Tag: Movies

2022 Week 2 – Don’t Look Up!

It’s starting to get cold in Indianapolis after record warm temps in December. I’m ready for spring to get here so I can get back outside and off the couch. Also, I’m hoping the rental car situation improves this year because I’m dying to make a trip to Portland, Maine, to do some hiking, fishing & eating. In 2019 there were non-stop flights from Indy, but it looks like those are no longer available, so that means I have to go through Boston & drive north.

As much as we’re all trying NOT to catch COVID, we have to be realistic and accept the fact we’ll all probably get it at some time. If you’re concerned about what to do when that day comes, The Atlantic had a great writeup in December with recommendations on what to do.

This Monday, the College Football Championship is in Indianapolis, with Alabama playing Georgia at 8 pm. Lots of festivities downtown, including several concerts on Monument Circle. The weather looks a little iffy, but I hope it holds off so people can enjoy the festivities.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution sportswriter Chip Tower slams Indianapolis as the host city for the 2022 College Football Playoffs National Championship. Happily, Indianapolis Monthly had a reply.

And finally, “Don’t Look Up” on Netflix was a surprise hit. After watching it, I could totally see how the movie’s premise could happen…

Two low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.

IMDB.com

Track Movies Like You Track TV with Letterboxd

I’ve used TVShow Time! (now called TV Time) for over a year and it’s been a great resource to keep track of show’s I’m watching and shows I want to watch.  I always wished there was a similar tool out there for Movies.  When I reached out to the developers at TV Time I was told it had been “discussed”.

Without a useful app I resorted to keeping a list in Evernote that I would try to keep updated and accurate.  The problem with this list was the lack of social integration and reviews/ratings by others.  Then I found Letterboxd.

Letterboxd is about as close to TV Time for movies as it gets.  It has a huge database of movies you can add to your “Watch” or “Watched” lists as well as thousands of users form around the world sharing reviews and opinions.

And like TV Time it will tell you WHERE to find your movies online through integration with a service called GoWatchIt.  All you need to do is create an account and tell it which streaming services you have access to.

Let’s say I want to watch the 1963 classic “The Great Escape”.  All I need to do it look it up and check the Watch area in the movie description.  I see that I can rent it from iTunes for $3.99 or Amazon for $2.99.  There are also options to purchase it through the various streaming services as well.

After adding my movie list into Letterboxd and clicking around to discover all the options I was happy to drop $19 for a year of their Pro subscription which adds filtering and complicated query functions to get the best out of the site.  It has an iOS companion app as well as an app for the
AppleTV.

If you love movies and want a great way to keep track of the ones you see, own, or rent, you should give Letterboxd a try.  Let me know in the comments if you use Letterboxd or if you prefer another service.  I’m curious to see what else is out there I might have missed!

Shocker – Netflix Needs Cash

After a summer of mistakes Netflix is finding itself short on customers and cash.  They are trying to raise $200 million through the sales of bonds.  I think that should cover the lost revenue from losing 1-million customers in a quarter.

Click image to read the story

I used to LOVE Netflix but a 60% membership hike and a dismal choice of streaming content made canceling my subscription very easy.

Online TV – Which Network Does it Right?

Don’t you hate it when your favorite show gets interrupted by local or national news events?  This is especially true when using a DVR and you might not realize your show was preempted until a week later.

Enter the streaming features just about all of the major networks are using as another avenue to get their programming (and advertisements) in front of you.  Not all of these networks treat online video the same though.  Some sites tease you with clips and previews instead of making the entire show available.  Other sites only show 1-2 recent episodes and leaving the older shows to collect dust until summer re-runs (or syndication).

Some sites such as Hulu have a great selection but put all of the good content behind a subscription fence.  Another site (I’m not sure how legal this is) called justin.tv allows users to stream their TV to the web.  This is really helpful when local games are blacked out or delayed (i.e. Indy 500).  As of this writing Justin.tv had 2,606 live channels on their site.

I’ve thought about dropping cable TV all together and relying on online content and Netflix but with all of the existing restrictions imposed by the networks it’s just easier to keep things they way they are.  Bit Torrent, legal or not, has the content (so I hear) but automating the entire process and making it available when you want it is something that’s just not there yet.  Not to mention the legal aspects of downloading copyrighted content.

I remember hearing the president of NetFlix saying something about not shipping DVD’s in 5-10 years.  Maybe then the content will be easier to package and deliver digitally through the Internet.  Can the Internet itself handle this increased traffic load?  Is Bit Torrent and peer-to-peer technology the answer?  This is going to be an interesting issue to follow.

How do you get your entertainment content?  TV, Internet, DVD, other?  Where do you see content delivery changing in the upcoming years?

 

2,606 live channels