Tips to improve your netflix experience.

I thought of starting up a thread to gather Netflix’s users tips for a better Netflix experience. Sure, Netflix is nice but combined with tools and tricks, it can be even better. I will kick-start this thread by sharing my findings.

1) Using a Netflix search engine:

Searching for something to watch on Netflix can become a tiring experience. Netflix does not allow searching by applying any filter other than genre. So, if you want to find an action movie to watch, you have to keep scrolling through every action movie available on Netflix to find something for your taste. Furthermore, their title recommendations should be more accurate because many times that Netflix recommended me something to watch, I've already watched it.

There are plenty of Netflix search engines available to help broaden your search. Such services will give you the ability to search across all Netflix regions for titles by director, IMDB and Tomatoes ratings, released year and so on. You can also check Netflix’s new releaseas with a more user-friendy way than doing it on Netflix. Some worth mentioned search engines are

Filmefy
Pros:
Ability to search across all Netflix regions
Ability to search by using filters such as: IMDB ratings, genre, year and director
Ability to see title recommendations by normal netflix users
Cons:
No Tomatoes ratings
No mobile apps

Moreflicks
Pros:
Nice desing
Ability to search across all Netflix regions
Supports more streaming services and not only Netflix
Cons:
They only provide a genre filter
No mobile apps
Not sure if the website is updated anymore.

Flixseek
Pros:
Usable navigation bar in their homepage
Ability to search by using filters such as: IMDB ratings, genre and released year.
bility to search across all Netflix regions
Cons:
No mobile apps

2) Revealing Netflix’s hidden menu

This can be useful for manually setting your streaming quality, streaming stats and more.

Setting streaming quality: Press ctrl+alt+shift+s to access this menu. On this menu, you can choose the max bit rate at which you will stream. Selecting multiple selections will set a min/max bit rate at which Netflix will stream at.This menu also gives the ability to choose from which CDN you will receive your stream from. By tweaking it, you can get better performance.

See streaming stats: Press ctrl+alt+shift+d. On this window, you will be able to see the stats of your stream. It will mostly be useful when you are tweaking your CDN to see which server is giving you the best streaming speed.

Log: Press ctrl+alt+shift+l. On this window, you can see your Log. It will probably be useful in case you need troubleshooting from Netflix


3) Accessing the global Netflix:

If you have checked one of the Netflix search engines mentioned above, then you have probably realized that each Netflix region has different content library. One bright example is about some AMC series. Netflix UK used to offer every new episode of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul one day after they aired in US. There are other hidden gems available on other Netflix regions as well.

So, to access the global region of Netflix, what you will need is a SmartDNS service. With such services, you can access all regions of Netflix with a single Netflix account. With a Google search, you can find the best ones and make your choice. One suggestion though. I recommend going with a paid services rather than a free one. Lots of free services are using other ways to get profit (botnet etc). You may have a monthly cost of $5-$8/month but it worths it both in terms of the expanded content you will get and in terms of security.

All the tips mentioned in the post is something that I have tested by myself. Any tip to share from your end?