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Criterion Channel streaming service launches April 8 (US/Canada)

captscience

captscience

Member
Oct 25, 2017
171
Signed in successfully on my iOs devices and AppleTV.

It looks certain movies are available for offline viewing. After adding some movies to "My List," some movies had the option to be downloaded. Testing one now to confirm.

Edit: It works.
 
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dialogic

dialogic

Member
Oct 30, 2017
121
Web browser version seems to be active now. Looks great, though there are lots of Criterion Collection films that aren't there... Nothing by David Cronenberg, for example. I wonder if more films will be added or if this really is a limited selection.
 
captscience

captscience

Member
Oct 25, 2017
171
Particle Physicist said:
So uh... are they going to add more movies? Can't seem to find Repo Man on the iOS app.

https://www.criterion.com/films/28051-repo-man
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Not every movie in the collection will be part of the permanent streaming library. They will add movies in their weekly spotlights though, i.e. the Columbia Noir series now. Those films will be available for at least 90 days unless otherwise specified.

So there's a chance Repo Man will be added in the future.
 
dialogic

dialogic

Member
Oct 30, 2017
121
Enjoy continuous access to Criterion's streaming library of more than 1,000 important classic and contemporary films, plus a constantly refreshed selection of Hollywood, international, art-house, and independent films from major studios and dozens of independent distributors. Go deep with the Criterion Collection's archive of special features for context that no other service can match.
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To me this is selling "continuous access" to a permanent library of the Criterion Collection films. Unless a good chunk of the 1000 films in the "Criterion streaming library" are not Criterion releases, which would be weird. I'll wait for clarification-- a lot of people are going to be disappointed to find the films they want to watch are unavailable, so they will almost certainly be forced to address this soon.
 
manchego obfuscator

manchego obfuscator

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,123
Brooklyn, NY
search has some problems (searching for La Jetee brings up nothing; I had to navigate to the Mira Nair Adventures in Moviegoing collection to find it). Seems like an amazing library, though
 
Vic Damone Jr.

Vic Damone Jr.

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,654
To those asking for console apps, tweet at them nonstop. Let em know.

Was hoping the Before Trilogy would be on here:/
 
KingWillance

KingWillance

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,378
dialogic said:
Web browser version seems to be active now. Looks great, though there are lots of Criterion Collection films that aren't there... Nothing by David Cronenberg, for example. I wonder if more films will be added or if this really is a limited selection.
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The Brood and Scanners are both popping up now, at least through the web app. Could be they're still adding stuff?
 
captscience

captscience

Member
Oct 25, 2017
171
dialogic said:
To me this is selling "continuous access" to a permanent library of the Criterion Collection films. Unless a good chunk of the 1000 films in the "Criterion streaming library" are not Criterion releases, which would be weird. I'll wait for clarification-- a lot of people are going to be disappointed to find the films they want to watch are unavailable, so they will almost certainly be forced to address this soon.
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The 1000 films in the permanent collection are movies in the Criterion Collection. It doesn't include movies that they don't have the streaming rights to, for example their Wes Anderson films.
 
Brian McDoogle

Brian McDoogle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,927
I still think it's amazing that they have their extras on there as well. You can watch movies with commentaries, behind the scenes, interviews, etc.
 
dialogic

dialogic

Member
Oct 30, 2017
121
captscience said:
The 1000 films in the permanent collection are movies in the Criterion Collection. It doesn't include movies that they don't have the streaming rights to, for example their Wes Anderson films.
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I can certainly see this being the case, but there are only 983 official Criterion releases. So, given the number of films that seem to be missing from the channel, there would have to be a lot of non-Criterion Collection films in their streaming library to hit that "over 1,000" number. I'm willing to wait and see how it all shakes out.
 
captscience

captscience

Member
Oct 25, 2017
171
dialogic said:
I can certainly see this being the case, but there are only 983 official Criterion releases. So, given the number of films that seem to be missing from the channel, there would have to be a lot of non-Criterion Collection films in their streaming library to hit that "over 1,000" number. I'm willing to wait and see how it all shakes out.
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There are also movies from their Eclpise sets and other box sets, i.e. the Olympics/Tati/Demy boxes. You're right though that there are a number of films streaming that don't have physical releases. I wouldn't consider them "outside" of the collection though. Just quickly browsing, I see a number of Itami and Fellini films in that category.
 
CesareNorrez

CesareNorrez

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,535
The App has a setting for background audio play. Sounds like a great way to turn commentary tracks into Podcasts.
 
dialogic

dialogic

Member
Oct 30, 2017
121
captscience said:
There are also movies from their Eclpise sets and other box sets, i.e. the Olympics/Tati/Demy boxes. You're right though that there are a number of films streaming that don't have physical releases. I wouldn't consider them "outside" of the collection though. Just quickly browsing, I see a number of Itami and Fellini films in that category.
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Hm, I see, thanks... Obviously these films offer a lot of value as well. I do wonder though just how many of the physical releases won't be on the channel, and which ones. Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy is not online, even though an image from "Red" is used in a couple places on the channel website. It's confusing, and I can see a lot of future complaints stemming from the ambiguity of the original wording.
 
KingWillance

KingWillance

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,378
So far are there any non-Eclipse, DVD-only titles on there? Was hoping to watch the other two parts of Cocteau's Poet trilogy but so far only Orpheus seems to be up.
 
CesareNorrez

CesareNorrez

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,535
I think the search function is still indexing or something. I was trying to add L'avventura but I had to search by Antonioni.

No problem finding Three Colors for me. Searched by series name, individual films and Kieslowski. All worked.

I'm using the iOS app.
 
Particle Physicist

Particle Physicist

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,771
dialogic said:
It is? I guess we're dealing with some bugs then, because it doesn't come up for me. I get a few other Kieslowski films but not that one. I also still don't see the Cronenberg films (Scanners, The Brood) mentioned earlier.
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Scanners is now showing up for me. It wasn't earlier. I think things are still being uploaded/indexed.
 
dialogic

dialogic

Member
Oct 30, 2017
121
CesareNorrez said:
I think the search function is still indexing or something. I was trying to add L'avventura but I had to search by Antonioni.

No problem finding Three Colors for me. Searched by series name, individual films and Kieslowski. All worked.

I'm using the iOS app.
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Still nothing for me in the browser or iOS app. I wonder if it's region gated content? I'm in Canada.

In any case, I hate to appear impatient. I'm mostly curious to find out what this service will really look like. Hopefully it's just a matter of time before these and some of the other missing movies pop up.
 
PeskyToaster

PeskyToaster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,316
I got in the app on iOS, signed in and everything. Criterion Channel, though it also comes up if you search Criterion Collection.

captscience said:
Signed in successfully on my iOs devices and AppleTV.

It looks certain movies are available for offline viewing. After adding some movies to "My List," some movies had the option to be downloaded. Testing one now to confirm.

Edit: It works.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Good to know they have this feature, thanks!
 
smellyjelly

smellyjelly

Avenger
Aug 2, 2018
774
dang it, seems they goofed and uploaded the commentary version of Kwaidan on both the standalone film and the film containing the commentary l:<
 
Deleted member 49179

Deleted member 49179

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 30, 2018
4,140
So I downloaded the Apple TV and iOS apps, and had time to play with them a bit. The offering is insane! And many titles also have extra stuff like interviews, behind the scene clips, etc. I don't know if it corresponds to all the extra presents on their blu-rays or DVDs, but there is a lot. So much stuff... It's a bit difficult to find movies directly in the app though. But it's easy enough to look at the Criterion catalogue listing online and search for specific movies inside the app.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the stream quality. It looks very good. As far as I can tell it's 1080p, but the encoding is great. It looks as good as Netflix 1080p encoding.

Really looking forward to dig deeper into this!
 
Addi

Addi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,277
Kazura said:
Does this work with a VPN? People outside the US/Canada watch movies too ya know!
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VPN works, but it is weird, it seems you only need it to register. Afterwards I can log in and watch movies without the VPN turned on. Don't know how long that's gonna last.

dialogic said:
Still nothing for me in the browser or iOS app. I wonder if it's region gated content? I'm in Canada.

In any case, I hate to appear impatient. I'm mostly curious to find out what this service will really look like. Hopefully it's just a matter of time before these and some of the other missing movies pop up.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I tried Canadian IP with VPN and it seems you are right, the movies you mentioned don't pop up anymore.
 
KayMote

KayMote

Member
Nov 5, 2017
1,326
Best thing about this channel is that you can watch movies from anywhere, once you signed up. Finally Europe isn't getting screwed over!

So, what is everyone watching as for their first movie? I chose 'Taipei Story' by Edward Yang, since I loved Yi Yi.
 
Stinkles

Stinkles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,459
So three questions ;


1. Is an Xbox version planned?
2. Does it have all the Shochiku etc Japanese catalog that used to be on Hulu?
3. Can I sling the ios app to my TV? Either widi or hdmi?
 
CesareNorrez

CesareNorrez

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,535
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