Showtime Now Butchering Movies: Credits, Pop Ups, Down-Res'd Sections - Page 2

I could have sworn I put you on my ignore list. Well, back you go.

You can keep bitching and moaning about it here or you can do what I say and send Paul Selbano an email (provided someone posts it). Paul is a cool guy and has been very responsive in the past.

So my suggestion to contact someone directly at Showtime who's been responsive to issues such as this is "ignoring the problem"? The rest of your post just makes me realize how out of touch with reality you are.

What the hell are you talking about?

Folks, I suggest you just ignore Fanatic. This is just par for the course with him. While he does bring up a good issue, I recommend doing what I say, and contacting Paul Selbano directly (I know his email has been posted multiple times in the forum, I just can't seem to find it).

His email is paul.seblanoatshowtime.net (replace the at with @).

What the hell are you doing watching Soul Plane...again? You have got to be the most HDTV watching person I've ever come across!

Unless there something going on other than the credits rolling by then I don't stick around for the credits.

And that's your right. But what about those of us that want to see them? We're screwed. If they just left the credits intact, everyone is happy -- those that don't like them can go away, while those that do can enjoy. I doubt anyone would take the time to call or write in to complain that the credits were left in!

I can understand this kind of thinking when it comes to broadcast TV (though I still don't like it) -- they're scared silly that you'll get bored and change the channel -- but on a pay movie channel? Do they think people are sitting there all day waiting for the next movie to come on??

Yes, you're screwed. That's a pretty typical situation folks who have niche interests encounter. Sorry it didn't work out for you.

Actually, it did work out for me. I don't subscribe to these channels for these very reasons. Why pay to be annoyed? If there's a movie I want to see, I just rent the DVD. The pay movie channels lose, not me.

Amazingly, that doesn't bother me in the slightest. They provide precisely what I expect, because my expectations are defined by their promises, not by my indeterminate hopes and dreams.


On the contrary, you're just too blind to see how unreasonable your expectations are.

What I was referring to is your subscription to Showtime, which clearly didn't work out for you, as you yourself admitted:
They lose you; they don't lose. You have no idea how much your own personal subscription is worth to them; you have no idea how much the things that annoy you are worth to them. For all you know, the latter is worth far more than the former.

This is really part of the problem, I think: mass-market customers believing their own patronage is worth far more than it really is -- that their termination of service costs the mass-market service provider more than that which dissatisfied the customer is worth to the service provider. It's a form of commercial arrogance on the part of the customer. Just because something annoys you gosh-golly it must annoy everyone else the same way, the same amount, and with the same result.

And that arrogance goes deeper sometimes. I've seen some mass-market customers actually claim that the service provider has no clue about this -- implying that the service provider is befuddled with regard to why such customers terminate service, or that the service provider doesn't realize the value lost due to such terminations versus the value gained from the "causes" of those terminations. It's really quite laughable, since generally the service provider is actually actively researching such things, on a continual basis, while the customer is just speaking off-the-cuff, based on their own visceral reactions.

HDTVFanAtic: It's ironic that you're SOOOOO disappointed with Showtime that you continue to pay them 3x over what most people pay them. Yet you still do... If this bothers you so much, cancel your subscription to them.

\\\\

http://www.answers.com/topic/fanatic

Put on your reading glasses and count up how many (who bothered to comment in this thread) care about this so-called "issue" vs those who don't care.

Lay off the personal insults too. It doesn't help.....

Has anyone e-mailed Paul at Showtime about this (as suggested earlier in this thread)? I sent an e-mail to Paul (around a year ago) the last time credits were butchered, and Showtime ended the practice shortly thereafter.

At the risk of being flamed, I also am bothered by Showtime resuming the butchered credits.

Ooops.... This just in:

http://www.answers.com/topic/egomaniac

Who cares about credits. Why do I want to know who the "key grip" was? If you really want to know buy the movie. Cut the credits out all together and offer more viewing material.

HFA commented:
> if the lack of response here is any indication - its only going to get worse. <<br />
I didn't post here, because I was assuming that a direct contact would have more of an impact. Perhaps not. But here's the e-mail I sent them on their contact page...


- Tim

Some interesting comments...

PooperScooper wrote:
> If given a choice between OAR or butchered credits, I'll take OAR and go to IMDB for credits. It could be worse, they could start doing pop-ups ala TNT, the worst HD channel in existense. <<br />
and Marc,

> I'll take OAR vs. OC (Original Credits) anyday. <<br />
Could be worse? Given a choice? Why do you feel you have to sacrifice one to get the other? What's wrong with having both? These are some strange apathetic attitudes.

So as long as it's possible that a situation COULD be worse, you're satisfied with crap, as long as it's better than the worst-case scenario? Come on, Larry.

I'm not going to go through and respond to every comment here. It's obvious that there's a contingent that as soon as they sense the fade-to-black before the credits, BANG, they're up and out of their seats. That's fine for those folks. I don't begrudge them that (in their own homes... the theatre is another story). One of the nice things is having options.

OTOH, some feel differently, and at least sometimes might like to read a few of the creds, or enjoy the music after a film, or catch a clever post-film segment interwoven into the credits, or take time to decompress after leaving an emotional alternate experience while returning to the "real world". I find it disturbing that those in group1 seem willing to say, "to hell with you. who gives a d@mn? you're nuts."

[Let's turn it around. How would you guys enjoy being strapped into your seat, with your eyeballs propped open, and forced to watch the credits? Pretty obscene, right? So why are you so intolerant of another POV?]

- Tim

Even though I rarely sit through credits having the credits butchered would detract from the movie experience a little to me. Sometimes when I see a movie that has particularly moved me I do find myself sitting through the music in the credits.