Netflix Speed Feature

Fast+Service+Icon

VectorStock.com/21007788

Fast Service Icon

Nika Aydin, Journalist

Did you know Netflix has a speed feature? Despite many disapprovals from producing companies, Netflix has gotten many requests from its members to release a feature that allows you to increase or decrease playback speed. Similar to YouTube, you can make a video, movie, or TV show faster or slower.

Netflix has been toying with the “speed” feature for a couple of years and it was released in August, per the request of its members. The range of speed spans from 0.5 to 1.5. This feature can not only benefit people who want to watch something at a different speed, but it also benefits the hard of hearing and the blind. The hard of hearing may have trouble reading the subtitles if they are going too fast so this can make it easier for them to understand and the blind may not be able to understand the show if it is going at a really fast pace. A lot of its audience wanted this ability, yet a majority of the TV and movie companies and directors do not like this feature but were flexible. Directors discouraged this feature because they created the show to have its exact comedic moment or exact moment of suspense, and this feature would clash with the timing of that perfect moment. When Sophomore Samantha Kauffman was asked what she thought about this new feature she said, “why would you want to watch a TV show faster or slower, this is counterintuitive because you can’t hear any of it if you make it faster.”

Although, increasing or decreasing the speed can be harder to understand, if you are increasing the speed because a show is really boring, or because it is really slow, it can make the show more entertaining. For decreasing the speed of the show, it can help slow things down if a character is talking very quickly. In contrast, this feature may be a bad thing when it comes to the visual part. If the audio speed increases, the visual speed will also increase, which can make the scene or show look a little bit bizarre. Overall, this feature can be fun to mess around with to find the desired speed in a slow or fast-paced show or movie.