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Criterion Collection Launching $11/Month Streaming Service in April, Coming to tvOS and iOS
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I wish I had known about the special. What kind of discount was offered?
I like Criterion. However, a lot of their movies are really obscure, one time watch (if one can make it through) movies.
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People wanted A La Carte. Studios are now giving it to them. So..... they should be happy.
What people really wanted was a cheap way to consume media.
Theoretically, a streaming media company would charge for what it has in it's catalog if it was A LA Carte.
A La Carte would mean that Netflix would charge less when content moved from Netflix to another service and that users would use those savings to help pay for the other service.
Given that Critereon has always been about doing high quality film releases, does anyone know if they plan to offer the movies streamed at a higher bitrate than other options?
For example, a typical Netflix HD stream is 6-7Mbps. Pushing it up to 15mbps or so would result in astoundingly good quality for those with Internet connections that can handle it.
For example, a typical Netflix HD stream is 6-7Mbps. Pushing it up to 15mbps or so would result in astoundingly good quality for those with Internet connections that can handle it.
Believe it or not, just a few generations ago, humans lived their entire lives with only the content available in the few books they had access to, if they were literate. Fortunately, they had their own imagination, and the natural beauty that surrounded them, to keep them happy. Tell the media to piss off and go for a walk.
Closer to the truth is the fact that until very recently, people worked six or seven days a week for twelve hours and simple had no real free-time....
They did have excitements like public hangings or beheadings...
Image via The Criterion Channel/Variety
At first look, I thought this was Sophie Marceau.
Then I wondered if it might be Jennifer Lawrence.
Through the power of Google Images, I find it's Irène Jacob from Krzysztof Kieślowski's Trois couleurs: Rouge. (Kieślowski's Dekalog is a masterpiece, if anyone cares to look it up.)
...
Oh, and yeah: Down with infinite subscriptions!
I would actually be game for it – alas they don't offer it in my neck of the woods, and I'm not sure they will ever be able to. Considering the way films used to be distributed and marketed, I imagine that international licensing for classic movies must be a complete mess.
You’re misinformed about what Criterion is. It’s not a studio, they don’t create or produce anything. They distribute and subtitle worldwide art ( mostly ) films in the US, with special bonus material , restorations of old masterpieces from around the world,etc. Those are films that you’re not likely to see anywhere on a regular chanel or even a movie theater in the US. They’re doing a great job. I would totally pay 11$ for that.
The entire argument going on here about subscriptions doesn’t apply at all in the case of Criterion.
My library has many of the Criterion movies available to loan and they often order new titles. I'll save my $132USD.
That's a pretty fair description of Criterion.
Alas, while Criterion are indeed in a class of their own, and while I am very tempted to subscribe (and would probably get much more use out of their streaming service than I do out of my neglected collection of Criterion LaserDiscs), money is still, for most of us, a finite resource.
I would love to be able to watch The Crown, and Game of Thrones, and The Man in the High Castle, and Star Trek: Discovery, but I am not going to subscribe to Netflix, and HBO, and Amazon Prime, and CBS All Access just to watch those shows, let alone all the other services clamoring for my money.
The Criterion Channel, maybe, because Criterion's catalog has so much great content.
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You can stream Criterion Collection movies right now by purchasing them in the iTunes Store. (I'm pretty sure that the M4V files you get when you click "Download" are the same as what iTunes streams to you when you click "Play," but at any rate, iTunes certainly does not stream at a higher quality than what you get by downloading!)
Looking at my own small collection of Criterion movies downloaded from the iTunes Store, they range from 4426 to 5237 kbps, averaging ~4900 kbps. (The lower-bitrate movies in my collection have an aspect ratio of 4:3, while the higher-bitrate movies are widescreen. These are all 1080p HD H.264 encodings. As far as I'm aware, none of the Criterion Collection are available for 4K streaming on Apple TV.)
This is roughly the same bitrate and encoding quality as any other 1080p HD movie in the iTunes Store. Given that Criterion were willing to sacrifice some picture quality for the sake of digital distribution, I'd be surprised if their own Criterion Channel streams at a much higher bitrate. Given the economics of streaming, I suspect that the ~50 Mbps necessary to stream a ~50 GB Blu-ray movie is simply prohibitive.
Blu-ray Discs are still going to have better picture quality than any streaming service in the near future, given Blu-ray's much lower level of compression (at least when comparing 1080p to 1080p, and my guess is even comparing a 1080p Blu-ray Disc to a 4K HEVC stream). But even a 5 Mbps 1080p H.264 digital download or stream is going to have a much higher picture quality than any of my venerable Criterion Collection LaserDiscs!
Everything was $9.99, so 50% off. I managed to grab a number of movies that were on my wishlist.
Our local library had free Criterion streaming for a while until they ended the contract. I suspect this is the reason why.
Libraries still carry a large portion of the collection on DVD and Blu-rays.
Libraries still carry a large portion of the collection on DVD and Blu-rays.
Through the power of reading the thread, (post 24), I was able to learn that this was Irene Jacob from Red.At first look, I thought this was Sophie Marceau.
Then I wondered if it might be Jennifer Lawrence.
Through the power of Google Images, I find it's Irène Jacob from Krzysztof Kieślowski's Trois couleurs: Rouge. (Kieślowski's Dekalog is a masterpiece, if anyone cares to look it up.)
So based on these 2 facts:
1) The Criterion Collection contains films that are currently available to be streamed on Netflix and other subscription sources.
2) Per their statement: "The Criterion Collection will be EXCLUSIVELY available to stream on the Criterion Channel."
Thus the result is I will no longer be able to stream the movies from #1 that are available on various sources I already pay for, because they will be taken off of those sources and I'll now need to pay yet another source (Criterion's app) to view them.
This is the point of contention. I don't care what technical role Criterion plays in the process, the fact remains that content they provide openly on other platforms right now will be taken away from those platforms and placed behind yet another paywall solely consisting of their own content.
The problem here though is that it’s Criterion’s “streaming library”, not their entire catalog of movies. I had the Criterion channel with Filmstruck, and it was advertised exactly the same. There were some good movies of course, and with many of the extras too, but it was mostly not so good really boring movies that would quickly put me to sleep. I used to borrow many great Criterion movies from the library, so I was excited when Filmstruck came along and offered the Criterion channel add-on. But nearly every movie I searched for wasn’t available. We can cross our fingers and hope that this attempt will be better, but I doubt it, since it’s probably all related to streaming rights.
I'm pretty sure the only thing that'll be exclusive are the Criterion versions of movies. You'll still be able to watch non-Criterion versions of they exist—e.g., probably All the President's Men, probably not The Double Life of Veronique. Kanopy will probably lose their Critereon titles.
This is very helpful information; thank you.
I'll have to see about getting a list of the Criterion Collection titles that will be available on the Criterion Channel before I pre-order an annual subscription.