Items tagged with DVDs
You can't argue with the convenience of streaming video, provided you're rocking a fast enough Internet connection to watch your favorite movies without annoying hiccups and sudden drops in picture quality. As it turns out, consumers are also finding all those video rental kiosks convenient, and combined with brick-and-mortar store rentals, DVDs and Blu-ray rentals are still the media of choice for watching full-length feature films, according to data by The NPD Group. The NPD Group found that kiosks, brick-and-mortar stores, and movies by mail via Netflix accounted for 62 percent of movie rental orders during the first half of 2012. By comparison, digital movie rentals accounted for the other...
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Give it another couple of generations and America's young folk will think of DVDs the way the current generation thinks of VHS. DVDs are a dead format in the making, and they've already begun their march down death row. Find that hard to believe? Consider this -- according to IHS Screen Digest, in 2012 Americans will pay to consume 3.4 billion movies online, which works out to over 1 billion MORE movies than what are consumed on DVD and Blu-ray combined.. This, says IHS Screen Digest, puts "the final nail in the old idea that consumers won't accept premium content distributed online." But the question is, will content providers accept it? Interestingly enough, DVDs are expected to generate more...
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Perhaps Dish Network should just pull the plug on Blockbuster completely, but instead it looks like the once popular DVD rental store is destined to die a slow death. The satellite service provider indicated it would be closing more Blockbuster locations in the coming months than originally planned, and those that remain will turn into quasi-Dish Network customer service locations. News of additional closures comes from Dish Network Chief Executive Joe Clayton, who spoke with Reuters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Clayton said that any location not making a profit will be boarded up. Source: Flickr (lucias_clay) "We are committed to keeping the profitable stores open...
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If you were wondering if Netflix went into their recent announcement of a price change ... splitting DVD from streaming, thus making a combined unlimited DVD + streaming subscription cost $15.98 instead of $9.99 ... with blinders on, the answer is no. The company fully expected the negative backlash it has received. The change, effective immediately for new customers, and on Sept. 1 for existing customers, eliminates the $9.99 unlimited (one dvd out at a time) DVD + unlimited streaming plan. Instead, there will be a $7.99 unlimited (one dvd out at a time) DVD plan, and a $7.99 unlimited streaming plan, and never the twain shall meet. The change was first announced on Tuesday. So many customers...
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A collective shudder likely went up the spines of Netflix and Gamefly customers around the nation when they heard the U.S. Postal Service is looking to eliminate Saturday delivery.Both services — Netflix for DVDs of movies and television shows, Gamefly for video games — rely on snail mail to get their goods into customers' hands. Other mail order businesses, such as Amazon or eBay don't rely solely on the post office for delivery and in most cases shipping costs fall to the customer, so if someone wants more expensive overnight delivery, they can pay for it.But with Netflix and Gamefly, the customers can borrow, to a degree, as many DVDs or games as they want in a month for the same fee. If Charlie...
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As DVD movie sales continue to slowly dry up, some motion picture distribution companies are looking to make up lost revenue from other mediums, such as from Blu-ray movie disc sales and distribution deals with online media-streaming services, such as Netlfix, Vudu, and the recently announced ZillionTV. Blu-ray isn't anywhere as successful as the industry had hoped, and online streaming is a nascent business that is still just getting its financial feet wet. So, perhaps, desperate times call for desperate measures; which might explain why 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will start making two different versions of its DVDs: a stripped-down version for DVD rentals, and a premium version with...
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What might come as a surprise for many people is not that Netflix will cease selling used DVDs, but that Netflix was actually selling used DVDs in the first place. Selling "previously viewed DVDs" (as Netflix calls them--sort of like how used car salesmen sell "previously-owned vehicles"), has been part of the services that Netflix has offered for sometime, with some discs selling for as little as $5.99. But after November 30, Netflix will no longer offer this service, so that it can focus on its "core business" of "delivering great movie rentals to you on DVD by mail and instantly to the computer and TV" as the company recently reported on its blog. Netflix has been making quite a few changes...
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There should be no doubt that streaming video is quickly gaining in popularity. Recent studies shows that about 20 percent of U.S. households are watching TV online. Hulu has quickly grown to be the eighth-largest video site in the U.S., and it is even hosting a number of TV season premiers before the shows' officially broadcast dates. A new video search site, VideoSurf has recently sprung up, leveraging the mounting mountain of disparate online videos. Even Internet veteran, IMDb.com, has finally embraced streaming video and added the ability to view of 6,000 movies and TV shows. Credit: HDTV on the DishIf there is one constant to be found among these online video sources, it is...
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All is not well in Apple-Land. Several threads on the Apple discussion forums indicate a defective batch of DVDs, as well as BSODs ("blue screen of death") after installation. Now, much as we always say about Microsoft, you can't expect 100% flawless behavior; there's no such thing as bug-free software after all. But the defective DVDs, on the other hand, seem pretty widespread.According to this thread, the bad batch of DVDs has been confirmed by Apple, and support says you should not go back to the same store you originally purchased the DVD from, as the remainder of DVDs at that store would likely be bad as well.In one of the BSOD threads; it seems Apple Support wasn't able to help very much....
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This blog post at inicia.es (bring your translator) showing a hidden image of three men standing side-by-side on a Windows Vista Business DVD is making the rounds today. I had the scanner and my Vista Ultimate DVDs sitting right next to me when I came across that post, so I decided to slap it down and see if I could verify the image... My aging scanner is only capable of 1600dpi resolution, but that was enough to verify the hidden image is actually there, and to spot another one at the opposite end of the rectangular mark on the disc. Not sure who they are, but anyone who bought retail copies of Windows Vista now has a picture...
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While the format wars rage on, many different solutions are being proposed. The latest is a disk that Time Warner will announce next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Total HD movies will carry movies that can be played on high-definition DVD players that use technology backed by Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray format, as well as players using Toshiba Corp.-backed HD-DVD format. The competing formats have been blamed for hindering sales of high-definition movies and players, with consumers recalling the bruising war between Sony Corp.'s Betamax videotape and JVC's VHS version. JVC is owned by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd....
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They're right, VHS is just about dead. Sometimes it's hard to even find them in stores. If you've got some home movies though, or anything on a VHS tape you wish to preserve, copying the content over to a DVD is the way to go. The folks at Hardware Secrets can start you off with the hardware you'll need in the first part of their two part article. "With a PC with a DVD burner, a video capture card (or a video card with VIVO function) and a VCR you can convert all your VHS tapes in DVDs. You may even start working with this and make some money - there is a huge market for this kind of conversion out there for people that don't want to go thru the hassle of converting the tapes...
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Good morning all. Time for some morning reading courtesy of your good friends at HotHardware. JeffB checkin' in with the latest news floating around the hardware world. Got a decent selection waiting for me in my mailbox this AM, so let's not waste any time! Aristec Accent HT-400b HTPC Case Review at htpcnews.com: "As newcomers to the HTPC community begin their journey one of the first questions that they have is "what case should I buy" and the answer is not always what they want to hear. HTPC's are not a cheap hobby by any means... Yes you can build a HTPC for practically nothing but you will be heavily limited on what it can do in the grand scheme of things....
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Good morning gang, JeffB stopping by with your morning news update. While Marco is fighting off a bug, or possibly an overdose of pollen, I have a dilemma of a different kind. I took a ride to Top Sail Island off the coast of NC yesterday and didn't bring the sunblock. After walking along the beach for several hours without protection, I am now very well done. Needless to say, there are no quick movements in my future nor any sun going to hit me for a few days. I'm about as red as a tomatoe when I am usually pasty white. Ouch! Want to watch DVDs on your PC in 3D? DDD Group PLC just released a WinDVD add-on component that turns any DVD into a 3D...
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