With the way Criterion curates this service, I feel it really lends itself to some kind of recurring discussion. The collections really lend themselves to a film club of sorts.
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Criterion Channel streaming service launches April 8 (US/Canada)
- Thread starter UnpopularBlargh
- Start date
- OT
I am honestly overwhelmed with what to watch here.
Do I rewatch some of my favorites from Asian cinema? Do I do a spontaneous pick on a random movie? Should I finally sit the fuck down and watch Stalker?
Also people, go watch Tampopo, goddamnit.
Do I rewatch some of my favorites from Asian cinema? Do I do a spontaneous pick on a random movie? Should I finally sit the fuck down and watch Stalker?
Also people, go watch Tampopo, goddamnit.
don't worry people want to make steam shitty too
I'd be game.
I suggested awhile back in Arthouse Cinema OT that we focus most discussion of Criterion/arthouse films to that thread, but was instead referred to the regular monthly movies discussion one. Which is kind of discouraging for me, seeing as how that thread is sometimes taken over for pages at a time by responses to the latest Star Wars or MCU or what-have-you Hollywood blockbuster. Reviews of art films tend to get swallowed up in the melee. But whatever, I guess.
Sit the fuck down and watch Stalker. Phenomenal film.
Watched my first movie last night that had a lot of slow pans, and I could see the judder about every 5 seconds. It's not super distracting, but it is there.
Anyone else not getting subtitles for English language films in Apple TV? They're there in my iPad.
I've got Ozu on my list. I suggested mostly samurai/chanbara as that's what Stinkles expressed interest in.
P.S. I suggested 9 Kurosawas, but I've seen 26, and only thought 3 or 4 had weaknesses.
I love the curated session/interviews. I watched Bill Hader's interview and Guillermo Del Toro's. Brilliant insight into people I enjoy listening to. I am tempted to pay for a year for all the weekly videos and stuff like this.
I love the coen brothers but I had never seen blood simple. It's a good movie!
Afterwards oh lemme just watch a few minutes of this interview where the cohens and the dp draw on your screen like Madden.
45 minutes later and I've watched half the film again and it's just endlessly fascinating. It's great because they're being fairly technical while still just shooting the shit. It's just so much fun.
Makes me wanna read a whole book about movie lighting. If I can find one.
Afterwards oh lemme just watch a few minutes of this interview where the cohens and the dp draw on your screen like Madden.
45 minutes later and I've watched half the film again and it's just endlessly fascinating. It's great because they're being fairly technical while still just shooting the shit. It's just so much fun.
Makes me wanna read a whole book about movie lighting. If I can find one.
That would be great. A weekly film to watch and discuss would also be nice.
Needs some Mikio Naruse and Hiroshi Shizimu, but only if you like Ozu. And Kobayashi (Human Condition trilogy).
I must be one of the few Western fan of Japanese cinema that rarely watches samurai/period film nowadays... they just don't click with me. I love Ran, Harakiri, and Sword of Doom though.
Well, I'm bummed it doesn't work on my Chromebook. Good thing I found out through the free trial and didn't pay for it.
Anyone using this with a proxy ?
Unfortunatly it's not available here in France (And I doubt that it will ever be)...
Unfortunatly it's not available here in France (And I doubt that it will ever be)...
There's an option to see a list of all films now and search filters.
Proxy works and you only need it to register actually (for now at least)
Proxy works and you only need it to register actually (for now at least)
I got a response from Customer Support concerning the frame judder issue:
Positive response. I guess we'll see if they can fix this. I just hope it will be before the end of my trial period.
Positive response. I guess we'll see if they can fix this. I just hope it will be before the end of my trial period.
I hope they eventually support 4K. The quality is already great, but I'd love for it to be even better 🤗
Oh, that's good to hear. I'm inclined to give them a bit of slack if a fix is in the offing sooner rather than later. Doubt I'll stick around if we get deep into summer without a resolution though.
Have not seen this "judder" issue. I have had the Roku app frustratingly crash during streams too many times. Also have gotten the error message about an external monitor, when viewing from the web browser. Oddly, what's worked for me in resolving the issue is to access the site using Internet Explorer. (Chrome and Firefox both error out.)
Still debating on whether or not to keep my subscription past the free trial. On one hand I think it's a great service and I like their highly curated approach, on the other hand I'm not much of a movie watcher so this would only get occasional use.
Yeah, pretty annoying. I've been watching a lot of old Chaplin movies and stuff and there aren't lengthy end credits, so that error pops up at a terrible time.
Still, very impressed with the Criterion Channel. Liking my time with it a lot.
Signed up as a charter member so this is a no brainer for me to keep. It averages out to $7.50 a month ($89.99 yearly). If I watch just 5 movies a year, that evens out with a purchase from a 50% off sale. I've watched 2 films since launch and another 2 during the preview movie of the week period, plus tons of special features. And I haven't had to pay anything yet. It's an incredible value for me.
A chance sure. Criterion has started to release titles in the UK. They'd want to build up their streaming rights over there first. So it'll be a while.
"The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion" is a great film. Some really neat camera placement.
Bummer if you read the wiki after and see what happened to the movie's director because of it.
(Only found it thanks to this thread and someone recommending "TAMPOPO")
Bummer if you read the wiki after and see what happened to the movie's director because of it.
(Only found it thanks to this thread and someone recommending "TAMPOPO")
A VPN is only needed when signing up, not while streaming. You should be able to stream from your browser/iOS device (like what I'm doing) with no proxy/VPN/whatsoever.
So I have three 4k smart tvs with browsers, Xbox One X, ps4 pro, chromecast, chromebook, Macbook Pro, an iPhone, an iPad Pro with hdmi adapter and a couple of windows laptops and no combination of these things will allow me to watch on a normal HDTV screen.
I'm not sure how that's acceptable but what is absolutely infuriating is the fact that chromecast WAS listed as supported device - as were smart tv browsers -- and the constant inference and direct statements to the effect from customer service -- that no combination of the above is "DRM compliant" and that there's nothing they can do about that. Those last three items are factually incorrect and I'm thinking of canceling. I'm pissed. I didn't sign up for a collection of the best movies ever to watch on a phone.
It's one thing to wait for app support but quite another to launch with support for two or three devices and then fib to customers about the reasons.
It won't even play with a direct hdmi or displayport connection from a beefy laptop with only one screen "permitted"
It's kind of shocking that everyone here seems OK with this.
I'm not sure how that's acceptable but what is absolutely infuriating is the fact that chromecast WAS listed as supported device - as were smart tv browsers -- and the constant inference and direct statements to the effect from customer service -- that no combination of the above is "DRM compliant" and that there's nothing they can do about that. Those last three items are factually incorrect and I'm thinking of canceling. I'm pissed. I didn't sign up for a collection of the best movies ever to watch on a phone.
It's one thing to wait for app support but quite another to launch with support for two or three devices and then fib to customers about the reasons.
It won't even play with a direct hdmi or displayport connection from a beefy laptop with only one screen "permitted"
It's kind of shocking that everyone here seems OK with this.
Chromecast is in fact listed as NOT compatible:
https://www.criterionchannel.com/help/watching/drm-and-hdcp
I recommended an Amazon Fire TV box/stick earlier, as every model of it except the long discontinued gen 1 and gen 2 models are explicitly stated as compatible.
Late reply here, but go watch Stalker. The greatest science-fiction film of all time demands tribute, good sir!
I said was. They removed it somewhere between when I subscribed and today when I got my gosh darned chromecast working and then googled several similarly tragic tales.
And they still talk about tv browsers with reckless abandon. In fact it says "most" smart tv browsers but I guess my obscure Sony and Samsung 2017 and 2018 models with up to date firmware stretch that definition.
As mad as I am (and I think it's understandable if not justified) please understand it's from a place of passion not hate and I'm probably a pretty advanced and well equipped user in the grand scheme of things. I probably have a fire tv in a box somewhere but I haven't simply given up at one hurdle - I've gone through every angle in my list. It's a very weird situation and people should stop saying "strict DRM" as if none of the above can support that criteria.
Xbox One and Ps4 are not in and of themselves incompatible with that DRM standard - that's a software layer that Criterion can implement in software but haven't yet and I hope they do.
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While I don't know when you subscribed, I do know that Chromecast has been listed as not compatible since at least the 10th (two days after launch).
The Xbox One's Edge browser seems to be DRM compatible, so yeah, they should get on that.
The other weird thing is that the smart tv browser instructions - apart from having nothing to do with DRM - don't actually make sense in UI terms, let alone work. Entering your email doesn't generate a link and according to my router logs doesn't actually send or receive anything except an outbound step.
On three tvs.
BTW the Criterion Channel supported devices page is at the very least, not accurate even now. The circled items are things I checked personally and did troubleshooting on. The asterisks are things it works on but with very serious problems from crashing mid-play, to entering the "spinning gray boxes" loop and never exiting, or exiting to "try again." BTW "try again" does not work at all.
I went and screwed with ports and NAT - because of gaming and work stuff I have a very generous and malleable setup so I tried everything from wide open to focused to tight-assed. One change I was able to effect was getting the very weird "send a link" from Android TV browser to finally function with a big flappy barn door NAT - but then when I got the link, it basically just failed the same way the regular browsewr login does. Endless gray spinny box and/or fail to "Try Again."
The movies are more important to me than the now-zero affinity I feel for the way they've rolled this out, so I am going to try again and order a FireTV 4k stick - it is 100% supported in every possible way according to their specs and if this doesn't work I'm going to go on a prison dirty-protest. Oh and of course it won't actually PLAY movies at 4k.
Which is comical. Especially given the insistence on "DRM" as the defining issue. I'm OK with them slow rolling in 4k releases as they become available but their software and codec just straight up eschew that.
I'm getting that stick because it has tighter DRM, connects via a newer HDMI spec and is a beefier processor.
I went and screwed with ports and NAT - because of gaming and work stuff I have a very generous and malleable setup so I tried everything from wide open to focused to tight-assed. One change I was able to effect was getting the very weird "send a link" from Android TV browser to finally function with a big flappy barn door NAT - but then when I got the link, it basically just failed the same way the regular browsewr login does. Endless gray spinny box and/or fail to "Try Again."
The movies are more important to me than the now-zero affinity I feel for the way they've rolled this out, so I am going to try again and order a FireTV 4k stick - it is 100% supported in every possible way according to their specs and if this doesn't work I'm going to go on a prison dirty-protest. Oh and of course it won't actually PLAY movies at 4k.
Which is comical. Especially given the insistence on "DRM" as the defining issue. I'm OK with them slow rolling in 4k releases as they become available but their software and codec just straight up eschew that.
I'm getting that stick because it has tighter DRM, connects via a newer HDMI spec and is a beefier processor.
Where did you find that page? I browsed through the help section, and did a couple searches in it, and couldn't find anything like that. The only pages I have seen compatibility information are the links below.
https://www.criterionchannel.com/help/watching/supported-browsers
https://www.criterionchannel.com/help/watching/drm-and-hdcp
Did you perhaps bookmark it at a prior date, and now the reference to it has been removed?
In any case, CC's help section does still have some very outdated information. For example, a reference to an Xbox app that was announced for Criterion's previous streaming offering Filmstruck back in 2017, but never released.
May additions are up:
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6314-coming-attractions-the-criterion-channel-s-may-lineup
Really solid looking lineup. Looking forward to checking out Joanna Hogg's work leading up to The Souvenir. Excited for the Reichart and Hong Sang Soo as well. Plus The Third Man collection! Looking forward to checking out those extras since the disc is OOP.
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6314-coming-attractions-the-criterion-channel-s-may-lineup
Really solid looking lineup. Looking forward to checking out Joanna Hogg's work leading up to The Souvenir. Excited for the Reichart and Hong Sang Soo as well. Plus The Third Man collection! Looking forward to checking out those extras since the disc is OOP.
Those are just the day things go up, right? Also, is it just for the month or how long will they last?
Also, The Third Man is another OoP Criterion, so be sure to watch it, with Soderberg's commentary, once it gets released!
No I grabbed that shot about two seconds before I posted it with my helpful markups. If you look at the help page now it looks like they deleted one item and it's possible my sternly worded complaint got someone to "oops" that page off.
Hallelujah.
My Fire TV Gen 3 box (I prefer equipment with at least a bit of bulk) finally arrived and got hooked up this week. Easy activation, works nicely (Canada user). :)
Echoing the sentiments of some of the other people in here, I really like the films offered on this service but it basically doesn't work with anything I own.
I can't watch on my desktop, which would be my preferred option. My setup is rather obscure (I use a CRT with an analog-digital converter as my main monitor, so there's no question that there's no HDCP), so fair play I guess.
I thought to myself "that's no big deal, I'll just use my phone and throw it on my TV!" Nope. Won't play on my phone either. Incidentally, I get the same "external display" error (which i assumed to be about HDCP) on my phone even if there's no external display connected. Odd.
So far, the only way I can get this to work is by playing it on my laptop with no external display connected. Again, this isn't completely terrible, but it's pretty ridiculous. My laptop is really not built for this (it is a seven year old Thinkpad with a 12 inch display). It would be acceptable if I could connect my laptop to the TV, but as soon as I do that the video won't play.
I can't watch on my desktop, which would be my preferred option. My setup is rather obscure (I use a CRT with an analog-digital converter as my main monitor, so there's no question that there's no HDCP), so fair play I guess.
I thought to myself "that's no big deal, I'll just use my phone and throw it on my TV!" Nope. Won't play on my phone either. Incidentally, I get the same "external display" error (which i assumed to be about HDCP) on my phone even if there's no external display connected. Odd.
So far, the only way I can get this to work is by playing it on my laptop with no external display connected. Again, this isn't completely terrible, but it's pretty ridiculous. My laptop is really not built for this (it is a seven year old Thinkpad with a 12 inch display). It would be acceptable if I could connect my laptop to the TV, but as soon as I do that the video won't play.
It's a phenomenal movie that jockeys a bunch of different tones deftly. That Laughton never directed another film is criminal.
It's amazing.
In related news, I was so happy when I saw that Coen brothers remake of True Grit. It has a lovely musical callback to Night of the Hunter.