Wednesday, July 09, 2014

Movie Mayhem

It may seem I'm a bit television/movie obsessed. While I don't have cable television, I do have Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. You would think that with all those possible outlets, I should be able to watch just about any movie I would like, at any time.

Not so.

I'm increasingly finding that the only way to view certain films is to rent them from Amazon. They simply are not available for free on any of the three services, even though they may have been in the past. Frustrating.

The ability to offer certain films or shows on streaming is governed, apparently, by ever-more-complex contracts between the studios who own the rights and the businesses who want to distribute the product. It's almost impossible to track what will be available when, much less for how long. It leaves the viewer in a bit of a quandary.

I want to (finally) watch the second part of the Hobbit (The Desolation of Smaug). Of the three services, only Amazon has it, and only for rental or purchase, not free (with Prime) streaming. Okay - I can resign myself to paying for it. But I'd like to rewatch the first part, to refresh my memory on what has already happened, and where that part ended.

Part one is also only available from Amazon, again, only for rental. I didn't care for it enough the first time to be willing to pay to see it again...

Complicating the issue are my viewing habits. A movie is simply background to doing something else - sewing, folding clothes, chopping veggies, polishing silver. But if I'm paying for it, I feel as if I should just sit and watch, to get my money's worth. Drives me crazy to do that.

Sigh. In the light of world events, this is a small thing to get panties in a twist over. Still, it may be time to fire up the ipod and stream my favorite radio station.

At least until they start charging, too.

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