Looking at the xbox 360 netflix app, i see some wonderful hi resolution boxart for the movie. I'd like to use some boxart for 10ft UI i'm building - but the best i see available through these APIs is inadequate. Any chance to get that boxart accessible through here?
The box art is new and somewhat sparse, as we're focusing on enabling it for our instant watching 10' clients which only show streaming titles. It's relatively low hanging fruit and something I'd like to get in the API soon. The only reason I'm holding it back is that I think we need to refactor how we return box art links so that they're more like other link collections in the API, and that is a significant enough interface change to wait until we version the API.
You might be able to build the image URLs for instant watching titles if you can't wait. I'll ping an internal developer that has used these images for his iPhone app to see if he can provide any details.
The hires box art is *only* available for instant watching titles. You can't get it for the DVD titles, thats one reason its not part of the regular API results set, and its not something you can depend on so its not documented. The API would need to be extended to return the hires box art where it exists, and also the actor head shot pictures where they exist.
my 10' app is only for instant watch titles, and i'd love to show the hi res art
i have no problem building URLs since i'm already doing that to present the results from the new instant titles RSS and top choices RSS
On an unrelated note, a few hours back several boxart images on my app were giving HTTP 503 errors randomly. Looks like now its fixed.
Now, would it be a good idea if i fetch the box art images and serve them from my own web server? Any copyright or other issues i should be worrying about? I'd really want to avoid hitting netflix CDNs for displaying headshots and boxarts.
The CDN is pretty robust, so wouldn't expect to see those 503 errors again any time soon.
If I were you, I'd continue to pull them off the server. You'll likely get better perf, scale and (usually) availability with the CDN and you're less likely to end up in a legal gray area.
We'll be adding this to the next API release. If you're eager to get at these images sooner and are willing to take the risk of breaking if the URL structure changes, you can modify current image URLs like I show below:
Thanks Michael! I've asked this earlier too, should we be planning to host the box shots on our servers? I'm sure the large box shot images will put a lot of traffic on netflix's cdn.
We currently only have them for instant watching titles as the intent was to use them on HD TVs. That will still be true once they are officially in the API. If you see instant titles without HD boxart, give us a holler.
Is there any difference between:
http://cdn-3.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/ghd/70071613.jpg
and
http://cdn.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/ghd/70071613.jpg (without the "-3" in there)
So far, it seems to be the same, but possibly some images are available on one URL that are not available on the other?
Also, I wrote a quick Javascript function that will allow a fall back to the smaller image when the larger one is not available. It allows the page to display a relevant image (but smaller) instead of the "broken link" image for the browser.
And the call to it is added to the IMG tag in the html:
<IMG src="http://cdn.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/ghd/<%=netflix_ref%>.jpg" onerror="onImgError(this,'<%=netflix_ref%>')" />
In this case, I am showing the "Classic ASP" version, so you may need to convert to your server side language to get the correct tag, but basically think of <%=netflix_ref%> as being equal to the 70071613 in the example.
You can see this working on my work-in-progress site here:
http://mevue.com
For a good example, search for "gellar" (as in Sara Michelle Gellar) and click on a few links on the left. The never films have large images, and the older ones tend to not have them.
We spread our image requests evenly across the CDN server pool to maximize cache hits. While images are available on any server, you'll typically get better perf hitting the designated server.
Looking at the xbox 360 netflix app, i see some wonderful hi resolution boxart for the movie. I'd like to use some boxart for 10ft UI i'm building - but the best i see available through these APIs is inadequate. Any chance to get that boxart accessible through here?
Message edited by gproano 3 years ago
Michael Hart – 3 years ago
The box art is new and somewhat sparse, as we're focusing on enabling it for our instant watching 10' clients which only show streaming titles. It's relatively low hanging fruit and something I'd like to get in the API soon. The only reason I'm holding it back is that I think we need to refactor how we return box art links so that they're more like other link collections in the API, and that is a significant enough interface change to wait until we version the API.
You might be able to build the image URLs for instant watching titles if you can't wait. I'll ping an internal developer that has used these images for his iPhone app to see if he can provide any details.
Adrian – 3 years ago
The hires box art is *only* available for instant watching titles. You can't get it for the DVD titles, thats one reason its not part of the regular API results set, and its not something you can depend on so its not documented. The API would need to be extended to return the hires box art where it exists, and also the actor head shot pictures where they exist.
gproano – 3 years ago
my 10' app is only for instant watch titles, and i'd love to show the hi res art
i have no problem building URLs since i'm already doing that to present the results from the new instant titles RSS and top choices RSS
Anurag – 3 years ago
On an unrelated note, a few hours back several boxart images on my app were giving HTTP 503 errors randomly. Looks like now its fixed.
Now, would it be a good idea if i fetch the box art images and serve them from my own web server? Any copyright or other issues i should be worrying about? I'd really want to avoid hitting netflix CDNs for displaying headshots and boxarts.
Michael Hart – 3 years ago
The CDN is pretty robust, so wouldn't expect to see those 503 errors again any time soon.
If I were you, I'd continue to pull them off the server. You'll likely get better perf, scale and (usually) availability with the CDN and you're less likely to end up in a legal gray area.
nflxdeveloper – 3 years ago
Any update on the hi-res boxart ... this will be helpful to me as well
porfitron – 3 years ago
Adrian mentions that the the hi-res shots are only available for watch instantly... what is the path for a hi-res boxshot?
I have been using the path to "large", but these don't look good on a TV.
I'd like to use them in conjunction with my watch instantly RSS feed.
Michael Hart – 3 years ago
We'll be adding this to the next API release. If you're eager to get at these images sooner and are willing to take the risk of breaking if the URL structure changes, you can modify current image URLs like I show below:
Make a box art URL like this:
http://cdn-3.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/tiny/70071613.jpg
Look like this:
http://cdn-3.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/ghd/70071613.jpg
Steve – 3 years ago
Very nice. Thanks Michael.
Anurag – 3 years ago
Thanks Michael! I've asked this earlier too, should we be planning to host the box shots on our servers? I'm sure the large box shot images will put a lot of traffic on netflix's cdn.
Anurag – 3 years ago
Hmm, I guess I'll wait for the large images to be added into the API. Not all titles have large box shots available.
Michael Hart – 3 years ago
We currently only have them for instant watching titles as the intent was to use them on HD TVs. That will still be true once they are officially in the API. If you see instant titles without HD boxart, give us a holler.
neededandwanted – 3 years ago
Is there any difference between:
http://cdn-3.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/ghd/70071613.jpg
and
http://cdn.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/ghd/70071613.jpg (without the "-3" in there)
So far, it seems to be the same, but possibly some images are available on one URL that are not available on the other?
Also, I wrote a quick Javascript function that will allow a fall back to the smaller image when the larger one is not available. It allows the page to display a relevant image (but smaller) instead of the "broken link" image for the browser.
It looks like this:
<script type="text/javascript">
function onImgError(source,netflixId) {
source.src = "http://cdn.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/large/"+netflixId+".jpg";
// disable onerror to prevent endless loop
source.onerror = "";
return true;
}
</script>
And the call to it is added to the IMG tag in the html:
<IMG src="http://cdn.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/ghd/<%=netflix_ref%>.jpg" onerror="onImgError(this,'<%=netflix_ref%>')" />
In this case, I am showing the "Classic ASP" version, so you may need to convert to your server side language to get the correct tag, but basically think of <%=netflix_ref%> as being equal to the 70071613 in the example.
You can see this working on my work-in-progress site here:
http://mevue.com
For a good example, search for "gellar" (as in Sara Michelle Gellar) and click on a few links on the left. The never films have large images, and the older ones tend to not have them.
Michael Hart – 3 years ago
We spread our image requests evenly across the CDN server pool to maximize cache hits. While images are available on any server, you'll typically get better perf hitting the designated server.