tischler@ihuxs.UUCP (Mark D. Tischler) (11/09/84)
Here are the responses I received to my query on which of the movie channels is the best -- HBO, Cinemax, or Showtime. The majority opinion seems to be that if you want movies of more variety, get Showtime. If you want more chances to see blockbuster movies and some boxing, get HBO. Cinemax seemed to finish 3rd. ******************************************************************************* I subscribe to HBO and Cinemax. I'm trying to unsubscribe to HBO for several reasons: 1. HBO has other stuff besides movies, and it's not really good. 2. The movies in HBO will appear in Cinemax or Showtime, sometimes during the same month. 3. The quality of the movies in HBO is no better than the other channels. In fact, Cinemax has more variety, including old good movies and even foreign classics. However, Cinemax costs me about $2.00 more than HBO. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Given only those three as a choice, I would tend to choose Cinemax, mainly because they run more "classic" older films where HBO/Showtime tend to stick more to the current release (read "shit") films, by and large. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- We get BOTH HBO and Showtime. (My husband's a big spender.) What Showtime has that HBO doesn't is (1)more R-rated movies for the sake of R-ratedness and (2)Fairy Tale Theater. The latter is a series of one-hour dramatizations of fairy tales, produced by Shelley Duvall (if that's her name) and starring Famous People - Robin Williams as the frog prince, Mick Jagger as the Emperor, etc. HBO often gets a movie about one month earlier than does Showtime, which is no big deal since if you're really in a hurry you can go to the theater or rent a cassette. HBO also has a tendency to think you want to watch their own TV productions, like burlesque shows or even specials on drugs; they're more prone to this than is Showtime. Neither channel shows much that I want to watch. If we hadn't bought a VCR, we'd get almost no use out of them, since we're usually not home when they show the few things we actually want to watch. Good luck. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I have all three right now: HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax. I only have HBO because it is packaged with a channel called Madison Square Garden Television which broadcasts The Avengers, and I will probably be dropping it soon. Of the other two, it's a toss-up. Cinemax has the better class of foreign films, but not enough of them. Showtime has better and more frequent music programs (like the Police concert---as opposed to the MOR Album Flash program from Cinemax) and bizarre series (Brothers, Steambath) All three generally have all the monthly premiere blockbusters (most of which are boring anyway), though Cinemax is sometimes shafted because it is owned by HBO (and thus sometimes only HBO gets a blockbuster). If it was down to one I'd probably pick Showtime, though I'd still want Cinemax. Hope this helps. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (Note: I see most "major motion pictures" theatrically when they come out so I tend to want the smaller pictures on my cable. Those who don't go to the movies as often as I do may want the big block-busters more.) HBO advertises the most, but has the least that *I'm* interested in. They do have various series I watch: Country Jukebox, Hitchhiker, Investigators, NNTN, Video Jukebox. But I don't particularly like their HBO Premiere films or all the concerts. In general, they seem aimed at the mass audience. HBO costs about $10/month in my area. Showtime has what I consider a very good selection of movies (old, new, foreign, etc.) and is priced comparably to HBO. They also have an exclusive contact with Paramount Pictures for the next 5 years, which means RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK et al will be only on Showtime. Showtime costs about $9/month in my area. Cinemax also has a good selection, but costs more (in my area anyway) than either HBO or Showtime. They have SECOND CITY TV. Cinemax costs about $13 a month in my area. (In addition, my cable company will give me a package deal on multiple pay services, but all the packages include HBO. I'd really like Showtime and Cinemax.) As an example, here is my planned watching schedule for the next month: Both: Going Berserk Meaning of Life Night in Heaven Star 80 HBO: Fanny and Alexander Revenge of the Nerd (minimal interest) Ruling Class Wicked Lady (minimal interest) Showtime: Betrayal Warlords of 21st Century (This is atypical; some months there is 1 HBO versus 5 Showtime, but never the other way around.) If I didn't get HBO, I could rent FANNY AND ALEXANDER and RULING CLASS for less than the monthly cost of HBO. If you have a VCR, compare what you'll get from each station versus what you can rent (several. months earlier). Of course, if you're building a library from cable, this doesn't apply. My suggestion: look at a month's worth of listings and then decide. If you're just having cable put in, your best plan is get all the stations you think you may be interested in, then compare them for a month or two and cancel what you don't want. This avoids the "installation fee" that they charge if you add on to what you originally ordered. If you have a friend who gets cable also, maybe you can work out some sort of exchange arrangement--we get those rare movies we want off Cinemax from a friend who gets it. This pretty much assumes a VCR. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I presently get HBO and Showtime (I only requested (and pay for!) Showtime, and they gave me HBO for discernible reason). As a dedicated movie fan, I'm *very* disappointed in both. Their selection is absolutely horrendous; they only show about 6 movies at a time, show them 300 times each, and then switch to a different set. Their movies come from 3 categories: (1) recent movies too bad to be released to the public, and dumped onto cable (2) last year's bombs (3) the hits of two years ago They never seem to have heard of any movies made before 1982 (although they are getting a little better; I saw a Hitchcock movie on HBO last month, and they are *always* showing "Animal House"). As far as Showtime vs. HBO: (1) As far as music concerts go, HBO likes real MOR junk; Manilow, CSN, Everly Brothers. Showtime's concerts are usually New Wave. (2) HBO has much more boxing coverage (3) Showtime shows many more tepid R-rated movies where stupid white people take their clothes off I leave it to you whether (1)-(3) are bugs or features. One place where HBO really shines; they have a satirical comedy show called "Not Necessarily the News" that is *really* good. I enjoy it more than any other current comedy show, pay or network. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I do have HBO and Showtime. They both have almost the same movies. Showtime has 30-minute sit-coms and quite a few other short programs. If I had to get rid of one, the one I would keep would be Showtime. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you summarize, please don't use my name. Showtime is the absolute pits. They have amazing (1/2 hour) plugs of filler between real shows, and the good (expensive) movies are only shown a couple of times during the month. Footnote: Showtime used to carry my all time favorite TV show, "Loving Friends and Perfect Couples" (starring Mimi Kuzyk (now visible weekly on "Hill Street Blues"), Paul Hecht, and many others), but it was cancelled and there's nothing left. I prefer Cinemax to HBO, but it's a matter of personal taste. Cinemax carries more foreign films and not very commercial domestics (e.g. "Diva", "Eating Raoul"), but admittedly more trash. My parents prefer HBO. I think there is a lot of overlap between them if you wait long enough (and stay up late enough). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- It depends on what you want. I recieve HBO, Showtime and The Movie Channel and each has certain strengths. HBO has Not Necessarily The News which I think is the best TV comedy, let alone cable. Showtime has The Paper Chase which next to Hill Street Blues is the best dramatic series. If your into music HBO has all those rock/pop music specials while Showtime doesn't have anything like this. Showtime does seem to run more adult (i.e. nudity) films than HBO while HBO seems to have more popular films-they had Blue Thunder which no one else has had. Ask your cable company if you can swith to another channel for a month for a try-out, some will do this. I don't recieve Cinemax but I've always heard they just tended to repeat HBO a couple of months later. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I prefer leasing a VCR for $30.00/month, and checking out the movies I want to see at $1.00/night. Boston Cablevision charges $10.00/month for *each* of the pay-tv channels. However, they were forced by the city to charge merely $2.00/month for basic service, which includes CNN, Nickleodeon, lots of Christian stations, and the New York, Chicago, and Atlanta superstations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have all three that you mention. My favorite is Showtime. They have at least as good a selection of recent feature films as HBO. They also have several good series: "The Paper Chase, the 2nd Year", "Brothers", "Steambath", unexpurgated "Bizarre", and they are going to be adding more next year. They also have "Broadway on Showtime", which shows television versions of recent, or currently playing, Broadway shows (most recently they showed "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean"), with the original casts. Finally, they have half-decent softcore stuff late at night. Cinemax' major feature is that they show a wider variety of movies than the other two. They fill out their schedule by including lots of classics and semi-classics of various genres. Lately they have been highlighting a musical a month (one month it was "The Music Man", this month it has been "Oklahoma"). They have recently shown classic dramas such as "On the Waterfront". They show classic westerns. Etc. HBO is the most conservative. They'll show dirty movies if they were popular; things like "Porky's"! They do produce their own films now; I haven't really cared for most of the ones they have made so far, but they looked like high-quality films. Cinemax has also started making their own films; the first one, "Louisiana", premiered this month. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have been getting all 4, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and The Movie Channel. They all seem to have basically the same movies. HBO has pretty good programming, etc. Cinemax is okay, they show a better variety of older (but not too old) movies. Showtime in my opinion has about the best programming, unfortunately I haven't seen any place where the signal quality is acceptable. Any scene that demands a lot of contrast (i.e. titles, backlighted scenes, etc.) smears and the audio buzzes. This is very annoying, but the programming is good enough to try to ignore it. The Movie Channel is in stereo which adds alot to the enjoyment of the movie, and my SL2700 really appreciates it. I am dropping Cinemax shortly because it just doesn't seem to be worth it. I would rather drop Showtime because of the poor signal quality, but they have several very good series running that I would miss. -- Mark Tischler (312) 393-7199 (home) (312) 979-2626 (work) ihnp4!ihlpg!tischler