Hacking NetFlix

Roger Ebert on Why He Didn't Review "Disaster Movie"

Roger Ebert explains to a reader why he didn't review Disaster Movie:

Q. Yo dude, u missed out on "Disaster Movie," a hardcore laugh-ur-@zz-off movie! Y U not review this movie!? It was funny as #ell! Prolly the funniest movie of the summer! U never review these, wat up wit dat?

S.J. Stanczak, Chicago

A. Hey, bro, I wuz buzier than $#i+, @d they never shoed it b4 hand. I peeped in the IMDb and saw it zoomed to #1 as the low$ie$t flic of all time, wit @ lame-@zz UZer Rating of 1.3. U liked it? Wat up wit dat?

via Kottke.

New Releases for September 30th, 2008

Click here for the full list of new releases this week (99).

Interesting titles include Iron Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Kenny, Chapter 27, Bigger, Stronger, Faster, CSNY Deja Vu, Larry Flynt: The Right to Be Left Alone, Rest Stop: Don't Look Back, So Much, So Fast, Taxi to the Dark Side, The Unforeseen, When We Left Earth, Emma Smith: My Story, Lewis Black's Root of All Evil: Season 1, My Name is Earl: Season 3, Numb3rs: Season 4, An Autumn Afternoon, Beaufort, and Jellyfish.

Netflix API Announcement Soon?

Is Netflix going to announce the much-rumored API soon? Reader Ian sent in the following description of a Netflix API session at the Ajax Experience Conference.

Hacking Netflix
with Bill Scott, Director of User Interface Engineering, Netflix
Netflix has just released its open APIs for developers. Now you can finally mashup Netflix! Bill Scott, Director of UI Engineering at Netflix, gives a tour of the APIs and widgets, and showcases a series of cool hacks from this month's internal Netflix Hack Day. This talk gives you a really quick sense of what can be done with the current release of the APIs.

Netflix Player Hack To Force HQ Streaming

Steve discovered a way to force a 2.2 Mbps stream on the Roku Netflix Player via Mark12547 on the Roku Forums.

There is an undocumented way to lock in a given bit stream.

Using the remote, hit Home Home Home Home Home Rewind Rewind Rewind FastForward FastForward (that's 5 Homes, 3 Rewinds, 2 FastForwards), keypresses about 1/2 second apart. You may have to try several times and the trick is to make the keypresses spaced out far enough. (Remember, the last two are <<< Rewind and Fast Forward >>>, which are on the bottom row of buttons, not the < and > keys to the side of the select button.) This will take you into debug mode. On this screen you would see something like this:

You can select the bit stream that you desire. The bit rates correspond to picture quality of 4 dots (2.2Mbps) down to 1 dot (0.5 Mbps).

As I said, the "debug mode" keystrokes are not documented, neither is this screen. That means it might change in the future and, if a microcode upgrade is loaded (which forces a reboot of the box), you may have to go back to this screen and set the mode again.

The good news is that the worst damage you can do on this screen can be undone by rebooting the box.

Sony Customer Service Says Netflix is Copying Blu-ray Discs

Duo writes, "Recently i've been having problems with my rented Blu-ray movies from Netflix. (My Blu-ray player is the PS3). Some movies i rented NBC's Heroes, Doomsday, and Baby Mama give me a blank screen. I requested a replacement disc for Heroes and Doomsday and it got the same result. So recently I called PS3 customer service and told them about my problem. I told him the disc were from rented from Netflix and he said the reason why discs don't play is because Netflix's bluray discs are copies. Thus, being bad format and not playable. Is there any truth to this?"

Netflix gets all of the DVD and Blu-ray movies from the studios or distributors, and they do not do any duplication in-house. It is also very difficult to duplicate Blu-ray movies at this time, so my guess is that the Sony customer support representative needs some additional training.

Readers Report Problems with Internet Explorer 8 Beta

A couple of readers wrote in to warn that you might experience problems with Netflix's Watch Instantly with the beta of Internet Explorer 8.

While I was able to watch parts of several movies with IE 8 beta, you might experience problems.

Has anyone else had problems with IE 8 beta?

Consumerist Reports Netflix Customer Received "Screener"

Consumerist reports that a Netflix customer received a screener copy of the movie Rules of Attraction.

I just got "The Rules Of Attraction" from Netflix and it's a screener disc. As a matter of fact, 3 or 4 times through the movie, 5-10 minute sections of the movie have "This is the property of Lion's Gate Films, This disc is not to be sold or rented".

I have been told by sources at Netflix that they do not duplicate movies (all movies are provided by the studios or distributors). I agree with Consumerist a supplier provided the screener, or a customer sent the screener in by accident.

Have you ever received a screener or burned copy of a movie from Netflix?

Roku to Open Netflix Player to Third Parties

Wired reports that Roku CEO Anthony Wood said that they will be releasing a SDK to enable "anyone" to add their video service to the Netflix Player.

"We're opening up the platform to anyone who wants to put their video service on this box," says Wood. "We're going to release the software developer kit, so anyone can publish any channel, and users can access web content on their TVs."

I would love to be able to view YouTube and Hulu videos on the Netflix Player. What additional video services would you like to see?

Netflix Signs Streaming Deals with CBS & Disney-ABC

Netflix announced that they have signed separate deals with CBS and Disney-ABC to add hundreds of shows for streaming through Netflix's Watch Instantly. Included are upcoming and prior seasons of "CSI," "NCIS," "Numb3rs," "Hannah Montana," "Wizards of Waverly Place," and "Suite Life on Deck."

The agreements with CBS and Disney Channel also add catalog shows to the library of choices that can be watched instantly at Netflix. Some 500 episodes from Disney Channel's kid-driven, family-inclusive programming library, including previously aired episodes of "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody," "Wizards of Waverly Place" and "Hannah Montana," as well as episodes of the popular animated series "The Replacements," "Lilo & Stitch: The Series," "The Emperor's New School" and many others, will come online to Netflix beginning in 2009.

Some 350 CBS episodes covered in the deal include prior seasons of the three "CSI" series and "Numb3rs," the first two seasons of the popular "Jericho" series and, among others, episodes from TV classics such as "Star Trek," "MacGyver," and "Family Ties." The catalog episodes will come online this fall.

MyNetflix Windows Media Center Application Updated

Anthony Park has updated his MyNetflix Windows Media Center application:

Netflix made an update to their website a few days ago, and the Movie Details page within MyNetflix stopped working.

I have updated MyNetflix to resolve these issues (v2.2.1.7), and you can download the new version from my Software page.