Filmstruck / Criterion Channel

$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.

I briefly borrowed a friend's dwindling Hulu subscription, since he didn't use it and was about to cancel, and I was shocked to find not just mandatory commercials, but mandatory shit commercials. It drove us nuts.

That's only if you're cheap. If you pay the extra few bucks you don't get commercials, or maybe only a few commercials on certain big shows, but I never see commercials.

ugh just gimme a damn roku or chromecast app ffs

I wish Criterion was still on Hulu so I could just, you know, watch this stuff on my TV.

Why can I not just stream TCM's catalog? Even just their on demand movies

If you have Fire TV, you can.

tbh, you can't so much. TCM's on demand program is pretty shitty.

yeah it's a shame. missing HD stuff too

Well this is a sucky development (from someone else's post at criterionforum.org):

http://i.imgur.com/dK6I3gZ.png

What's the hold up?

welp that's another six months I can spend ignoring this

oh fughaghdfhgkajrheruigh

does TCM at least have a Roku app I can use w/ a cable login?

Nope -- it's "coming soon"

we have Vue, Amazon & Netflix, and a hd antenna for local tv. we just did a free trial on hulu to see how it compared to vue but even though hulu has tons of channels, they are very patchworky on what *shows* they offer which is annoying. idk, i'm not sold on it. for my own viewing choices, i think i prefer vue.

fire tv is like 90 bucks if you really really want filmstruck now.

I mean, Ex0dus + access to a university library will tide me over until it's out, but I STILL WANT IT RN

I just ordered a Fire TV box (not only for FilmStruck, but it was a motivator), so now I'm getting ready to sign up for FS. What's the verdict from people who are on it, in terms of the different plans? I'm inclined to just go ahead and do the year subscription, which comes out to a little more than $8/month, but is there any reason to do a monthly plan in terms of waiting for them to work out technical issues or anything else?

Also, how good is the picture quality of their stream? Comparable to Netflix?

i just put on 8 1/2 on mute while listening to music and i was just thinking it looks great.

(im running ethernet into an apple tv)

Also, how good is the picture quality of their stream? Comparable to Netflix?

Yeah, though some of the transfers of minor films that don't rate a restoration are horrible. I watched Big Deal on Madonna Street last night and it looked bad, but not because of the stream. I should go ahead and bump my subscription from monthly to the annual price.

BTW, 25 films added Friday on the Filmstruck side under 5 banners:
— Paris, City of Love (including Billy Wilder's Irma La Douce and Martin Ritt's Paris Blues, for the people who want more TCM-type stuff)
— Directed by Terry Gilliam
— Directed by Dušan Makavjev
— the Qatsi trilogy
— The Yugoslav Wars and their Aftermath

Cool, thx. Guess I'll do the annual and see how it goes! I figured there would be variations in picture quality depending on the prints.

Logorama, the short added for today's short + feature, is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

Very excited that Ingmar Bergman's "The Magic Flute" (1975) was added to the Criterion section this week. Always wanted to see that.

Kiarostami's Certified Copy added on the Criterion side. Supplements include his 1977 feature The Report.

All the Kurosawas are leaving the Filmstruck side after this coming Friday, but Ran is the only one not on the Criterion side as well.

I worry by the time this thing is actually available on Roku or Chromecast it will have completely lost momentum and be on the brink of folding

I was going to watch Ran tonight but it's already gone — all the Kurosawas were taken down from the Filmstruck side sometime during the day today.

Somebody on criterionforum.org figured out that the URL of Filmstruck's bundles/banners ended with steadily increasing numbers, so they counted ahead and found this for the next Tuesday Short + Feature:
https://watch.filmstruck.com/#!/bundle/1520000290

So I kept going and found what looks like the next Friday Double Feature, two Dirk Bogarde films:
https://watch.filmstruck.com/#!/bundle/1520000292

And the next Observations on Film Art, Kristin Thompson on landscape in Kiarostami:
https://watch.filmstruck.com/#!/bundle/1520000293

I tried posting about those last two at the Criterion Forum, but as a noob, my first five posts have to be approved by a moderator, and this one was disapproved because it "does not make a contribution to the ongoing discussion."

The bundle placeholders are there for the next month's worth of Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday specials, but I won't spoil anything unless y'all want me to.

One intriguing thing was something called the "C.R. Barker Collection." The only thing google brought up for that name was co-author of a biography of Erich Maria Remarque.

oh hey chromecast

Contemporary Israeli Cinema, John Ford in the 30s, and Chantal Akerman are leaving the Filmstruck side later this week. Which films in those are must-not-miss?

Akerman's News From Home is pretty fascinating.

Fortunately that one's staying on the Criterion side.

Neo-noir, Animation for Adults, Made for the U.N., Seventeen Moments of Spring banners leaving this week. Ace in the Hole leaves early next week. BTW, films leave at midnight GMT of the date listed, which means 7 p.m. EST on the day before. Sneaky fuckers.

Roku?

"spring"

are they still having massive buffering issues?

I haven't had any myself, but I've been reading about them. I get a lot of hangups at the login process, but if I open a new tab and retry it, I always get in the 2nd time.

I have HBO, PBS, Sundance, etc., and FilmStruck streams better than any of them on Apple TV.