I have multiple watch lists across multiple services.

That said, it’s not exactly a strict first-in-first-out order. If a new season of a show I was already watching comes out I will usually watch that before starting a completely new show. And I have gotten into the habit of watching certain genres on certain nights, like some sort of sci-fi/fantasy show on Thursdays, dramas Friday and Saturday, often a documentary/unscripted type show Monday, sitcoms Tuesday-Wednesday. So if I need a new show to watch on Thursday, I’ll pick the sci-fi or fantasy show that’s been in my list the longest, not the show that’s been there the longest overall.

16

The only streaming service I have is Amazon prime, and that’s only because I routinely buy a few products through them which seems to justify the cost.

Apart from that I won’t pay for streaming services.
And YouTube is free if you have a decent adblocker.

17

I think you get Hulu when you pay for Disney+, if so, Letterkenney is there.

On closer look, pay another $2/month and you get D+ and Hulu.

As for my list method, I’m another pencil and paper guy.

18

There are two free streaming services I would encourage you to check out:

Tubi has a ridiculously huge library of movies.

Freevee is also solid, but it’s incorporated into Amazon Prime so you may already be using this.

Both are ad supported. My experience is that Tubi has more commercial breaks than Freevee, but still less than traditional television.

19

Maybe in the states, but my Disney+ doesn’t have that as an option (I might be able to get Hulu as an add-on to Amazon Prime, though). The show is produced directly for Crave, so that’s the only service that streams it here, as far as I know.

20

Well, it’s sort of a Roku issue, in that it’s an issue on the Roku device. But it’s not a choice by Roku the company, it’s a choice by the streaming services. Netflix, for example, doesn’t want Roku to provide a way to jump directly to a Netflix show without going through the Netflix UI, because going through the Netflix UI exposes the viewer to other content that they may want to watch, increasing the amount of stuff the user watches on Netflix. Most other streaming services think the same way. Roku would be happy to provide a way to do what you want, but not at the cost of having Netflix or Amazon pull their app. They do so in a limited way by providing a cross-service search feature, but you still end up in the service’s app, not just directly playing a video from the search UI. Tivo of course had no such restriction because a TV channel couldn’t threaten to make themselves unavailable on Tivos.