Digital Media Bytes: NewTeeVee Edition

Leaving comments across the blogosphere NewTeeVee

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Why Netflix Doesn’t Offer Subtitles or Closed Captions
Netflix’s Chief Product Officer, Neil Hunt, wrote an interesting blog post today about why his company doesn’t offer subtitles or closed captions on its streaming content. Evidently, adding subtitles and closed captions is harder than it looks.

Dave’s response: If Hulu could figure out how to do it, Netflix can. If they didn’t want to re-encode everything, they should have solved this earlier.

A Few Last Moments With the Sony Watchman
My little Flipcam doesn’t like to focus when it’s as up close and personal as it has to get with the tiny Watchman screen, so believe me when I say the picture is great.

Dave’s response: The competing Kodak Zi6 has a macro mode…

Vid-Biz: Zillion TV, ESPN 360, Hammertime
Zillion TV to Offer Some Movies Day-and-Date with DVD for Free; unnamed studio willing to experiment by offering consumers the choice of watching a targeted ad.

Dave’s response: Yeah, but when will ZillionTV be released and for how much?

SAG Overwhelmingly Approves Contract
The new contract also covers material created for new media, which was a sticking point that helped kick off this whole drawn-out negotiation in the first place, and includes residuals for ad-supported movies and TV shows streamed online.

Dave’s response: Wonder what it means for Hulu’s random and incomplete catalog – if anything.