The complete absence of evening TV entertainment has forced a trial period of Netflix.dk. We have been rather enjoying a number of British and American TV series but cannot recommend most of the rather dated films on offer.
Overall, the Netflix.dk catalogue is very limited indeed. A common criticism of Netflix.dk. The relatively low subscription cost per month [79DKK in Dec 2014] makes the streaming exercise fairly painless. Were it not for the fact that Denmark enjoys [by far] the smallest catalogue despite having the world's highest charges for Netflix! Or so the rumour goes. An odd combination but deeply traditional state of affairs for Denmark. Where choice is always extremely limited but prices are always far higher than anywhere else! Most supermarkets stock exactly the same products regardless of the name above the sliding doors. Only the asking price and poor quality of service varies slightly.
The forced [Scandinavian] subtitling on Netflix has also proved a considerable irritation. Though it was much reduced by making the text as small as possible and in black italics. I exchanged a few words on their customer service chatline on the subject. Though it was a complete waste of effort reading their empty auto-excuses.
All they need to do is provide a default OFF button for subtitles on all titles. Or a transparent, or really tiny, preferred text option. Some series have an awful lot of foreign languages spoken in what are basically English series. [Heroes for example has loads of spoken Japanese which probably narrates the story] Without the [default Scandinavian] subtitles much of the plot is probably lost. Further exacerbating the torture of having missing or ridiculously obtrusive subtitles in the middle, or even, the top of the screen! For which, read: "Netflix' amateur night!"
A threatening storm finally precipitated the removal of the long-disused 1.8m GRP dish from its massive mounting pole on the front lawn. I used the same method of two folding [builders] stepladders. These were straightened out [via the ratchet hinges] and tied together at the top above the dish. A 3/4-way pulley system was then used to lift the dish and altaz mounting safely off its sturdy pier. Once the dish had reached the ground it was easy enough to roll on edge to a safe position before laying it face down on the lawn. The feed mounting bars having been unscrewed prior to work commencing to avoid damage. I'm rather glad to see the dish come down as its round white face was distantly, but distinctly visible from the road. Once face down the offending dish shrank to almost insignificance.
Meanwhile, the 2.2m aluminium, Siemens dish still provides 2E British TV reception for a few hours per day if required. Though only from somewhere before lunchtime to some random hour in the afternoon. Reception hours vary considerably without any obvious cause due to weather or even season. My intention to add slow motion in azimuth has not occurred. The pressure to perform fine tuning has receded thanks to the TV streaming service. Though what we'll do when we are reduced to watching much less interesting Netflix fodder is a bit of a concern. Hopefully the catalogue will continue to expand to match the phenomenal growth in subscribers.
NOTE: This post was edited at Google Blogger's request 14.04.2023 to remove all reference to adult content on Netflix. Ironically, my highly cynical and negative comments were deemed unfit for a younger audience. i.e. Those I was trying to protect. Since my original post, Netflix has gone on to offer a huge catalogue of mixed content. Their subtitles have also become much more sophisticated. You must judge for yourself whether some content is suitable for viewing by children.
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