Thursday, September 24, 2009

Great Lakes Film Fest-early review

Just wanted to say, I really like what they've done with the Great Lakes Film Festival this year. It's something I've wanted to check out for several years, but have either been out of town, or had family obligations - but now, they've set it up so it fits perfectly with my vision of IPTV. I don't know if I wrote about it yet, but a few months ago, I picked up a combination S-video/sound cable that I can plug into my PC on one end and flatscreen TV on the other. And my flatscreen is hooked into my stereo for better sound.

So, tonight, thanks to the film fest being moved to a streaming video format online, for $1 apiece I was able to watch a couple of solid indy flicks on my home theatre. Good stuff.. One problem though. The first movie I watched, The Twenty, only had about the first 20 minutes loaded and then it ended and reset to the beginning. It was supposed to be a 90-minute movie, so I was kind of left hanging. I sent the Festival an e-mail and hope they get it fixed, because it was pretty interesting and I wanted to see the end.

However, this abrupt conclusion (and if I don't see the end, I only lost a buck and 20 minutes of my life) did motivate me to find one more short flick to watch before turning in. My choice was a "narrative short" entitled, "The Big Fat Lazy Sun." Let me tell you, if you have 15 minutes, a dollar to spare, and a decent sound hook-up on your computer, check it out. Kind of reminded me of Pulp Fiction. Solid stuff.

There's at least one more, a documentary about blind baseball fans, that I want to check out tomorrow.

The on-line festival only runs until Sunday and there's like 30 or more flicks up there - all available to watch online for $1.

Cheers..


Ralph

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can do a similar thing with NetFlix. They offer streaming video at no extra charge, and with an S-cable you can connect it to your TV.

Just watch out for the different types of cables. I inadvertently bought an RCA cable which was for HDTV, so it didn't work on my 10-year-old TV. I had to get the S-cable instead.

NetFlix is a really good deal. For like $9 per month, you can watch as many movies as you like (some on DVD and some streaming).

Plus, you can keep any movie as long as you like, there are no late charges, and you don't have to feel pressured to get the DVD back to the store by midnight.

Plus, their catalog is extensive. We love it.

Ralph said...

I heard similar positive reviews on the same service from someone else. May cancel my subscription to the ETN and transition to that...