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albucat wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 4:04 pm June 29
The Other Side of Hope, Aki Kaurismäki, 2017

Awesome.

I was just sent a $10 gift card by Filmstruck to Criterion.com for being subscribed long-term, which is neat! (Though it might possibly expire before the October sale, as it’s marked as being for Summer.)

FYI - I wrote to Criterion and they told me that the gift code doesn’t expire at the end of Summer, but is valid until used. Awesome news - I will definitely be hanging on to it until the next sale.

Complete list of films premiering on the Criterion Channel during July 2018:

July 1
Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, 1976

July 3
Pussy, Renata Gasiorowska, 2016

July 10
Call of Cuteness, Brenda Lien, 2017

July 11
Beyond the Hills, Cristian Mungiu, 2012

July 13
The Last House on the Left, Wes Craven, 1972

July 14
Hairat, Jessica Beshir, 2017

July 24
A Gentle Night, Qiu Yang, 2017

July 27
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Pete Hewitt, 1991

July 31
Möbius, Sam Kuhn, 2017

albucat wrote: Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:39 pm Complete list of films premiering on the Criterion Channel during July 2018:

July 1
Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, 1976

July 3
Pussy, Renata Gasiorowska, 2016

July 10
Call of Cuteness, Brenda Lien, 2017

July 11
Beyond the Hills, Cristian Mungiu, 2012

July 13
The Last House on the Left, Wes Craven, 1972

July 14
Hairat, Jessica Beshir, 2017

July 24
A Gentle Night, Qiu Yang, 2017

July 27
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Pete Hewitt, 1991

July 31
Möbius, Sam Kuhn, 2017

I know it might be a change of heart - but I see zero point in listing any of those on the Forthcoming / Filmstruck list. Here's why:

A. Criterion also adds extra films to the Criterion channel during the month, not included in the above line-up. Usually these are their weekly themes, or their Friday night double feature - so I can't keep track of everything, and just because its on there doesn't mean they have any intention of ever releasing the film. I've probably missed dozens of films that were added on Fridays/throughout the weekly themes, so the list is already missing quite a bit from being a "complete Criterion Channel" list.

B. There's so many studio films that they clearly don't have the right to / have no intention of releasing. I can see an eventual release of Taxi Driver, and I know Domino would adore the Bill & Ted sequel; but they've added things like Last House on the Left (Arrow), The Apartment (also Arrow), Usual Suspects (doubt anyone will release this for several years); etc. They clearly don't plan on releasing these, and just have them as part of a theme - so why list them?

C. All of those shorts - I don't think anything is to come of them. I don't think any of them have come from Janus; and most all of them are just from another company or from the filmmaker themselves. Its just a weekly "shorts" theme - and these fill in that gap. There was some talk at one point that Criterion might do a big box of shorts by new filmmakers, but I don't think that will be likely - as this is just a Filmstruck theme, and not really a marketable physical product.

D. There's clearly a different attitude towards Filmstruck than Hulu. Hulu was Janus films only, and they never had the rights to anything else appear on there. Filmstruck involves many studios and other distributors - all to curate constantly revolving content (rather than Hulu's extremely slow updates). Being on Hulu meant they had the rights to the film, whereas Filmstruck just means they have the film on their channel, temporarily, as a theme.

So what this all boils down to:

Let me know if anything has a Janus logo preceding it on Filmstruck (I don't subscribe, so I can't check). If it does, then great - I'll add it to the Filmstruck list. But these weekly/monthly updates don't add up to anything - so I see no reason to add them to the forthcoming list.

Thus, I will rely on you folks to help me update the list. You don't have to check everything, by any means (Janus doesn't own Taxi Driver) - but if some of the obvious ones that weren't already on the forthcoming list (like last month's Black Jesus. BTW - did Begone Dull Care have a Janus logo perchance?). In those cases: look to see if it begins with either a Criterion (or do they add this in front of films they don't have the rights - like they add the wacky C branding to the film image?) or the most telling: the Janus logo.

I might clean-up the Filmstruck list. So, for those who keep spreadsheets and stuff based on it, I'll give you a few days, then I'm going to axe some obvious stuff (No Country for Old Men / Death Race 2000 / Usual Suspects / etc).

Sorry to make this more complicated + make you people do some work! .... but this month's line-up was the final straw - where its obvious that being added to the Filmstruck Criterion Channel, doesn't really mean anything anymore.

I could be wrong, I guess, but in general the updates were never really supposed to be “these are potential new titles coming to mainline Criterion” and much more “these are the titles that will be available to stream.” Because several of us are interested in that list.

Well, by all means - keep posting the "next month title list" - as there's no reason to stop posting that - plenty of people are interested in it!

I'm only talking about the forthcoming list that I update - that started off with Hulu titles, then turned into Filmstruck and kinda got out of hand at that point.

Ok, sounds like this is still worth posting. I've never known if people want other information about what they have planned (what they're posting complete editions of for instance, or other random things--people should keep in mind that the laserdisc exclusive Taxi Driver commentary will be there with the film), but have just assumed that this is by far the most pertinent information.

I wouldn't be surprised if The Last House on the Left is paired with The Virgin Spring as a Double Feature.

I don't have Filmstruck, so could some please tell me if Taxi Driver opens with a Janus logo?

yoloswegmaster wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 10:53 am I don't have Filmstruck, so could some please tell me if Taxi Driver opens with a Janus logo?

It does not. Opens with the Criterion Channel logo.

Yes, Last House on the Left is part of a double feature with The Virgin Spring.

I have noticed a consistent frame-skipping issue with Filmstruck on Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices. Does anyone know if this issue is consistent on Nvidia Shield or Roku devices?

I haven't noticed it on the Amazon Fire TV I watch FilmStruck on, so it seems like you should reach out to their support.

I have Amazon Fire, and I've noticed the frame-skipping issue on other apps.

flyonthewall2983 wrote: Fri Jul 13, 2018 5:53 pm I have Amazon Fire, and I've noticed the frame-skipping issue on other apps.

Every time someone says that the app works seamlessly on Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, I question whether I'm crazy and just hallucinating things. The issue does not seem quite as bad on the Roku I just tested, but I'd much rather have the sleek interface of the Nvidia Shield. Perhaps I'll bite the bullet and give it a shot. Who needs $200?

For me I have no issues with Filmstruck frame skipping or doing (too) much of anything else wrong on my old Roku 3 on my 1080p TV. That's the one I use. In general it works much better now than when it was in beta.

I'd really like to replace it with modern technologies (how long before it croaks?), but:

• With other (4K capable) Rokus, I don't recall frame skipping, but I do remember a lot of digital artifacts, first clue being a lot of weirdness during opening credits, others being things appearing in the black bars for letterbox titles randomly througout. I haven't checked recently, but a month or two back still saw some of this before I gave up.
  
  With Apple TV 4, I noticed frame skipping immediately and quickly returned it. With the Apple TV 4K, I still noticed frame skipping last time I tried to watch anything filmstruck on it not very long ago, but it did seem to be maybe a little better than before (trying out the beta software now).
  
  (Back when the Amazon Fires first came out, I noticed a lot frame skipping on it even with Prime, while the Roku 3 was fine, so I do wonder if anything's changed in the several years since that would make it work better for me. I sent that one back pronto, and hesitate to even bother with a newer one.)

So for me Roku 3 seems to be the way to go, a 1080p only version. I would suggest trying out a limited to 1080p Roku, I think there's still something like that available, maybe that will work as well as the Roku 3.

I'm all wired ethernet-wise so ymmv with wi-fi, by the way.

Oh and I have reported my issues with the Roku and Apple 4K versions of their products to Filmstruck a couple times, but I just got responses that essentially said they don't support 4K and don't know if/when they'll ever get around to addressing these things... so I gave up trying. I don't plan to have a 4K set any time soon, but they may work better there? (If I ever find time, I might bug Apple and see if they can pound some sense into Filmstruck, but it's pretty low on the list, since Roku 3 is okay enough by (pretty fussy) me.)

Has anyone been able to view Filmstruck on their laptop (OSX, Macbook Pro)? I am in the process of moving, packed up my DVDs, sold my TV & won't have a new one for 2 weeks & decided to try Filmstruck. Signed up for subscription, gave my cc details, got an email reply, tried to watch something, but get a "not in your subsription" whenever I click play. When I go to "Manage your subscription" in my account, I get an "Oops unable to..." message. I've tried Chrome, Firefox & Safari, but no matter what, nothing ever plays.

RSTooley wrote: Fri Jul 13, 2018 7:42 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote: Fri Jul 13, 2018 5:53 pm I have Amazon Fire, and I've noticed the frame-skipping issue on other apps.

Every time someone says that the app works seamlessly on Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, I question whether I'm crazy and just hallucinating things. The issue does not seem quite as bad on the Roku I just tested, but I'd much rather have the sleek interface of the Nvidia Shield. Perhaps I'll bite the bullet and give it a shot. Who needs $200?

I've noticed it on YouTube and WWE Network but not Filmstruck strangely enough. I can relate though because when I first got Fire, I noticed any movie with a stereo track had audio issues. They're gone now, but it took a long time for them to fix it.

One issue I’ve had on the FireTV stick is that if I leave something in pause mode for more than a few minutes (maybe 5?) I can’t enter play mode again. Usually the app freezes then quits, reverting to the previous spot resumed from, or even the start of the film. Had this behavior or 2 different FireTV sticks


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Lowry_Sam wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 3:33 am Has anyone been able to view Filmstruck on their laptop (OSX, Macbook Pro)? I am in the process of moving, packed up my DVDs, sold my TV & won't have a new one for 2 weeks & decided to try Filmstruck. Signed up for subscription, gave my cc details, got an email reply, tried to watch something, but get a "not in your subsription" whenever I click play. When I go to "Manage your subscription" in my account, I get an "Oops unable to..." message. I've tried Chrome, Firefox & Safari, but no matter what, nothing ever plays.

So far I’ve actually only ever watched it via Chrome on my desktop (Windows 10) and my girlfriend’s MacBook. We initially had similar problems to what you’re describing on her laptop, but I am frustratingly unable to help you solve the issue because one day it just suddenly worked and I was never able to figure what, if anything, we had changed. Haven’t had any trouble since.

Complete list of films premiering on the Criterion Channel during August, 2018:

August 1
Tootsie, Sydney Pollack, 1982
The World, the Flesh and the Devil, Ranald MacDougall, 1959

August 7
Hunger, Peter Foldes, 1974

August 14
Lick the Star, Sofia Coppola, 1998

August 21
The Moonshiners, Juho Kuosmanen, 2017
A Private Function, Malcolm Mowbray, 1984

August 28
Night Mayor, Guy Maddin, 2009

So mostly just shorts.

albucat wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:29 pm Complete list of films premiering on the Criterion Channel during August, 2018:

August 1
Tootsie, Sydney Pollack, 1982
The World, the Flesh and the Devil, Ranald MacDougall, 1959

August 7
Hunger, Peter Foldes, 1974

August 14
Lick the Star, Sofia Coppola, 1998

August 21
The Moonshiners, Juho Kuosmanen, 2017
A Private Function, Malcolm Mowbray, 1984

August 28
Night Mayor, Guy Maddin, 2009

So mostly just shorts.

Of all of those films, I only suspect A Private Function will have a Janus logo / be actually owned by Criterion (since its a Handmade Film - which they picked up that catalog).

If anyone cares to check this and anything else that is added to Criterion's Filmstruck - then either post here or send me a PM! Thanks!

I saw there were a bunch of Bollywood films in a new collection on the FilmStruck main channel!

Can we really trust that to be a complete list? Always feels like there's more they add on without telling us beforehand, which I'm absolutely fine with. I like surprises.