Archived Criterion Streaming Discussion

[BillWatkins]

Does anyone have an updated list of Criterion Hulu titles not yet released on disc?

[ellipsis7]

Here are all the Hulu titles...

[jwd5275]

Here are all the Hulu titles...

...current list as of those added in October 2011.

[bainbridgezu]

That leaves The Woman Next Door and Confidentially Yours! from their holdings. I predict bare-bones Criterions of those two eventually coming down the pike.

Confidentially Yours! has been on Hulu for months; hopefully it will be released alongside The Soft Skin.

[ando]

Here are all the Hulu titles

Thanks.

[Perkins Cobb]

So, do the Criterions have commercials, or not? I tested this last year and watched two films without ads. But I just activated another 2-week free trial that Hulu sent me, and I'm seeing ads every 9 minutes in Kinoshita's The Army. Is this just because I'm in the free trial period, or will I also have the ads if I let them charge me the $8?

[jwd5275]

No ads if you pay the 8 bucks...

[Perkins Cobb]

Thanks. So, hilariously, I have to figure out a way to make them take my $8 prior to the end of the free trial....

[knives]

The site says The 400 Blows is going to expire 9 days from now.

[Minkin]

The site says The 400 Blows is going to expire 9 days from now.

Expire from being a "free for all to watch" title- meaning it will go back to being a Hulu+ only title. The same thing is going on with quite a few other movies.

In other news, L'Atalante has been put up, the Hulu online video player has changed to a new look (much improved), Criterion actually seems to be curating free movies to watch now (probably rotating between a selection of new titles every two weeks or so), and lastly, it seems that Playtime has finally taken down Premiers Désirs as number one most popular.

[jwd5275]

...it seems that Playtime has finally taken down Premiers Désirs as number one most popular.

However unlikely as it may be, a Bresson film is now beating out Premiers Désirs.

[swo17]

L'argent is currently one of a few titles being offered for viewing free to everyone.

[hearthesilence]

Part of a 'final film' series they've programmed for Hulu too. An excellent idea for a film program - the Brooklyn Academy of Music did one too (with late career films mixed in), which is where I saw L'argent for the very first time.

[Calvin]

Has El Sur ever been confirmed before now? It seems that it has gotten quite a few requests in the past.

I wonder if the seagulls in the New Year's clue were actually an El Sur hint like I joked they were. Anyway, great news!

[Cinephrenic]

Has El Sur ever been confirmed before now? It seems that it has gotten quite a few requests in the past.

I wonder if the seagulls in the New Year's clue were actually an El Sur hint like I joked they were. Anyway, great news!

From Facebook back in 2009:

ERICE, Victor - EL, QUINCE TREE SUN (Last Update: 10/09)

[Zot!]

Just noticed the L'avventura clip in the Youtube video inlay on Criterion's new website page The Dawn of L'avventura can be run in HD 1080p resolution... Another pointer to a Blu Ray coming?...

Once again, reading too much into it. Over half of the movies on Hulu are HD 1080p including much of the Eclipse sets....

Not to get off topic, but how appreciable is the upgrade for the DVD vs Hulu 1080p? I'm surprised that Criterion would compete against their physical releases this way.

[aox]

Hulu is 1080p streaming?

I thought the best streaming one could get over the net was 720p.

[Drucker]

Just noticed the L'avventura clip in the Youtube video inlay on Criterion's new website page The Dawn of L'avventura can be run in HD 1080p resolution... Another pointer to a Blu Ray coming?...

Once again, reading too much into it. Over half of the movies on Hulu are HD 1080p including much of the Eclipse sets....

Not to get off topic, but how appreciable is the upgrade for the DVD vs Hulu 1080p? I'm surprised that Criterion would compete against their physical releases this way.

I have had my Hulu+ account on hold, partially because I really do feel like there remains some of the shortcomings of streaming. The quality of DVD/Blu Ray video is still noticably better than streaming on Hulu+

[albucat]

I feel like we've been over this a few times so far in this thread... but anyhow, Hulu only outputs up to 720p. Generally speaking, Criterion's HD transfers look noticeably better than their DVDs and noticeably worse than their blu-rays. If you're looking for optimal viewing, definitely stick with blu-rays (especially if you have a great soundsystem). However, if you're more indifferent to a movie I'd say their hd hulu transfers are fine. To me one of the best thing about Criterion on Hulu is the HD transfers of Eclipse releases. No, they're not in 1080p with uncompressed audio, but they're still damn fine.

One thing I should note is that Hulu uses the .264 codec, which is also the standard for Blu-rays. It's a very high-quality codec, whereas Netflix works with extremely variable codecs, which is part of why video quality on the service varies so much. There are always a pile of other variables that can enter into things when streaming is concerned, especially to a computer, but generally speaking Hulu does a very good job delivering content in a consistently watchable manner.

[Zot!]

I feel like we've been over this a few times so far in this thread... To me one of the best thing about Criterion on Hulu is the HD transfers of Eclipse releases. No, they're not in 1080p with uncompressed audio, but they're still damn fine.

Sorry, we got moved over here from another discussion, so that's why we might be ignorant. I still find it interesting that the streaming has been allowed to overtake contemporaneous Eclipse releases in terms of quality, especially as they don't feature any supplements. I guess the future has arrived.

[Roger Ryan]

...I still find it interesting that the streaming has been allowed to overtake contemporaneous Eclipse releases in terms of quality, especially as they don't feature any supplements. I guess the future has arrived.

The advantage of the Eclipse DVD releases is that once you've purchased them, you can watch them any time (provided your DVD player holds out). If Hulu loses the rights to the Criterion library at some point in the future, those films may not be available when you want to see them.

[Zot!]

Oh, I definitely would prefer physical releases for anything I want in my library, but it feels somehow less comforting knowing that the stream is of a higher quality.

[dwk]

Recent Hulu additions:

Belle de Jour
Rendez-vous
Routine Pleasures
Zéro de Conduite
Paris Nous Appartient
Innocence Unprotected
Murmur of the Heart
Le million
Beauty and the Beast
The Portrait
The Tattered Wings
Spring Dreams
Purple Noon
Courage for Every Day
Gertrud
Profound Desire of the Gods
The Joke
Lumière d’Été
Le Main du Diable
Night and Fog in Japan
L’eclisse
Dodes’ka-den
The Woman Next Door
L’assassin Habite au 21
Les Portes de la Nuit
Un Amour de Swann
Stolen Desire
Return fo the Prodigal Son
A Report on the Party and Guests
Le Silence de la Mer
The Ear
Capricious Summer
Yearning
L'Atalante

[Minkin]

A few others that were missed by dwk:

Un Amour de Swann - Volker Schlöndorff
Stolen Desire- shohei Imamura
Les Portes da le Nuit - Marcel Carné
Le Silence de la Mer - Jean-Pierre Melville
The Ear - Karel Kachyna
Yearning - Mikio Naruse

[med]

Apologies if this has already been addressed somewhere over the course of this large thread, but what significance, if any, can be placed on the Criterion/Janus logos appearing on the currently unreleased titles? Just by checking three of the recent additions—Profound Desires of the Gods, Paris Nous Appartient, and Night and Fog in Japan—I found the first had the logos, while the other two did not.