movies

Death of The Video Rental Store

Death of Video Rental A few weeks ago, I was sitting at a traffic light by the Hollywood Video store near my home and glanced over at the empty parking lot. This was not an unusual sight because for years the parking lot at the Hollywood Video was always empty. But looking a bit closer, I realized the space was being gutted and prepped for an upcoming Advanced Auto Parts store. The Hollywood Video store was gone for good.

To be honest, I have not entered a video rental store in probably 10 years. But, I still felt a bit sad and nostalgic for all those Friday and Saturday nights back in the early 1990’s that I spent in the video store perusing the shelves for the newest flick with my boyfriend (who is now my wonderful husband). Rows and rows of videotapes, which eventually changed over to DVDs, were all lined up right at our fingertips. We really enjoyed going to the video store.

But then my husband and I stopped going to the video rental store. And it looks like everyone else stopped going too.

Netflix no longer requires disc for PS3 and Wii

Wii and PS3 offer disc-less Netflix streamingComing on the heels of Netflix announcing that PS3 consumers no longer need a disc to stream Netflix content, Netflix customers with a Wii console can begin streaming movies from the service without the Netflix disc starting this week.

Last week, Sony launched the disc-less service for PS3 console customers. PS3 customers, unlike Wii customers, will be able to view Netflix content in high-definition viewing with surround sound.

The Social Web gets its own set of movie trailers

We all really relate to movies, don’t we? We jump to see movie-versions of books and compelling news stories. Well how about a movie version of the origins of Facebook? Well, that’s actually coming to a movie theater near you this Fall. It’s called “The Social Network“. The trailer is after the jump.

But not to be left out, some other aspiring, comedic filmmakers have put out their own versions of ‘trailers’ for movies about YouTube and now Twitter!

Mobile Entertainment company mspot now offers movies on demand for your cell phone

mspotOne of the up and coming services that gets you even more entertainment on your cell phone is mspot. mspot started out as a music, ringtone and streaming radio company but has recently branched out into movies too.

So if you’re interested in watching movies on your phone, then you can get an mspot movie club subscription starting at $10/month for 20 credits which works out to up to 4 movies.

mspot works on a variety of cell phones that run on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

Mvix updates Ultio media player – Ultio Pro can now record with DVR

mvix ultio pro mx-880hdMvixUSA has updated their flagship media center product, the Ultio, to now include DVR (digital video recording) capabilities. The Ultio Pro plays back Blu-ray quality 1080p hi-def video, photos, and music on your high-def TV via HDMI and stores it all on its internal hard drive which you can get as large as 2TB.

And now, the Pro can record video on the fly from your cable/satellite TV, your camcorder or from DVDs, instead of acting just as a repository. The Ultio Pro is a virtual Swiss Army knife of video, image and audio formats including: mp4, avi, iso, asf, wmv, flv, mkv, rm, ts, mpg, vob, mp3, wma, aac, ogg, flac, jpg, bmp and gif. To see the full list, download the Formats PDF from MvixUSA.

And of course, the Ultio Pro plays back media from your network and the Internet, including from your computer and from services liks Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and more.

Buy now!
Price: $169 without hard drive; $384 with 2TB drive. (You can buy the barebones version and insert whatever sized drive you’d like.)
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Sony and Netflix got together so you can stream Netflix movies to your PS3

Got a PlayStation3 ? Then you might want to think about getting one, because Sony just came up with one more reason for you to buy one: Netflix. Yes, Sony and Netflix got together so that you can stream Netflix movies to your PS3.

As long as you have a Netflix account, there is no extra charge. Launches next month. Sign up at http://www.netflix.com/ps3.

New movie Gamer, puts a twist on gaming

Gamer is an upcoming action movie with an interesting twist. Set in the future, mind-control is common and used in FPS video gaming where players control inmates in actual battles.

This flick has some big names in it like Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, John Leguizamo, Kyra Sedgwick and Ludacris. Comes out Sep 4. Take a look at the trailer.

Adobe Flash coming to a TV near you

Adobe plans to bring its Flash technology to your TV screens by having TVs and set-top boxes built with support for Flash. Flash is the format used for roughly 80% of video online as well as many online video games.

This will certainly make it easier for studios to create content that is viewable on both TV and the Web.

I think that one of the things that needs an update is many of the interfaces and remote controls for the set-top boxes. Why? Because one of the powerful uses of Flash is building applications that are interactive. Take games for example. If Adobe would really like Flash to be used to its fullest, then those set-top boxes need to improve their current horrible non-intuitive interfaces as well as their power (I’m looking at you Motorola).

Adobe expects Flash-supported hardware to begin selling late this year.

YouTube Looking To Accept Full-Length Content… Legally

YouTube and Sony in Talks

YouTube and Sony are currently in talks  to display full-length content from Sony Pictures on YouTube. About a week ago, a deal was closed between YouTube and Disney to do the same with some short Disney clips – but it seems that Sony Pictures may provide some longer content for YouTube.

This may be a case of YouTube are playing a game of ‘catch-up’ as service providers all over the world are allowing their shows to be watched online through their own websites which may be lowering the demand for YouTube slightly. Unknown to many, Sony Pictures owns Crackle.com which produces high quality video in-house for the sole purpose of being uploaded to that site.

If this deal goes ahead, we can look forward to a lot of quality content on YouTube professionally produced in addition to the excellent amateur movies out there. Nice.

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