Digital Trends
A couple years ago, movie rental service Netflix offered up $1 million prize to a software developer who could come up with a better way to recommend new movies to its millions of subscribers. Netflix wasn’t asking for much&mdah;just a 10 percent improvement—but to date the prize has gone unclaimed, despite more than 27,000 entries. (Although Netflix did give $50,000 to a team of researchers at AT&T who came up with an 8.5 percent improvement kast year—AT&T donated the money to charity.)
Netflix is finally ending its double life as a movie rental service and purveyor of used DVDs. The company announced on Monday that it would shut the doors on its previously viewed movie biz on November 30.
“As you know, our core business is delivering great movie rentals to you on DVD by mail and instantly to the computer and TV, so we’ve decided it makes sense for us to focus exclusively on that,” a company representative wrote in the Netflix blog. “This means we will stop selling previously viewed DVDs through the Web site. “
The war between plasma and LCD flat-panel TVs rages on, and no doubt you’ve heard the propaganda from both camps. While LCD has traditionally been more expensive than plasma at the larger sizes, that gap is diminishing—making other factors such as performance and features more significant. Here, we’ll take you through the pros and cons of each technology to help you make the important decision: To buy a plasma or LCD television? You can always discuss this debate in our forums too.
PLASMA FLAT-PANELS
Benefits:
Earlier this month, computer maker Dell announced that, for an extra $20, it would pre-load the superhero movie Iron Man on selected new computers. Now, the company is expanding the idea, announcing a way for purchasers of new computers to “jump-start” their digital media collections by pre-loading movie bundles on selected new notebook and desktop computers purchased through Dell’s Web site.
The pre-loaded movies are offered through a partnership with CinemaNow, and prices for movie bundles start at $25. Title collections are “hand-selected” by Hollywood studios, and include offerings like the three recent Spider-Man films, the Matrix trilogy, every installment of The Fast and The Furious franchise, along with a childrens, romantic comedy, and comedy bundles from Paramount.
If you need to know something about a movie, from the year of release to an obscure actor, you turn to the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb). Previously, the site – which is owned by Amazon – has been all text. But now that’s changed, as IMDb has begun streaming video.
The site now carries more than 6,000 programs, with plenty of TV shows, and users can also rent or purchase videos from – who else? – Amazon.
The service is free and supported by ads, and IMDb’s Tammy Hovey told TechNewsWorld:
Casio garnered some oohs and ahhs in the digital camera world when it introduced its Exilim Pro EX-F1 at the beginning of the year, sporting a stunning 60 frames-per-second burst rate for still images along with a 1,200 frames per second high-speed movie mode (perfect for high-speed events and slow-motion replay).
While Apple already offers DRM-protected movie downloads through its iTunes distribution network, a new deal the company has supposedly cut will soon see the introduction of digital movie rentals as well. According to the Wall Street Journal, Twentieth Century Fox and Apple will soon announce an agreement that allows Fox movies to hit iTunes for rental.
The move will put Apple in direct competition with existing companies that offer downloadable rentals, such as Movielink. The company will also compete with traditional brick-and-mortar stores like Blockbuster and rent-by-mail services like Netflix.
Electronics maker Panasonic has announced its DMP-BD30 Blu-ray player, which the company is touting as the first Blu-ray player to support BD-Video Final Standard Profile 1.1. Support for Final Standard Profile 1.1 means the unit offers both a secondary audio and video decoder (so the player can handle audio and/or video from a second source—say, a director’s commentary displayed picture-in-picture while a movie is running) and a virtual file system. The DMP-BD30 also sports 64 MB of built-in flash memory, 256 MB of local storage, and an SD card slot that enables users to push their high-def snapshots or even video to their televisions.
Movie Gallery—owners of Hollywood Video and Game Crazy stores—have announced they plan to launch an online video rental service in mid-to-late 2007. They plan to get their foot in the door via a low-priced “friends and family” program available to existing customers; the company sees the service as a compliment to its existing retail operations (like Blockbuster) rather than a standalone operation (like iTunes or Netflix).
Movie Gallery recently acquired MovieBeam, a digital video on demand service which broadcasts movies to set-top boxes using bandwidth available behind public airwaves. Despite early backing from industry heavyweights, MovieBeam never took off in the marketplace and Movie Gallery was able to pick up the business for a scant $10 million.
The Internet—and, heck, even mainstream media—have been awash with rumors and speculation that iPod maker Apple Computer and Internet retailing giant Amazon.com are on the verge of unveiling online movie services. Apple has called a special press event for September 12; Amazon.com is literally expected to raise the curtain any second now. Tongues are waggin,’ cell phones are ringin’, and pundits are waxin’ philosophical.
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