Presto

Subscribed to Presto for a free 3 month membership.

Cannot see me lasting the 3 months. I was getting jaded with Netflix selection so decided to try Presto, I am NOT impressed. Less than a day and I am already bored. There is very little that Presto has that Netflix doesn’t but there is a LOT that Netflix has that Presto doesn’t. For example, under SciFi & Fantasy  Movies Presto gave me an option of 75 movies the vast majority of which are old, Netflix – 141 options. The same goes for most other genre’s as well. To top it all off though Presto cost more per month than Netflix. This is Presto’s premium package but my Netflix sub is their budget package. This stands to reason really as Presto is part owned by Telstra which has a reputation of NOT giving value for money (ie make as much money as possible for the shareholders and screw the customer, this is of course only my opinion, cannot afford to be sued by them).

Another issue: The resolution on Presto is not great, certainly not true HD.

UPDATE 22 JAN 16: Installed the Presto APP on my phone this morning. Browsed through and was amazed at the number of different suggestions that did not appear on the Web version, unfortunately that was all I was impressed with. I noticed that they had Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012– ) and it was due to expire in a few days so I decided to watch a few episodes. Wish I could – did not matter which episode I selected it played for about 20 seconds and then stopped ??? WTF. This cannot be caused by my phone as I can play YouTube and Netflix without any issues – another mark against Presto.

As a side note – how did they come up with the name “Presto” ? Sounds like they think it’s magic. Got news for you guys – it’s not.

For the Web versions I prefer the Netflix controls over those for Presto, or I should say the lack of controls in Presto. With Netflix you can use the mouse, arrow keys, media control buttons, spacebar etc.. With presto you can use ….. the mouse, media buttons do not work, keys do not work. When using Netflix the left and right arrow keys can be used for rewind and fast forward  but in Presto they have no affect what so ever meaning the mouse has to be used which is no where near as accurate.For example, play back crashed while I was watching a program and when I restarted it it had returned to the beginning, the first time I clicked on the progress bar (a good 10 to 15 mm from the current position) instead of jumping forward it jumped back to the beginning, this happened numerous times. Also while accessing the progress bar on Netflix and YouTube the time of the location is shown, with Presto it is not. How can you fast forward, rewind or jump to a specific place/time in Presto – guess each and ever time ?  The fail marks are piling up for Presto.

Picture resolution: Ran Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries season 1, episode 1 in Netflix and Presto at the same time. The resolution on Netflix was a lot better than Presto’s. With Netflix you can select your default resolution (I set it to 720 as I could not see enough difference with 1080 on my monitor, to justify the bandwidth usage, TV is a different matter – BIG difference). I could not find any corresponding selection for Presto.

Have not tried Presto with Chromecast yet but not getting my hopes up.

UPDATE 23 JAN 16 16:20: Just tried with Chromecast – VERY unimpressed. Could not play anything, all I get is a blank screen (monitor and TV), appears to load but does nothing. That is it, Presto is done. Have cancelled my subscription after less than a week. Biggest load of garbage and biggest rip-off I have ever encountered.

Addiction

Damn, I think I’m getting addicted to posting.

Twins ?

Are these two related ? Both beautiful women and talented actors. When I first saw Caity in Arrow I thought she was Melissa. Just finished watching The Machine (2013) and believed until the final credits the it was Melissa George playing the title role.These photos are not the best for comparing the two but they look and sound remarkably alike. The only things preventing me from believing that they are twins are that one is 10 years older than the other and they were born on different continents (but then again, with science now days you never know).

What do you think ?

Farewell Alan

We have lost another one, two celebrities gone within days of each other, both aged 69.

Farewell Alan Rickman you will be missed.

Things David & Alan have in common:

• Died at 69 years (David had just turned 69, Alan would have been 70 next month)
• Born in London
• Died of cancer
• Both superb entertainers

Netflix Recommendations

Was just flicking through Netflix looking for something to fill the time and noticed one odd thing – nearly 50% of the recommendations were from Bollywood. I have never watched nor (intentionally) selected a Bollywood movie, so why am I getting a lot of them recommended ? I have no interest at all in Bollywood programs.

I wish Netflix would give us a way of opting out of categories or at least let us select which categories we do want. My top optouts would be Bollywood, all non-English speaking programs (I can only speak English and have no desire to read subtitles) and Reality (there is nothing “real” in these).

Shadowhunters

Just finished the first 2 episodes of Shadowhunters, not impressed. The concept is intriguing  but I find nearly all the main characters quite annoying and the acting is well below par. Might watch further episodes, I have not made up my mind if it will be worth it or not.

This is obviously based on the movie The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) which I thought was mediocre at best.

The Shannara Chronicals

Currently watching episode 4. I enjoyed the first 3 episodes but not enjoying this one. They are doing EVERYTHING I hate in the editing and camera work (see previous posts) :

Spiraling cameras around the characters. Half the time all you get is the view of the back of someones head and not forgetting the feeling of being sea-sick.

Strobe effect - pictures flashing, this is even worse than the spiraling camera. As I have stated before this makes me feel physically sick and I think that it is a cheap and nasty visual affect.

It is not just these cheap and nasty effects but also the plot is becoming more and more obvious.

• I wonder who the traitor is going to be?
• Will it be the favourite uncle ?
• Will it be the uncle that has no faith in anyone or anything but his own “divine right” for power ?
• or will it be both ?
• When will the king be assassinated ?
• How many seasons will it take for them to figure out who the spy is ?
• When will the princess decide that her and Will must part ways ?
• When will the princess learn how to fight ?

I will take a break from watching so I can recover from this insult to my senses and intelligence. This appears to be turning into just another cheap knock-off of GoT (which I also do not like, loved the books hate the show).

Get the feeling that I am losing interest in this show already ?
As usual with most modern shows: great acting combined with bad and unoriginal editing, bad and unoriginal directing. So far a great concept starting off brilliantly and going downhill with each new episode.

UPDATE 28 JAN 16: I decided to give the show another chance and glad that I did. I still think that the editing and directing are unoriginal and uninspiring  but this is greatly offset by the acting which is getting better every episode and the story is getting more interesting. The characters are developing and I am feeling more empathy towards them, in other words I am starting to get the same feeling I had when reading the books. Unfortunately I also have the feeling that this show is going to take the same path as a lot of its predecessors - it will not last more than 1 season, hope that I am wrong.
I have gone from disliking this show to rather enjoying it. Just finished episode 5, lets see how it goes. The spiraling camera and strobe effects are still very annoying but the acting and story are compensating.