The Criterion Channel

[cheez avenger]

We are incredibly touched and encouraged by the flood of support we’ve been receiving since the announcement that FilmStruck will be shutting down on November 29, 2018. Our thanks go out to everyone who signed petitions, wrote letters and newspaper articles, and raised your voices to let the world know how much our mission and these movies matter to you.

Well, if you loved the curated programming we’ve been doing with our friends at FilmStruck, we have good news for you. The Criterion Collection team is going to be carrying on with that mission, launching the Criterion Channel as a freestanding service in spring 2019.

We’ve been trying to make something a little different for the past two years—a movie lover’s dream streaming service, with smart thematic programming, where the history of cinema can live and breathe, where a new generation of filmmakers and film lovers can explore the classics or revel in rarities, where adventurous cinephiles can champion films that have never gotten their due, and newcomers can easily find guidance from major filmmakers, top scholars, curators, and other experts from all walks of life.

The Criterion Channel will be picking up where the old service left off, programming director spotlights and actor retrospectives featuring major Hollywood and international classics and hard-to-find discoveries from around the world, complete with special features like commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage, and original documentaries. We will continue with our guest programmer series, Adventures in Moviegoing. Our regular series like Art-House America, Split Screen, and Meet the Filmmakers, and our Ten Minutes or Less section will all live on, along with Tuesday’s Short + Feature and the Friday Night Double Feature, and of course our monthly fifteen-minute film school, Observations on Film Art.

Our library will also be available through WarnerMedia’s new consumer platform when it launches late next year, so once both services are live, Criterion fans will have even more ways to find the films they love.

We will be starting from scratch, with no subscribers, so we will need all the help we can get. The most valuable thing you can do to help now is go to Criterion.com/channel (https://www.criterion.com/channel) and sign up to be a Charter Subscriber, then tell your friends to sign up too. We need everyone who was a FilmStruck subscriber or who’s been tweeting and signing petitions and writing letters to come out and to sign up for the new service. We can’t do it without you!

[bdmckinl]

Anyone know if this will be available in Canada?

EDIT: Never mind, I didn’t read the release closely enough. Initial launch in the US and Canada woo-hoo!

[Poya]

Sweet! Does that mean they’ll have the films that FilmStruck had or just Criterion films only?

Our library will also be available through WarnerMedia’s new consumer platform when it launches late next year,

I assume that will be like when Amazon Prime allows CBS, HBO, etc to stream on their service via “channels”?

[billygreen23]

complete with special features like commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage, and original documentaries.

Very excited about that.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by billygreen23

Very excited about that.

Filmstruck had that too, no?

[Jar Jar Stinks]

So, this is going to cost the same as the old FilmStruck + Criterion option?

[ChromeJob]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

So, this is going to cost the same as the old FilmStruck + Criterion option?

Less than the Filmstruck + Criterion $11.99 price. It will NOT include TCM content, apparently only Criterion.

It WILL apparently carry all the extras and features that made Filmstruck such a deal.

Early adopters can get $1/month or $10/yearly rate discounts. => https://www.criterion.com/channel


FYI, if you have TCM in your cable package, you may qualify for access to the Watch TCM on Apple TV, other platforms. Films are available for a week or two, and the software is a little better developed than Filmstruck's (tvOS, that is).

[rollinwith26s]

A Criterion Channel, if available in Canada, will be such a blessing and a curse for me. For one, I will finally be able to afford to watch more Criterions. The downside is that I could spend WAAAYYYY too much time watching Criterions if they are all available to me at once.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by ChromeJob

Less than the Filmstruck + Criterion $11.99 price. It will NOT include TCM content, apparently only Criterion.

It WILL apparently carry all the extras and features that made Filmstruck such a deal.

Early adopters can get $1/month or $10/yearly rate discounts. => https://www.criterion.com/channel


FYI, if you have TCM in your cable package, you may qualify for access to the Watch TCM on Apple TV, other platforms. Films are available for a week or two, and the software is a little better developed than Filmstruck's (tvOS, that is).

And that's just the a la carte price of month to month. If you buy the year all at once it comes down even more in terms of price and they will be giving folks a free 30-day trial, as well.

[gregmtl92]

I wonder if we'll have the option to turn off the subtitles?

[coachlynn]

Darn, wish I had seen this sooner. Looks like it's @$90 a year now.

[erlinmeyer]

Maybe by the time they come online they will have fixed this:

My Criterion
Under Construction

no money until then

[DickieT]

Originally Posted by coachlynn

Darn, wish I had seen this sooner. Looks like it's @$90 a year now.

You didn't miss anything. It will increase for folks who sign up after april 8th to $100 annually. You can sign up starting today

https://www.criterionchannel.com/




Be a Charter Subscriber!

Sign up now and enjoy an extended 30-day free trial (beginning with the April 8 launch), along with reduced pricing and access to our prelaunch Movie of the Week series, running exclusively for Charter Subscribers between sign-up and launch of the service.

Charter subscribers pay $9.99 per month or $89.99 annually for as long as you stay active, instead of $10.99 per month or $99.99 annually for subscribers who sign up after April 8. Your official 30-day free trial will not begin until April 8, and your card will not be charged until your free trial is over.

Charter Subscribers get concierge customer service from the Criterion Collection, a dedicated e-mail address to write to, as well as a holiday gift certificate for use on the Criterion Collection website.

[kristoffer]

I wonder which audio codec they will use and how good the bitrate will be for both video and audio.

[Animatic33]

Originally Posted by kristoffer

I wonder which audio codec they will use and how good the bitrate will be for both video and audio.

They're using VHX as their streaming backend. Since VHX is now owned and operated by Vimeo, I am presuming the encodes will be limited to whatever VHX allows and perhaps a standard established by vimeo.

The stream of Mikey and Nicky is interesting to see, as there's a heavy grain inherit in the scan, but the streaming artifacts are currently pretty noticeable at close range. I am hoping they will tweak the settings based upon load testing up and after the launch of the service.

The upside of the matter is that Vimeo is a company that offers content creators better quality controls on how their videos are presented. So, no doubt there's some tweaking going on Criterion's end to get it up to par.

[cgpublic]

Originally Posted by kristoffer

I wonder which audio codec they will use and how good the bitrate will be for both video and audio.

Originally Posted by Animatic33

They're using VHX as their streaming backend. Since VHX is now owned and operated by Vimeo, I am presuming the encodes will be limited to whatever VHX allows and perhaps a standard established by vimeo

Vimeo, and I assume will be the case for Criterion, provides content upwards to 4K HDR playback.

If you've never watched Vimeo content via the Apple TV app, you should; it's a real treat.

[bessetmath]

Originally Posted by cgpublic

Vimeo, and I assume will be the case for Criterion, provides content upwards to 4K HDR playback.

If you've never watched Vimeo content via the Apple TV app, you should; it's a real treat.

Just a small update from Vimeo :

Vimeo OTT customer service wrote:
Please note, regarding the Apple TV VHX app, due to some shifts in focus, we stopped releasing updates to the VHX app some time ago.

While it’s still generally possible to view purchases and subscriptions through it, you may encounter a bug or limitation. Since we won’t be making updates or improvements, I’m afraid any existing or new bugs that may appear in the future won’t be fixed. However, once the Criterion Channel launches on April 8th, a new Criterion Channel Apple TV app will be available (along with new Amazon Fire, Roku, iOS, and Android apps on or around that time).

Credit goes to : zeroism (criterionforum.org)

[cgpublic]

Originally Posted by bessetmath

Just a small update from Vimeo :

Vimeo OTT customer service wrote:
Please note, regarding the Apple TV VHX app, due to some shifts in focus, we stopped releasing updates to the VHX app some time ago.

While it’s still generally possible to view purchases and subscriptions through it, you may encounter a bug or limitation. Since we won’t be making updates or improvements, I’m afraid any existing or new bugs that may appear in the future won’t be fixed. However, once the Criterion Channel launches on April 8th, a new Criterion Channel Apple TV app will be available (along with new Amazon Fire, Roku, iOS, and Android apps on or around that time).

Credit goes to : zeroism (criterionforum.org)

Yes, but to clarify, it's my understanding that it is the VHX branding and related app that has been sunset, not the technology.

The underlying VHX technology is now branded Vimeo OTT, and companies/services apply their own custom branding, e.g., Criterion.

[Animatic33]

From Vimeo OTT's official guidelines (https://help.vhx.tv/article/17-video...ssion-settings)

This is what the client should provide to Vimeo for best playback.

In order for your work to look it’s best, we recommend these compression settings. As a rule of thumb, the settings below should yield a file size of about 6-10GB for a feature film. Learn how to upload your videos here.

VIDEO
CODEC: H.264
BIT-RATE: 8,000 kbps – 13,000 kbps
FRAME RATES: 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, & 60 FPS
RESOLUTIONS: We accept any resolution, but please upload the largest you have (without upscaling).
CONTAINER: MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, etc.

AUDIO
CODEC: AAC
BIT-RATE: 320 kbps
SAMPLE RATE: We accept most sample rates, but common ones for video are 44.1kHz & 48 kHz.
CHANNELS: Stereo - L & R
NOTE: If you want to upload Surround 5.1, please read this guide.

[Corey31]

Would like to see them add an XBOX One app. That's where I do most of my streaming.

I'll give them a shot, was always disappointed FilmStruck didn't make it into Canada (without jumping through the VPN hoops)