One Small Step for Netflix

How about some almost-good news?  Netflix has FINALLY introduced captioning/subtitles on their Instant View feature.   The announcement says that it’s only available on 100 titles right now, and suggests that we try watching the first four seasons of Lost.  Roughly 25 episodes per season…4 seasons…hmm, that equals about 100 captioned titles.  Titles that are already available captioned for free on Hulu.com (and includes Seasons 5 and 6).  So there’s still a looong way to go.

Josie and I have been complaining about the lack of captioning on Instant View for years, pretty much since the feature first became available.  “Where are the captions?!” we repeatedly asked each other.  We sent e-mails asking that question, and finally the answer was added to their FAQ page: 

Foreign-language movies watched instantly on your PC will have subtitles. We don't currently provide Closed Captioning, nor subtitling of English language movies, but you’ll find those on most of our DVDs.  

Gee, thanks for telling us.

I’d finally had enough, and last February I sent letters to Netflix’s Public Relations department, Chairman/President/CEO Reed Hastings, and Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Kilgore.  A month later I received a reply ‘on behalf of’ Ms. Kilgore: 

Although we don’t currently have an ETA, providing Closed Captioning on titles available for instant viewing is something we hope to include in future versions of our instant watching feature.  

Vague, and didn’t promise anything. But, shortly afterwards Netflix updated their FAQ: 

Foreign-language movies streamed to your PC, Mac, or TV have subtitles “burned in” to the video (“open captions”). However, we do not currently provide closed captions or subtitles for English language movies when streamed, although you can find them on most of our DVDs. The technologies we use for streaming do not yet adequately support closed captions, and most viewers object to permanently visible open captions, which they cannot turn off, burned into the video stream for English-language content. We are working on delivering closed captions or optional subtitles in a future technology update, probably first for PCs and Macs, probably sometime in 2010, and later for various TV-connected devices as new firmware can be created and the devices updated.

The timing of this is great, since THREE of Brandt’s documentaries this month didn’t have subtitles available.  And although I’ve never gotten into Lost, I did watch the Pilot episode just to test out the captioning.  It’s a good size and easy-to-read yellow font, so no complaints there.  Unfortunately I like to watch Instant View through our television’s Window’s Media Player setup, to keep my laptop freed up, and the new captioning only works on Macs and PCs.  So again, looong way to go.  But it's a decent first step, Netflix.  Now keep it up!