Netflix Suggestion: "I Own" Button for Movies

Tim sent in an interesting idea: "I have a large movie collection. Wouldn't it make sense to add a section in Netflix dedicated to listing your collection. I frequently see movies I own in the recommendations and wish that there was an I own button."

By letting Netflix know all of the movies you own, wouldn't that increase the accuracy of the suggestions? It would also be a great way to track your collection.

Comments

[Tim]

Why would that be more meaningful than rating? I've rated thousands of movies that I watched in the theater or on vhs in my pre-Netflix days.

[Gran]

You rate movies for recommendations and for other NF members. Rating a movie as"I own" does nothing for either.

[ZarathustrA]

Lmao, no thanks.

I see absolutely no point in that.

"I frequently see movies I own in the recommendations and wish that there was an I own button."

So rate it. If you own it, surely you can rate it.

Recommended movies are where I find most of the movies that I forgot to rate. :)

If you're looking for a way to track your movie collection I suggest Movie Collector ( http://www.collectorz.com/movie/ ). I really wouldn't want ideas like this taking up Netflix's time when they can't even re-design a better webpage than what we previously had.

[Complication]

Wouldn't NF think it even more suspicious about those people where the 8-discs keep coming back every 2 days and everything they rent gets marked "owned". It will be a new term, burn-return-owned.

[Sock Puppet]

John has a better idea: "I think it would be great if Netflix added a checkbox or a button to the Instant Watch player that when selected would automatically play the next episodes (in order) for any series."

By having this option we could be so much lazier and would never have to get up to click "NEXT" on the screen to play the next episode, and for those of us who still use our PC's we would also never have to click on "FULL SCREEN" every time a new episode starts because the "system check" done every stinking time a new title starts minimizes the player...

[Joe]

I think this is a good idea, and could certainly help refine the recommendations. A movie good enough to own is better than a movie with a high rating.

However, the #1 thing they need to do is provide better search options. I want to be able to really pinpoint the criteria of movie I'm looking for, not based solely on genre.

[Isaac Church]

Agreed.

[Larry Dallas]

If I own it I tag it 5 stars. After all if I own it I must love it right?

[Susan Benzer]

Ive been asking for this for years. Why keep recommending the same DVDs to me that I already own? Amazon hs this feature - why can't Netflix?

[RowdyReptile]

ZarathustrA, you're missing the point. The idea is that if I own the disc, NF doesn't need to recommend it to me. I won't add it to my queue if it's already in my collection at home. (Possible exception if I have the DVD and want to rent the blu-ray.)

Anything they did with that data in terms of recommendations would be a side benefit.

Larry, I disagree. There are plenty of movies I own that I wouldn't rate 5-stars, and some I've rated 5-stars that I don't want to own.

[dave]

Larry, I have several hundred dvd's and blu ray discs. No WAY would I say that just because I own a movie, I love it, as you suggested. I think the way netflix has us rate movies is fine--we can rate what we have seen at the theater, seen on our own discs, or watched via Netflix or TV. BOTTOM LINE: the SOURCE doesn't matter. Ratings are for CONTENT--not for the source.

[J]

If you own it and don't want to get it recommended, just give it a rating. If you don't want to rate it, just mark it "not interested".

[RowdyReptile]

J,
Except their "watch it again" category, where it shows all your 5-star rated movies and suggest that you'd like to rent them again. Most of those are ones I own. It would be nice if I could flag those as owned, so that list would only show up with 5-star movies that I don't own. Those would be the ones I'm interested in renting

[Louie]

Thanks Tim. I submitted that feature request to Netflix 2 years ago.

[BooBee]

Dumb idea! I simply rate movies I already own and I've never seen them suggested once they have been rated. So I don't see the point since once you rate the movie NF knows you've seen it (don't matter if you own it or not).

[Andrew Lynch]

Isn't the whole point of Netflix that you don't have to own movies anymore?

[The Crow]

oh my head....

[Crumb]

Not a dumb idea just not educated on how the service works. You actively have to tell netflix to show rated/seen titles when browsing or actively search rated movies out. Either thru the search bar or the rated movies section. Notice when browsing there are no gold stars. The only time it does recommend rated titles the website tells you ("watch it again").

As far as the comment on the impact on recommendations:
1. Netflix doesn't sell movies so the primary value of this info is lost right there.
2. Not all movies owned are purchased by the owner.
3. Most people don't own all 10 of their top ten movie lists but still have tons of dvds.
4. Bargin Bin DVDs/ 4 for $20 previewed DVDs, combo pack DVDs, non returned rentals... the list goees on.

So just saying that you own it doesnt actually tell Netflix all that much to help it recommend movies. It wouldnt even be able to tell if you were a sucker for a deal or had cheap relatives.

[daniel]

alot of people missed the point entirely. I think it is a great suggestion and I would use it.

[Rick]

(1) If you own 20 DVD's, then I'm sure marking "I Own" isn't useful for you. You've undoubtedly watched them all. But if you've bought a few hundred DVD's through the years that look interesting (Walmart bargain bin, eclectic Deep Discount sale), then Netflix can use its ratings to recommend that you watch a specific movie you already own, cutting down on their shipping costs: if you watch something you own, you're not watching the Netflix-owned movie yet. This reduces the amount of postage Netflix must pay for you per month, a win for Netflix.

(2) There is commercial software to track DVD collections. Lots of people buy it. If Netflix allowed users to track their collections online, it would be a value-added component of the Netflix service, and also serve as a retention mechanism (I can't cancel Netflix, my whole collection is tracked in Netflix).