Archived Criterion Streaming Discussion

[Perkins Cobb]

Although actually, in a larger sense, you may be onto something: I know casual film buffs who watch movies on laptops or even smaller screens because they're making a conscious choice of "convenience" over optimal quality. If people are choosing to endure commercials in movies (or even TV episodes) on Hulu because it's cheaper, or they can't be bothered to fetch the DVD or Blu-ray, then there is a comparison between the two situations. I think those choices are pathetic but, then, they only affect me if they become so commonplace as to endanger the quality option.

[knives]

With something like Diary of a Shinjuku Thief though it is the only legal option. I certainly would rather watch it as I would AMC back in the day than not at all.

[Perkins Cobb]

I don't really disagree with that (sidestepping the question of whether I would seek out a fansubbed rip of something over a streaming option, since it's not really on point). Except that since we know that the Hulu pool is a finite one from which DVD and even occasional Blu-rays will eventually be plucked, I keep delaying plans to sign up and binge there, even among the least likely candidates for physical media. Anybody else doing the same?

[knives]

Actually for similar reasons I usually just wait for a freebee moment like this to plunge into Hulu. I have a big enough kevyip that I don't need to pay for an Internet one (and even than I'm avoiding certain titles like Boy which I'm sure will get a physical release sooner than later.

[captveg]

My reason for not diving into Hulu yet is simply that I can't justify spreading myself thinner. I already have:

- Owned DVDs/BDs that I would like to rewatch
- Owned DVDs/BDs that I haven't watched my copy
- Owned DVDs/BDs that I have never seen the film, period
- Netflix Disc Rental
- Netlfix Streaming Rental
- Amazon Prime Streaming Rental

I try to balance all these along with seeing 10-15 films in the theater each year. I just can't add another at this time, even if it is very affordable.

[Steven H]

Regarding "watching on laptops" most of my circle of friends who have a Hulu+ subscription use an HD Roku device or blu-ray player to stream into their HD TV. Hulu streams a lot of Criterion films at 720p which, even with compression and some artifacts, looks better to my eyes than DVD.

[swo17]

The one HD Criterion film that I watched on Hulu once looked terrible and appreciably worse than the DVD, though admittedly I am an out-and-out racist when it comes to streaming.

[Andrew_VB]

I would never use my phone to watch anything, however I do use the Hulu app on it to browse because it still retains some of the functions of the older 'friendlier' Hulu interface, including sorting Criterion films by director and country...

how can you do this? all i can see is under movies i can sort by studios and select criterion, but then from there the options are only "alphabetical" or "most popular". this is for iphone, so you're on android and it retains this, but would be curious to know if there's somewhere else i can try looking. the interface, as everyone says, is terrible.

[Perkins Cobb]

How many codemonkey hours could it possibly take to fix that?!

[headacheboy]

For the people keeping track, these are the remaining Kinoshita films not available on Hulu:

A Blooming Port (1943)
Marriage (1947)
Woman (1948)
Here's to the Girls (1949)
Engagement Ring (1950)
She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (1955)
Times of Joy and Sorrow (1957)
Ballad of a Worker (1962)
This Year's Love (1962)
The Scent of Incense (1964)
Lovely Flute and a Drum (1968)
Love and Separation in Sri Lanka (1976)

They've just added Engagement Ring (but they are calling it Wedding Ring) and Here's To The Girls (only they are calling it Here's to The Young Lady).

[headacheboy]

They've also added more Fassbinder, another Ozu (1929's Days of Youth), another Rossellini (The Machine That Kills Bad People) and another Satyajit Ray (Rabindranath Tagore). Every Rossellini film that TCM will be showing next month that isn't on DVD here in the US is now on HuluPlus.

[AlexHansen]

Don't know if this is common knowledge, but if you click on the sections (Popular, Recently Added, etc.), there's an option to sort out the titles in HD, and those with CC. Sadly none of the Fassbinder titles are HD, not even the BRD films and ALI. Insert sad face here.

[knives]

They've also added more Fassbinder, another Ozu (1929's Days of Youth), another Rossellini (The Machine That Kills Bad People) and another Satyajit Ray (Rabindranath Tagore). Every Rossellini film that TCM will be showing next month that isn't on DVD here in the US is now on HuluPlus.

Where?

[TMDaines]

Am I missing something and there's actually an option to configure subtitles and audio options on Hulu?

If not then these Rossellini films are disappointing. Fear (or technically Non credo più all’amore), Stromboli and Viaggio in Italia are all in Italian. I wonder how this bodes for the inevitable DVD releases. God, I hope we don't end up with a massively disappointing and questionable Eclipse release.

Also if anyone non-US based wants to access Hulu for this weekend, there's a little Firefox plugin called Hola which makes it as easy as pie.

[JonasEB]

Fear (or technically Non credo più all’amore), Stromboli and Viaggio in Italia are all in Italian. I wonder how this bodes for the inevitable DVD releases. God, I hope we don't end up with a massively disappointing and questionable Eclipse release.

That's strange because the U.S. Turner Classic Movies shows the full English/Italian-mix Stromboli every now and then.

I haven't jumped on board Hulu yet but if this is true it's definitely something to get loud about.

[jwd5275]

The complete list of what was added last night:
I Graduated But... - Ozu
A Straightforward Boy - Ozu
Days of Youth - Ozu
Zero Focus - Nomura
Castle of Sand - Nomura
Being Two Isn't Easy - Ichikawa
Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant - Fassbinder
The American Soldier - Fassbinder
Wedding Ring - Kinoshita
Here's to the Young Lady - Kinoshita
The Machine that Kills Bad People - Rossellini
Rabindranath Tagore - Ray

[jwd5275]

I would never use my phone to watch anything, however I do use the Hulu app on it to browse because it still retains some of the functions of the older 'friendlier' Hulu interface, including sorting Criterion films by director and country...

how can you do this? all i can see is under movies i can sort by studios and select criterion, but then from there the options are only "alphabetical" or "most popular". this is for iphone, so you're on android and it retains this, but would be curious to know if there's somewhere else i can try looking. the interface, as everyone says, is terrible.

I have an android phone, but I would assume that it would be the similar. Don't go to studios, but on the 'Movies' page at the top where is gives options like 'Genres', 'Popular' and 'Documentaries' scroll to 'Criterion'. On the Criterion page you should find options for 'Directors' and ' Countries' both on the top and bottom of the page.

[ryannichols7]

Am I missing something and there's actually an option to configure subtitles and audio options on Hulu?

If not then these Rossellini films are disappointing. Fear (or technically Non credo più all’amore), Stromboli and Viaggio in Italia are all in Italian. I wonder how this bodes for the inevitable DVD releases. God, I hope we don't end up with a massively disappointing and questionable Eclipse release.

Also if anyone non-US based wants to access Hulu for this weekend, there's a little Firefox plugin called Hola which makes it as easy as pie.

you must be high if you think they won't release these in the original versions with the Italian dub with an option, and then you think they're going to put them on Eclipse? these movies are a big deal, they're going to go all out with them. wouldn't surprise me if they commissioned Tag Gallagher to do an essay for each movie.

[matrixschmatrix]

It would be a crime not to consult Gallagher on these releases, both for supplemental material and for his opinion on how best to present the various versions- and since Criterion isn't Olive, I'd be surprised if such a crime were to happen. There's an insane wealth of stuff to talk about here, in the films themselves, the Rossellini/Bergman scandal, the French New Wave take on them, etc- they're heavily featured in Scorsese's Voyage to Italy doc, too, so I'm sure they could get him in to talk about them.

Remember too that for the longest time Criterion's Hulu page had only the '42 Gold Rush up, and people were terrified that we wouldn't get a good release of the silent version.

[headacheboy]

They've also added more Fassbinder, another Ozu (1929's Days of Youth), another Rossellini (The Machine That Kills Bad People) and another Satyajit Ray (Rabindranath Tagore). Every Rossellini film that TCM will be showing next month that isn't on DVD here in the US is now on HuluPlus.

Where?

I'm not sure how to track down new titles on HuluPlus beyond going to the final column at the bottom of the page that is headed "Recently Added In Criterion". I completely missed Ozu's "I Graduated But..." title that JWD5275 mentioned.

[TMDaines]

Am I missing something and there's actually an option to configure subtitles and audio options on Hulu?

If not then these Rossellini films are disappointing. Fear (or technically Non credo più all’amore), Stromboli and Viaggio in Italia are all in Italian. I wonder how this bodes for the inevitable DVD releases. God, I hope we don't end up with a massively disappointing and questionable Eclipse release.

Also if anyone non-US based wants to access Hulu for this weekend, there's a little Firefox plugin called Hola which makes it as easy as pie.

you must be high if you think they won't release these in the original versions with the Italian dub with an option, and then you think they're going to put them on Eclipse? these movies are a big deal, they're going to go all out with them. wouldn't surprise me if they commissioned Tag Gallagher to do an essay for each movie.

Sure, but there's no need to be so aggressive about it. Of course, I'd expect to see a full works mainline release but it wouldn't be the first or the last thing to not get the treatment it deserves. It's just bizzare to see that bastardised cut of Fear come out under Criterion, especially under the original title and not the retitle it carried. The fact that the three films are essentially out there only in foreign dubs for a specific market is also perculiar. Has Criterion ever done this before, either on Hulu or on a DVD? Nothing springs to mind.

[albucat]

I've always had the feeling that their Hulu releases are kind of a "we had this around, might as well make it available" sort of thing rather than something they make a concerted effort on. They've upgraded Hulu releases in the past, so in the long run I wouldn't be too worried. Right now it's of course less than ideal.

[swo17]

I tried out a few titles on Hulu this weekend, and I'll concede that it is pretty handy to have easy access to a number of these otherwise unavailable titles. The quality on what I saw (set to high) is adequate for watching on a computer screen, and roughly comparable to a compressed avi file that you might find through back channels, though no substitute for a well done DVD or a Blu-ray. Notably, Ōshima's Boy looks far better on Hulu than any other non-theatrical alternative of which I'm aware, at least until the physical discs eventually come out.

[triodelover]

The quality on what I saw (set to high) is adequate for watching on a computer screen, and roughly comparable to a compressed avi file that you might find through back channels, though no substitute for a well done DVD or a Blu-ray.

I've watched a number of titles on a 50" plasma, and the quality is generally more than acceptable - better than a lot of TCM showings or a lot of the stuff Warner Archive cranks out on DVD-R. The HD stuff (which is 720p) can be very good. Like anything streaming it depends on available bandwidth, but increasing the Flash buffer size seems to help even after you've chosen the highest available quality from Hulu. There's no question a top drawer DVD or BD treament would be a huge improvement, but it's easily worth the 8 bucks a month, if for no other reason than the ability to screen what would otherwise be blind buys. (And can I put in a huge plea for a resto and BD of History is Made at Night?)

[knives]

Speaking of transfers going by what they have on hulu it will be a very long time before we see a release of Gosha's Oil Hell Murder sadly.