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You know you can put your account on hold for up to 90 days without charges, right?

But my wife needs to see Letters to Juliet. Um, yes, my wife.

Matt wrote:You know you can put your account on hold for up to 90 days without charges, right?

The last time I looked, you had to select your restart date when you put it on hold. Is that still the case? (I can't get to the page you linked with my membership turned off.) I never know in advance when I'll be ready to restart, although if they set it up so the hold is open-ended, that would indeed be useful.

It's not open-ended, but you can set your reactivation to any date up to 90 days from today and also change your mind at any point within those 90 days. For example, my account is on hold right now while I catch up on stuff from the B&N sale. It will reactivate automatically on November 1, but I could reactivate it today if I wanted to. I can also change my reactivation date to any date sooner than my original reactivation date or (and I just noticed this) to a new date up to 90 days later than today (I just changed my reactivation date to December 2).

I did that exact thing that Matt is talking about a few months ago. Comes in handy if you're short or you don't have a lot of time on hand to watch movies.

I received a copy of Run!Bitch!Run! yesterday from Netflix and one half of the disc was cracked all the way through. Called them this morning and they sent out a replacement no problems so I got that going for me. Anyone else run into some spectacularly bad damge to discs?

A couple of years ago, I got a copy of the first disc of "Nighty Night" that was cracked clean through. I requested a replacement and it, too, was cracked nearly all the way through. The third disc was fine, but by that point, I had wasted more than a week just waiting for a playable disc.

Netflix should carry porn for an extra fee. That way I can see the notorious "Waterpower" and the first Taboo

Matt wrote:It's not open-ended, but you can set your reactivation to any date up to 90 days from today and also change your mind at any point within those 90 days.

I believe you can keep "resetting" your activation date -- at least as of last year, when I took three 90-day breaks in a row.

How does it work with monthly fees? Do you get the missing days back once your "vacation" period is up or do they re-bill you for a new month?

You don't get a refund for a partial month, so the best way to put your account on hold is to wait until just before you get billed for another month. Then, when you put it on hold, you're not charged anything. The date on which you reactivate becomes your new billing date.

I took an eight month break and reactivated a few months ago. One could make it even longer than that if desired. Just make sure to keep an eye on the reactivation date to avoid being charged.

oldsheperd wrote:I received a copy of Run!Bitch!Run! yesterday from Netflix and one half of the disc was cracked all the way through. Called them this morning and they sent out a replacement no problems so I got that going for me. Anyone else run into some spectacularly bad damge to discs?

Oddly enough, every time they've sent me an old Fox Lorber disc instead of the newer Criterion version, it's gotten one of those humungous cracks in it on the way back to Netflix.

Matt wrote:You don't get a refund for a partial month, so the best way to put your account on hold is to wait until just before you get billed for another month. Then, when you put it on hold, you're not charged anything. The date on which you reactivate becomes your new billing date.

See, that sucks ... It means you & I are doing the same thing, waiting until the end of a billing period to put the account on hold or cancel. They should have it so that, if you put your account on hold fifteen days into a billing month, you still have fifteen more days after you reactivate before you get billed.

aox wrote:Any information on the "Friend" feature? I used to love going to a film's page and seeing what my friends had rated it. Without this, what is the point of the friend feature anyway? #-o .

It has now been permanently closed.

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MyNameCriterionForum wrote:

Matt wrote:It's not open-ended, but you can set your reactivation to any date up to 90 days from today and also change your mind at any point within those 90 days.

I believe you can keep "resetting" your activation date -- at least as of last year, when I took three 90-day breaks in a row.

This is accurate, my queue has been on hold now for over two years while I raid the public library/maximize the use of my DVR. I basically wait until it gets down to two weeks away from the reactivation date and then I assess whether or not I need to extend it, and usually just end up extending it for another 90 days.

At the risk of restarting the OAR wars of '08 (I'm game) has anyone noticed that DUCK YOU SUCKER, NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA, EAST OF EDEN and LORD JIM begin in their proper anamorphic screen size for the duration of the credits then default to 1.85/1.78 when the film proper begins. Is this the next step in the "one world, one aspect ratio" predictions discussed here about a year ago with regard to filling the wide-screen TV (or in our case projector) frame so none of those film technology/history challenged a-holes get upset at not getting their money's worth of image acreage?

Yet also from Sony and Warner BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING and A STAR IS BORN (in HD) remained 2.35 from beginning to end. I couldn't readily find an MGM/UA title to cross reference with the Leone. Any comments?

David I seem to have a dim recollection of someone mentioning Universal squeezing 'scope up and academy out (probably on this forum) on some premium cable venue but couldn't recall the particulars or whether this was an absolute, across the board policy for all cable, broadcast, pay-per-view, streaming etc. I also don't recall any Universal titles from any period jumping out from the available Netflix HD offerings. I must investigate further!

btw: A STAR IS BORN in HD was a delightful experience, like seeing the film for the very first time! I do agree that it would play better in the short version (with or without the "Born in a Trunk" short subject!) and the "restorations" (or a least the still photo/stock shots w/voice over) relegated to supplements. I'm a firm beliver that the original release should always be available for comparison in these cases.

Also on Netflix HD: Only sampled the first ten or twenty minutes but BARRY LYNDON is a revelation. Can't wait to see the whole film. SHIP OF FOOLS in HD is a revelation of a different kind. Sharp as a tack and beautifully modulated B/W but this tends to emphasize the stagebound shooting and (more damning to my eyes) 60's TV level art direction/set decor. The visuals have all the scope and detail of an episode of HITCHCOCK. In fact I kept thinking of that ship-board episode with Keenan Wynn every time a deckside scene played out against the process screen. FORT APACHE looked fabulous too but was pillarboxed at the 4x3 setting. Switching to 16x9 pesented it in true undistorted academy but neccessitated a combo zoom-in and projector tilt.

Props55 wrote:FORT APACHE looked fabulous too but was pillarboxed at the 4x3 setting. Switching to 16x9 pesented it in true undistorted academy but neccessitated a combo zoom-in and projector tilt.

What?! I didn't have any problems with FORT APACHE (widescreen TV set to 16 X 9 standard resulted in appropriate 1.33:1 image with black bars on sides). For some inexplicable reason, certain films (often from STARZ) will come through in a distorted aspect ratio: WHATEVER WORKS looked to be 1.50:1, not quite full-frame pan-and-scan and not the proper 1.85:1 theatrical ratio either. No amount of fiddling with the ratio settings on the TV would result in a natural-looking image; Larry David and friends were either stretched or squashed. Totally unacceptable. Apart from these anomalies, most of the Netflix streaming content maintains the original theatrical aspect ratio...unless its a STARZ license which could result in a widescreen film being given a 1.33:1 pan-and-scan treatment.

HBO HD, on the other hand, will almost never show a film wider than 1.85:1 without zooming in on the image. AUSTRALIA, the HARRY POTTER films and the LORD OF THE RINGS films (all 2.35:1 or wider) have all been reduced to 1.85:1 on HBO - very frustrating!

Roger we were viewing on a projection system adjusted to maximize academy to an 8' height thus our initial setting was 4x3 which resulted in the pillarboxed image. When reset to 16x9 the academy AR was dwarfed inside an 8'x14' wall "picture boxed" on all sides. The projector thus required zooming and a slight tilt to maximize image size. This was our first experience with academy AR in HD so we didn't realize the image was centered inside a 16x9 encoding.

Thanks for the feedback on your experiences with AR. I've heard mostly negative reports on anything involving STARZ and I'm frankly not surprised at your experience with HBO. I am somewhat surprised to find 'scope films defaulting to 1.85 post credits on Netflix but I suppose they must accept whatever transfer/encode they receive from the rightsholder. I only noticed this occuring on the four titles mentioned above but I'm curious to know how widespread this situation is on Netlix.

Thanks - I understand now how you needed to adjust the projector for 4:3.

I was probably making too broad a generalization regarding Netflix streaming maintaining the original theatrical AP for most of their content. I don't know this to be true. Obviously, you've seen several examples where this was not true. I'm going to need to check out more 'scope content to see how it's handled.

Props55 wrote:At the risk of restarting the OAR wars of '08 (I'm game) has anyone noticed that DUCK YOU SUCKER, NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA, EAST OF EDEN and LORD JIM begin in their proper anamorphic screen size for the duration of the credits then default to 1.85/1.78 when the film proper begins. Is this the next step in the "one world, one aspect ratio" predictions discussed here about a year ago with regard to filling the wide-screen TV (or in our case projector) frame so none of those film technology/history challenged a-holes get upset at not getting their money's worth of image acreage?

Are these from the new Epix deal, by any chance? If that's the case, it's a major issue, since that's going to be the source of a lot of important content for Netflix.

If the Epix deal includes the MGM/UA catalogue then I guess we should all be vigilant. I seem to recall some static regarding wrong AR on several titles seen on MGM Network (or whatever its called; I only have basic cable!) some time ago. In any event the Leone was the only MGM/UA title which I saw default to 1.85. I need to cross reference it with some other 'scope titles like MAGNIFICENT SEVEN or WEST SIDE STORY.

The Crimson Rivers expires next Sunday, the 19th.

Roger Ryan wrote:HBO HD, on the other hand, will almost never show a film wider than 1.85:1 without zooming in on the image. AUSTRALIA, the HARRY POTTER films and the LORD OF THE RINGS films (all 2.35:1 or wider) have all been reduced to 1.85:1 on HBO - very frustrating!

There are exceptions to this. All of the old Paramount titles that are in 2.35:1 I've seen are kept in that aspect ratio, and they do the same for Lionsgate titles too.

Anderson Platoon on Netflix instant view is, I think, a 1987 rehash of the original Schoendoerffer film, featuring dreadful music, histrionic American narration, and altered editing, I believe. Sadly, it makes the film suck. I think they produced this version to take advantage of the mid-'80s interest in the Vietnam-American War, thanks to Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, etc.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's worth anyone's time.
Cheers, Greg