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I decided to try the digital cable, got it yesterday. The quality sucks, and even the HDTV pic is not what it should be.But this is all OK, as long as it can match the quality of a mediocre VHS tape I am contented.
But here is my question. With it comes a huge number of standard movie channels. By standard I mean the non-premium ones. I would not even consider paying for trash like HBO or others, as they show well, stuff I don't care to see. But there are several dozen others that show movies with apparently no commercials. I just skimmed through last night and found about ten films I would not mind watching - albeit all American, regrettably.
So which channels should I pay attention to?
Follow Ups:
I used to love that channel as they played older movies - some of which are classics - without interruption. Now, watching a movie on AMC is just like trying to watch one on TNN or NBC: 7 minutes of film to every 5 minutes of commercials! Too damned much advertising! Way too many repeats! And now they are showing programs which belong on E! or Entertainment Tonight. I'm talking about the PEOPLE magazine type shows of celebrity gossip and etc. Ye Gads! IS there no escape from the dreck?Yes, there is. Since there is no longer any decent choices on cable TV AND since the Sci-Fi Channel has also had a recent disasterous decline in quality AND since The Sopranos and Six Feet Under and Sex In The City are not worth $60 a month, I will be cancelling my cable subscription and installing a rooftop antenna. Seems I watch the local channels most of the time, anyway.
AND the cable company is raising rates AGAIN! It might be worth it if service would start improving but when weather is bad - which is frequent here in Oregon - picture quality goes down from the mediocre standard they try to maintain. I get ghosting and crosstalk and other inexcusable things. They say it's my wiring but I have replaced that with the best I could get AND my wiring starts at their box, which is at the side of my house!
I think if a large number of us would dump our cable and our satellite systems AND give the companies our true reasons, we might see some improvements in service. Remember when cable was one good way to escape from (at least some) excessive television advertising? Well, we are now swamped with the damned things. They even show commercials in movie theaters! And telemarketers are now calling cell phones!
Is there no escape?
Unfortunately, The Studies, conducted by the Tv Networks, allegedly show, that viewers, especially the young males who are watching The Tube, actually don't mind the commercial advertising breaks, so...And face it, sometimes it's the commercial announcements that are more entertaining.
As for AMC, their problem is that they are currently obsessed with brand identification now, and the films just happen to fill the time between the promo commercials. It's possible that Cablevision will be putting AMC "on the selling block" to continue with their consolidation of assets, to defray their mounting debt problem. Can't wait !!!
chronic mismanagement or stubbornly ignoring the audience with the $.I left because I no longer liked the programming and refuse to be drowned in commercials. What was a premier network is becoming more and more trashy. Sometimes it's like watching E!, which is anything but entertaining - except when Brooke Burke is onscreen.
And E! is hopeless. Any network which builds its schedule around Anna Nicole and Howard Stern can't be long for this world.
IFC and FLIX are the only alternatives, in addition to, your local PBS station.FLIX has the best foreign film presentation of ALL of the film channels, actually. They have the "first films" and obscure films, of many, now, well known actors actresses and directors. Really interesting choices, and subject genres, that make their limited runs here. Someone is thinking in the programming department. How dare they think !!!!
IFC has the same selection of films from the past too, but more current selections. The current selections are not that varied, and essentially are "establishment" choices. If they wanted to go cheap, they, at least, need to beef up their pre-'60s, especially, their Sam Fuller catalog, to include more of his films, and more genre's of independent films. One can see "Seven Samurai" and "Repo Man", only so much! I don't find the original programming interesting, at all. A big disappointment, considering the potential that's there. It has the Cablevision Limited Imagination of what independent film REALLY is. You won't find too much, if ANYTHING, interesting here. They should call it the Dependent Film Channel.
AMC sucks big time, with their neverending commercials, that are actually worse than any commercial network or MTV, is. The new hosts/hostesses for their movies are totally faceless, Generation X'ers, that have no memorability as people, let alone "personalities". WE, is their "chick film" offshoot that, primarily, presents really sucky "made for Tv" movies. In their grab for what, Cablevision, think the "youth market" is, it's apallingly tasteless and totally non-offensive, to the point of being invisable in the cable Tv marketplace. I have never witnessed such ineptness in programming, as a viewer, from these people. They are THAT out of touch, and amazingly DUMB !!! That these Morons raise cable rates, and subscribers take it...it's another story.
BRAVO...who knows what NBC is going to turn it into after they get their commercial mits on it, into the new year. Let's hope they just leave their "BRAVO Profile" series alone. It works for something that has been re-invented many times over...but by lesser talents than the BBC. Very entertaining show. Their "SportsNight" and other original programming stuff, just makes it like every other network, and it's not distinctive. I might as well as be watching, well, NBC!
Your local PBS outlet, is great...lots of obscure, public domain films, that are, actually, entertaining the 100th time around. Look for the overnights, Friday, Saturday, for the film fests. I LOVE "Murder by Television", especially, after the 1000th time !
What is their specialty?
Hey Victor,Call your cable operator and try to get a monthly subscription to the SPICE channel (Spiegel-Prince International Cinema Entertainment).
It's expensive, yes, but they shows many French (mainly) and Russian films, with a lot of classics in the mix (Rohmer, Chabrol, Truffault, etc.).
Let us know what you think when you get your SPICE channel hooked up!
Maybe I could use your post to talk my wife into getting it again... he-he...
the thought of you explaining to your cable company that you "misunderstood" what the spice channel was gave me a good chuckle
Not fair to take advantage of poor illiterate immigrants. :-(
,
Kinda getting a bit tired of this bashing the country thats adopted you. How about trying some other term.BTW you might even have liked/tolerated "Live from Bagdad" on HBO.
Bashing the country that adapted me? See me Outside.Yup, regrettably, as the US probably made only about 5% of all good movies in the world.
Don't adapt the mindset of the 1979 GM exec, Edp!
outstanding directors/films that come from America that would be exceptions to the opinion that "no film or art culture comes from America"
As I could come up with a few examples of outstanding engineering/scientific achievements (KM-1 through K36A ejection seat, MIG 29 IR lookdown/shootdown) that would be exceptions to the opinion that " no innovation or advancement of technology, just copy/steal of existing western ideas, came from Russian engineers/scientists"See, both opinions can be stated in ways that tend to excite emotions beyond what was intended. Because in the end, they both are just opinions that are not exact fact.
May I suggest that you continue the use of labels like "Hollywood machine" or "Hollywood formula" instead of a national label, it wears longer.
Your GM analogy doesn't really fit in this case. Simply in GM's case they made an inferior product that had competetion, and the public/revenues went elsewhere. In the case of film, it still may be a inferior product, but its more refined competetion has almost no effect on the public/revenues. May not be likeable or desireable outcome, but this is one case where the company is supplying what the public is wanting and maintaining the health/income of the companies. So some of those CEO's are doing the right thing, it may not be art, but it is the right product for the market.
***outstanding directors/films that come from America that would be exceptions to the opinion that "no film or art culture comes from America"And whose opinion would that be? If you just are building a hypothetical case, then I suggest staying with something that has true ring to it. Something like what I said - that among the best films made in the world the American share is small. If you took my 5% number to task and argued that it maybe as high as 20% or so, we might have a good argument, but to say none comes from here kills the argument. I do love many American movies, and we have talked about them MANY times. Recently there was a thred about great American directors, so please, let's not dump red herring here.
***As I could come up with a few examples of outstanding engineering/scientific achievements (KM-1 through K36A ejection seat, MIG 29 IR lookdown/shootdown) that would be exceptions to the opinion that " no innovation or advancement of technology, just copy/steal of existing western ideas, came from Russian engineers/scientists"
And that woudl be wrong too... but your point? This would only make sense if we agreed on the first statement, and I don't.
Hoollywood Machine, etc - I really don't care what we call them, makes no difference to me. We also talked about the decline of Hollywood in terms of its artistic merits, and that unfortunately is the fact. That is why people flock to the Independent Films.
So all in all, I see no reason to change my statement that only a small portion of good films comes from America. Ironically, I felt the same way about the portion of Russian films. Heck, even the Italian portion is not all that much greater - perhaps 20%?
So I really don't know what we are arguing about. You are not suggesting it is 100% - are you? Or even 75%, as AuPh seems to believe? That number is simply laughable.
I don't care about film. I have little opinion on the worldwide source of good or bad film. I ain't aruging about percentages.Its simple. National labels evoke passionate responses. Try leaving out the word America. Some are tired of bashing no matter the subject. Anyway a good deal of the product producers in film (major studios) are owned by Japanese, and French based companies.
Just asking to drop the national label.
You missed the point Edp. I live in America, so I mentioned American films because they dominate the local cable. If I lived in France and the majority of films were French I would feel the same way. I did feel that way when I lived in Russia too. No need to get defensive.
I think the figure is closer to 75% of the world's good movies made in the US, and I happen to like Foreign films. Keep this up and you'll end up like Tom Hanks in Cast Away, talking to your friend Wilson (i.e., at least he would agree with you)! ;^)AuPh
Congratulations! You have already settled nicely in the Nebraska-centric small town mentality, too bad Detroit has changed... I think you should too.BTW - that 75% figure is so ridiculous it deserves no comment.
...did you start a thread devoted to it above! :o)
.
(nt)
Heresy, I tell you!
I gave at the office!
new market segment. The mini-van. The mini-van lead directly to the latest set of non-truck SUV's. Personally I think the credit should go to VW mark with the Type II Bus, but it was both ahead of its time and underpowered for wide acceptance.As with movies, there are usually two opinions/sides to each example.
How come you cannot get Dish?
Quality is not perfect, but uncomparably better than on digital cable.
Tall trees... oaks, actually... the poor cable quality in my case is blamed on the Motorola converter box, they say it is a known problem and the company is working on it... don't know which company, but that makes me feel good... I also have the Toshiba HDTV receiver I have not tried on the cable yet, I know it gave fantastic HDTV pic off the air (except I can't get it either), so perhaps it will work great on cable too.
Unfortunately cable has bandwidth limitations for serious transmission. Pretty much like using slow output transistors in amplifier. My neighbor had HDTV through digital cable and after seeing my Wega he switched to Dish.
It's a pity you cannot. Are you sure? You have property large enough to play with the location of the dishes.
It would be if there was anything to see in HDTV... as it is now, watching it is torture... although I was told WHYY has good demos - so I could impress the guests. Need to find out when they have them.But dish is completely out, so I'll simply wait for the Russian channel on the cable, and then I am all set for the next few years.
I am not jumping into HDTV myself - too early, nothing to watch and I value harddrive videorecording too much to loose it.
Russian channels are a must for me though. Especially NTVA - directly from Moscow and NTV Plus - the movie channel.
If not, perhaps that could be an investment opportunity for you, or the forum? You could program what we all need to see all the time. You/we could probably snag an ailing spy satt for little to nothing and get this thing underway!
They are available from satellites, or in the major US cities on cable. Since we live outside the major city and I can't get no sat, I am out of luck. But apparently it IS coming to our cable company some time soon.
the Independent Film Channel is the one most likely to show good movies. Also the Encore channels (I think there are about 6) show movies without commercials, and once in a while they'll throw in a good one. I can't remember a film on Sundance I wanted to watch (but I might be mistaken) also, I can't get over the "Sundance" connection to Redford - Bleah!We got rid of HBO and Cinemax (or Mini-Sex, as we call it) when we realized that we NEVER watched anything on them. Between the above-mentioned channels, and rental, there are a lot more movies than I have time to watch!
I gave at the office!
I have HBOs, Cinemaxs, Showtimes and Movie Channel all downstairs,
but on my TV upstairs I don't have any; I watch TV mostly upstairs.
I'm mainly content to watch various VHS tapes and programs like
The News, Discovery, E!, Sci-fi Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel
Channel, Biography, VH1,USA,QVC or HSN can't recall which, History Channel,The Weather Channel,(like Univision, but can't
pick it up upstairs, nor AMC, no big loss there), CourtTV, Comedy
Channel, and bits and pieces of the rest. Planning on upgrading
in intermediate future to combo VHS/DVD player. - AH
In retrospect,USA Channel probably bits n' pieces, as I watch usually only Walker
in afternoons on occasion with kids. Mindless entertainment? Well,
where is my mind? Oops, left it upstairs! - AH
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