Classic movies are indeed movies that have fallen through the cracks and are now long forgotten by most but still have the ability to captivate audiences with their unique plots and their charm grows with age.

So where does one find old movie trailers for movies that are now long gone from the silver screen? The internet’s a big place and user generated content sites such as YouTube only scratch the surface in terms of the sheer amount of films made since the 1920s. The sites below delve deeper.

ReelClassics

This site is obviously put together by classic movie fans with no real intention of making any money from it via advertisements etc. Basically, it consists of a database of reviews, screenshots, posters and of course trailers. It has not exactly embraced web 2.0 but then databases really are just long lists.

By selecting ‘AV Gallery’ you’re accessing the database of audio and visual material; ‘Visual’ being the key word here. You’ll see a long alphabetical list of films along with their dates (as far back as the 1920s). Some only have soundtracks but most will have a small image of a film reel beside it. By clicking on the reel you’ll download the old movie trailer for the film in.mov format which is playable in Real Player.

Jaman

While this film database site doesn’t only cater to classics it is a worthwhile visit for those in search of classic trailers. My reason? Because it covers classic films from all over the world. Down at the end of the website it lists the countries where the films hail from. These include France, Ireland, Britain, America and Germany. There is also a huge selection of Bollywood films.

In the ‘Classic’ section I found old movie trailers for movies such as King Kong (1973 Remake) and David and Goliath. The trailer player is good although I did find the site to be a bit sluggish overall. I think that whatever technology they used to build the site could do with an upgrade.

All the same, Jaman does have a selection of the most memorable movies to capture audiences although it’s lacking in anything pre-1960, I found.

Chasing the Frog

Despite its odd name, this film site has a huge selection of film trailers. I easily found films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Stand by Me. Once again, all of the films are listed in alphabetical order and it’s pretty easy to access the database by selecting ‘Trailers’ on the home screen and then ‘Classic Trailers’ underneath the search function.

Most of the trailers originate from sites such as YouTube and MetaCafé. This allows the trailer to load fast as they’re using big companies’ servers which are fast and reliable. They clearly put a lot of effort into assembling all of these film trailers in the one place and it has paid off.

MGM.com

Metro Goldwyn Mayer was one of the most iconic film production companies on the planet with its golden era being between the years of 1920 to 1970. The company’s official motto is ‘Art for Art’s Sake’ – and indeed art is exactly what they created.

Their website has a bank of all of their film trailers. By simply using their Search or Browse function you can look through reams of films dating back to just after WW1 – or ‘the silent era’ as it’s known. Under each film there is a ‘Multimedia’ button which will bring you to all of the media stored about the film. Alongside soundtracks and interviews there are theatrical trailers that you can enjoy for hours on end (I know I did).

Turner Classic Movies

This movie site discusses purely classical movies but it isn’t restricted to trailers. There are tonnes of posters, reviews and soundtracks available here for thousands of films going back into the 1930s.

The trailers are easily found by using the search function to sift through their database of over 150,000 titles. An example I used was the McQueen classic, ‘The Great Escape’. By clicking on the film an image loads along side two options; ‘Movie Clip’ or ‘Trailer’.

Click trailer to be shown the original theatrical trailer for any of the 150,000 classics. The videos load fast and the media player is really good.

These sites should keep you entertained as well as yearning to see the full films. I intended to write this article in just a few hours but I ended up wasting a perfectly good Sunday gawking at old, classic movie trailers. I now intend to spend the rest of the week watching old movies.

So what classic films hold a place in the hearts of the MUO readers?

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I can’t find a movie or a download it if I don’t know what movie should I watch next. However, I did find a great website that not only has movie trailers available for downloading but they also have HD movie trailers. I can save a bunch of these to watch on a 15 minute break and pick what I want to watch next. Yes, I am picky!

The website is www.TrailerFreaks.com and they offer 480p, 720p and even 1080p resolution trailers. And that means the trailers are going to pull you in even further and make you want to see that movie.

Let’s check out www.TrailerFreaks.com and see what they offer.

First thing you will see when you hit the homepage is a listing of new movies and their movie posters. They also list the main stars and a link to the IMDB which is well-placed and simply awesome. You can click on the resolution buttons below where it says New Trailer and watch the trailer of your choice. You can see where the trailer is coming from by hovering your mouse over the link.

Next up, if you want to search for something that isn’t on the homepage, simply use their search feature which utilizes Google Search. Below, you can see that I searched for Star Trek.

After hitting search, I came across 4 options in a Google search page. I choose the first one and was on my way…

Bam! There it is, a brief synopsis, a few links and then at the bottom there is the gold. Lots and lots of links to different trailers in different resolutions. I felt like I saw the movie already after watching 6 different previews. Is it just me or does it seem like they show ALL the best parts?

As soon as you click on your desired link, the trailer should start playing in your browser’s window. We can also save these files (mostly .mov) by simply right-clicking on the appropriate link and choosing Save target as….

Now, I will let you get into some serious time wasting. Oh and maybe you have some great recommendations for what I should watch next? That would be even more efficient!

For more suggestions on where to watch movie trailers, Tina has the low-down with the Best Sites To Watch Movie Trailers Online. How about loading these videos onto your iPod — check this post out.

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• What Movie Should I Watch Next? (29)
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If you are a movie addict and scavenger of cinema information, then you must give these Firefox add-ons a first look. These Firefox add-ons save us time and effort by bringing movie information within a hover or a click.

1. IMDb Movie Review

IMDb is the preferred destination for anyone who wishes to know more about a movie title. The IMDb rating often is an indicator of movie quality. Along with the cast info and plotline, it’s a precursor to the whole show. The add-on makes researching IMDb a short right-click affair. Highlight any text which mentions the movie title, right-click and select the IMDb Review button. The relevant IMDb page will open in a new tab or reuse an already opened IMDb tab.



The add-on is labeled as an experimental add-on compatible with Firefox 1.5 – 3.0+.


2. IMDb Preview

The add-on gives a quick preview with a mouse-over any IMDb link on any website. Hover your mouse over any IMDb movie link and a pop-up informs you about the cast and the plot along with a small poster on the side. Take it over any cast name and you get his picture with some profile info.





The add-on is compatible with Firefox 1.5 – 3.0+.

3. IMDB Ripper

This add-on lets you rip movie information from an IMDb page and export it to either a NFO (ASCII text) or a XML file. Access the add-on from Firefox’s Tools menu when browsing an IMDb movie page. Apart from movie tags, the add-on also rips thumbnails and posters thus enabling a user to easily catalogue a movie using the internet’s largest movie database.



The add-on is labeled as an experimental add-on and is compatible with Firefox 1.5 – 3.0+.

4. IMDb Pirated Version

On the first run after installation, a configuration window appears, asking the user to set choices regarding torrent search sites. The add-on ‘adds’ a small script on an IMDb page. The script appears like a toolbar on the movie info page. With its help, you can search directly from the IMDb page for subtitles (from Opensubtitles.com and All4divx.com), torrents and downloads from server sites (Rapidshare, Megaupload, DepositFiles, etc.) and the quality of the movie file available from VCDQuality.com. Also of help is the option to view a trailer right from the IMDb page.

After installation, this is how it looks like:



Click on the little black arrows to expand the results for the particular category.



The add-on is labeled as an experimental add-on and is compatible with Firefox 2.0 – 3.0+.

5. Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes finds mention with IMDb as the two websites that can be called the online Bibles for movies. This add-on installs itself as a search engine in Firefox’s search bar. The functionality is simple – use the search plugin to search for movie info on the Rotten Tomatoes site directly from the browser instead of going to the site and then using its search feature.



This too is an experimental add-on.

6. Hollywood

Another search engine add-on which lets you query the Hollywood.com site for movie listings and reviews.



This add-on works with all versions of Firefox.

Add-ons thus, are the shortcuts to the movie information we are looking for. By eliminating a search step or two, they increase our productivity and save us time. Time we can spend on watching our favorite flick with a bagful of popcorn.

A movie buff like you shouldn’t also miss out on our treasure trove of posts on all things movies.

Which one of these is a must-have on your browser? Or do you prefer the direct approach rather than to use the help of an add-on? Let us know about the movie buff in you, in the comments!

Thumbnail: I am Charley

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It will give you a quick overview of two little-known movie recommendation sites, that are easy to use, easy to get started and indeed help you find the movies you’re likely to enjoy.

Tastekid – Quick Movie Recommender

Tastekid gives you a basic search field where you can enter a movie title of your choice and get back a list of similar movies. No need to signup or rate anything, just enter the movie you like and discover similar movies. Quick and easy.

When it comes to movie recommendations it might need some improvements though. I’d say only about half of the movies it returns are actually similar to the one you entered. However it still works great for me.

Its killer feature is the ability to get a quick preview window for any listed movie without leaving the page. Simply point your mouse cursor over the ‘?’ mark next to each title and you’ll get a small pop-up window with short movie description and trailer. Very useful.

MovieLens – Personalized Movie Recommendations

As stated above, MovieLens is a personalized movie recommendation engine. What this means is that your recommendations are tailored to your taste and based on your ratings of other movies.

The obvious advantage of it is that you get better recommendations. The disadvantage is that it takes time to setup and get it working. First of all, you have to signup and rate at least 15 titles before it can recommend any movie to you.

Now, you should also keep in mind that the more you tell Movielens about the movies you love and hate, the better your recommendations become. So just keep on rating as you browse the site.

Once you have rated your first 15 movies, you will be able to access your account area. Below is a screenshot of my account page (click to enlarge).

Although there are plenty of features here, you will rely upon only 3 things.

1) Predictions

Based on your movie ratings, MovieLens generates a so called prediction ratings for movies you haven’t seen yet.



The higher predictions are the more likely you will enjoy the movie. Moreover, your search results on Movielens are also sorted based on the prediction ratings.

2) Search

The Search feature is what you’re probably going to use the most. MovieLens lets you search for recommended movies by genre, year of release, title and more. Now, let’s say you want to find some good crime movie that you haven’t seen earlier. For that, simpy leave the title field blank, select the crime genre, the year of release and click search. Movielens will then get you all the crime movies matching your criteria, sorted based on prediction ratings.



There is also an Advanced Search mode where apart from searching for all the “best movies” within a certain domain, you have an option to exclude certain genres. That is to say, you can see what the “best movies” are that are in the crime category but not in Drama. Sweet.



3) New movies

Another neat feature, is a quick list of newly released movies along with a prediction for each of them. See a sample below (based on your ratings, your list might be different)

That’s about it. There are some other things you can do at Movielens but I don’t think any of them are really unique enough to be mentioned here.

To sum up, I think both websites offer something useful. Tastekid is more suitable for quick lookups and trailer peaks, movielens on the other hand for more personalized recommendations and for discovering great movies you never knew about. We have also reviewed a service called The Filter, though my personal choice stays with the above ones.

What do you think about the above sites? Have you used any of them before? Any other good sites?

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The most significant difference between Fancast and other video streaming services is its all-encompassing nature. Hulu makes specific deals with providers in order to bring in content and lets you watch full episodes of your favorites TV shows for free. Fancast isn’t as concerned with specific partnerships and brings in legal video from wherever it can. 

On top of this, Fancast learns your location and preferences in order to sync up with what you normally watch on TV. In a sense, the site tries to amplify your current usage habits instead of making you switch over to digital completely.

Normally I would try and walk you through the process of using Fancast, but it’s really much too vast for that approach.  Each user will have different features they like the best, so I’ll try to point out the most important ones here:

Show Listings and Access Options

The thing I’ll probably be using the most is the TV listings guide.  While these are easily obtainable at TVGuide and the like, Fancast will remember your location permanently (as it is tied to your account), and always bring up the television schedule according to your local channels.  Also, from your preferences and your ratings of individual shows, it brings up a likely nightly schedule for quick access.

Another rather innovative thing about Fancast is its access options.  Each episode specifically displays tags for the different ways you can access it.  If it is a current show, it tells you the next time it will be on TV (along with channel info).  If it is part of their strong streaming video library, there’s a link to it.  It’s also possible to find the show on DVD or On Demand through their paid download service.

Streaming TV Shows (Legally)

As I said, the number of streaming videos they have is pretty staggering. Many of the newer shows are directly from the networks or other similar sources. The older shows, like the Highlander episodes I’m working my way though, are simply ports from Hulu.  The interface for the player is fairly simple.  The slider is fairly blocky for some reason, the volume controls are incredibly basic, and generally it’s very hard to switch away from the awesomeness that is the Hulu player.

One episode that I watched and then returned to later did ask me if I wanted to start from the beginning or pick up where I left off.  This scored some points with me as I’ve had browser windows crash on me frequently during streaming.

Movies and Trailers

Another interesting aspect of Fancast is the movies section.  Their list of full-length movies isn’t incredibly small, but it probably won’t replace your Netflix subscription any time soon.  The player is essentially the same and will remember your place.  I would say more about the video viewing itself, but 1984 decided it wasn’t going to play any video for me at all, only the sound track.  Clearly there are some bugs to be worked out.

I do like the fact that they have trailers on the site because it might help with their community building.  While full-length movies don’t generate much discussion, trailers provide a lot of fodder for bloggers and users alike.

Fan News and Blogs

The blogs that live on Fancast are pretty decent reading.  They clearly have a staff of dedicated fans.  In fact, it’s evident in the way the site is designed.  Instead of locking everything down from the start and slowly expanding, Fancast has tried to give you everything and will hopefully improve their quality over time.  The blogs are few in number, but I assume that will grow over time.

Gripes

There were some things about Fancast that I didn’t particularly like.  First of all, the service not only prompts you for your location to customize it, but also because it wants to limit you to the content you’re already able to receive from your provider.  In fact, if you’re outside the United States, you’re not allowed to view the videos on Fancast.

Another gripe for me was the video player and the way it was formatted.  The player is simply too basic to compete with its competitors.  It’s obvious that they either wrote their own player and didn’t put a lot of time into it, or they bought one that was pre-constructed.  Either way, it is generally very short on features and the playback didn’t seem very stable at all.  In fact, the player even does that irritating thing where the slider bar will jump back to the beginning if you pull it too far to the right.

My last gripe is the overall page layout.  It is a fairly attractive website, but it has too many elements on the page and it is consequently very slow to load.  The page architecture is simply too complex and even the simplest flashblocker or adblocker completely breaks the functionality.

Overall, I think Fancast has a ton of potential.  They already have the content, the channel integration, and the seeds of a community base.  The main areas for them to work on are the player and the page layout.  While it’s a nice design, it’s always a mistake to choose form over function.

[rating=3]

What do you think?  It was you, the commenters, who suggested Fancast, so please defend or defile it as you see fit!

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