The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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mfunk9786
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#176 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Apr 08, 2019 4:29 pm

The app is looking great, looking forward to downloading it proper on a television when I get home.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#177 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Apr 08, 2019 4:35 pm

Streaming Stick+ ordered...

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mfunk9786
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#178 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Apr 08, 2019 6:10 pm

Anyone know if student & educator pricing made it over from Filmstruck?

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fdm
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#179 Post by fdm » Mon Apr 08, 2019 6:28 pm

Roku (also one of the 4K versions) didn't drop any frames when I played the same small bit where I first noticed the stuttering on Apple TV (4K). So at least that's still just Apple... Later on will give the Roku a workout to see if it otherwise handles things better now than it did with FilmStruck (other video glitches were not unusual on the 4K versions).

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FrauBlucher
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#180 Post by FrauBlucher » Mon Apr 08, 2019 7:22 pm


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dwk
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#181 Post by dwk » Mon Apr 08, 2019 7:32 pm

Another interview with Peter Becker and Penelope Bartlett (most notable thing in this one is not streaming related, but Blu-ray related: sales have been up for the past two years.)

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senseabove
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#182 Post by senseabove » Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:25 am

Has anyone been able to connect a laptop to anything else via HDMI and watch anything? I've figured out the cheap AmazonBasics adaptor I'm using may not be HDCP compliant, so I can get a newer one, but given that I haven't seen anyone describe actually watching something hooked up to a laptop, I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. I've never had trouble playing any other streaming service with my laptop hooked up to my projector...

EDIT: Fiiiinally got it working by using Safari to watch while connected to the adaptor.

Glowingwabbit
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#183 Post by Glowingwabbit » Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:04 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:56 am
Also it would seem that not every single extra is included with certain releases. The one for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is missing a segment that was produced originally for the CBS/Paramount box set.
They didn't release that box set so they might not own it. Was it on the physical release or Filmstruck?

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Roger Ryan
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#184 Post by Roger Ryan » Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:06 am

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:45 am
On my laptop the extras come up just fine but on my home tv through Roku the extras don't come up at all. The page for the film just shows the film. Is anyone else having this problem?
As "alexrinse" mentioned above, some of the extras don't show up using Roku which is what I was experiencing last night as well, although it seemed to be restricted to the "Criterion Collection" selections. While there were definitely compression issues on the material I was viewing, I was pleased that there were no skipped frames or buffering issues using Roku so far (I watched all of To Sleep With Anger and sampled other selections).

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Roscoe
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#185 Post by Roscoe » Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:08 am

senseabove wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:25 am
Has anyone been able to connect a laptop to anything else via HDMI and watch anything?
Yes -- that's exactly how I used to watch FilmStruck -- via HDMI from my laptop to my bigger TV. It wasn't entirely ideal, as a sliver was lost off the bottom, but it worked well enough.

In re: Criterion Channel. I got the app on my Amazon FireStick and after some initial confusion about exactly where online to go to enter the code thing they wanted me to enter on some website, all went very well on my few months old 4K TV. I was most eager to check out Oshima's BOY via the new system, and was disappointed to find that, despite the Criterion and Janus logos that nothing seems to have been done restoration wise to the film -- specks and spots were everywhere and it just didn't look great, but it looked good enough for me to watch. Likewise with Oshima's THE CEREMONY. Then I decided to check out one of the big restoration showpieces, and checked out THE RED SHOES and the difference was evident. And the same went for BLACK NARCISSUS. Gorgeous overall, but I can't say that I view it as a full substitute for good old physical media. It just looks that little extra bit better on my Blu-Ray than via streaming.

MIRROR looked very nice, but maybe the colors were a bit too pushed somehow. We'll see what the general response is.

The search interface isn't ideal on the firestick, having to choose each letter individually gets annoying. I'm sure lots of folks will be wiling away some worktime today by logging into the website and filling up their watchlists that way.

unclehulot
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#186 Post by unclehulot » Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:55 am

If your Firestick has voice search, you can spell out the letters on a search if it doesn’t correctly identify saying the full name. A bit more cumbersome, but you can also use a keyboard on a phone or tablet with the firetv app.

I know it’s early to ask, but I wonder how we can find out which films are on the rotating/expiring part of the service, and when those expiration dates are?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Matt
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#187 Post by Matt » Tue Apr 09, 2019 11:06 am

mfunk9786 wrote:
Mon Apr 08, 2019 6:10 pm
Anyone know if student & educator pricing made it over from Filmstruck?
It did not, unfortunately. The charter member annual subscription seems to be the best available deal.

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HitchcockLang
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#188 Post by HitchcockLang » Tue Apr 09, 2019 11:07 am

Watched Ariel last night through the Roku app. Already seemed less buggy than the early builds of Filmstruck. The movie was severely windowboxed so I had to use the zoom feature on my TV. Not sure if this was just Ariel or a wide issue. But overall, I'm ecstatic with the amount of great content I would otherwise have to buy for a reasonable price.

flyonthewall2983
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#189 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Apr 09, 2019 11:47 am

Glowingwabbit wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:04 am
flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:56 am
Also it would seem that not every single extra is included with certain releases. The one for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is missing a segment that was produced originally for the CBS/Paramount box set.
They didn't release that box set so they might not own it. Was it on the physical release or Filmstruck?
Both

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fdm
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#190 Post by fdm » Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:01 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:56 am
That said I do like (for Fire TV anyway) that you can jump back into any video you were watching, even extras. Filmstruck did not have that option.
Won't go into details, but you could keep your place in Filmstruck movies under the right circumstances. If you wanted to start over, you had to rewind back to the beginning. Seems Criterion Channel lets you choose to start over instead if you want with just the press of a button (at least it looked that way, don't think I actually tried it).

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movielocke
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#191 Post by movielocke » Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:17 pm

Watched detour via Apple TV last night (and the restoration demo) and everything was smooth. I did note that the Apple TV queue seems to be smaller than the queue I had put together on the website. Also, I hope they switch from a horizontal scroll to a grid for the queue the way that filmsteuck did.

On my other tv I set it up and the android interface is much nicer and far more robust in its sidebar than the bare bones Apple TV interface.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#192 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:38 pm

Watched Attack the Police Van on my PC -- looked pretty good. ;-)

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Roscoe
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#193 Post by Roscoe » Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:54 pm

The search capability is really insufficient. There aren't enough tags in too many of the entries. Searches for Raimu and Fresnay bring up nothing, but a search for Pagnol brings up the films starring Raimu and Fresnay. I'm sure there are countless other examples.

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movielocke
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#194 Post by movielocke » Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:01 pm

Roscoe wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:54 pm
The search capability is really insufficient. There aren't enough tags in too many of the entries. Searches for Raimu and Fresnay bring up nothing, but a search for Pagnol brings up the films starring Raimu and Fresnay. I'm sure there are countless other examples.
Eh, cast member cross indexing isn't something I'd consider a high priority (unlike say directors).

I do like that you can search years, type in 1939, and you'll get every 1939 film--and any film that mentions 1939 in its description. So it isn't perfect, but it's a decent way to browse a wider swath of the catalog with no browse tab (like filmstruck had).

Likewise you can search by country, type in "Czechoslovakia" and you get all 17 of their Czech films.

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dukeofarcadia
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Re: The Criterion Channel

#195 Post by dukeofarcadia » Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:33 am

Really upset that Criterion would have Pop up suggestions interrupt the end credits of a piece of cinematic art. Some of the films have beautiful stylized end credits and music, one still had visuals playing... And then BOOM! giant group of suggested films pop up like Netflix would do... it kills the mood and plasters something over the art.

Filmstruck got it right (not interrupting the art & credits) they really need to remove this, it's so upsetting considering the work to restore and preserve these films.

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fdm
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#196 Post by fdm » Wed Apr 10, 2019 2:04 pm

I wondered about that, thought I caught a hint of it somewhere. That sort of thing really bothers me (also bothered me when I tried out Criterion on Hulu back in the day, ended up dropping it after the free trial ran out probably due in large part because of that). Prime does this too and more and more the paid cable channels that didn't used to are now doing similar things by way of advertising their other shows while the credits are running.

Once I get immersed in the Channel, I'll have to bring it to Criterion's attention...

alexrinse
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#197 Post by alexrinse » Wed Apr 10, 2019 5:18 pm

Really upset that Criterion would have Pop up suggestions interrupt the end credits
They seem to have added this on the Roku app today, it wasn't there yesterday. Also, they've removed all the left-hand menu sections and most of the settings, including the one to stop the wretched autoplay, which now it seems one cannot stop.

albucat
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#198 Post by albucat » Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:20 pm

For those who, like me, have been hoping for a better look at what's actually on the site, Justwatch has added them as a service: https://www.justwatch.com/us/provider/criterion-channel

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markymark
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#199 Post by markymark » Fri Apr 12, 2019 4:05 pm

albucat wrote:
Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:20 pm
For those who, like me, have been hoping for a better look at what's actually on the site, Justwatch has added them as a service: https://www.justwatch.com/us/provider/criterion-channel
Also, it's not pretty but it's searchable: https://tcclibrary.com

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movielocke
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#200 Post by movielocke » Fri Apr 12, 2019 6:14 pm

They made an all films list (only on desktop for now)

https://films.criterionchannel.com

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