inside LOVEFiLM

Hello, I’m Fern, and I’ve been at LOVEFiLM for… well, longer than I care to mention or admit, actually. I’ve seen a lot of changes in that time as we’ve grown the company and expanded the service from humble beginnings.

Choice has always been a key principle for us. Early on, that simply meant making as many films available as we possibly could. These days, it’s also about providing different formats – games, for example, and Blu-ray, and streaming on LOVEFiLM Instant.

Your options continue within the LOVEFiLM Instant service, of course, with an array of different consoles and apps.

And if you’re using a PlayStation®3 to watch films instantly, you have yet another choice – the option of High Quality or Standard Quality streaming.

This option appears each time you select a title to watch. Simply hit the High Quality or Standard Quality button, and your film or TV episode will then play appropriately.

• High Quality – choose this option if your broadband connection is strong and fast (with a speed of 3Mbps or more), as it improves the picture and the sound to near HD levels
• Standard Quality – choose this option if your broadband connection is slower than 3Mbps, to reduce buffering and smooth out playback

If your broadband speed tends to vary depending on the time and day you’re watching, you can choose whichever option suits you best at the time.

Even during playback, just hit the ‘O’ (circle) button, choose the title from the menu screen again, and the HQ/SQ selection page will appear, which could be useful if you’re using High Quality and you start to experience buffering and need to swap to Standard Quality.

I hope you find this helps with your viewing…

Fern O’Sullivan,Group Operations Director

Here in the LOVEFiLM office, I’m surrounded by extremely fit people. Content Manager Jen Trevorrow ran a half-marathon last weekend. Digital Assistant Rich Turner is doing the London Marathon in April. And Senior Commercial Manager Rob Hanlon has decided it would be fun to cycle from London to Paris. Madness!

So I am embarking on a marathon of my own: a Blackadder marathon!

I know – what AM I thinking?! Can any man really survive 12 gruelling hours of searing put-downs, cunning plans, Melchett BAAAAAs, Queenie beheadings? Why would anyone even attempt such a thing? Well, because they’re there – all four series of Blackadder, plus, as a warmdown, Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, are available on LOVEFiLM Instant right now.

These running types will tell you marathons are infectious, addictive even. Which apparently explains why some crazy individuals can’t leave it at just 26 miles. They do it again and again. And then up the ante with a coast-to-coast, or the full length of the Ridgeway in 24 hours, or the Thames path from source to barrier in a week.

Perhaps I’ll begin to feel the same as I go through my training- starting with Wallace and Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions. Surely anyone can breeze through all 10 two minute episodes without breaking a sweat? All being well, it’ll be straight on into the 13 ten minute episodes of The Morph Files.

And then, time to get serious. Ploughing through Derren Brown’s Mind Control and Trick of the Mind episodes should help in hurdling those mental barriers to come. Then, to instil in myself of the power of mankind’s potential, all of Human Planet. If we’ve come this far over thousands of years, that Blackadder marathon is just another step along the way.

But, if the marathoner’s ‘addiction’ does indeed take hold, what then?

Jeeves and Wooster is, in my opinion, TV perfection. Sitting through all 22 episodes on LOVEFiLM Instant will last 18 and a half hours or so.

After that, Inspector Morse. All 33 mysteries, at an hour and a quarter per episode, will take nearly two and a half days. Without wee breaks.

And finally, the do or die challenge. The Everest. The Pole (I am just watching TV and may be some time)… Lost.

121 episodes. At least 40 minutes each. With feature-length specials. That’s about 90 hours. Or nearly four days, non-stop, from start to finish.

I’m going for it. Time to open a JustGiving account…

Rob Holloway, Senior Content Manager – Devices