The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

[ando]

Criterion Channel is now totally unwatchable on our Roku Stream Stick+. I tried watching several things -- and all cut in and out -- a bit of movie, a bit of snow, a pinkish screen which returns to the movie, repeat, over and over. Very disappointing. Netflix works fine -- so I doubt there is a connection issue.

While not that spotty there is almost always stuttering on my Android tablet for which I remedied by downloading and then viewing. No problem on my desktop (though I prefer discs on that platform).

[Michael Kerpan]

The same problem hit Netflix on Roku. Unplugging the power connection and re-starting the Roku didn't help. But then I unplugged and re-plugged-in the HDMI connector -- which (magically) worked for Netflix. I'll have to see if this helps with Criterion Channel (once I finish Midnight Diner).

[irregularesimperfect]

Beginning about five days ago, when I watch part of a film/video then exit it, the point at which I left off is not saved. The onscreen button on the video's 'profile' says "Start Watching", not "Resume Watching", and the video is not shown on my 'Continue watching' list. Meanwhile, the one film I had interrupted when this all started remains listed and, when clicked, resumes from the point that was saved a few days ago.

Is this a bug that has been reported previously. It all worked as expected until a few days ago. I'm using the Roku app, Version 4.5, build 2.

Same for me (but only noticed it today) on Apple TV and Fire TV stick.

Update: Seems to be working again as of 5/1


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Seems fixed here now, too.

Also fixed is the "The Ear/Il Sorpasso" link cross-up.

[senseabove]

These two useful bits of info buried at the end of today's newsletter:

(Please note that we are still in the process of uploading caption files for many titles in our catalog, but we hope to be close to 100% captioned or subtitled on all films by the middle of the summer.) We are on track for Chromecast support in iOS and Android apps next week.

[yoloswegmaster]

https://www.criterion.com/channel/charter-subscribers?utm_source=Charter+Subscribers&utm_campaign=2991c72dcb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_30_01_37_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_90db07e368-2991c72dcb-69295475

[OldBobbyPeru]

It's getting better all the time (I wont add the refrain to that--imagine it for yourself). More films are indeed sporting subtitles, and the whole thing seems to be shaping up nicely.

There's still a lot of work to be done, but I'm glad to see that they seem to be on top of things.

[ando]

These two useful bits of info buried at the end of today's newsletter:

(Please note that we are still in the process of uploading caption files for many titles in our catalog, but we hope to be close to 100% captioned or subtitled on all films by the middle of the summer.) We are on track for Chromecast support in iOS and Android apps next week.

[Ribs]

Chromecast support has now been added!

[Michael Kerpan]

I wonder which works better -- Chromecast or Roku?

[nick]

Just an interesting note: unlike Filmstruck, the criterion channel appears to work on first generation Chromecasts as well.

[dougingb]

First time poster and longtime lurker here.

I am beyond frustrated right now. I have a Chromebook and Amazon Fire TV and neither of them will play the Criterion Channel. The Criterion Channel will play trailers for films on my chromebook, but will not play the actual films. Whatever jackass executive at Criterion that decided not to make the channel available on these platforms I want to give the middle finger salute to!!!!

[senseabove]

Well, Nightfall stalled out with two minutes left watching via Chromecast last night... I was having intermittent buffering throughout, which is probably just my general mediocre internet/Friday night congestion troubles, but I jumped around a bit and other times would buffer and play. No error codes, I just couldn't get those last two minutes to play through Chromecast. Had to switch to watching on my laptop, where it finished just fine.

[Michael Kerpan]

No problem playing At the Circus and Pay Day on Roku last night.

[mhinrichs]

Roku seems to work great with some films, lousy with others. I was watching Our Betters last night, or attempting to. The "Unable to Load Try Again" error screen kept appearing while the film's audio continued. After a half hour and five error screens, I finally gave up.

[blundry]

I had been eagerly awaiting the launch of the Criterion Channel and signed up pre-launch as a Charter Subscriber. When the Criterion Channel went live in early April, I began trying to watch it by streaming it wirelessly from my iPad mini to my Apple TV (Gen 3) via AirPlay and viewing it on my Pioneer Pro-141FD 60 inch plasma display. I immediately noticed a dropped frame every 5 to 8 seconds in every film I attempted to watch.
My initial assumption was that this was either caused by a bandwidth limitation in AirPlay or more likely due to the fact that Criterion didn’t list the Apple TV (Gen 3) as a supported device. So even though I was perfectly happy with my hardware set-up, which met all of my other streaming needs (flawlessly streaming content from Apple iTunes, Amazon Prime, and Netflix, I decided to buy an Apple TV HD (Gen 4) specifically because it is listed as a supported device by Criterion, can download the Criterion Channel app and stream it natively, without the need to use my iPad and AirPlay to get the content to the Apple TV.
Imagine my consternation when my new Apple TV (Gen 4) exhibited the exact same exact problem with Criterion Channel – a dropped frame every 5 to 8 seconds.
I’ve now tried to view Criterion Channel with two different Apple TV’s (Gen 3 and Gen 4) on two different 1080p HDTV’s (the aforementioned Pioneer, and a Sony KDS-55A3000) and found it to be plagued by regularly dropped frames every 5 to 8 seconds. Once you’ve seen this jitter, you can’t unsee it, but it is particularly disruptive during slow panning and tracking shots. I’m reasonably tech savvy, and tried a variety of settings options – turning on Apple TV (Gen 4) “Match Frame Rate” setting, trying different settings on the TV’s with respect to cinema modes and pull-down rates (most of which I think are deactivated with a 1080p 60 signal anyway). Nothing I tried could correct the problem. I recognize that my HDTV’s are older models, but connected to the same Apple TV’s with the identical settings, they display streamed content from Netflix, Apple and Amazon Prime without a hitch. The problem is unique to content streamed from Criterion Channel.
I could only reasonably conclude that something about the way Criterion Channel is encoding their films for streaming (frame rate? bit rate? encryption scheme?) is not compatible with any Apple TV, despite Criterion’s claim that it is a supported device.
I contacted Criterion about it repeatedly. On May 4th, I finally got acknowledgement that Criterion’s engineers “are aware of this "stuttering" issue on Apple TVs and are working to fix the problem as soon as possible.”
I decided I had little choice but to cancel my Charter Subscription before the end of the month free trial period, as I did not want to be billed $89 for a service that was essentially unwatchable for me. Having already bought a new streaming device, I did not want to throw good money after bad and buy yet another streaming device (Roku? Amazon Fire?) in hopes of an improvement.
I currently have another two-week free trial, during which I am open to other trouble-shooting options (within reason). I had very high hopes for Criterion Channel – their content selection is clearly first rate, well curated, and their transfers typically pristine. And that’s not even mentioning all the wonderful extras – interviews, commentary, etc - that are on offer. So I’m quite disappointed. Criterion has said that they’ll notify me if and when the issue with Apple TV is corrected, but if this was a simple fix, it would have been remedied prior to launch, so I’m not overly optimistic. I’ve seen some other posts on this forum complaining of the same experience. Is there a fix? Is anyone able to watch Criterion Channel on the Apple TV without this problem?

[bad future]

I haven’t seen the Criterion blu for comparison, but I just started watching Smithereens on the Criterion Channel and was surprised to see that it didn’t open with the Criterion logo, is in 1.78:1 instead of 1.66:1, and doesn’t seem as ‘restored’ as I would expect the recent release to be. Has anyone previously run into any Criterion titles on the channel not sourced from Criterion’s own release (if that’s really what’s happening here)?

[backwater]

blundry, I still had the same issue when I last tried watching on Apple TV 4K about 10 days ago. In the email newsletter today they had a note about an update for Apple TV, but nothing about this problem, which was disappointing. What I still wonder about is how the majority of people watching on Apple TV don't even notice the stuttering/dropped frames.

[jsteffe]

I also cancelled my subscription because of the stuttering/dropped frames issue with my Apple TV 4K, since I found the glitch very distracting. I'll wait until it is resolved before I resubscribe.

I guess another option for me is to get the Roku, but if I do that won't be for a while...

[movielocke]

Tried out the download feature today since I had a flight. Worked pretty flawlessly on my iPad once I updated the app. So very nice to be able to do that!

[LitCrit]

Is anyone else having recent trouble with ChromeCast and the iOS Criterion app?

Mine worked just fine till May 23, casting to a 2nd Gen ChromeCast device. Now the Criterion app recognize the ChromeCast device, and even start casting -- but then it either freezes or (more often) drops the cast entirely.

Other having this problem? Anyone figure out how to fix it? (I've tried rebooting the device and re-dowloading the app.)

Thx,
LC

[cvarrick]

Is anyone else having recent trouble with ChromeCast and the iOS Criterion app?

Mine worked just fine till May 23, casting to a 2nd Gen ChromeCast device. Now the Criterion app recognize the ChromeCast device, and even start casting -- but then it either freezes or (more often) drops the cast entirely.

Other having this problem? Anyone figure out how to fix it? (I've tried rebooting the device and re-dowloading the app.)

Thx,
LC

I was only able to watch one film about a week ago before leaving town, but had to re-boot approx 3 times I believe. But now, I can't see the chromecast option at all (from the criterion app on an iphone). Played spotify through it with no problem.

[mst3k3000]

I may be new around here but does anyone have a problem with the Continue Playing section? I play a video and sometimes it does go away from the section and most of the time it doesn't from the video i finished playing. How can this be resolved?

[RSTooley]

Roku users --- have things improved? I'd love to re-subscribe, but my last go around featured a lot of app crashing.

[Guido]

I reached back out to Channel support on the skipped frames issue with Apple TVs, and sadly got the news back that they don't have an update yet. I was provided with a "workaround" for the 4K model that didn't do anything for me personally, but I'm posting here in case it does for someone else:

If you are varying between watching TV and films you may be better off allowing the ATV to set itself to the regional standard and then enabling "Settings> Video and Audio > Match Content > Match Frame Rate > On" which will switch the frame rate to 24 Hz when you start a film.

[dustybooks]

Roku users --- have things improved? I'd love to re-subscribe, but my last go around featured a lot of app crashing.

I haven't had any issues in the last month or so. Most recently I played Night of the Hunter and Playtime with no crashes or any other problems.