Channels & viewing

[SouthPawPhlly]

Sorry for the misunderstanding, I never meant to imply that CR was owned/ operated by Criterion. It never even crossed my mind that that they had a business relationship. Nor am I blaming Criterion for another services' operations.

I have no idea how CR operates.  Nor do I really care, I just enjoy old movies and appreciate a low cost subscription to some really great movies not found on other resources.

If you follow the thread you will see that most of my posts are in response to another subscriber who pointed out some of the flaws with the prints available on CR.  I really wasn't even aware of the flaws until it was pointed out to me.  Since I don't care for Westerns I may never have noticed it.  

I would like to say, that if anyone is interested in a better print of "Mackenna's Gold" it can be found on Criterion, but I don't wish to be accused of somehow promoting Criterion,  I don't work for them, I am simply a subscriber who also enjoys what they have to offer.

Criterion's subscription cost more than CR currently at $10.99 USD monthly. 

Having said that it would be nice if CR was a bit more careful about it's source of videos. -- My opinion I could be wrong.

[atc98092]

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@SouthPawPhlly wrote:

Sorry for the misunderstanding, I never meant to imply that CR was owned/ operated by Criterion. It never even crossed my mind that that they had a business relationship. Nor am I blaming Criterion for another services' operations.

I have no idea how CR operates.  Nor do I really care, I just enjoy old movies and appreciate a low cost subscription to some really great movies not found on other resources.

If you follow the thread you will see that most of my posts are in response to another subscriber who pointed out some of the flaws with the prints available on CR.  I really wasn't even aware of the flaws until it was pointed out to me.  Since I don't care for Westerns I may never have noticed it.  

I would like to say, that if anyone is interested in a better print of "Mackenna's Gold" it can be found on Criterion, but I don't wish to be accused of somehow promoting Criterion,  I don't work for them, I am simply a subscriber who also enjoys what they have to offer.

Criterion's subscription cost more than CR currently at $10.99 USD monthly. 

Having said that it would be nice if CR was a bit more careful about it's source of videos. -- My opinion I could be wrong.

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Always entitled to your opinion, especially when it comes to the quality of the video and audio. No harm, no offense taken. I too would prefer providers offer the best content possible, but for the cost of CR one might accept an occasional clunker. 😄

Recommendations from a subscriber is always welcome. It's the only way one can get an honest report about some of the offerings. Roku has more channels/apps available than most any platform, but some are really duds. 

[chlojo1]

Since I started this thread to begin with, I have to agree with everything posted in the last couple of responses and consider this topic as "solved", since the "endless buffering" problem I brought up initially has been addressed.

I'd just like to add that in the almost 8 years that I've been with Roku, Classic Reel is the all-time find for a movie buff like myself in terms of the hours and hours of viewing pleasure it provides.  And yes, for the very low cost of subscription and unprecedented large catalog on offer, a high level of tolerance is definitely warranted for "an occasional clunker" or two.

[SouthPawPhlly]

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@chlojo1 wrote:

And yes, for the very low cost of subscription and unprecedented large catalog on offer, a high level of tolerance is definitely warranted for "an occasional clunker" or two.

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Well said.  Thank you!

[MAOCPAC]

Although I have had some minor reloading errors I must say that I am very happy, for the most part, with the selection and quality of the films. I have found numerous 50's classic films that I have been unable to find elsewhere. I also love the search feature by year and gives me a very good look at the classic reel catalog. This is the closest channel to TCM that I have found. Well worth the $2.99 month.

[chlojo1]

MAOCPAC, I've been enjoying Classic Reel for almost a year and didn't realize you could search by year.  I've been having a ball doing that since I saw your post.  Thank you so much.  And I totally agree that CR is a treasure trove at $2.99 a month.

By the way, for those still following this thread, I advise that if you see something you'd like to watch on Classic Reel, check the running time against the movie's listing on IMDB first.  I do have experiences of watching severely edited prints of movies I was initially excited to see in the CR catalog.  Doesn't happen a lot but when it does, it's really disappointing.

[FENSTERBARON8]

I hope they're still working on that new server, but it's been almost a year now since the new server was supposedly introduced and I'm having plenty of "loading" problems in March 2021.  Some of the movies work fine from start to finish, like "The Innocents." But any movie that has a loading problem, in my experience, has that problem every five minutes.   For instance, "Homicidal" keeps rebuffering every five minutes.  It's as if some movies are assigned to a first-class server and  others are assigned to a clunker.  I wish they would mark them with green lights and yellow lights or something, so the viewer would know how much patience they would need to watch a given movie.

I'm not even sure how to contact Classic Reels or who owns them.  The operators seem to be hidden from public view.  At least in the old days if you had an issue with a broadcaster, you knew their name and had at least a theoretical chance of getting through to them.  Today's streamers seem to have a sort of Kafakesque existence, thanks to which you can never quite get through to them or ever know who they are or if they're interested in your concerns.

[FENSTERBARON8]

I'm surprised to read that the problem has been largely sorted since I estimate that 1 in 2 of the movies that I attempt to watch have the "loading" issue come up every five minutes.

[chlojo1]

Hi.  I'm sorry you are having these buffering issues.  I experience them myself occasionally, but it hasn't been happening as regularly as when I started this thread.  It could be that I haven't been watching Classic Reel as frequently as I used to.  Also, when I do encounter buffering problems these days, I either find something else to watch and come back to the particular film some other time and try again.  CR still has an impressively large library, but I'm still taking issue more with the quality of their offerings.  You mentioned THE INNOCENTS, for instance.  I notice they are showing that in the wrong aspect ratio (pan-and-scan) so half the picture is chopped off, so it's another case of when I just stop watching and look for something else.  Anyway, good luck and I hope someone else has a better solution for your problem.

[HumphreyBogart]

Is there any update on the Classic Reel channel's move to a new server and the solving of the constant buffering of that channel?

I've subscribed for several years and just in the last two months it's started with constant buffering on most movies.

How do I contact them?