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    LoveFilm is kaput

    Arse.

    Not sure how I'm going to replace this service. I could maybe replace the new release stuff with ad-hoc streaming rentals, though I'd rather get them on Blu-Ray if possible, but most of the older/more obscure stuff I use LoveFilm for isn't available online at all. So it's going to be buying the DVDs or nothing.

    #2
    I'm guessing that Netflix or Amazon Prime don't have the films you want then.

    With my Picturehouse membership I've got 90 days free with MUBI, there's not much in there for the money so I'll not be renewing it once the trial ends.

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      #3
      I'm guessing that Netflix or Amazon Prime don't have the films you want then.
      They have some, enough (with the TV shows, anyway) to justify me paying for them. But they're really not very good for anything older than 1970, or anything newer than two years old, or most classic foreign films. I did a film noir marathon a couple months back and of the dozen or so movies on my list, only one was available for streaming. And as a connoisseur of shitty movies, I'd much rather just get the DVDs for, say, Birdemic, from a subscription service like LoveFilm than pay to buy them outright.

      I've trialled Mubi before and it's fine for what it is, but it doesn't try to be comprehensive (quite the opposite), and that was LoveFilm's strength — it's the place you go for things you can't find elsewhere. I may have a look at BFI Player, but it's not going to do the job for everything.

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        #4
        I was put off BFI Player by a friend, who says it's extremely glitchy for him.

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          #5
          Somebody on another forum has suggested Cinema Paradiso as a DVD rental alternative. Anyone tried it?

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            #6
            Lovefilm pushed the envelope for movie buffs –*Netflix and Amazon don't come close

            https://www.theguardian.com/film/201...y_to_clipboard

            The only service recommended in the comments is Cinema Paradiso.

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              #7
              Somewhere the previous CEO of Blockbuster is cracking open a bottle he's been saving for a special occasion

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                #8
                Been a subscriber to Cinema Paradiso the last couple of years (alongside my LoveFilm one) - as people in the Graun commnents have said, it's the closest to what LF used to be like before Amazon took it over.

                And the idea that any of the existing streaming services can replace the disc-rental service is highly disingenuous. Not only have the streamers only got approximately one-third of the titles you can get through a disc-hire service, but they're really only useful for watching stuff from the last few years. I've got the Amazon streaming service (ironically, it was part of my LoveFilm sub), but while it's good for current stuff like Elementary, Lucifer or Bosch, it's bollocks for older films and TV - especially as a lot of it's not included in the bloody subscription.

                And that's before you get to the fact that a lot of the UK still doesn't have broadband fast enough for proper streaming, or that some areas (like mine) suffer from electronic "traffic jams" at time of peak use.

                edited to add: the disc I've just been sent by LF is Evil Under the Sun, one of Peter Ustinov's outings as Hercule Poirot. It's only from 1982 and it's full of famous actors, but can you get it online? Can you fuck.
                Last edited by blameless; 15-08-2017, 11:02.

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                  #9
                  Can you elaborate on why you have both disc services? How often do you find one will have things the other doesn't? And is there a pattern to it?

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                    #10
                    Score another one for the "streaming libraries are shit" camp. I recently remembered that I had Amazon Prime video and spent about five minutes going through old 90s stuff that I felt like watching - "Sneakers", "Due South", "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr". Just gave up after a while.

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                      #11
                      Amazon is pretty terrible for films, but its TV selection justifies the fee (especially if you use Prime for other stuff). I've got a dozen shows on my watchlist and I'm nowhere near finished with most of them. And the originals are increasingly high quality. I'm watching this weirdo deadpan comedy/cop show called Comrade Detective at the moment and it's the sort of thing that would never be on network TV, and probably not even cable either.

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                        #12
                        I never got on with Lovefilm. I had a big wants list of mostly non-mainstream stuff, but it consistently sent me stuff other than the ones I'd marked as high priority. I ended up with loads of moderately interesting DVD kicking around the house but never seemed to see the ones I really wanted to.

                        I love Mubi, it's excellent, a choice of about 30 films works for me.

                        BFI Player is worth considering but it is indeed pretty glitchy – it can take forever to load.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View Post
                          Can you elaborate on why you have both disc services? How often do you find one will have things the other doesn't? And is there a pattern to it?
                          CinemaParadiso has a lot of titles that LoveFilm doesn't nowadays, particularly in documentaries or European cinema. The news of LF's closure would appear to confirm my long-held impression that Amazon have been starving them of resources for a while.

                          The only disdvantage I can see with CP is that they're sometimes a bit slow in sending out recent popular titles there's a high demand for; such as the most recent Avengers or Star Wars movies, which sat undisturbed on my CP list for 3 weeks before I moved them over onto my LF one instead - who sent them 4 days later.

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                            #14
                            Was also very disappointed to get the mail from LF to tell me that the service is being binned in a couple of months. Not only is the selection of older and perhaps more obscure films a lot better than with either Netflix or Amazon, but the advantage of getting DVDs/Blu Rays is that you have the full range of languages & subtitles to choose from.

                            Not that I watch any of the films with Icelandic subtitles - but I notice fairly regularly (in fact, this crops up a lot more with Amazon than with Netflix, the selection on the latter service is much better and adapts itself automatically to suit the country you happen to be in) that the streaming services have a lot of films available with just the German dubbed soundtrack. I don't like watching dubbed films, never have done (there's a whole other topic there of how that doesn't tend to bother German viewers, and how that fact relates to growing up in a country with the majority of films in cinema and on TV only being available dubbed into your language, so it's just a normal thing) and it pisses me off if I can't switch to English if that is the language the film was made in.

                            And I'd just cancelled my Prime membership too, partly because of that dubbing issue. So come the end of the year, it'll be just Netflix for me...

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                              #15
                              I'm finding CP frustratingly slow to turn around movies. With LF, I could usually get two full cycles in a week, or 8 days max, if I watched them as soon as I received them. Now I'm lucky to get even one cycle in a week. I sent my most recent discs back last Tuesday, and didn't get a "We have received your rentals" email until today. For something that costs twice as much as LF did to get the same unlimited, 3-disc package, that's not good enough. I think I'm going to downgrade to the 2-disc, 6 a month service, as they seem to struggle to provide 6 discs in a month anyway. Hopefully this is just teething troubles as they absorb some of LF's membership, but it's infuriating to go two weeks without receiving a new movie.

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