How do you watch films?

[holyzombiejesus]

I just posted about how much I used to love watching Moviedrome and was wondering if they'd ever do something similar again. Then I realised that I can't remember the last time I watched a film as it was being broadcast on television. 80% of the films I watched are streamed through Netflix etc, 10% are on DVD/ Blu-Ray and 10% are recorded off the TV. I guess a lot of people would add pirated stuff to that list, perhaps less watching physical formats and I'd usually watch maybe 20% of my films at the cinema.

I miss watching films on TV and maybe if we had that Talking Pictures channel I would. I don't think there'll ever be any 'event' broadcast premieres or cult series like Moviedrome again and that makes me feel quite sad although I'm an old man who has only just realised the boring and very obvious things contained in this thread.

[Magnum Valentino]

Those experiences stick with you but.

First thing I ever recorded on my first video player was Bride of Frankenstein during BBC's Universal Horror season round about 2000. I had that, Wolf Man, Invisible Man and Brownlow's documentary on one long-play tape and watched it to death. Still have it on my shelf albeit with nothing to play it on.

However, as tangibly pleasant a feeling as that memory provides, watching those films on DVD (and later Blu-ray) for the first time was similarly unforgettable. The clarity was astounding, but moreso because I'd watched SD versions taped off the telly on a cheap tape for years. One experience informed the other. I'd lived with them for long enough and had an 'inferior' (purely in terms of AV quality) copy to compare to.

The past few years I've got back into physical discs because I really love good extra features, but I'll still download things if I'm not sure I want to risk the money on them and I've started to notice some really good rips loaded with extras and commentaries which threatens my commitment to discs if I'm honest. when I'm feeling the pinch it's downloads all the way though I tend to pick them up later when I can afford it. Almost like a badge of honour on the shelf - it's there because I've seen it, even if I'll never watch it again.

I remember seeing Dazed and Confused in the 90s some time and loving it but having no way whatsoever to identify it. I kept my eyes peeled for what felt like years until I eventually caught it again, late night on RTE2 I think, and next day had my ma ring all her sisters to see who had yesterday's newspapers in the bin for the TV listings just to get the NAME. Then I'd something to look out for. Next time I saw it listed, I taped it, then it was mine. Still feel like that film is mine. Can't even watch it with my wife.

I loved catching things on late and discovering everyone talking about them the next day at school even though when I was watching it I'd no idea it was a shared experience. Evil Dead 2 was one. Load of young teenagers amazed by this mental film we'd seen, quoting favourite scenes. Can that happen now? Miss that sort of thing really badly. Twitter trends isn't the same thing like.

[Ham Bap]

I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Sky (though not Sky Movies).

I still watch a lot of films on TV. Watched Catch Me If You Can on TV (RTE 2 in Ireland) just last night.
And there's always plenty of films on the other Sky channels, Film4, Comedy Central, TCM, Sony Movies, ITV2/3/4 etc etc.

Then other films that are available on the paid subscriptions.
In the past 6 months I've dumped out about 250 DVDs, Blu-Rays. Films I've either seen far too many times or which are on repeat on all of the above, and I'm sick of watching.
I've kept another 150 or so films on Blu-ray/4K. Absolute favourites that I can come back to.

But I think I've already decided to not buy physical discs anymore.
The last new film I bought was Tenet and I just bought it on Prime Video before Christmas rather than wait the day or 2 for it to come.
I can see myself continuing to dump more of my physical discs until I'm down to a select few.

I've bought more on Apple TV and Prime Video the past year, so I can instantly watch it.
On Friday night for example I bought Stewart Lee Carpet Remnant World and If you prefer a Milder Comedian for £2.49 each on Prime Video. Any time I see a sale on Apple TV a I usually buy a favourite film in 4K for about £3.99.

Could never get into pirating either. I've done a bit in the past but the quality of the picture or the hassle usually drives me away.

[Ham Bap]

I also still love catching good films really late at night. Especially over Christmas when late night horror movies would be on or they would just show a really good film at around 1am.

However those are becoming few and far between as film rights get snapped up by the various streaming sites.

You wonder about the future of TV. More in the know people know a lot more than me but advertising revenues for the likes of ITV and independent channels must be way down, BBC licence fee always being talked about.
My 8 year old son does not watch any TV at all. He still sits in front of the screen but watches YouTube 100% of the time.
His friends are all the same.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Mubi/Prime/Torrents/Netflix mostly.

Still buy blurays for some stuff but very little.

And used to go to the cinema a fair bit.

I'm probably going to suspend netflix for a bit and try some other services once the tv series I'm watching has finished. Might sack off prime too eventually.

You wonder about the future of TV. More in the know people know a lot more than me but advertising revenues for the likes of ITV and independent channels must be way down, BBC licence fee always being talked about.

Nah, dynamic ad insertion on streaming is a massive burgeoning industry, with less regulation and greater ability to target different groups through analytics. No point showing you an always ultra advert if it knows you're a man, etc.

The tv station I worked at started offering an ad-free subscription model on streaming and advertised it to everyone but the power users because they were worth more with ads.

[Replies From View]

use my fuckin eyes mate

[Chedney Honks]

100% physical media for me.

With music, I really like the convenience and instantaneous chopping and changing of streaming (and a massive library of FLACs).

With games, although it's more expensive and quite daft/fundamentally lazy, I like the ability to swap between loads of different arcadey/quick burst style games on the Switch and PS4. I also like replaying my favourite bigger games so I'd rather keep them in my digital library.

With movies, though, I almost need to give myself a reason to commit that time, and that reason is buying a physical copy to watch it in the best possible quality. For almost a decade, my attention span and appetite for films dwindled to almost nil. Perhaps once or twice a month, my wife and I would watch something we both found tolerable, but we tended to stick to TV. Scrolling through Netflix or Prime is total aids to me. Literally wasted at least a few days of my life on that shit. I just don't bother now.

I used to spend weekend afternoons and evenings watching a wide range of movies and would stick with something even if I didn't massively enjoy it, as long as it was engaging on some level. I completely got out of that habit as gaming screwed my attention span and married life gradually rounded off our movie time to the lowest common denominator.

Last year, I got myself an OLED telly, a quality region-free BD player and some blackout shutters, and I was right back into films. It's been fantastic. I don't think I've ever loved films as much as I have these last few months. Physical all the way.

[kaprisky]

Free-to-air, terrestrial television was how I watched films in the past. It's how I still watch them. You just have to know where to look. BBC2 screened a season of recent British films at the end of 2020 with brief intros, London Live show seasons of BFI-funded films and CFF films and sexploitation films, and Talking Pictures and Sony Movies Classics have lots of rare and obscure fare not seen on telly for years, if at all.

Watching DVDs and blu-rays obviously negates the problems of adverts interrupting your viewing but if you are not too fussy then there are still things of interest to be seen on telly. It's how people got interested in films in the first place, unless you have worked in cinemas (multiplex or repertory) from a young age.

[the science eel]

100% physical media for me.

With music, I really like the convenience and instantaneous chopping and changing of streaming (and a massive library of FLACs).

With games, although it's more expensive and quite daft/fundamentally lazy, I like the ability to swap between loads of different arcadey/quick burst style games on the Switch and PS4. I also like replaying my favourite bigger games so I'd rather keep them in my digital library.

With movies, though, I almost need to give myself a reason to commit that time, and that reason is buying a physical copy to watch it in the best possible quality. For almost a decade, my attention span and appetite for films dwindled to almost nil. Perhaps once or twice a month, my wife and I would watch something we both found tolerable, but we tended to stick to TV. Scrolling through Netflix or Prime is total aids to me. Literally wasted at least a few days of my life on that shit. I just don't bother now.

I used to spend weekend afternoons and evenings watching a wide range of movies and would stick with something even if I didn't massively enjoy it, as long as it was engaging on some level. I completely got out of that habit as gaming screwed my attention span and married life gradually rounded off our movie time to the lowest common denominator.

Last year, I got myself an OLED telly, a quality region-free BD player and some blackout shutters, and I was right back into films. It's been fantastic. I don't think I've ever loved films as much as I have these last few months. Physical all the way.

That's it! that is it

I never realised until now. Not really. When people ask me 'why are you still bothering with physical media?' I haven't been able to give a simple answer, even tho' I know it's the right thing for me. But it's all about investment related to committment (or vice versa).

[dissolute ocelot]

I subscribe to Cinema Paradiso who do the old LoveFilm/Netflix thing of sending you DVDs/BluRays through the post selected from your list. It's a good way of taking the agonising choice out of movie viewing as well as ensuring I watch the more serious, depressing, darker films (just now I've had Capernaum for 10 days unwatched, it doesn't look cheery).

I intermittently try and fill up my cable box with recorded films (some of which I even watch), if you hunt through the main film channels there's a lot of interesting stuff on at odd times, even if a lot of it sits forever unviewed because it's not quite interesting enough. But I'm also happy channel-hopping late at night and watching some shitty action movie or romcom from halfway through, often if I've seen it before, but sometimes just picking it up.

I'm not particularly bothered about the quality of film sound and images, which probably comes from watching classic movies on a tiny portable, then upgrading to a 20" CRT, which I got rid of 6 or 8 years ago in exchange for a 32" flat-screen which seemed massive then but would now be judged small. Although watching on a phone is just inconvenient. The quality of BluRays is noticeably better than streaming, but while I'll notice I'm not sure it makes a difference to enjoyment. And I'd definitely rather be at home than in a cinema, regardless of the quality of the image (and some cinemas are really not great, especially if you're having to crane your neck to see an oddly-angled screen or read subtitles, or they're showing you a DVD anyhow). Although I did go through a period for a few years where I just liked going to the local multiplex on my own once a week and watching all kinds of random crap just to get out of the house and have somewhere to go.

[Fr.Bigley]

I like to watch all mine on Vinyl, It just looks warmer, You know?

[Hand Solo]

I like to watch all mine on Vinyl, It just looks warmer, You know?

You kid, but..

[Fr.Bigley]

You kid, but..

Love Techmoan. my favourite channel.

[the science eel]

Have any of you tried this?

https://www.twitch.tv/cathodecinema

(not broadcasting right now)

so to answer the question: sometimes I watch films and chat about them AT THE SAME TIME

[non capisco]

I subscribe to Cinema Paradiso who do the old LoveFilm/Netflix thing of sending you DVDs/BluRays through the post selected from your list. It's a good way of taking the agonising choice out of movie viewing as well as ensuring I watch the more serious, depressing, darker films (just now I've had Capernaum for 10 days unwatched, it doesn't look cheery).

I've really enjoyed their service so far, they seem to have practically everything in their catalogue too. Didn't realise how much I missed the old Lovefilm experience of film rentals arriving through the letterbox. Also a great way to watch UHD/4K titles without having to shell out full whack for the physical copy to own.

[The Mollusk]

In a big bed with my wife.

[Replies From View]

i like to watch films when i am inside out

[Dusty Substance]

Several hundred DVDs that I've been collecting for 15+ years.*
50ish BluRay essentials
20-30 VHS (down from a collection of nearly 1000 at one point)
Netflix
Disney Plus
Shudder
You Tube
other streaming sites

recently got a mate's Sky Go account - A whole bunch of films on there I haven't seen.

* The vast majority of my DVDs are in four per page CD folders. Probably around 700-800. Even though I rarely watch them, as long as chazzas and CEX are selling DVDs at dirt cheap prices (eg: King Of Comedy for 50p), and if the shops ever open again, I'll continue to buy them. 

[notjosh]

I loved catching things on late and discovering everyone talking about them the next day at school even though when I was watching it I'd no idea it was a shared experience. Evil Dead 2 was one. Load of young teenagers amazed by this mental film we'd seen, quoting favourite scenes. Can that happen now? Miss that sort of thing really badly. Twitter trends isn't the same thing like.

It didn't even have to be a particularly good film. I remember having this experience with Ray Liotta psycho-on-a-plane film Turbulence when it played after a Champion's League game (my memory is telling me Man Utd vs PSV Eindhoven) and the next day everyone seemed to have watched it.

Another day everyone at school was talking about the fact that Tremors 2 was going to be on TV that night. Seemed like in every lesson someone would lean over and whisper "Tremors 2's on tonight". At the end of the day I was walking to the bus with Ian Spence and he said "Tremors 2's on tonight". I finally plucked up the courage to ask what "Tremors 2" was and he said he didn't know either.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Tremors was one of the first things I recorded when I got a hand-me-down videostar in my bedroom. I didn't know what it was about and just plucked it out the radio times. Glad I did.

[Mr_Simnock]

If I watch a film that I have planned to (as in not just turned the TV over and decided on the spur to keep watching something) I like to watch it via the best possible source so if possible so 4k UHD then work backwards on that, if something is still just SD format I'll pass as I can't watch that format anymore.

[idunnosomename]

On the potty

[Mr_Simnock]

I wonder which film is available via the most formats? I know Return of the Jedi has been released via VHS, Betamax, Video 8, Laser Disc, Video CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, 4k UHD and Streaming but there must be something else with just a few more releases, maybe 2001 but I can't be bothered to check at the moment.

[Magnum Valentino]

In addition, there are different versions of those three films within each 'generation'/format. Star Wars is available in wide-screen and full screen in at least three different cuts on video, for example. There are two different DVD releases as well, one with 2004 revisions and one without. I think the Blu-ray era is just the one version repackaged, though.

[Mr_Simnock]

Empire Strikes Back I can find on  VHS, Betamax, VHD (bizzare Vynil based format), Super 8 Cine Film, Laser Disc, Video CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, 4k UHD and Streaming so that's got one more

[prwc]

I used to go to cinema about once a week, I miss that greatly. I feel much more inclined to see newer films in that setting as the much more stripped down selection and limited timespan is a good spur.

Blu-Ray is by far my favourite way to see stuff at home. I'm a big collector and fan of it, but since I usually watch several new (to me) films a day I can't afford to buy them at anywhere near the rate I'd like to. Plus a huge chunk of cinema I'm interested in has yet to make it to that format. So I do a lot of torrenting (usually viewed via Plex), which I feel no guilt for as I spend a frankly irresponsible amount of the money I do have on physical media.

I have MUBI, Netflix and Prime subscriptions which I dip into especially when I'm feeling lazy but I'm often underwhelmed by the selection. Though once cinemas open back up I'll be upgrading to MUBI Go as I found that to be brilliant value.

[Hand Solo]

Tremors was one of the first things I recorded when I got a hand-me-down videostar in my bedroom.

One of the later episodes of Spin City?

[wasp_f15ting]

I have access to Netflix, Prime, Apple+, Disney+ and The anime streams...

But generally I find the quality of films on Netflix and Prime to be atrocious. I am not that far away from my OLED tv, and whenever I watch streams I can see huge blocks of pixilation in dark areas and just generally poor picture quality. I even connected the Ethernet cable directly into my TV to rule out WIFI as an issue. In the end only Apple TV seems to hold a nice image. The rest are an atrocious mess. Just typing this out makes me realise I should cancel Netflix at least.. How many Adam Sandler films can they make for FFS (Uncut Gems was a rare treat)..

I would suggest if you do like films just buy a region free blu-ray player and get going. We are even handing out Blu's for free on another thread ;)

I just like that I have a film forever on Blu-Ray. I hate that you can never be certain if anything stays on streaming services as they come and go so often. I see streaming as a means of finding odd bits of entertainment here and there. Blu-ray for durability, quality and overall joy.

Then again I do like physical media and own a collection of CDs and Vinyl..

[lipsink]

Unfortunately I get no TV signal anymore so I can only watch them through Netflix and Amazon on the Firestick. Hate watching stuff on the laptop cos a film is usually my time to escape from social media etc.

I still can't believe I would watch a film on ITV and they'd show the News At Ten half way through. Have very fond memories of watching films for the first time on Moviedrome (Scarface, Videodrome, Le Samourai, Trespass, Funny Bones) The films weren't always great but at least it was interesting and I felt like I was sort of watching it at Mark Cousin's house or something. His introductions were superb (was too young for Alex Cox)

[non capisco]

Though once cinemas open back up I'll be upgrading to MUBI Go as I found that to be brilliant value.

I loved MUBI Go so much. Checking out all the different remaining arthouse and indie cinemas that were participating week by week was a joy. It came back briefly inbetween lockdowns but I was too chickenshit/sensible (delete as you see fit) to visit the cinema.