Netflix

January 4, 2012

Activating subtitles in Netflix on the Apple TV.

Most of our media consumption is streamed through our Apple TV. With almost all of it taking place after our 18 month-old daughter has gone to bed, we often have the volume turned down on our TV pretty far so as not to wake her up. I’ve long wished for subtitle support for those poorly audio-mixed films, and only recently discovered it.

I don’t know which apps this works with, but to activate subtitles in Netflix, all you need to do is hold down the Select/Play button while the movie is playing. This pops up a menu where you can choose for which language to activate subtitles. Handy!

I don’t know when this was added, and perhaps it’s always been there, but I’ve never noticed it until recently and have never come across any documentation of it.

December 5, 2011

The Andromeda Strain: it’s a virus from outer space that causes narcolepsy.

I’d been meaning to watch the 1971 film adaptation of The Andromeda Strain ever since I saw it was part of Netflix Canada‘s offerings when we signed up. I’d heard good things about it from various respected movie fans for a while, so finally, a few weeks ago, I started it.

And then, as with most movies I start after 10pm, I fell asleep. Usually, I cannot hold the movie accountable—it’s just what happens. With The Andromeda Strain, however, I’m willing to bet the film is at least somewhat to blame.

I finally finished the movie on the weekend, and if it’s one you’ve considered watching, here’s my advice: don’t start it late, don’t expect much action, and it’d help if you took one or two university science courses.

The Andromeda Strain is an adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name. It’s considered a science fiction thriller, though would be better described as science fiction medical procedural.

That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I like smart science fiction, and would rather watch a smart sci-fi flick than a mindless one any day of the week (except, maybe, Saturdays). In its time, perhaps The Andromeda Strain was considered a thriller. It does have a thrilling synopsis: a satellite crashes in a New Mexico town, and an extraterrestrial virus it contains wipes out an entire town, save for an old man and a baby. A team of scientists must then try to figure out how to stop it before it destroys all life on Earth.

The issue comes with the pacing of the film: it has none. The movie is easily 50-75% science experiments. Does something work like this in a book? It must have, otherwise it wouldn’t have been published. Did it translate when adapted for the screen? Nope.

The Andromeda Strain isn’t all bad. Like I said, I like the idea. The acting is sharp and the cinematography is clean and claustrophobic. And maybe, if I knew I was going to be watching an hour-long science experiment bookended with a couple of high-tension scenes, I likely would have enjoyed it a little more. But a conventional sci-fi thriller this is not.

November 27, 2011

I came across some of Netflix’s test movies.

Rachel and I were browsing Netflix last night, when I came across something funny in the “Recently Added” stream: test files. I’ve seen these pop up on “What’s New on Netflix” before, and as a video geek, they’ve always piqued my interest.

They’re little test movies (never intended for public access) that Netflix adds to its streaming service at various frame rates, which I assume are used for testing. Though I’ve managed to get the these movies’ pages on the Netflix website before, I’ve never successfully played them. The Apple TV client, however, is able to play them perfectly well.

It starts off with some simple exterior shots from the Netflix campus. After that, a guy—who I can only assume is the life of every Netflix staff party—appears, running around Netflix HQ with a DVD, doing cartwheels around trees, moonwalking with a laptop, juggling, and performing a monologue from Julius Caesar. There’s a few more simple shots, and then the eleven minute video ends with some screen calibration images. All the test videos are made up of the same footage compressed at the different frame rates.

Naturally, such an anomaly could not go undocumented, and since I don’t have a device capable of recording an HDMI stream, I popped my camera in front of my TV and hit record. The performance from Netflix’s resident thespian begins around the 3:45 mark.

August 8, 2011

Displaying Delicious bookmarks as a page in WordPress.

I’m no web developer, and this blog is anything but a resource for those looking to enhance their WordPress blogs, but I thought I’d share this regardless.

A few months back, I started sharing my Netflix Canada picks. I thought it’d be a good way to keep track of what I’ve seen and enjoyed on Netflix and share those films at the same time. I started doing so with my Delicious account, because I thought it’d be easy. It was. Then I thought I’d like to have the  picks displayed on their own page on my blog. I did a little hunting, and came up with this method.

  1. Install the RSS in Page WordPress plugin.
  2. Grab the Delicious feed you want to display. Mine is a feed specifically for bookmarks tagged with “Netflix” and “recommendation.”
  3. Format the feed with the plugin’s parameters and a little HTML magic. All this info is on the plugin’s website. It helps if you know your way around HTML a little bit.

That’s it. If you’re feeling really sassy, you can CSS your list up a bit too.

Now, when I want to add something to my Netflix picks page, all I do is find the film’s corresponding page on Netflix.ca, bookmark it with the Delicious Bookmarks Extension for Chrome, write a little bit on why I liked it, tag it with “Netflix” and “recommendation,” and it automatically pops up on my WordPress page. Couldn’t be easier.

Now, if we could only get Netflix to add a decent API and Instant Queue equivalent in Canada, we’d be all set.

December 6, 2010

I was interviewed for a Canadian Press article.

Last Friday, Cassandra Szklarski from The Canadian Press sent me an email asking if I’d be interested in being interviewed on how I, as an average movie fan, felt about the decline of DVD’s/Blu-rays and rise of accessing films online. We got in touch a few minutes later, and this evening, the article was released.

Convenience of online options may spell doom for DVD, Blu-ray sales and rentals on Macleans.ca.

Note that none other than Edgar Wright and Academy-Award winner Paul Haggis were also interviewed for the piece, ’cause I’d stand to share the article with no one less.