Netflix "Watch Instantly"
I just recently rejoined Netflix and was pleased to see they have added a "Watch Instantly" feature where you can stream a movie over the internet. The selection of movies/shows is subpar, but it's free baby! Well, free as in no extra charge. You can watch 1 hour for every dollar/month your subscription is and it doesn't affect your queued/shipped movies at all. Minuses are that you have to be running Windows and Internet Explorer, but the quality is great! I have a garbage laptop, but it looks the same as a DVD to me and it hasn't skipped/paused/hiccuped once so far.
I watch a lot of foreign shows with English subtitles. Helps me excuse myself from watching too much tv as I can pretend I'm learning different languages...
I am of the belief that all foreign language films should be played in their native language with English subtitles (or whatever your native language is). voice actors are laughably bad.
This is excellent. Some points to counter what film producers, directors and actors are doing to movies nowadays (or whoever is in charge of messing up the sound).
1. Actors are talking in low, hushed tones because they think it is more realistic. There is nothing realistic about it. NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT. No one. Ever. If it were truly realistic, we would be able to understand what they are saying. But we can't.
2. Background noises are mixed to create a more immersive experience. I have never gone to a movie in a theater and felt like I was inside the movie. Never. So they have failed in this and created a harder to watch movie in the meantime.
3. It should be a giant slap in the face to film directors, actors and producers that viewers need to turn on subtitles in order to watch the movie. That takes away a great deal of the experience. If you consider film an art, it has lost a great deal, if not all, of the art of the film. It's nearly impossible to appreciate the cinematography, or hear the sound effects and background noises when you are reading the dialogue.
I wonder if part of the sound issue is that stuff is being put out to sound great on premium sound systems and not translating to lower quality systems well. I turned a bedroom into a movie room with a badass sound system and I have no trouble with dialogue in there, but when I watch in the living room with just the tv speakers I seem to have a pretty tough time with a lot of backing up to try to understand what was said.
If you have Netflix and no surround sound system, go to settings and make sure 5.1 sound is not on. That's for surround sound and will make voices sound lower and harder to hear.
Does Surround Sound = Sound Bar too?
Okay, sound mixing sucks these days. But also, what about the lighting? It's hard to see anything going on in a scene that is dark. I've adjusted my TV the best I can without lighter scenes not looking like ****.
Why they do that man?!
The Bondsman with Kevin Bacon on Prime tomorrow looks good.
Also Pulse on Netflix tomorrow with 10 episode drop, It's an ER drama, with only 2 episodes of The Pitt left, I hope it's good.
