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Ask Slashdot: Movie/Video Search Aggregation?

Posted by Soulskill on from the merging-millions-of-methods dept.

raolin writes "I have been running without television service for the last few years, relying instead on Netflix Streaming, Hulu Plus, Amazon, and my personal video library. I have the latter indexed and easily searchable, but I have not managed to find a good aggregator for the streaming services that I use, so when I have friends over and the question 'Can we see X?' is asked, I have to search three streaming sources, which is kind of a drag. I know Netflix has a search API that I could work with, and it seems at least possible that Hulu and Amazon do as well, but before I try to build something myself I thought I'd ask the community. Any thoughts?"

11 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. I have never used it by Zsub · · Score: 5, Informative

    but https://github.com/dacort/mwhich MWhich seems to do exactly what you want?

  2. GoWatchit.com is just such a service by djk1024 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've been trying out http://gowatchit.com/ . It allows you to set up a queue of desired movies and then alerts you when a movie is available to stream on a selection of feeds. My only complaint is that I've not found a way to distinguish between free (to me) and paid available sources.

    1. Re:GoWatchit.com is just such a service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Check out http://www.canistream.it

      It tells you the ones that are free versus paid. There are also iPhone and Android apps.

  3. Solution already exists... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Have you tried http://zinc.tv? It works for me and does more than your 4 sites.

  4. google TV has it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    googletv has it. i have Logitech Revue and it lets you search by name and displays where its available. but it not support hulu. searches amazon, netflix, cable, movie packages.

    1. Re:google TV has it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      if you configured your external media accounts in googletv, it will tell you whether its free/paid/rent and provides links to each.
      GoogleTV Search is neat.

  5. Re:playing Devil's advocate by haydensdaddy · · Score: 2

    And on those long trips to colonize other planets they'll need what? Entertainment, that's right. Kudos to the OP for his foresight into this problem and performing the needed research for the benefit of humanity. :P

  6. Re:square peg round hole by nebular · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually streaming is exactly what he wants to use. He doesn't want to pre-download what he or his friends might want to watch. He wants to just sit down and find out if he can watch x as soon as it pops into his head or his friends suggest it.

    In the automotive analogy, it's like he's driving down the road and he or his passenger wants a hamburger, but he has to check 3 different maps for Wendy's McDonald's and Burger King to see if there's one at the next exit. It would be easier if he could just check one place.

  7. Re:playing Devil's advocate by Wild_dog! · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My problem is I work a menial job and have only moderate brainpower so I don't think I will every be able to work on the questions of space travel.
    But I love to watch movies about it.

  8. Re:Grammar Nitpick by Theleton · · Score: 5, Funny

    The latter.

  9. Canistream.it by NevDull · · Score: 2

    http://www.canistream.it/ is a streaming (and physical media) metasearch for movies.