Filmstruck / Criterion Channel

A FB friend (who may be an ILXor, though I can't remember his screen name) who knows how to wrangle databases heard my plea last night and extracted the data from Filmstruck's "Browse All" source code that allowed me to make this:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TWx8-b5fbqenVr6r64hf3GktufPAgc61akPIvKoV2XA/edit?usp=sharing

A spreadsheet with Filmstruck's current offerings, sortable by title, director, year, runtime, country. Note 2 sheets, Basic Filmstruck and Criterion Channel. It may be less useful than the one I made of Criterion on Hulu, because films are being added and dropped much more frequently.

Thanks for that!

some surprising omissions: very little Minelli, only one Lubitsch, no Tod Browning, no Sturges, no Sirk, only a handful of Fellini, only one Cukor... plenty of oddball curation clearly swung by copyright ownership instead of best options too: four Robert Downey Sr. films but no Putney Swope?

xpost
You're welcome! I'm going to try to keep up with arrivals and departures to keep the spreadsheet up to date, but they are being VERY stupid about announcing that sort of stuff (I found out Mulholland Dr. is leaving the site at the end of January, but not from Filmstruck itself) so if anyone wants to mention comings and goings on this thread, that'd be great.

Nice list! Wow, that's a strong sales pitch...ugh. I'm really disappointed because the little Roku TV I bought this year for the living room has no option to turn off its (subtle, not always dstractingly present) soap-opera effect and by the time I was sure it wasn't my imagination, it was too late to return the thing. So now I'm sort of hesitant to plunk down for Filmstruck when it goes Roku since it'll be sabotaging the entire ''get myself educated in great film'' thing.

You might want to double check your TV settings re: soap opera effect. A friend had this issue, I had to go in and change her TV's settings on every input.

Oh believe me I've looked, through every menu and submenu. AFAICT it does not have any kind of off switch. It's definitely more pronounced on certain content but I suspect this may reflect arcane details of what framerate/medium the content provided to Netflix was inteded for. Robotech (the DVD version from the early 2000s) looked fine the entire way through. From Dusk Till Dawn made the actors look like plastic cutouts sliding wildly around the screen somehow moving a little faster than they should, especally any time the camera moved.

I keep praying for a firmware upgrade that fixes this but I doubt many folks are clamoring for it. Just pissed that the online reviews suggesting this was really the best option for this size TV never thought this was worth mentioning. Maybe earlier models didn't do this, or something.

It's classic that a thing happens and ILX's first reaction is to make a spreadsheet

::shrug::
for me, it's an easier way to browse

The in-app browsing system is not good! A spreadsheet is very helpful for this thing!

So the non-Criterion content is pretty meh, right? I was actually more interested in TCM-style films than Criterions.

Downhill Racer is only available this month, I see.

There was never going to be a lot of content that people would think of as "TCM-like" on this, and it seemed like they let a lot of people think otherwise.

makes you wonder what TCM even has to do with it? Why not just Criterion: the App?

Yeah, they've been unnecessarily vague about everything but the price.

A friend recommended the Warner Movie Archive for classic American stuff but the library looks pretty shallow even for a one-studio service and reviews were bad.

FS has legit shit quality streaming and they told me they wont have chromecast support until sometime next year

Shit quality like they're actually streaming in SD? Lots of compression artifacts? Stuff like that?

Lots added in the last few days.

Filmstruck:
Cairo Station
The Return of the Prodigal Son
The Sixth Day
The Sparrow
Saladin
Alexandria, Again and Forever
An Egyptian Story
The Land
Cairo As Told By Youssef Chahine

The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe
La Moutarde Me Monte au Nez
Paris 36

Criterion:
Koko: A Talking Gorilla
My Crasy Life
An Innocent Witch
A Story from Chikamatsu
Eternal Return, The
Endless Desire
Heat Wave; Oil-Hell Murder (both Hideo Gosha)
Poil de Carotte (Duvivier)
Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, The
Ask Father (Harold Lloyd short)
Boudu Saved from Drowning
Oliver Twist (Lean)
Courage for Every Day
Uncle Yanco (Varda)
Fear of Fear
Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven
American Soldier, The
Junkopia (Chris Marker)

Help Center is Helpful -- https://help.filmstruck.com/hc/en-us/

Movies leaving the service in the next 6 months: https://help.filmstruck.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000301047-Movies-Leaving-FIlmStruck

Available audio commentaries: https://help.filmstruck.com/hc/en-us/articles/232060448-List-of-Audio-Commentaries-in-FilmStruck

good stuff!

When they go Roku I think I'm totally in.

They said "early December" for the Apple TV and it was available on Dec. 1st. They're saying "early 2017" for Roku so I unrealistically have my hopes up for Jan. 1st.

Looking at that aforementioned list, it seemed like a million titles were leaving the service. Does that mean the Criterion Collection, assuming you pay for it, is a constant, but everything else comes and goes?

I think that's mostly true -- Downhill Racer and Mulholland Dr. are on short engagements on Criterion and I think they'll be gone from the site entirely.

I guess I should watch that huge collection of Chaplin Keystone/Essanay/Mutual shorts before they're gone on 4/21, because they're not on the Criterion side.

Even if you’re paying for the Criterion Collection, not all of the titles are available at once. I’m assuming they’re rotating that stuff, too.

I actually don't mind when streaming selections rotate, it helps me focus a bit better. The choice paralysis of the entire Criterion Collection, which would take how many years to watch their entirety, is overwhelming. Basically as it is with Netflix and Amazon not keep adding stuff to my watch list, and if it happens to be unavailable when I want to actually watch it, that's when I resort to downloading.

Yeah I can't imagine being in a situation on Filmstruck where it feels like there was nothing to watch. Rotate away.

23 films under 4 banners added on the Filmstruck side --

Alain Resnais
Errol Morris
Cinematography by Rudolph Maté
Behind the Iron Curtain

Withnail and I added on Criterion

Todd Haynes' Safe available until the end of this month, plus the supplemental bits (incl. Haynes' 1978 short "The Suicide") and the commentary track from the home release.

Come on, Roku ...

Haven't read the thread, but I skimmed this piece from a while back, which was not hopeful: http://www.thestreamingadvisor.com/2016/04/26/another-film-buff-service-really-turner-is-getting-streaming-wrong/

I dunno. I hope it sticks around. But I've got to admit, from a so-called "cord-cutter" perspective, I'm not a fan of the slow creep of services. Netflix, plus Amazon (which, granted, comes with many other benefits), plus Filmstruck, plus internet, plus phone, plus satellite radio, etc. Something has to give, eventually.

Putting a lot of energy into being a service for film buffs is like starting an athletic shoe company that specializes in turquoise equestrian gear.

This guy is full of shit. That analogy shows he is way outside Filmstruck's target demo and can't relate to anyone who's in it.

We just cancelled DirecTV on Sunday, freeing up $$$ to get what we actually want minus the home shopping and religious channels. I think that's a pretty common situation for cord- and dish-cutters.

That's how I feel, basically. I'll spend, as least to some extent, just not on the 90% of sports and reality shows and other bullshit I don't want. But I do agree Filmstruck's target demo is somewhat limited. Not a growth model.

really enjoying this service. agree it's not the biggest target demo, but every time i look for a movie on amazon or netflix it's just wall to wall shit so something like Filmstruck feels like an embarrassment of riches by comparison.

I had a brief Roku daydream that maybe Filmstruck's channel would be integrated with the Watch TCM channel, which according to TCM's device-activation page is "coming soon." But that's not really possible so I woke up.

Yeah people who CUT DA CORD to live on Netflix is like throwing out all your records to listen to Pandora

My wife is always trying to get me to listen to Pandora "if you like x, then ..." channels or whatever, and I keep telling her, I have the music I like and if I want to hear music I like I'm going to put on music I like, not hope that the algorithm driving the Dolly Parton channel or whatever will stick to classic country and not follow "Coat of Many Colors" with, like, something from Florida Georgia Line's Christmas album.

IDK cable TV seems to me to be at least 90% garbage or stuff totally outside my interests, at least whenever I'm at my relatives' for Christmas and spend any time surfing through it. So if I had that cord, cutting it would be more like getting rid of Pandora than getting rid of my record collection. I'm still interested in Filmstruck when it hits Roku and will almost certainly give it a try for a month or two, I mean it's cheaper than a single movie ticket or a few rentals so I don't have to watch THAT much for it to be worth it.

Might finally punt Netflix tbh - that's kept me looped in mostly because the person I share it with watches a fuckton of old TV shows on it while she's working, and because there's always at least ONE thing floating around in current rotation that I'm into, like my recent ill-advised Robotech binge. But my actual queue has had some of the same stuff in it for YEARS and if I've never felt compelled to finally sit down and watch it that's probably a sign. The overwhelming majority of new arrival stuff is about as interesting to me as what might be found clicking through the cable movie channels, nope, nope, nope, nope, ehhh maybe if I'm in the right mood, nope.....

DiretctTV/ATT app might be the best solution. Cut the cable cord (or just pay for internet), subscribe to DirectTV app for 30 bucks/mo and get all the live TV you want more or less? Just no DVR recording ability.

At this point I'm basically paying $8 a month for the Internet and $10 a month for Netflix, but I guess I should also count going to the movies in my budget for these things...

$8 for internet? How do you do that?

My wife last night, when we were going through these things, was asking if I was getting enough value out of Netflix, and I was like, what do you mean, like how many things do I have to watch for it to be worth it? And she said, yeah, I don't know, maybe three to make it make more sense than a la carte purchases? And I said whether I watched enough or not was moot, because I've downloaded a shit ton of stuff over the years for nada, and if paying a few streaming services makes me feel better then dammit, I'd say they're a bargain.

And then she asked to watch The Crown, and I restrained myself from saying "see, you need Netflix!"

Ha, it's an unusual situation - it's a big house, so we're splitting reasonably fast broadband twelve ways. Generally haven't had any speed issues or anything.

I pay for Hulu, Netflix, Filmstruck and Fandor.

Because I like throwing away money.

i am finally paring down but i had been doing hulu, netflix, filmstruck, amazon prime, hbo/showtime/cinemax/starz, cable, mubi

oh yeah I have amazon prime as well. My mom's HBO GO. And trying out seeso right now.

My biggest problem is I have Time Warner Cable which is now owned by Spectrum, and certain TV apps require a spectrium login but I don't have one.

6 months ago: Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, DirecTV - $125/month
Now: Amazon, Netflix, HBO, Filmstruck, Vue - $78/month

i pay for hulu and netflix

cancelled prime

if you want to penny pinch you can create new email addresses and sign up for free trials every so often

i opened a free trial acct on filmstruck and just cancelled

just cancelled this and Nightflight due to the terrible buffering problems on both platforms.

my issue is i have a kingsize tivo and options like vue that don't allow me to timeshift aren't of much use.

Yeah, losing the ability to record from TCM is a big downside for me.