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Comment by Tyrannosaurs | Hacker News Reader

An aside but:

"I once realised when watching a DVD on my Playstation 3 that you can set the speed to 1.5x. Which means you can finish watching a 2 hour movie in only 1hour 30 mins and still understand what’s going on. “That gives me 30 minutes of life back!” I said excitedly."

Or you can read the Wikipedia summary in 90 seconds and get 1 hour 58.5 minutes back but that's not really the point.

How about just don't watch the movie? There's no obligation to watch any of them and there are so many that there's always going to be something you miss however much you try and cram in.

Watching a movie is something which is meant to be a pleasure, or thought provoking, or profound or any number of things which are going to be largely lost at high speed. At that point you're just reducing it to consumption so you've seen it and maybe it's just me but what's the point of that?

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Some shows are just paced too slowly, but still provide entertainment or enlightenment. Who are you to care whether a viewer watches such a show at 1.5x speed?

For my tastes, most television can be watched comfortably at 1.5× and anything with a "laugh track" can be watched at 1.75× without losing meaning.

It's a comment on behavior I've noticed in myself.

A pile of DVDs became something I had to get through, ditto books, games or albums. Talking to others I found it wasn't just me - that somehow the important thing had been completing things and enjoying them had become almost secondary.

Recently I found myself listening to a podcast at 1.5x speed regularly and after a while it occurred to me that it was because I was resenting the time it was taking up and that the problem wasn't really that it was taking too long, it was that I wasn't really enjoying it but was listening out of obligation (it had popped up in the unplayed list, it must be played!). At that point I said a silent sorry to Mark and Simon and unsubscribed. I've similarly quit watching a bunch of TV shows and I'm far happier abandoning books or games part way through.

Seeing someone talking about watching a movie at 1.5x speed made me think of that - consumption over enjoyment. Yes there are movies and shows that can be watched that fast and still enjoyed but given the sheer volume of stuff out there is that really the best use of an hour and a half even? Surely there was something good enough that it warranted real time viewing?

Maybe it's not the case here but that's what came to mind.

I listen to all podcasts at 2x speed to the point where I can't even listen to them at 1x anymore because the voices sound unnatural. People talk about half as fast as people read so 2x just normalizes to a comfortable reading speed.

I watch basically all youtube videos at 2x as well (with the html5 player) to the point where I'll actually shut a video off if the only thing offered is the old flash player (and ditto applies to vimeo vids).

However, I've never had enjoyed scripted tv shows at 2x speed, I'll usually dial it back to 1.5x to watch. It's not in an effort to save time, it's that I genuinely find aural mediums better when sped up.

I find it depends on the podcast. Generally professionally produced radio is well paced and edited, chatty enthusiast podcasts on the other hand have, for me at least, a poor information density and I get why someone might listen to them sped up.

Some emotive content can get lost in the speed-up too, imho. A caring tone and cadence can turn into blunt sarcasm at x1.3 and above. I notice it interview shows like Fresh Air.

I think you answer your own question. He has more pleasure watching at 1.5x.

I'm not saying he doesn't enjoy these things at that speed, I'm just commenting on the fact that I think it's an interesting thing to be doing and, having personally done a similar thing, when I looked at it I found that speeding things up actually wasn't addressing the real problem.

Obviously your (and his) mileage may vary.

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