TV/Movies Megathread

[Duque de Bragança]

I bought a Blu-Ray player the other day. They're pretty cheap. Mostly I use it for music concert films.

If you have a decent sound set-up (anything more than the TV speakers most of the time) it's even better.
Weren't you interested by Cross of Iron? I saw it's getting re-released in UHD blu-ray soon, not in North America it seems however.

[Josquius]

I don't even currently have a setup capable of playing British DVDs. 

Region problem or no player at all?
DVD drives are dirt cheap for computers (Blu-ray is another story).

Otherwise, most consoles since PS2 days days have a DVD drive (Nintendo being the notable exception). Avoid crappy "digital" versions however (PS5 & latest X-Box).

I have a Japanese PS3, which should be the same region as Europe but isn't, and my DVD player is so old it only has scart out.
My DVD drive on my computer died at some point.

[Duque de Bragança]

I don't even currently have a setup capable of playing British DVDs. 

Region problem or no player at all?
DVD drives are dirt cheap for computers (Blu-ray is another story).

Otherwise, most consoles since PS2 days days have a DVD drive (Nintendo being the notable exception). Avoid crappy "digital" versions however (PS5 & latest X-Box).

I have a Japanese PS3, which should be the same region as Europe but isn't, and my DVD player is so old it only has scart out.
My DVD drive on my computer died at some point.

Strange, DVDs should play indeed (zone 2 for both Europe and Japan) but not blu-rays (Japan Region A).
As for the DVD player yes it's old.
Even the last combi DVD-VHS player my players owned had component output along with RGB Scart. Not that component improved VHS quality of course. 

OTOH, having a dead DVD drive happened to me on my previous MacbookPro (after 7-8 years of use) but got a cheap external CD/DVD replacement.

PS: regarding the Japanese PS3, could it be a NTSC vs PAL issue? European PS3 play both PAL and NTSC zone 2 DVD but Japanese probably only play NTSC.

[Josephus]

I bought a Blu-Ray player the other day. They're pretty cheap. Mostly I use it for music concert films.

If you have a decent sound set-up (anything more than the TV speakers most of the time) it's even better.
Weren't you interested by Cross of Iron? I saw it's getting re-released in UHD blu-ray soon, not in North America it seems however.

Good memory. Yes.

[Josquius]

I don't even currently have a setup capable of playing British DVDs. 

Region problem or no player at all?
DVD drives are dirt cheap for computers (Blu-ray is another story).

Otherwise, most consoles since PS2 days days have a DVD drive (Nintendo being the notable exception). Avoid crappy "digital" versions however (PS5 & latest X-Box).

I have a Japanese PS3, which should be the same region as Europe but isn't, and my DVD player is so old it only has scart out.
My DVD drive on my computer died at some point.

Strange, DVDs should play indeed (zone 2 for both Europe and Japan) but not blu-rays (Japan Region A).
As for the DVD player yes it's old.
Even the last combi DVD-VHS player my players owned had component output along with RGB Scart. Not that component improved VHS quality of course. 

OTOH, having a dead DVD drive happened to me on my previous MacbookPro (after 7-8 years of use) but got a cheap external CD/DVD replacement.

PS: regarding the Japanese PS3, could it be a NTSC vs PAL issue? European PS3 play both PAL and NTSC zone 2 DVD but Japanese probably only play NTSC.

Possible.
I haven't tried to play anything on it for literally years tbh.

[Duque de Bragança]

I bought a Blu-Ray player the other day. They're pretty cheap. Mostly I use it for music concert films.

If you have a decent sound set-up (anything more than the TV speakers most of the time) it's even better.
Weren't you interested by Cross of Iron? I saw it's getting re-released in UHD blu-ray soon, not in North America it seems however.

Good memory. Yes.

UHD has no region locking so it might be worthwhile to import, even without a full UHD set at home, if you can't get a blu-ray release for some reason (rights for Canada etc.).

[Savonarola]

In 2009 The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press ceased regular home delivery.  This was a hard blow to my Grandfather who turned 90 that year, and had home delivery of both papers his entire adult life (and who wasn't on the interwebs.)  I was reminded of that this morning when I got a message that Netflix was going to cease delivery of DVDs in September.

I was disappointed, but not really surprised; since I think I'm the only person left in America who still watches DVDs.  I am not at all impressed by Netflix's streaming content; so I'll cancel in a couple days.  Does anyone subscribe to The Criterion Channel?  That looks like the best fit for me; but I'm curious if it is any good.

Lester Holt (on NBC Nightly News) described this as "The end of a bygone era."  I'd complain about that on the geezer thread (what script monkey wrote that? if it's a bygone era it means it already ended) except it's my bygone era.

A number of news services interviewed people who still used Netflix's disc delivery service; and they were all these film fanatics (what sort of world are we leaving to our children, how are they going to find anything in the Psychotronic Film Guide now?)... with whom I in no way identify... but it's the reason that I did like Netflix and kept the disc subscription long after the world moved to streaming, with such a large collection you could find some amazing things.

[Eddie Teach]

Netflix has lots of good original and foreign television though.

[Sheilbh]

RIP Barry Humphries

Edit: Feels like one of the last of that generation of Australians who came to London in the 60s and had a huge impact on our culture too: him, Clive James, Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes etc. I feel like the "swinging sixties" in London owed a lot more to Australian counter-culture moving here than what was going on in the US, though we normally think that's where it came from.

[viper37]

Carnival Row, Season 2.

I long waited for this one.  And I was a tad disappointed.  The first season was a real police investigation into a murder mystery, but with this supernatural worlds, where mythical creatures called Faes and Humans co-exists, not entirely peacefully, as there's lots of discrimination going against the Faes.

They're trying to go back to that with season 2, but the political machinations aren't as clear and well defined as they were in season 1.  The main character is no longer a policeman, so it's not really a police investigation while it's trying to be.  Some characters have moved continent and are stuck in a form of Soviet Revolution.

It kinda shoots in all direction and loose focus.  And I feel like the special effects are not as well done as in the first season, at times.  It's as if Amazon had run into budget issues with its production and decided to cut its losses during the pandemic.

[Josquius]

Carnival Row, Season 2.

I long waited for this one.  And I was a tad disappointed.  The first season was a real police investigation into a murder mystery, but with this supernatural worlds, where mythical creatures called Faes and Humans co-exists, not entirely peacefully, as there's lots of discrimination going against the Faes.

They're trying to go back to that with season 2, but the political machinations aren't as clear and well defined as they were in season 1.  The main character is no longer a policeman, so it's not really a police investigation while it's trying to be.  Some characters have moved continent and are stuck in a form of Soviet Revolution.

It kinda shoots in all direction and loose focus.  And I feel like the special effects are not as well done as in the first season, at times.  It's as if Amazon had run into budget issues with its production and decided to cut its losses during the pandemic.

That's been on my list for a while. The lack of advertising this time around is notable. I keep forgetting about it's existence. S1 was good.

[Savonarola]

Netflix has lots of good original and foreign television though.

Yeah, I'm not much of a fan of television, though.  There's very few shows that I've watched all the way through.  Netflix has had some good original movies, but not enough that I'd keep the service.

[Savonarola]

RIP Barry Humphries

Edit: Feels like one of the last of that generation of Australians who came to London in the 60s and had a huge impact on our culture too: him, Clive James, Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes etc. I feel like the "swinging sixties" in London owed a lot more to Australian counter-culture moving here than what was going on in the US, though we normally think that's where it came from.

Heh, I think we tend to think a lot of our counter-culture had its roots in London's Swinging Sixties (at least in the mid-60s era.)  If nothing else the British Invasion introduced (non-hipster) white Americans to the blues (and reintroduced all of America to Chuck Berry.)

[Admiral Yi]

My interest in Beef is waning.  The characters seem more like symbols than human beings.

[Eddie Teach]

Symbols of what?