Filmstruck / Criterion Channel

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.

added Putney Swope which is a lot of fun

Watched it tonight -- great.

Spoiler: tomorrow's Criterion Collection Edition is going to be Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg.

+ 15 supplements, holy shit

https://watch.filmstruck.com/#!/bundle/1520000315

Roku pushed back to May.

Interest in this service pushed back even further. Why the delay?

Isn't Roku just a delivery vector?

I have no idea why, and good luck prying any info out of them. Fuckers. I bought a Roku instead of Apple TV because I thought "oh a couple of months delay between device rollouts won't be too big a deal."

you still made the right choice

This is handy.
http://criterioncast.com/news/all-of-the-films-joining-filmstrucks-criterion-channel-this-april

Finally watched Come and See. Caring for a newborn it took me about two weeks of watching it in 5 to 20 minute chunks. Not ideal, but wow, what a movie.

Per help desk chat a few minutes ago, Roku availability is now "late May to mid-June."

I was irritated that Happy Together disappeared from Amazon before I had a chance to see it, but Filmstruck is starting a program of LGBTQ films on June 2nd that includes it.

A JIHAD FOR LOVE
PARTING GLANCES
WORD IS OUT
THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK
BORN IN FLAMES
THE WATERMELON WOMAN
JEFFREY
ANOTHER COUNTRY
STEAM: THE TURKISH BATH
QUERELLE
WILD REEDS
VICTIM
HAPPY TOGETHER

The Roku channel is live.

lmao it's amazing how little I've grown to care about this. I still never even signed up for a free trial. Have the buffering issues improved? I wonder how they're doing business-wise.

i signed up a couple weeks ago, and I'm really enjoying it. I haven't had any issues with buffering at all.