The Criterion Collection

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Bandwidth is the big issue. And as long as providers like Comcast want to invoke bandwidth caps while encouraging their customers to stream to their hearts content (so they convince them to go up to a higher level of service for more money, natch) it's going to stay an issue. Plus the interruptions in service. I do some streaming from Netflix and Amazon Prime, and it pisses me off when I'm part-way through a movie, and I get disconnected from the site, or it hoses, tries to load again, and get a "We're having problems with this title. Try again later, or try a different title." Now, sometimes this is undoubtedly a site issue, and sometimes an ISP issue, but it really doesn't matter because the bottom line is that I'm having a problem playing the movie, and it happens pretty much every damn time. That doesn't happen with a physical media format.

This.
The last time I streamed something through VOD, the movie was cutting out big time. Things like that darn near ruin an experience. Sure, some BluRays just will not play anymore for some reason (damn you Lionsgate!!!!), but overall that's an anomaly. And as far as defective discs that will play up to a point, it has been a one in 400 type of thing (Howard's End, Kagemusha)

If streaming would be as good as physical, I wouldn't hesitate to partially switch over. But I don't really see that happening for quite some time, if ever. I, for one, do not regret the money I have invested in BluRay.

[Mr. Thomsen]

But bandwidth problems will be overcome eventually.

Overhere streaming has gone mainstream in less than a year. I recently read that more than 1/10 of the population is now subscribing to Netflix, and they haven't even been on the Scandinavian market for 12 months yet. Add to that HBO and the various local streaming services. Of course all this demands a pretty decent digital infrastructure, which we apparently have. I don't think you can even get a connection less than 10 Mbps downstream now. Personally, I have the second cheapest option from my ISP and that is still 50 Mbps - more than enough for my current streaming needs.

EDIT: 10 Mbps downstream of course, not upstream.

[Mr. Thomsen]

Originally Posted by MattvonSyborg

In Sweden, Spotify completely dominates the market. It's just convenient, and the average consumer doesn't have a hifi setup.

This is the thing that many of us "enthusiasts" and BD addicts often seem to forget. Ordinary people do not care much about stuff like enhanced resolution etc. They just want convenience.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

I think blu-ray is here to stay until streaming eventually kicks it out.

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Blu-ray is here to stay, and you can bookmark my post for future reference

To paraphrase John Maynard Keynes, eventually we'll all be dead.

Is that going to happen tomorrow? I certainly hope not. But it will happen.

(well, maybe not to me...i've been getting some very interesting emails from a lab in nigeria that needs funding for some very promising experi...actually, i probably shouldn't say too much)

Will there always be physical media? I don't know. Always is a pretty long time.

Am I worried about it going away in the forseeable future?

Nah.

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Not only are CDs still very popular, but vinyl sales are also up.

If you take five aging hippies and add ten hipsters you've tripled your population but at the end of the day it's just fifteen people.

[Tin Drum]

Watched If.... over the weekend and it was pretty amazing. I don't know why it is that I am drawn to such surreal films but it seems every Criterion I view lately has that vibe to it.

I also watched Three Colors Trilogy weekend before and I ended up liking White the most...which puts me in a minority. I just loved that film. The scene where

[Show spoiler]Karol was going to mercy kill Mikolaj

is now one of my favorite moments from any movie I've ever seen. A very well done scene.

[onetet]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I just revisited The Thin Red Line on Blu-ray tonight. The only way I can see possibly to improve on the Blu-ray is for me to have a 100'' television screen or a wall projector if this particular film ever rolls around on a 4K disc.

I have a projector throwing its image onto a 100" pull-down screen, and every day I'm blown away by how close home-video technology has come to exhibition quality. I also still love going to the cinema; I could spend the rest of my life watching movies these two ways and be very, very happy.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Don't you just wish you could project your mind back into the person you were 30 years ago so that you avoid paying good money for those pan-&-scan videotapes?


That's pretty much where I'm at now, too. I think Blu-ray is going to be it for me, unless I win Powerball.

Ditto... at almost 41, I think I'm done upgrading to the newest format... or at least I'm going to try my damnedest. I still have a handful of VHS, 600 or so DVDs, 25 or so LDs, close to 700 cds, and hundreds of blu-rays, and I'm running out of room. I am still upgrading my DVDs and VHS tapes to blu, but that's it. I just don't see the justification in it... especially since my eyes will probably start to go as I get older, and it won't make a hill or beans difference.

[repulsed]

saw that this was mentioned before but i was just at a walmart near me
and ran into the Criterion of Benjamin Button in the $7.88 bin
i wanted to check the price before i went to pay so i scanned it and
it came up as $5.00. unfortunately no slip but i wasn't passing that up

also, i saw someone mention a sale in Sept. on the Criterion site.
is that 50% off like B&N?

[14728]

I really hope It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World gets a BD release sometime soon. I've seen some clips from it, and it's pretty funny. Eraserhead and Mullhound drive would be awesome to own too.
I'll also be watching Wild Strawberries or Tokyo Story tonight or tomorrow.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Mr. Thomsen

This is the thing that many of us "enthusiasts" and BD addicts often seem to forget. Ordinary people do not care much about stuff like enhanced resolution etc. They just want convenience.

Then again, the home-theater market is different in Europe.
I remember on the days of Usenet, if you saw some erratically spelled post on the Movies or DVD groups asking "where can I find the cool, underground illegal bootleg streams of (movie that had either just opened that weekend or next month)?", you just looked to see whether the e-mail address had that .de, .dk or .nl suffix on the end.
It reached the point that it became a running gag to ask, "Do these people even have THEATERS?"

Which is the problem of using overseas benchmarks of home-theater users--
It's harsh to say, but nobody really cares what Denmark, Sweden or the UK have to say about Blu-ray, when the US, Japan and Germany say it louder.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by repulsed

saw that this was mentioned before but i was just at a walmart near me
and ran into the Criterion of Benjamin Button in the $7.88 bin
i wanted to check the price before i went to pay so i scanned it and
it came up as $5.00. unfortunately no slip but i wasn't passing that up

also, i saw someone mention a sale in Sept. on the Criterion site.
is that 50% off like B&N?

was that price for the DVD or blu-ray? I'm assuming dvd.

[bsweetness]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

was that price for the DVD or blu-ray? I'm assuming dvd.

I've seen the Blu-ray for $7.88 at Wal-Mart before.

Benjamin Button is one of the few wide release titles that's been solely issued by Criterion on Blu-ray. Those tend to drop in price much lower over time than the usual releases from Criterion.

[MifuneFan]

It's been under $5 ion Amazon in the past too.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

Ditto... at almost 41, I think I'm done upgrading to the newest format... or at least I'm going to try my damnedest. I still have a handful of VHS, 600 or so DVDs, 25 or so LDs, close to 700 cds, and hundreds of blu-rays, and I'm running out of room. I am still upgrading my DVDs and VHS tapes to blu, but that's it. I just don't see the justification in it... especially since my eyes will probably start to go as I get older, and it won't make a hill or beans difference.

I could have written this post word-for-word, since I'm 41 right now.

I have always ended up using a "scorched earth" mindset when it comes to upgrading, because I sold off my VHS collection immediately when I upgraded to DVD, and I've spent most of this year selling off my 600+ DVD collection to fund the upgrading of favorite titles to Blu-ray.

The funny thing about all of this is that, for the past several years, as I've become more immersed in my running lifestyle, I've become increasingly minimalist with my possessions. I live in a one-bedroom apartment, I could put all of my possessions into a small-sized U-Haul, and I do not like having anything in my life to distract me from going for a 20-mile run on weekend mornings with friends. I've never wanted a dream house, a dream car, or a dream property, and, instead, I've always liked dream experiences.

When my old 27'' tube television started to die last year, I actually pondered the notion of not replacing that television at all, and simply selling off my DVDs, instead of upgrading to an HDTV. That notion did not last long, because I have always been, and always will be, a serious movie fan who has enjoyed at least 3 or 4 movies a week for as long as I can remember. My love for minimalism only goes so far, and I do not want to give up watching movies at home. When I saw how good movies look on Blu-ray with my current setup, I got sucked into all of this a lot deeper than I expected, as one can ascertain from my multiple posts in this forum.

I still don't need the biggest or best, though. I grew up watching movies on an old black-and-white television in my bedroom, and I grew up watching them on shoddy cable airings (Elvira's Movie Macabre, Kung Fu Theatre, etc.), where the movies were intercut with cheesy car commercials and title pawn commercials. It's easy for me to forget how fortunate I am to be watching awesome film noir flicks and such in brilliant quality without interruption.

My point being that, I do not even know if I'm going to care about these things as much in another decade or so, when I get closer to old age. I've sort of fell into the philosophy of enjoying favorite movies in good quality right now at this time in my life as much as I can, while I have the means to do so.

[repulsed]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

was that price for the DVD or blu-ray? I'm assuming dvd.

no, it's the Bluray
surprised it was in a condition worth purchasing
those bins destroy cases but i get lucky quite often

[MattvonSyborg]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Then again, the home-theater market is different in Europe.
Which is the problem of using overseas benchmarks of home-theater users--
It's harsh to say, but nobody really cares what Denmark, Sweden or the UK have to say about Blu-ray, when the US, Japan and Germany say it louder.

Sweden is a blip on the world marketplace - it's a country with a population the size of New York City. Which, among other things, is why I have to import criterion editions of the Bergman films on blu. There's no domestic option, might be the odd UK edition exists of some films but there's no Swedish editions - just DVDs. Well, have to - I gladly import Bergman Criterions

The only thing interesting about Sweden to big US entertainment companies is The Pirate Bay.

[starman15317]

Originally Posted by repulsed

no, it's the Bluray
surprised it was in a condition worth purchasing
those bins destroy cases but i get lucky quite often

There are a few Criterions that are actually distributed by the studio that owns the film, so they have low prices. The only Blu that I know of like this is Benjamin Button (I bought it on Black Friday for $3.99), but the DVD versions of The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic and Chasing Amy are like this as well.

[MattvonSyborg]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I could have written this post word-for-word, since I'm 41 right now.

I have always ended up using a "scorched earth" mindset when it comes to upgrading, because I sold off my VHS collection immediately when I upgraded to DVD, and I've spent most of this year selling off my 600+ DVD collection to fund the upgrading of favorite titles to Blu-ray.

The funny thing about all of this is that, for the past several years, as I've become more immersed in my running lifestyle, I've become increasingly minimalist with my possessions. I live in a one-bedroom apartment, I could put all of my possessions into a small-sized U-Haul, and I do not like having anything in my life to distract me from going for a 20-mile run on weekend mornings with friends. I've never wanted a dream house, a dream car, or a dream property, and, instead, I've always liked dream experiences.

When my old 27'' tube television started to die last year, I actually pondered the notion of not replacing that television at all, and simply selling off my DVDs, instead of upgrading to an HDTV. That notion did not last long, because I have always been, and always will be, a serious movie fan who has enjoyed at least 3 or 4 movies a week for as long as I can remember. My love for minimalism only goes so far, and I do not want to give up watching movies at home. When I saw how good movies look on Blu-ray with my current setup, I got sucked into all of this a lot deeper than I expected, as one can ascertain from my multiple posts in this forum.

I still don't need the biggest or best, though. I grew up watching movies on an old black-and-white television in my bedroom, and I grew up watching them on shoddy cable airings (Elvira's Movie Macabre, Kung Fu Theatre, etc.), where the movies were intercut with cheesy car commercials and title pawn commercials. It's easy for me to forget how fortunate I am to be watching awesome film noir flicks and such in brilliant quality without interruption.

My point being that, I do not even know if I'm going to care about these things as much in another decade or so, when I get closer to old age. I've sort of fell into the philosophy of enjoying favorite movies in good quality right now at this time in my life as much as I can, while I have the means to do so.

Great post - I can relate to it a lot, even though I'm 10 years younger. The last 2-3 years I've felt the need to cut down on material possessions and I've slimmed down my (pretty substantial) record collection quite a bit. On the other hand, I've also pretty recently gotten into blus and have bought quite a few of those. There's always an ongoing struggle between minimalism and the joys of less, and me being a pop culture nerd and collector personality. But I'm learning to live with it.

I think this Robert Crumb cartoon hits the nail on the head, basically: http://www.ideologic.org/media/filter/l/img/crumb_2.jpg

"The mysterious attraction of the series syndrome". Sounds like Criterion to me!

[Spooked]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I could have written this post word-for-word, since I'm 41 right now.

I have always ended up using a "scorched earth" mindset when it comes to upgrading, because I sold off my VHS collection immediately when I upgraded to DVD, and I've spent most of this year selling off my 600+ DVD collection to fund the upgrading of favorite titles to Blu-ray.

The funny thing about all of this is that, for the past several years, as I've become more immersed in my running lifestyle, I've become increasingly minimalist with my possessions. I live in a one-bedroom apartment, I could put all of my possessions into a small-sized U-Haul, and I do not like having anything in my life to distract me from going for a 20-mile run on weekend mornings with friends. I've never wanted a dream house, a dream car, or a dream property, and, instead, I've always liked dream experiences.

When my old 27'' tube television started to die last year, I actually pondered the notion of not replacing that television at all, and simply selling off my DVDs, instead of upgrading to an HDTV. That notion did not last long, because I have always been, and always will be, a serious movie fan who has enjoyed at least 3 or 4 movies a week for as long as I can remember. My love for minimalism only goes so far, and I do not want to give up watching movies at home. When I saw how good movies look on Blu-ray with my current setup, I got sucked into all of this a lot deeper than I expected, as one can ascertain from my multiple posts in this forum.

I still don't need the biggest or best, though. I grew up watching movies on an old black-and-white television in my bedroom, and I grew up watching them on shoddy cable airings (Elvira's Movie Macabre, Kung Fu Theatre, etc.), where the movies were intercut with cheesy car commercials and title pawn commercials. It's easy for me to forget how fortunate I am to be watching awesome film noir flicks and such in brilliant quality without interruption.

My point being that, I do not even know if I'm going to care about these things as much in another decade or so, when I get closer to old age. I've sort of fell into the philosophy of enjoying favorite movies in good quality right now at this time in my life as much as I can, while I have the means to do so.

I'm contributing to thread derailment here, but thank you very much for this post. I'm new here, and I find it's easy for me to sometimes get caught up in the 'high-def upgrade' mindset. Perspective can be a great thing.

I too, grew up watching B-flicks and the like on TV (Rabbit ears and cable, lol) and VHS. I never groused much about the picture then, so I really have no right be that picky now.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I could have written this post word-for-word, since I'm 41 right now.

I have always ended up using a "scorched earth" mindset when it comes to upgrading, because I sold off my VHS collection immediately when I upgraded to DVD, and I've spent most of this year selling off my 600+ DVD collection to fund the upgrading of favorite titles to Blu-ray.

The funny thing about all of this is that, for the past several years, as I've become more immersed in my running lifestyle, I've become increasingly minimalist with my possessions. I live in a one-bedroom apartment, I could put all of my possessions into a small-sized U-Haul, and I do not like having anything in my life to distract me from going for a 20-mile run on weekend mornings with friends. I've never wanted a dream house, a dream car, or a dream property, and, instead, I've always liked dream experiences.

When my old 27'' tube television started to die last year, I actually pondered the notion of not replacing that television at all, and simply selling off my DVDs, instead of upgrading to an HDTV. That notion did not last long, because I have always been, and always will be, a serious movie fan who has enjoyed at least 3 or 4 movies a week for as long as I can remember. My love for minimalism only goes so far, and I do not want to give up watching movies at home. When I saw how good movies look on Blu-ray with my current setup, I got sucked into all of this a lot deeper than I expected, as one can ascertain from my multiple posts in this forum.

I still don't need the biggest or best, though. I grew up watching movies on an old black-and-white television in my bedroom, and I grew up watching them on shoddy cable airings (Elvira's Movie Macabre, Kung Fu Theatre, etc.), where the movies were intercut with cheesy car commercials and title pawn commercials. It's easy for me to forget how fortunate I am to be watching awesome film noir flicks and such in brilliant quality without interruption.

My point being that, I do not even know if I'm going to care about these things as much in another decade or so, when I get closer to old age. I've sort of fell into the philosophy of enjoying favorite movies in good quality right now at this time in my life as much as I can, while I have the means to do so.

I too have started weeding down my collection some, generally movies that I know i'll never watch again, or that I just don't care about... and ripping cds that I know are just going to go on my iPod for workouts or car trips. Before I bought a house and then got marrried I was the guy who could drop a hundred or so a week on cds, dvds, and blu-rays because they looked good, or i just had the cash to do so. No I'm older and have different priorities. I try to only buy what I really want, and things I know i'll enjoy over and over. Not a movie snob, though I can be at times (or so my wife says), but I do try to be more discerning in my purchases. My Criterion obsession started with Chasing Amy. Now I love their releases, and want to buy more, which makes me need more room... vicious cycle.

So yeah, with age I've started to change and so has my "must upgrade" attitude. I do what I can when I can.. and frankly, my 42" plasma plays my blu-rays well and I am happy with what I have.