complete Criterion collection

Last I checked, I had about 1/2, including all of the OOP titles. I've been buying them since 1999. I also have several boxes of Criterion laserdiscs from 1997-1999.

I've slowed way down; too many unwatched titles or upgrades. Can't keep up. Skipped the last two half-off sales completely.

 

Hehe.

Well, my dream isn't that far fetched considering today you can subscribe to 800+ titles from the Criterion catalog, streaming in "near DVD-quality" HD, and decent sound quality, over your high-speed Internet service, for $7.99/month. That includes 356 Hulu Plus exclusive films. The other 541 titles are the same movies that Criterion has released on DVD and/or Blu-Ray disc.

How many Blu-Ray discs does $7.99 a month buy?

So to imagine, based on the assumption that the Criterion/Hulu relationship will continue in the future, that they will eventually improve the audio/video quality as consumer ISP speeds gradually increase, even if that means more than doubling the Hulu Plus monthly subscription cost to pay for extra servers and bandwidth, doesn't seem that "out there" to me.

And if Criterion doesn't eventually upgrade to something like that, I can see some other "art films" studio doing something similar.

Craig.

 

Sounds easy enough, right? And yet, somehow, the market always manages to muck things up. Time will tell...

 

I have a Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming subscription; I enjoy them both. But, despite the cost (and I can't afford very many Criterion titles myself!), I would encourage people to pick up the physical copies of anything while they can, if they can. All of these online streaming services have titles that go in and out of availability. I'm not even getting into the plausibility of 4K streams and whatnot. I just don't like being beholden to whatever the steaming services and right holders/distributors can manage to agree to allow to be streamed.

Even now, I'd say at least 50% of movies or TV shows that I come across that I want to watch are not available on any of these streaming services. It's not possible for most of us to purchase all the physical media that we may just possibly want to watch at some point in the distant future. But I'm certainly not going to advocate for anyone to get rid of their physical media collection (and I'm not suggesting anyone has made this suggestion), and I won't advocate to forego purchasing it in the future.

Not a huge amount of Criterion BD's have gone out of print thus far I suppose, so that's a good thing. I am glad I grabbed "The Third Man" as soon as it came out. It's tempting to eBay it for $150-$200, but I actually really like the film!

 

I do feel very gluttonous for having bought a few Criterion titles over the past couple years during the 50% off sales that I still haven't watched. That's why I've also gone very light on Criterion purchases. Lately, I've only picked up "A Hard Day's Night" (which of course had nothing to do with it specifically being a Criterion title), and I just picked up "Scanners" since that one seems to be harder to find at B&N stores since it's brand new and 50% off.

Thinking of grabbing "Picnic at Hanging Rock", since it's such a nice looking and fancy set for only $19.99. I want to grab "Hearts and Minds" too. But I'm not sure, because I don't know if I'll realistically watch these particularly soon.

 

Rocker, have you since seen the light and started buying Blu-rays? I can't imagine in 2014 still not seeing the incredible difference in quality when compared to DVD.

 

I wonder sometimes if their sales are dropping due to Criterion burn-out. Several of the recent titles, such as "Picnic at Hanging Rock" are among my favorite films, but upgrading the title to Blu-ray when I've already got at least a hundred I haven't watched seems excessive. At one point, I considered forcing myself to watch one Criterion a week, but just couldn't muster the energy with all of the other stuff I have to watch.

I was buying most of my titles used but stopped that when I'd buy a used DVD and then a Blu-ray would be announced a few weeks or months later.

 

I believe I currently own three (8 1/2, Andrei Rublev, The Rules of the Game)

When I scored my first decent job, DVDs were still not too terribly old. I seriously considered collecting the Criterion discs.

Then they released Armageddon, and I released there wasn't any way in the world I was going down that road...

I do subscribe to Hulu Plus. I watched two just this week (The Burmese Harp and The River)!

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

That's a fair counter-argument to my suggestion that streaming Criterion films on Hulu might be sufficient.

I did qualify my suggestion that it was of course dependent on the Criterion/Hulu relationship continuing for many years to come (as well as Hulu itself continuing to exist!), but aside from that, all of the Criterion titles that have ever been released on a physical format will never be available without exception on any streaming service. For the same licensing reasons that cause physical media titles to go out of print.

So if you really want assure yourself of access to EVERYTHING ALWAYS, then you must buy buy buy, and store store store, until some day in the future when you might finally decide to watch everything. I tried that for a while with Criterion DVDs, but part of my point in earlier posts was that despite those good intentions, the march of technology overtook my efforts, and now I'm kind of burned out (as Cerebus put it) on the idea of trying to re-collect on Blu-Ray all the titles I have in the now inferior and nearly-obsolete DVD format.

Plus in recent years I've been traveling, and it's simply easier to connect my laptop (or my Roku 3 if I bring it) to a hotel HDTV and stream a Criterion movie from Hulu (when the hotel's wifi performance is sufficient) than pack an assortment of DVDs (especially since my Macbook Air doesn't even have a DVD drive) that I may or may not end up watching.

Craig.

 

Sorry, but streaming Criterion films on Hulu looks way, WAY better than near DVD-quality. Maybe you meant near blu-ray-quality.

 

Aren't there commercials when you stream from Hulu??

 

I've never seen a commercial while streaming a Criterion film.

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

Wow, that's pretty cool. I wasn't sure, I just assumed that since everything else on Hulu has commercials (even their pay service), that the Criterion films would. Thanks for answering.

 

Not at all. I do pay the $9.99 or whatever per month. Maybe there ARE commercials for the free version of Hulu.

 

Streaming is an attractive option given the cost, but a key factor nudging me towards ownership is the remarkable job that Criterion generally does with supplementary materials. Commentaries by film makers or critics, documentaries (often full-length themselves) that illuminate the context of a film or the issues it deals with, interviews with directors, camera-persons, actors, even other films made by the same director, are usually included in a Criterion package. Oftentimes there are several hours' worth of supplementary features. There are also generally well-written and informative essays and other materials in the (often thick) booklets that accompany these releases. While I don't always watch these elements every time I watch the film, they almost always enhance my understanding of a movie. Regrettably, you don't get any of that when you stream.

 

I agree with you, actually. I think Criterion films look great on Hulu Plus (when using a fast ISP, and waiting a couple of minutes for a fully buffered stream). I was just being conservative in my description of the video quality, because I didn't want it to become a point of contention. I am certain there are some folks out there who can freeze-frame and point out artifacts in the streaming video that aren't in same frame of the DVD when played on some amazing $5,000 DVD player with state-of-the-art video chip inside.

Craig.

 

Not if you subscribe to Hulu Plus for $7.99. All Criterion titles are commercial free in that case.

A few years ago, before I subscribed to Hulu Plus, I recall trying to watch a Criterion film that they had made available with commercials. It was MISERABLE and quickly prompted me to subscribe!

Craig.

 

Hulu Plus does provide some of the extras (wait until the credits are rolling at the end, and sometimes you will be offered extras to watch afterwards), but you are basically right. I'm sure the extras available for a Criterion film on Hulu Plus are only a fraction of what is available on the Blu-Ray or DVD edition.

 

No problem!

I know the few television shows I've watched there all have had commercials.

The only Hulu Plus movies I've watched have been Criterion (although I hope to view The Stunt Man this weekend!), so I don't know if the exemptions from commercials is only for those films or for all films...

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

Just finished It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World...6 hours of film / 3 hours of extras !!!

 

At a minimum (and apologies for the very mild digression from the main topic of collecting physical media), I would suggest that Criterion streaming on Hulu Plus is an inexpensive "extra" that a collector should consider subscribing to for a nominal monthly fee.

Any rabid collector of Criterion's physical media - whether DVD or Blu-Ray - is probably already spending $50-100 a month or more to catch/keep up. What's another $7.99 a month to augment that effort with a subscription to Hulu Plus streaming? - if for no other reason than to have access to the 356 films that Criterion claims are exclusive to Hulu Plus and otherwise unavailable on any Criterion physical media...

Craig.

 

Nope, I'm still sticking with DVDs.

Maybe I just haven't seen the right examples, but I have yet to be impressed by the so-called "incredible difference in quality" of Blu-rays. My brother, who works in the film industry, recently tried to convince me by showing me a back-to-back comparison between the DVD and BR editions of Lord of the Rings.... still not impressed.

 

I remember an article I read in the newspaper (could have been the New York Times) about 10-12 years ago in the early 2000s, it was about a special edition deluxe boxset containing the entire Criterion collection in one package. This costed about 4000$ if memory serves me right, and it was a product that Criterion had put up for sale which sold fast, despite its high price.

According to the article there are several millionaires who happen to be collectors of media on DVD and CD, and these people actually hire others to do all the purchasing on their behalf. These wealthy businessmen don't have the will nor the time to shop around in stores.

One such intermediaries talked in the article about the Criterion box being very convenient since all titles could be acquired in one single purchase and delivered to his rich client. That story should be somewhere around the net, and If I searched I'm sure I could dig up a link, but not right now.

 

Weird. Not to be a smartass, but are your eyes OK? If you can't see the difference then I'm concerned you might have a medical condition or at least need glasses.