The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#251 Post by Mr Sausage » Sun Mar 29, 2020 10:24 am

bluejaysam wrote:
Sun Mar 29, 2020 9:37 am
I'm not sure what a graphics card is, but CC worked totally fine for me until a recent Microsoft Edge update, now I can't get it to work in multiple browsers. Their help page says they support Firefox and Chrome, but I'm having no luck there. Just seems totally arbitrary.
A graphics/video card is the part of your computer that generates the output of images to your display device. For example, they're the things that'll let you play video games with high end graphics. It sounds like your video card is so old it only supports a VGA slot. A lot of modern media programs, to combat piracy, only allow you to play things over external monitors through an HDMI or DVI connection (or higher), and then only if both your monitor and card are new enough to support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection).

I had this problem with my laptop. Blurays played fine on the built-in display, but wouldn't play on my external secondary monitor because I'd connected it with a VGA cable (monitor was DVI while the laptop only did HDMI). I got a DVI to HDMI converter cable and the problem was fixed, but that wouldn't work in your case because you're still using a VGA connection, converted or not. I might be that you need a better video card. Frankly, you ought to get one if you're watching movies anyway because VGA connections are low quality and not ideal for watching things in HD.

User avatar
quequeg
Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2004 8:12 pm
Location: Indiana

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#252 Post by quequeg » Mon Mar 30, 2020 6:55 pm

Has anybody noticed that the INFO button has disappeared from every film?
I watch on Fire-TV. There used to be three buttons when you clicked on a film--PLAY, ADD/DELETE from watch list, and INFO. Now only the PLAY and ADD/DELETE appear.
I hope that this is a temporary glitch and not permanent as the description of the film was very important to me.
Last edited by quequeg on Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:22 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
fdm
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:25 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#253 Post by fdm » Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:20 pm

Can get to it from Roku app. I'm not using the Roku remote however, using Harmony instead, so keys may be different. Highlight the film, press Info (might be * on Roku remote), then press OK. (I think it's that last part you are asking about.)
Last edited by fdm on Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

bluejaysam
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2020 7:03 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#254 Post by bluejaysam » Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:22 pm

Thank you for the advice. My computer is old. I was hoping to wait until next year to get a new one, but this may push it up a bit. Now off to suspend my subscription.

Ferocious Detritus
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:30 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#255 Post by Ferocious Detritus » Tue Mar 31, 2020 7:39 pm

Love the channel as a way to preview potential purchases, as well as - maybe moreso - for all the content not yet or never to be (?) on BD.

I do have some technical complaints, though. Aside from the occasional dodgy transfer (Come and See is obviously the same source as the wretched DVD) I wish they would address the following:

1. No dropdown or link anywhere on their home page for "My List"? You have to click through to "Now Playing" and then "My List." That's a pretty obnoxious design for what is exclusively a streaming site.

2. "My List" can, as far as I can tell, only be viewed as thumbnails/tiles, and even worse, they only show about two dozen at once, necessitating a click on a "Show More" button (several times, if your list is long [and it should be]) to proceed. Nor can these tiles be alphabetized or organized in any way. Amazon also has the awful scrolling tiles, but at least you can filter by name or date; Netflix, of course, you can view as an actual text list, and all at once, making searches and editing much easier.

3. Depending on what part of the site you're on, and depending on whether the film is part of a "double feature" or some other grouping, titles can be added to "My List" more than once. This redundancy seems a little ridiculous, and in light of the above issues, makes "My LIst" even more cumbersome to deal with.

4. I don't understand why directors and actor's names within descriptions aren't linked to filmographies on the site. There are a couple very tedious attempts at this sort of filtering on the "All Films" page, and there's always the search function on the main page (though this, again, provides redundant and confusing results) but I have to imagine that the basic and classic hyperlink (it's only been around for 25 years -- maybe it works!) is the best solution.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#256 Post by knives » Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:17 pm

So, I finally got this and am curious: is there any way to bookmark a movie if you stop watching in the middle?

User avatar
senseabove
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2015 3:07 am

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#257 Post by senseabove » Mon Apr 13, 2020 10:05 pm

knives wrote:
Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:17 pm
So, I finally got this and am curious: is there any way to bookmark a movie if you stop watching in the middle?
If you don't finish a movie, it should show up in a "Continue Watching" list at the top of your home page, or here when logged in: https://www.criterionchannel.com/continue-watching

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#258 Post by knives » Mon Apr 13, 2020 10:14 pm

Thank you.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#259 Post by knives » Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:14 am

Sorry for the flurry of questions. Do you have to set something up to get that or does it only work after the free trial? I stopped in the middle of a movie last night and no luck on the page you linked to nor the frontpage.

User avatar
willoneill
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:10 am
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#260 Post by willoneill » Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:21 am

It worked during my initial free trial last year, and mostly continues to, though I would say "mostly" and not 100% of the time. But in my experience that's been the case with every streaming service. Ghosts in the machine, and such.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#261 Post by knives » Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:31 am

That's frustrating though I guess I've been spoiled by my library.

User avatar
Shrew
The Untamed One
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:22 am

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#262 Post by Shrew » Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:43 pm

On Roku at least, I generally have better luck with "Continue Watching" if I exit out of the movie (i.e., hit pause, then hit back/home) first rather than just turning everything off.

User avatar
Lowry_Sam
Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 3:35 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#263 Post by Lowry_Sam » Tue Apr 14, 2020 4:17 pm

Well after a year & a renewal notice in my box, I'm mostly pleased with the new channel so far, though I think curating & organization can be improved upon. When I saw the Columbia noir titles resurface last week, though, I thought oh no they're already starting to recycle the same titles. However upon looking I noticed a handful more titles this time around. So I watched one I hadn't seen, Affair In Trinidad, and noticed significantly better p/q than the titles I watched the previous go round. I checked out two more: The Sniper & Johnny O'clock & both of those also had excellent transfers too. Kinda wished I had held off watching the ones I had, but not so sad that I passed on some titles (ie The Devils) which didn't look very good.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#264 Post by knives » Tue Apr 14, 2020 4:55 pm

Shrew wrote:
Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:43 pm
On Roku at least, I generally have better luck with "Continue Watching" if I exit out of the movie (i.e., hit pause, then hit back/home) first rather than just turning everything off.
I'm just using my computer set up, but will try that.

willemv
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:33 am

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#265 Post by willemv » Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:49 am

I just created an account on this forum. Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong place. I've had the criterion channel for two months. For the last week, it has not worked on my network. My iPhone tells me there is a code 3 error. My Apple TV just shows a spinning white circle with a smaller red stop sign in the lower left. My Safari browser just shows a black screen. I know they are busy due to the virus, but after multiple times trying to reach their technical support, I have only received one generic troubleshooting response. To save time, I'm pasting my reply to the form response and the steps I took. I reset my entire wifi network because of the criterion network. Just to give an idea of how big a deal that turned out to be. A technician now needs to come out now to reset my solar panels. My mother's C-PAP machine and half of the light switches in the house needed to be reprogramed. Like I said, posting my issue here because I'm hoping someone here has experienced a similar issue.
My reply yesterday to criterion channel after a week of no service:
Speed is 111mbps. Reset my AirPort Extreme router to factory settings. Restarted all devices on my network and ensured all apps are up to date. The problem might be something on my network that is probably causing the issue. When my iPhone goes on cellular, criterion channel works fine. Read below to see some of the steps I’ve taken. I did a 30-30-30 reset of my modem and did a hard reset of my AirPort Extreme. The problem still persists. Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and every other streaming services I use on every device (PS4, TV, MacBook, BD player, all iPhones) are all unaffected. However Criterion Channel is not working on any device that supports it. I’m sending a screen shot of what is happening on my phone. In short, I tried all the steps in your generic first step form response. Browser, app, Apple TV, iPhone, etc were all restarted. I deleted my old network and created a new one and have even asked my internet provider to send me a new modem, which should come in five days. I hope that will help. I doing all of this just to get the criterion channel back up and running for my 80 year old mom who was really excited to have the channel to watch old movies during the corona virus. The channel worked great for two months when this happened last week. I have spent hours rebuilding my network partly because I had to reconnect every device in the house. All of this because I want the criterion channel to work for my 80 year old mom. I’ll mention her age as many times as it takes for the sympathetic response factor. …80 years old. 81 in May. Criterion channel is the only thing not working btw. Every other streaming service is performing great on my network at 4k. I am requesting specific help please. I am certain there is a setting on my network that I could change if someone from technical support would help. Some airport setting? Maybe port forwarding? ANYTHING!!!

User avatar
fdm
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:25 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#266 Post by fdm » Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:12 pm

Just something that could be problematic in some circumstances (especially with Apple products), have you gone into the Airport Utility on the Network tab and set up DHCP Reservations for every one of your network devices using the Extreme? That may help avoid internet address conflicts. For example, my computer is always assigned a fixed specific IP address (based on its MAC Address), my HP printer is always assigned a specific IP address (per its MAC address), my Roku is always assigned the same IP address etc. Every device gets its own IP address which always stays the same. (This is kind of like using static addresses, but seems to work more reliably (perhaps just because it only has to be kept track of in one place). Plus I can limit the DHCP Range (under Network Options) to accept only those devices in my list. And also I set my DHCP Lease to 14 days, to reduce any disruptions from DHCP Lease renegotiation that once a day (if I am remembering the default correctly) might cause with some of my network devices if I happen to be using them at the time. Just some ideas that may clean up your network a bit more if that should happen to be the problem for you somehow.

User avatar
DeprongMori
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
Location: San Francisco

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#267 Post by DeprongMori » Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:52 pm

willemv wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:49 am
I just created an account on this forum. Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong place. I've had the criterion channel for two months. For the last week, it has not worked on my network. My iPhone tells me there is a code 3 error. My Apple TV just shows a spinning white circle with a smaller red stop sign in the lower left. My Safari browser just shows a black screen. I know they are busy due to the virus, but after multiple times trying to reach their technical support, I have only received one generic troubleshooting response. To save time, I'm pasting my reply to the form response and the steps I took. I reset my entire wifi network because of the criterion network. Just to give an idea of how big a deal that turned out to be. A technician now needs to come out now to reset my solar panels. My mother's C-PAP machine and half of the light switches in the house needed to be reprogramed. Like I said, posting my issue here because I'm hoping someone here has experienced a similar issue.
My reply yesterday to criterion channel after a week of no service:
Speed is 111mbps. Reset my AirPort Extreme router to factory settings. Restarted all devices on my network and ensured all apps are up to date. The problem might be something on my network that is probably causing the issue. When my iPhone goes on cellular, criterion channel works fine. Read below to see some of the steps I’ve taken. I did a 30-30-30 reset of my modem and did a hard reset of my AirPort Extreme. The problem still persists. Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and every other streaming services I use on every device (PS4, TV, MacBook, BD player, all iPhones) are all unaffected. However Criterion Channel is not working on any device that supports it. I’m sending a screen shot of what is happening on my phone. In short, I tried all the steps in your generic first step form response. Browser, app, Apple TV, iPhone, etc were all restarted. I deleted my old network and created a new one and have even asked my internet provider to send me a new modem, which should come in five days. I hope that will help. I doing all of this just to get the criterion channel back up and running for my 80 year old mom who was really excited to have the channel to watch old movies during the corona virus. The channel worked great for two months when this happened last week. I have spent hours rebuilding my network partly because I had to reconnect every device in the house. All of this because I want the criterion channel to work for my 80 year old mom. I’ll mention her age as many times as it takes for the sympathetic response factor. …80 years old. 81 in May. Criterion channel is the only thing not working btw. Every other streaming service is performing great on my network at 4k. I am requesting specific help please. I am certain there is a setting on my network that I could change if someone from technical support would help. Some airport setting? Maybe port forwarding? ANYTHING!!!
The solution may be quite simple. I was running into this exact same problem on Apple TV for days. Then I updated the Criterion Channel app to the current version and the problem magically vanished.

User avatar
fdm
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:25 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#268 Post by fdm » Fri Apr 24, 2020 5:04 am

Come to think of it, that could be it as well. Don't use Apple TV/Criterion Channel much, but one of the things I sometimes see when I do is it takes a long time to populate the icons for all the movies, sometimes... Seems to come and go. (The video stuttering never seems to though.)

willemv
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:33 am

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#269 Post by willemv » Wed Apr 29, 2020 3:52 pm

thanks for the DHCP suggestion. Actually, the most recent update solved the problem for about a week and then it just started again this morning. I've just installed a new modem from my ISP and the problem is still persisting. Since the app update last week seemed to temporarily solve the problem, I'm inclined to believe it's on their end. I emailed their tech support like five times and never got anything more than a form response. I'll optimistically assume that they are really busy because it does not seem to be their reputation to be unresponsive. I'll try the DHCP suggestions from fdm's response (thank you). I feel like this is a problem soon their end though.

willemv
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:33 am

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#270 Post by willemv » Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:14 pm

of course the problem came back and yesterday's update didn't solve it. I have a new modem and that didn't solve it. I'm waiting this out. I think this is a them problem.

User avatar
fdm
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:25 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#271 Post by fdm » Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:38 pm

Never had such significant problems, just the stuttering I've mentioned before. I just checked and everything seems to be fine. Freshly re-activated (logged in), watched a minute or so of Draughtsman's Contract, no sign of stuttering even. Though as per previous post, the movie icons were all empty when I first started the app. Just may watch the whole thing and see if the video stuttering shows up again.

Edit: Anyway, long story short, watched about a half hour and no video stuttering. Did they finally fix it? Time will tell. After I finished watching, all the movie icons were there as well.

backwater
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2019 11:39 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#272 Post by backwater » Fri May 01, 2020 4:58 pm

From today's email newsletter:
Tech Update

Lots of good news this week! The latest updates for Apple devices have addressed some long-standing issues. English captions should now display properly on supported Apple TVs, and viewers who were experiencing skipped or dropped frames should find that playback has improved across all Apple platforms. Fans who have been waiting for an Xbox One app got their wish this week as well. Thanks to all of you who have been patiently waiting for these upgrades. More good news coming soon!
Holy hell, it's a miracle! I just tested a couple minutes of a movie that definitely displayed with dropped frames before and it looked good. Fingers crossed it's truly fixed.

User avatar
fdm
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:25 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#273 Post by fdm » Fri May 01, 2020 5:06 pm

Now all they need to do is offer Dolby Digital 5.1 (or better yet lossless!) audio and I got no more complaints.

User avatar
senseabove
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2015 3:07 am

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#274 Post by senseabove » Fri May 01, 2020 5:08 pm

I do wish they wouldn't force English subs on non-English movies...

sparafucil
Joined: Wed May 06, 2020 6:30 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Technical Issues and Questions

#275 Post by sparafucil » Wed May 06, 2020 6:39 pm

Has anyone been able to access the Criterion Channel through their LG TV browser? I have a LG Smart TV (43UM7300AUE) but unfortunately, it doesn't seem LG provides any support for the Criterion Channel. I am able to log into the Channel account on the WebOS browser but unfortunately when I attempt to watch any video I just get a black screen. Nothing happens. When I called LG Customer Support I was informed they cannot support Criterion Channel without developer rights granted by Criterion. It seems odd they would not allow major TV manufacturers the rights for consumers to access their channel.

Has anyone been able to get the Criterion Channel to work on their LG TVs?

Post Reply