アニ・ノート » netflix

Netflix and wrong disc

Author — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:07:34 +0000

Some time ago Shamus ran into a problem: Netflix sent him a wrong disc. The tale of horror reads in 3 parts [link 1, link 2, link 3]. After the third turnaround with them he was obviously getting peeved.

Today it’s my turn to drink from this cup: they sent me J2 vol.4 in the slieve of J2 vol.3. This time they have a bit of an excuse: the volume number is in kanji (四). But it’s a very tiny bit. I am sure the sorting monkey does not ever bother to read the numbers.

So, what to do? The only way to correct this is to hold onto v.4, order v.3 again, and hope for the best.

Mapping the Netflix

Author — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:03:19 +0000

Both Mark and I are following Nadesico by means of Netflix. He is about to get (or received already) the v.4. The v.4 marked “very long wait”, and it took me a few weeks. Unfortunately, v.5 is a greater hurdle, “availability unknown”.

Starting with estimations for the size of anime market in North America (such as the 60,000 Harurhi DVDs) and observed delivery times, I tried to estimate how big the Netfix’s stock might be. It seems that for Haruhi, it must be a few thousand discs. For Nadesico? May be as low as a 10 for the “very long wait” and zero for “availability unknown”.

These numbers might make it feasible to fans to engage into a stegagography themed game. Once I receive a rare disc, I will mark it in unobtrusive way and enter the mark into a database (of course, I will take utmost care not to damage the disc in any way and not obliterate any pre-existing print; after all it’s rare!) Other fans could then look up the mark and know who watched the disc before them.

Netflix themselves do not mark discs, they use sleeves and barcodes to track them. The barcode should be entered into the database as well.

Netflix mapping innaugurated

Author — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:37:23 +0000

The idea was floated at Ani-nouto more than a year ago, but now I had an opportunity to try it out.

The DVD of DearS that I watched had a strange glitch: dd-ing the image gave an I/O error 770 KB in. The disc was badly scratched, so I buffed it (even bought a new kit). It looks much better now, but the error remained. But then, I noticed that libcss fails to crack a couple of keys… which may be relevant. The content is watcheable with mplayer.

Netflix mapping 2

Author — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:24:53 +0000

Netflix delayed Midori Days v.3 several times. It was in the queue before Nanoha v.1 and only arrived together with Nanoha v.3, a month or two later. Netflix recently got into a habit of bypassing the top of the queue and sending discs from follwing positions. I suspect this means that Midori no Hibi v.3 is getting rare (although officially there’s no “Wait” indication), and so into Netflix Mapping it goes. Please take care while watching this disc!

Spotting reports are welcome by e-mail as usual.

Netflix Mapping, 3

Author — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:27:30 +0000

Ah My Goddess S1 v.1 should be a common disk, and it’s not scratched, but it played with some skipping. It may be my software (VLC 1.0.0-rc2), but still, better mark it in case.

Scrapping the bottom of the barrel

Author — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:54:30 +0000

It looks like I watched everything worth watching among titles available on Netflix. I’m not even kidding, the only series in the queue that I would actually like to see is Moribito.

Piracy is the only recourse.

Galaxy Angel A fails

Author — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:24:22 +0000

It’s not like I was a big fan of the original Galaxy Angel, but somehow I managed to pick an idea that Galaxy Angel A was improved over it. After renting a DVD, I suspect that I confused it with Nanoha and Nanoha As. The comedy seemed flat, uninteresting.

The disc was barely playable; not scratched, but dirty.

Netflix strikes again

Author — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:15:55 +0000

While I had the v.1 of Starship Operators at home, the v.3 went from available to not available at Netflix. After a few seconds of rage, I went to Boxtorrents (Bakabt now). The bad part is, I cannot send a signal with my money. Netflix receives a fixed monthly payment from me no matter if they stock up on on the inventory or not. Clever, Netflix. Very clever.

Coincidentially, the first instance of v.1 that Netflix sent me was cracked and unwatcheable, so I ordered a replacement. I was so sad at the attrition, but never imagined it would again strike so close, so soon. Netflix are total jerks for not using good envelopes for rarer DVDs.

BTW, I marked the v.1 with a little dot. The picture of the main girl was too pretty to sully, so I placed it carefuly on a design element. If someone rents v.1 and sees it, let me know. Take a picture.

Netflix lulz of the day

Author — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:31:16 +0000

I watched v.5 and v.6 of Moribito and went to order more, when I noticed that the section is full of whiny “reviews” which actually ask where the v.5 might be. And indeed, v.1-v.4 and v.6 are listed on the left, but v.5. Apparently Netflix suffered a database consistency problem, or perhaps is in the process of recalling v.5. It certainly was availabe to order a while ago.