The Future of Media Post #80: Movies

I have been a Hulu user for several years, although usually just TV series. I have sat through more than one episode of a TV series on the computer, so that amounts to the same thing as watching a movie. Now that we have an HD TV I am not as likely to watch things on the computer via Hulu, Blockbuster streaming, or Netflix streaming. We have access to On Demand through Comcast and we also record programs on the DVR for later viewing. I do not order movies through Netflix, although both of my married children use that or a similar service. I haven't been to Blockbuster in ages and have never used the Redbox.

1. I used Hulu to view part of "Racing for Time" and independent Lifetime movie. I much prefer watching movies on DVD or my TV. Often the movies on the computer stop to fill the buffer or some such thing or the computer will freeze up. They can also be jerky. It depends on your connection.

2.I watched a trailer for "The Lightning Thief" on IMDB. I would not use these sites for information on upcoming movies. The TV is full of trailers and advertising and I enjoy watching the trailers when I go out to see a movie.

3. With all of the progaming I am already paying for through Comcast I don't see the need to use other fee-based services. I'd actually rather see most movies in a theater, it just isn't always possible. Have started to really like the Sat. morning matinee.

Future of Media #79 - Television

1) I enjoyed this iHCPL module. I have been a Hulu.com viewer for several years. I have also watched favorite episodes on ABC.com and CBS.com. One of my favorites is "Castle" which is on Monday night and I work on Monday nights. So until recently I watched Castle on Tuesday AM on ABC.com. However now that we have a new flat screen TV and DVR, I record episodes so I can watch them on the big screen. The episodes on the various outlets like Hulu and TV.com and Fancast.com will still come in handy. Yesterday Comcast had to replace our DVR so the items I had set up to record on Tuesday evening didn't record. I wasn't home to redo it and neither was my husband. HULU has full episodes of many series as well as trailers, interviews, and clips. TV.com had pretty full coverage also with many series available.

I had never looked at Joost.com before. It was an interesting site with an Elizabeth Taylor channel, a John Wayne channel, Bob Hope, the Indy 500, Cary Grant, and Charlie Chaplin available. It also had many animated cartoons, videos, and music in most genres.

I found http://www.viewmytv.com/ very interesting. It had news, music, and shows from around the world. Here is a sample: NasaTV, SkyNews, BBC news, Russia today, France 24 (English), David Beckham, etc.

On www.casttv.com/shows I found all seven seasons of "Star Trek Deep Space Nine," which is never in reruns and five seasons of Stargate Altlantis which I like to go back to now and then as a guilty pleasure. The original Stargate series in not here, but is on Hulu.com.

I didn't like http://www.cwtv.com/ at all. The site was too busy with too many ads and no shows that interested me.

I wasn't interested in Ustream because I don't watch UTube or Justin.tv or any streaming site having no interest in other peoples home videos.

2) I have no interest in watching TV on a tiny cell phone screen. I don't need to carry my TV around with me. I'd rather sit at home with our flat screen tv where I can read during commercials or knit.

3) I do not watch streaming programs or user "channels."  I have never posted a video and have no plan to do so.