Movie Ratings

On October of 2006 popular online movie rental service NetFlix launched an ongoing competition to improve its movie recommendation algorithm. Obviously the key input to any such technique will be the past movie ratings by the subscriber - something they may or may not do meticulously. I for one, use Netflix service but rarely remember to go back and rate a movie I watched. I spend my time on Netflix portal searching for new movies.

So I was thinking about that can be an effective method of getting user's movie ratings. The method that surely will work for people like me is if there is a way I can do it right at the time I am watching the movie or immediately afterwards. Even beter if I could do it using my TV remote. My DVD player already knows what movie I am watching and when it ends. So right during the end credit, if it prompts me to rate the movie I will do it using my remote (which by now should already be in my hand). Then all it takes for my DVD player to upload the rating to Netflix using my home network (such DVD player does not exist today of course, hence the post). So a bluetooth or WiFi enabled DVD player and some special software will do the trick.

Then of course there are other possibilities. My DVD player knows a lot more than just this. It knows what time I watched the movie, and how many times within a given time frame. How many times I paused during the movie and for how long (i.e. if I paused the movie during bio-break, a sign that will indicate I liked the movie and did not want to miss a scene). How many times I watched a particular scene and if I watched the extra sections of the DVD. All these data can be used to derive some degree of rating information without even asking me. Mix that in with data on what my friends like (from social networking) and you may have a killer recommendation engine for me.

Now, obviously the fun should not stop there. If I am really in to it, the DVD player will allow me to virtually "clap" when I really like a scene by pressing a key on the remote. This 'clap' data can then be used to further fine tune the movie recommendation similar to the Music Genome project (but for movies).

Once I have this connected DVD player, it should also show me the recommended movies right there and allow me to add those to my queue.

So is there a case for Netflix or BlockBuster Online to take an OEM DVD player and put all these features and sell them at a subsidized price to its subscribers ?

I certainly think so.