Monday, September 12, 2011

opening day at the home theater


Today was N-Day.


Netflix came to Mexico, and I signed up early this morning.


No one can say I do not sacrifice for the community.  I spent the day testing connections and selections.  From my vantage, the service gets a good solid C.


Let’s start with some givens.  I like movies.  New movies.  Old movies.  Black and white.  Color.  For a movie service to meet my needs, its selection has to have a good variety.


When I was in The States last year, I subscribed to Netflix.  At the time, it was best known for its DVD rental service.  But it had also started a streaming service that met the needs of people like me who have immediate gratification issues.  I have no desire to wait for DVDs to show up in my mail box.


The problem in The States was that the streaming inventory was rather sparse.  Not surprisingly for a company that made its name in DVD rentals.


So, the first thing I looked at with the Mexico service was the selection list.  In general, it is a yawn.  Most of the offerings are the type of films that were the mainstay of cable movie channels like Showtime.  Films starring post-teen television stars.


But that did not deter me.  Every video store has shelves of the same movies.  Somewhere there must be a colony of James Van Der Beek fans.


When I announced Netflix was coming, Jonna said she was interested only in finding a good source for television shows.  I am certain she will be disappointed.


The television offerings are rather lame.  Nothing current.  Nothing cutting edge.  Unless you live in a time warp where Grey’s Anatomy or Law and Order are considered to be au courant.


My biggest disappointment was the lack of a category for Recent Releases.  In The States, films show up on Netflix right after their theater runs have closed.


But not on the Mexican service.  That may have been a move to mollify the intellectual property right lawyers.  But it does undercut the value.


What you will find, are some classic films like Chinatown, Harold and Maude, Reservoir Dogs, Das Boot, Clear and Present Danger, and The Pink Panther (the original, not the atrocious Steve Martin release).


Here is the best news.  I had no trouble with the streaming.  The movies played without hesitation.  And there are even a few offerings in high definition.


But even the good films offer the a quirk that will keep you wondering who is in charge of the operation.  The film languages.


I despise dubbed films.  If a film is made in French, I want to hear the voices in French while I read the subtitles.  If the film is dubbed into English, all of the pacing and timing disappears.


Netflix seems to have no philosophy on the point.  Of the movies I watched, all were originally filmed in English.  Two allowed the viewer to choose both the film’s language and the subtitle language.  In addition to English, the subtitles are offered in Spanish and Portuguese -- after all this is a Latin America service.


But one movie (a Gus Van Sant piece) was dubbed terribly in Spanish with no subtitles.  And another movie was in English with Spanish subtitles embedded in the film -- subtitles that must have been designed for the hard of seeing because they blocked out almost half of the screen in large block yellow letters.  Considering the quality of the movie, that was a blessing.


Netflix is offering new subscribers free service for one month.  I am not new, so I am paying the monthly fee.


I am going to give it a try for a month or two.  If the inventory does not increase, I am going to fall back on the 400-some DVDs I brought down with me.
 

30 comments:

Nita said...

This is actually a statement about your Greek Salad in the last post. We have an excellent Turkish restaurant and their  salad is much like the Greek. Cut up vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.;no lettuce.It's different and delicious.

Steve Cotton said...

Every time I fix one of these salads, it reminds me how refreshing they are.  Even good with movies.

Debi said...

You could also try ch131.com  -  They have lots of TV shows and movies.  it's a B-. 

Jonna said...

I went and checked the site today, looked for series that I want to catch up on and was disappointed.  Not much selection there.

Jonna said...

I just tried ch131 and I couldn't get anything to download, it kept sending me to ad sites.  Bummer.

Steve Cotton said...

I am not big on television shows.  But I would like some more recent movies.

Steve Cotton said...

I thought that would be your reaction .

Steve Cotton said...

I looked at the ch131 movie list.  Not much interested me.

Felipe Zapata said...

Ah, Das Boot. Now there's a movie for you.

jennifer rose said...

Thanks for eliminating the doubt in my mind. As much as it's hard to turn down *free,* an inner voice kept telling me it would be a waste of time.

Babsofsanmiguel said...

Are you streaming to your computer Steve?  There was a posting on the Civil List that it isn't working on TV's here.  I like the anticipation of waiting for them to come by mail.  In addition, we all have Juan who gets the movies asap.  And now, a bunch of us have started a rotating DVD group.  We keep a list and we can share with each other.  Got a couple yesterday - cost, nada..........400DVD's - I can't even imagine.  I was impressed that I had over 20........ha

Steve Cotton said...

I am streaming to the computer.  I almost bought an internet-ready television at Costco while I was in Morelia, but I resisted the temptation.

Steve Cotton said...

The service is certainly not yet what it should be.

Steve Cotton said...

Good film.  But I already own a DVD copy.  And one I purchased with a valid license.

Irene said...

"...a good source for teklevision shows.  I am certain she will be diapoointed"

Just curious what distracted you at the moment you were typing these sentences.

Steve Cotton said...

Fat fingers.

1st Mate said...

Steve - The Capt can educate you on VPN and then you can get access to all the Netflix offerings in the US, considerably wider range of choices.

Babsofsanmiguel said...

It seems the TVs in Mexico - according to the poster on Civil List is that they don't have an icon for Netflix - which I have no idea what that means..........
Why not get Canadian satellite, Shaw, like I have?.  You get so many movie channels that you couldn't possibly watch all of them.  Old classics - new movies, 2 or 3 PBS stations.  It is grand!

al lanier said...

The worst part of dubbing is that one is used to the sound of some actors' voices, like John Travolta, and the voice that you hear sounds nothing like him. Also the out-of-sync lips are really annoying. In  Mexican movie houses the vast majority of foreign films are subtitled, except of those aimed for children who presumably can't read. Either way, given our wireless Internet's foibles, I doubt that downloading films from Netflix will reach our part of the world... unless it's possible to copy the downloads ;)

al

Beth said...

Films show up on Netflix as soon as they close in the theaters - not so.  They may show in the Netflix listing but the actual DVD is not available for at least  28 days after the DVD has been released to the public for purchase. 

Steve Cotton said...

Another example of my lack of temporal understanding.  Anachronism is not a passing thing with me.

Thanks for the better information.  But there is nothing that current in the Mexico listing.

Steve Cotton said...

I was curious about Netflix's download capability because I doubted my internet would be fast enough for streaming.  It turned out to be fine.  So, I do not know the answer to the download question.

But I fully agree with you on the synchronization annoyance with dubbing.  Woody Allen made great use of that device in one of his films.

Steve Cotton said...

Aye.  Aye.  I await further orders.

Steve Cotton said...

Because I then I have to rely on a Canadian programmer's taste.  I prefer mine.

Steve Cotton said...

Let's talk.

Irene said...

Sorry, couldn't help myself.  I spend a lot of time proofreading other people's writing.  

Kim G said...

You really need to blame the studios for much of the problems you listed.  Netflix would be happy to stream movies the day they open in theatres, but alas, the studios think otherwise, and thus put a lot of restrictions on the licenses.

Ditto on dubbing; that's entirely a studio decision.

I've been working on Netflix at work, and they announced Latin America as a simultaneous market entry, i.e., everything SOB.  So the offering is licensed for everything from Uruguay to our beloved Mexico. And of course, those countries vary widely, so content has to have a very wide appeal.  I'm not sure what they're doing about Brazil, given the language difference.

As for dubbing, I'm personally a fan of subtitles, but much of the Spanish dubbing is quite good, done by Mexican actors who often play their parts well. Yes, the voices are different, but not bad.  And I've found that watching U.S. movies dubbed into Spanish is a great way to work on one's Spanish.

Congrats on getting the service to work at all on a Melaque "high-speed" connection. That's a feat in and of itself.

Oh, and as for the "Netflix" button on some remote controls, it's apparently just a pre-set. If you have a recent vintage TV, you should be able to program this in yourself.

Saludos,

Kim G
Boston, MA
Where we know all about Netflix, but don't actually subscribe to the service.  LOL.

Steve Cotton said...

I appreciate it when readers find my copy errors.  I tend to miss too many.

Steve Cotton said...

Some dubbing in Mexico may be good.  The few examples I have looked at have been terrible.  The sound mix must have been done while riding a New York subway.

I have no idea what the studios have been thinking about licenses.  If they are concerned about pirated copies, Netflix is a perfect way to recoup some of those losses.  I do not buy pirated DVDs for many reasons.  But I would gladly pay for the convenience of seeing good films being streamed into my computer.  Right now, I am quick;ly getting bored of Netflix.  It simply does not deliver.

Elke said...

Steve, we have 1600+ DVD's, if you run out of stuff to watch. We were subscribed to Netflix NOB for several years and Vern burned of all the movies we rented. For TV shows, try this site: http://eztv.it/. There are bunches of torrent sites to download from, if you research a bit. You can get free E-books from there too. We just returned from Phoenix, I bought a HP Touchpad when they had their fire sale last month, came pre-loaded with the Kindle app. A friend gave us 5000+ books on a disc (mostly epub files) which I'm going to convert with Calibre and start loading them into my new toy....