New feature (optional): You can now search the captions of the CURRENTLY-SELECTED movie for a
word or phrase. If found, it will re-position the video to a point 3 seconds before the word or phrase appears.
[ e.g. Select the movie "No Country For Old Men", search for "sixty-nine", then watch until the end of the scene. ]
[ e.g. Select same movie, and search for "satchel", then watch until Llewelyn leaves his house the next morning. ]
[ e.g. Select the movie "Paul", and search for the word "partake", then watch until they all wake up the next morning. ]
[ e.g. Select the same movie("Paul"), and search for the word "knocking", then watch until Paul leaves the bathroom. ]
[ e.g. Select "The Imitation Game" search for 2ND OCCURRENCE of the word "crossword" and watch that scene. ]
some memorable captions (aka 'Quotes') from the CURRENTLY-SELECTED movie.
Note: On IMDB, for each movie, there is a section containing dialog 'quotes'...one's that the IMDB authors think of as
significant. However, if you navigated just to the main/top of a particular movie entry on IMDB, the 'Quotes' section is
a LONG way down...you need to scroll down seemingly forever to get to it. So, the purpose of button above allows you
to get IMDB to go directly to the Quotes section. If you browse thru those quotes and see some
dialog that is interesting/meaningful to you, just type a word or two of it into the caption 'search' field above. The
search of the current movies captions (whether or not you have captions enabled/visible at the time), will re-position the
movie to the place where that 'quote' occurs.
[Please press browser's "reload" button]
[ I made no thumbnails for this movie ]
Hint: Here's my suggested approach for finding the next movie that you'd like to watch:
#1:
to launch a page for viewing the COMPLETE SORTABLE LIST of the 250+ movies that I considered making available on this webpage.
#2: On that page, click your preferred column-of-interest (which will SORT that list to your preference).
#3: When you see a possible candidate, click on the 'click_here' button at the far right (to launch the IMDB-page containing DETAILS of that movie).
#4: Now go back to this page's drop-down selection-list and select your chosen movie, (if it's on the list of available movies).
Here is an alternate place to get ideas for your next movie to watch :
to view 'snippets' (trailers) from the 'top-20' of my movie favorites.
https://storage.googleapis.com/slims-fav-flicks/placeholder-sprites-256x144.png( Movies marked with " [***] " are from the Coen Bros...'must see'!)
Note: There are
of my "re-watchable movies" available here.
(Hint: Use the SCROLL-BAR ( at right-end above ) to navigate the alphabetical list of movie choices)
for the plot synopsis, cast members, and director for the CURRENTLY SELECTED movie.
Thumbnails:
[Checkbox will enable/disable] Progress-bar actions display thumbnails.
(1) Select name of desired movie
(the list of names above is scrollable)
(2) Click the START->arrowhead
in the video window above
(3) Enable/disable captions as desired
Use the FULL-SCREEN button at the right end of the progress-bar.
The 'ESC' keyboard key will return the window to the initial size.
to watch a handful of some recent Oscar-nominated movies
Known bugs:
#1: On mobile devices (e.g. Android, etc). the thumbnail viewer displays the series of
images, but it does NOT move the viewbox-frame along, as expected.
#2: If you experience excessively long startup times and if your browser has a VPN
(Virtual Private Network) enabled...disable the VPN during movie-viewing.
GEEK-ALERT: This 'open-source' web-page is contained in a single HTML-file, so it can more easily be examined by other developers.
[ i.e. the HTML, Javascript, and CSS are all packaged together in the single HTML file. ]
How to view Internet content on a TELEVISION SET
This web-page can be projected onto your TV set (using your "Wifi" network). This requires either a recent "SmartTV" or the addition of a TV device such as CHROMECAST or ROKU.
First, let's get some terminology squared away: Google uses terminology, such as "Cast...", and
"Tab-cast" and "Screen-cast"and simply "Play on TV" Elsewhere in their documention, they may use
terms like "media-casting", and "mirroring". Roku and other vendors also use phrases
like "screen-casting" and "mirroring". Don't be concerned, worrying that you don't understand all these distinctions.
They are all conceptually the same, (tho with minor behavioral differences).
To boil it all down, the feature is to cause either the entire screen, or some smaller app-portion of the screen,
(of your PC or mobile device), to be projected onto your TV, so that others in the room with you can view it.
NOTE: You MAY not need to buy any of the four physical casting devices mentioned below. If you happen to own one of the
TV-industry's various "Smart-TVs", do some 'google-searches' to determine whether your specific TV model supports castmg/mirroring.
e.g. Samsung TV model codes of the form: "xxxxTU7000xxxx" DO support the feature (Samsung calls it "Smart View")!
(These Samsung models were first made in the year 2020.)
e.g. Samsung TV model codes of the form: "xxxxEH5300xxxx" DO NOT support the feature.
(These Samsung models were first made in the year 2012.)
Ergo: So, sometime between 2012 and 2020, some models of Samsung SmartTVs began supporting built-in casting/mirroring.
Hope this helps a little.
(My Samsung TV is an old series 'EH5300', made in 2012, so I have no hands-on experience
playing with such a newer "Smart-TV". Sorry.)
Four SUGGESTED CHOICES for a wifi-based streaming device.....TRY ONE
Let's start this discussion by posing a question:
What is the difference between these 4 devices?
($49) Chromecast-streaming-device and the
($48) Roku-streaming-stick+ and the
($50) Chromecast with 'Google-TV' and the
($59) EZCast Ultra Airplay Receiver ?
The short answer is: Essentially, for simple mirroring/casting, there really IS no difference!
I consider them to be CONCEPTUALLY the same because they all share these two attributes:
(1) Attach to one of a TV-set's HDMI-ports. (2) Can receive/display a wifi-based video/audio stream of content.
And, I consider them all FUNCTIONALLY the same, due to their ability to receive "casted" / "mirrored" content.
[ The Roku and Google-TV models DO have the extra functionality to act as a set-top box. But we don't NEED that functionality for our simple casting/mirroring task. ] These products often get overlooked because they are now also being marketed by 3rd parties:
e.g. (Click here) [ Note: I've never owned / used /tested either of these last 2 devices. ]
Overall, I now have become enamored with the Roku and Google-TV devices (given their hand-held remotes),
because of their ability to be REPLACEMENTS for rented set-top boxes...an approach known as 'cutting the cord' !
Using an ROKU or CHROMECAST device is NOT the ONLY way to 'cast' or 'mirror' a PC/smart-phone/tablet onto a TV.
Other, devices, such as an "Amazon-Fire-TV", or an "Apple-TV" can also be made to work.
And, some 'smart-TVs [e.g. some Samsungs] can be 'casted to' directly.
[ For general info for any of these various approaches,
click here ]
==================
Ever considered Miracast wireless? Or maybe a hard-wired approach?
Note: So far, we've discussed only setups that use standard WIFI to make aWIRELESS connection to a device plugged into your TV. Some modern TVs
have a special 'variant' of wifi called "Miracast" built-in to them. If your cellphone (or tablet or whatever device you're using to access the Internet video
content) also supports Miracast, then you could investigate using that. (Note: I've never tried Miracast...std wifi methods are more general and I've
always had wifi available to me.) My google-searching about Miracast seems to indicate that Apple's iOS devices do NOT support Miracast. So, you
must have an Android phone/tablet or one that is a Windows-phone product, etc.)
If you don't mind having your cellphone next to your TV, you could consider using some inexpensive cables to connect your cellphone to the TV directly.
You were probably not aware (I wasn't) that the world now makes cables with a USB-C connector on one end and an HDMI connector on the other.
(Amazon sells them:
click here)
This will often work, given specifics on whether your cellphone can transmit video-content out its USB-C charging port! (I've never tried this approach.)
Note: This approach is less expensive and is a less 'high-techy' solution. There a detailed writeup on that approach
click here
What class of "computer" will you be using? (a PC or a mobile device?)
#1-A: Using a PC (e.g. Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS) to display onto a TV fitted with CHROMECAST:
Answer: You can. Click Here #1-B: Using a PC (e.g. Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS) to display onto a TV fitted with a ROKU device:
Answer: You can. Click Here
#2-A: Using an Android smartphone or tablet to display onto a TV fitted with CHROMECAST:
Answer: You can. Click Here #2-B: Using an Android smartphone or tablet to display onto a TV fitted with a ROKU device:
Answer: You can. Click Here
#3-A: Using an (Apple) iPhone or iPad to display onto a TV fitted with CHROMECAST:
Answer: You can. Click Here #3-B: Using an (Apple) iPhone or iPad to display onto a TV fitted with a ROKU device:
Answer: (I would think so, but I'm not sure at all. (And I don't own any Apple mobile-devices to test this.)
So I leave this as an "exercise for the readers". Do some google-searching on your own for the answer.
Does it matter which web-browser that you use???
When using a Chromecast-device, the answer is a qualified YES...you should be using Google's Chrome-browser.
When using a Roku-device, my testing on a Window-10 laptop indicates that all major browsers should work fine!
Device Setup: Choices to think about
Before first use of a Roku or Chromecast device in a given household, you must first 'authorize' it to
access your household's wifi-network, by providing it your wifi's signal name (aka 'SSID') and password.
This initial 'setup' is also referred to as doing a 'Factory Reset'.
How to factory-reset Roku ...How to factory-reset Chromecast [ This step can be intimidating for many people. If you need help, go find a geeky neighbor or relative. ]
A name that you may be asked to supply during these two device's setup is a device name and/or room
name, to help distinguish it from other 'castable devices' that might already be visible on your wifi network,
such as a 2nd Chromecast or a Roku device, or one of the industry's intelligent microphone/speaker
devices, such as Google's "Home" or Amazon's "Alexa", or Apple's "Siri". For those intelligent 'speaker' devices,
only the audio-channel will get transmitted across, so casting a movie isn't typically useful, (though a short
YouTube music video would be quite appropriate...see my 'music' page Click Here)
The concept: When you initiate a 'casting' session, you are using a PC or any of the various
'mobile-devices', to act as the 'remote controller' from which the video is being casted (controlled).
Here is Google's
documentation for what they refer to as "tab-casting".
One caveat: If subtitles/captions are a 'must-have'. and you're using a PC device, be aware that going 'full-screen'
may prevent the subtitles from passing through onto the TV. This is because the default setting
for cast button is to "optimize full-screen videos", which, has the side-effect of causing the PC to use "media casting"
mode rather than "mirroring" mode, which may prevent the subtitles from passing through to the TV. To alter that, simply
un-check that option, as explained in the procedure
here. Then, do a right-click on the cast-icon (and enable 'Always show icon') and
un-ckeck the "optimize full-screen videos" mode. [ Note: Android-based mobile devices have a 'Smart View'
mode available in their 'settings menu that will 'mirror' a phone/tablet screen onto Chromecast or Roku.]
Enjoy your 'casting/mirroring' experiences!
Geek-alert: Thumbnail implementation: I use video-sprite based thumbnails
See detailed-info here
The video files are MP4 files (video-codec=H.264 and audio-codec=MP3)
Viewing of MP4 video files works fine in all major browsers...e.g. Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Edge, etc
The soft captions used here are VTT (text) files, which were converted from SRT (text) files
If you're involved in your own Internet video-production,
there's a free SRT->VTT converter avail at: https://subtitletools.com/convert-to-vtt-online
SRT files (in various languages) are available at "subscene.com" and "moviesubtitles.org"
If you have need to shift all SRT subtitles earlier or later, etc,etc, find the (free) software: "SE" (Subtitle Edit)
some memorable captions (aka 'Quotes') from the CURRENTLY-SELECTED movie.
