How to Add Captions to Netflix Streaming Now

Netflix announced last summer that they will add captions and subtitles to streaming titles this year, but if you can't wait Josh Erickson posted a cool hack that uses DXFP files to add captions:

Last night I was working on an unrelated project when I came across keyboard shortcuts for the Netflix player. One of them was for a menu, which had a strange entry “Load custom DFXP File” which turns out is a W3 standard for subtitles! So I started off finding out how to construct my own SubRip to DFXP converter.

However things turned out to be not as simple as it first appeared. The Netflix player apparently is very picky about it’s XML, and by picky I mean the kid freaking out that the peas are touching the potatoes picky. I think it may just be using text parsing, but I can’t confirm since Netflix obfuscates their Silverlight code, making it hard to follow. This presented me with some difficulty until I started up Wireshark and captured the DFXP file for the Lost pilot episode and used that as a template.

If you're a Mac user, Codeman38 has put together a Python version.

Thanks to Harry for sending this in.

Comments

[noor]

i want captions on roku player because is one big screen to watch

[Jenny]

I would love captions! Please add them!!!

[Josh Erickson]

Woo! Made the Hacking Netflix news! I really hope even more people learn about this hack now!

[codeman38]

Thanks for the link! So glad to see this hack getting more attention.

[Anon]

Wow. I'd love captions. I am partially deaf. I am not deaf enough that I can't hear the tv but deaf enough that I have issues in some spots hearing what they are saying. So captions are always a plus for me. I'd LOVE to be able to use captions.

[Fernando]

I thought captions were coming fall 2010, at least I think I remember that. I'd love to give my parents a roku and netflix, but for them english is second language and they miss too much without the subtitles.

I sometimes want subtitles myself, as some soundtracks are not all that great.

When?

[TAMMY GIA]

CAN WE GET THIS STREAM ON INTERNET READY TV?

[Nike Shox Turbo]

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the freedom to choose his attitude in any given set of circumstances.

[Tom Fahy]

I am in the process of creating a dfxp repository for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (http://dfxp.tomfahy.org/). Netflix-compatible dfxp captions (English) may be downloaded from the link provided herein. I welcome additions to the repository. Feel free to contact me with any dfxp files that you have created.

[Rant_Rage_for_CC-Samsung]

NetFlix rep on phone told me that they will add CC / Subtitles on streaming movies for deaf / HOH customers who use Blue-Ray devices like Samsung, Sony and others on around December 25th, 2010.

[Allan Cole]

I just installed a Roku and although I expected trouble with subtitles, I was appalled at how it is being handled. You can't tell whether something has closed captions unless you call up each film or tv episode. It would be so much easer if it had the CC symbol in the capsule summary. I wish Netflix would take this issue of captioning more seriously. A lot of people really are being left out. I'm one of twenty million Americans who are hearing impaired. And it isn't just old folks who are being left out. About 6 million people between the ages of three and 44 are hearing impaired. That's a lot of potential netflix/roku subscribers.

[Tom Fahy]

Largest online DFXP Repository (Netflix Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing):

http://dfxp.tomfahy.org/

English subtitles are added regularly and generated upon request.