HeavyTV

September 10, 2003 7:53 PM

HeavyTVscreens different full-length movies every week for broadband users. Showing this week: Airheads, Live From Baghdad, Pacific Heights and Extreme Ops.
posted by crunchland (10 comments total)

Yeah, there's basic problems with the service ... it immediately asks for an email address (though presumably, a bogus one will do); it insists on 1024x768; it requires java to be enabled; and it's built around the REAL engine; and it only works for broadband. Plus, there's lots of pleas for donations. Still, the quality is good, and I enjoyed watching Pacific Heights last night. So...
posted by crunchland at 7:56 PM on September 10, 2003

though presumably, a bogus one will do

Empty space works just fine as well...and things worked fine on resolutions >1024x768 for me.

The donation plea I watched before seeing (THE CREDITS ONLY YOU MPAA BONEWADS JUST STEP THE HELL OFF) "Airheads" made me realize: this is PBS for the new millenium.
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:12 PM on September 10, 2003

Doesn't appear to work in Safari. Can't say I really expected it to.
posted by aladfar at 8:31 PM on September 10, 2003

Mmmm... non-stop Madonna videos.
posted by damclean2 at 8:31 PM on September 10, 2003

Safari works fine if you turn off the pop-up window blocking. I'm using Safari as we speak.
posted by damclean2 at 8:32 PM on September 10, 2003

I applaud their efforts, but I would consider contributing money to them only if their content were not so very, very horrible.

Wait, I wandered in here from a PBS thread.
posted by GriffX at 11:07 PM on September 10, 2003

yeah, it's no testicle theatre, that's for sure.

Wait a week. Maybe you'll find something you'll like then.
posted by crunchland at 4:59 AM on September 11, 2003

Sweet for my English-TV-less expat broadband-enabled ass.

Unsweet that there was an announcement midway through one of the movies that they're going secure, password-protected, soon.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:51 AM on September 11, 2003

apparently, they've been threatening to do that for awhile.
posted by crunchland at 7:55 AM on September 11, 2003

All old cable TV offerings...Was hard pressed to pick from the weak selection just to see the quality of the movies. Didn't work in Mozilla 1.5b either. Looked OK but had to use IE (shudder).

As an aside, when I spell checked this comment the dictionary suggested I replace "IE" with "die"...
posted by kodas at 10:34 AM on September 11, 2003