Movie Central's Moving Pains

[Gord Lacey]

Is anyone else frustrated with the move of Movie Central from Edmonton to Toronto? We've seen no audio and no DD 5.1 on some movies, and now their website isn't updated with the list of movies! Their schedule runs out tomorrow at 4:15 am.

Gord

[superbry]

Yes, it is a pain. Last weekend I tried to record Christmas with the Kranks twice and both times there was no audio. I tried every phone # that I could find on the internet for Movie Central and not one of the numbers would connect me to a warm body. Hours upon hours of Movie Central HD playing with no audio. Is someone asleep at the wheel or what. There is no excuse for this. I am this close to cancelling the movie channel if this does not improve.

[Grahamk]

I too am fed up with Movie Central. For awhile audio was out of sync. And they were supposed to show the new Harry Potter and didn't. Christmas with the Kranks had no audio. Go to their site and email them about your complaints. I did. It's the only way to let them know.
I also told them that their HD channel didn't have enough new movies. It seems like the same shows over and over again. I'm considering cancelling.

[gdewar]

Call your cable/satellite provider - they can put the pressure on. Trying to reach anybody at MC is futile, as you know. Besides, you'd never reach a tech.

[oilblue]

Count me as another frustrated subscriber. The audio troubles have been crazy.

Another problem with the website is that the listing is two hours ahead (again, probably due to the move east). Movie start times are listed accurately enough, but it used to show what's currently on, rather than just listing shows two hours out.

As bad as that is, I'm also frustrated with their lack of quality HD movies. Seems they have no trouble obtaining 1 star movies (the other night it was three 1* movies back to back to back...ugh). On the other hand, some of the better ones only make an appearance on the set of SD MC channels. Here's few that I haven't been able to find on the MC HD schedule:

• The Aviator
• Garden State
• Firefly
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Polar Express
• Robots
• Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith
• Walk the Line

Others I'm less sure about not appearing on MC HD:

• Enron: The Smartest Men in the Room
• I, Robot
• March of the Penguins
• Million Dollar Baby
• Napoleon Dynamite
• Ocean's Twelve

It's not a case of the HD versions being unavailable for that entire list (I'm no insider, so I'll admit to the possibility some of those aren't available in HD). However, that doesn't excuse the whole list. For example, Enron was an HDNet production, so that one shouldn't have been a problem. Eastern Canada subscribers have been able to see Star Wars III in HD on TMN from what I understand. Again, not the case on MC.

Maybe I simply missed some of those...but the situation is beyond frustrating. MC HD seems like an afterthought for MC. And that's before the move, which they've executed poorly. Hiccups are one thing. Long outages another. On top of that, an out-of-date, incomplete web site. Unbelievably poor planning and/or execution.

[Nuje]

Being that I noticed each one of those titles you listed on the HD-PPV back a few months, I'm thinking "not available in HD" isn't an excuse.

[Gord Lacey]

If you call the Edmonton MC number you're given the Toronto number - (416) 534-1191. I've called and spoken to some nice people there.

I've also complained about the cropped of 2.35:1 movies, and I think they all come from Alliance Atlantis (boooo!). They're going to look into the problem.

Gord

[smegger2000]

Originally Posted by Grahamk

I too am fed up with Movie Central. For awhile audio was out of sync. And they were supposed to show the new Harry Potter and didn't.

The new Harry Potter was never on the MC-HD schedule as per the printable schedule on their website. Who ever provides Shaw with the I-guide info was wrong, not Movie Central.

Other than that I have to agree with most of the comments here. Especially when TMN-HD out east gets the big name movies, such as Walk the Line, Revenge of the Sith and War of the Worlds and we are stuck with another Lifetime piece of crap that was made in Canada.

[unreal1080p]

Originally Posted by smegger2000

The new Harry Potter was never on the MC-HD schedule as per the printable schedule on their website. Who ever provides Shaw with the I-guide info was wrong, not Movie Central.

Other than that I have to agree with most of the comments here. Especially when TMN-HD out east gets the big name movies, such as Walk the Line, Revenge of the Sith and War of the Worlds and we are stuck with another Lifetime piece of crap that was made in Canada.

Ya, but you guys get the L-Word in HD (not available on TMN HD) and Stargate Atlantis a few months ahead + certain movies have a tendancy to show up early on MovieCentral HD (like Saw II for example). I think all suscribers should get both MovieCentral and TMN... then everybody would be happy. They can't really argue "competition" because we get CTV-HD East and West so this would be almost the same. Both Movie channels are owned by the same company so doing this would not cut into there revenues, but it would make Canadians happy... therefore they wont do it

[Dr.Dave]

Originally Posted by unreal1080p

Both Movie channels are owned by the same company so doing this would not cut into there revenues, but it would make Canadians happy... therefore they wont do it

Astral owns TMN, Corus owns Movie Central - 2 different companies. In May 2006, the CRTC granted a licence to Allarco (owned by Superchannel founder Charles Allard) for a pay TV movie channel to compete with the incumbents.

[Alan Bealby]

I just tried to access the Movie Central web site to see if I could get a December HD schedule but there is no response from the site. I did get in yesterday but there was no December HD information available.

Des anybody know when the site will be back and, hopefully, with the December HD schedule?

[superbry]

You can add me to the list of people that have voiced their complaints about MCHD. I actually got through to someone at the Toronto office yesterday and lodged a complaint about last weekends No Audio problems. If you care to complain the phone # for MC is (416) 534-1191. The more people that stand up and complain the more attention these issue will receive.

[Gord Lacey]

Originally Posted by superbry

You can add me to the list of people that have voiced their complaints about MCHD. I actually got through to someone at the Toronto office yesterday and lodged a complaint about last weekends No Audio problems. If you care to complain the phone # for MC is (416) 534-1191. The more people that stand up and complain the more attention these issue will receive.

Awesome superbry - when I spoke to them yesterday they were very surprised about the lack of audio because no one had contacted them (that they knew about - at that time). I think a lot of us love to bitch about problems on forums, but don't let the companies know there are issues. I've started getting better at letting the companies know when there's an issue, so they can correct it.

As for the website - something tells me they don't have someone whose job it was to enter the information into the website. It's probably an oversight from the move (I know the person that used to do it was in Edmonton, and I think the people that are supposed to work on the site are in Calgary).

I'll check in with my new friend in Toronto and see what the status of the website is...and the printable schedule.

Gord

[Grahamk]

Just curious as to if that is a toll free number from Vancouver.

[Alan Bealby]

I did regain access to the MC web site late yesterday but there is still no December schedule information. Links to the pdf formatted schedules are totally broken. Not good.