“Netflix movie streaming coming to PlayStation 3 - WZVN-TV” plus 4 more

Netflix movie streaming coming to PlayStation 3 - WZVN-TV
Fans boycott Jackson film 'This Is It' - Newstrack India
3-D: Coming soon to a TV near you - Mydesert.com
Warner Brothers Nears Deal For Animated Feature - Post Chronicle
First "A-Team" Set Footage Revealed - WorstPreviews.com

Netflix movie streaming coming to PlayStation 3 - WZVN-TV

Posted: 26 Oct 2009 01:47 AM PDT

By BARBARA ORTUTAY
AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - PlayStation 3 owners will soon be able to stream movies and TV shows from Netflix to their TVs using the gaming console, just as Xbox 360 owners have been able to do for a year.

Sony Corp. and the DVD rental company planned to announce the service Monday and launch it next month. It will be available for free to PlayStation 3 owners who have a Netflix subscription that starts at $9.

Netflix streaming is already available on a broad range of devices, such as the Roku digital video player, Internet-connected TV sets (including Sony's) and Blu-ray players - and the PlayStation 3's archrival, Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360. On the Xbox, however, the Netflix streaming is available only to Xbox Live "Gold" members, who pay $50 a year mainly to play games online with friends in other places.

For Netflix Inc., the deal brings millions of potential new customers, to add to the 11.1 million it already has in the United States. About 9 million PlayStation 3 systems have been sold in U.S., and more than 25 million worldwide.

Movie streaming is an increasingly important service for Netflix even though it says it expects to keep renting DVDs until 2030. And Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said he would like the streaming service to be available on all three of the major gaming platforms - the Xbox, the Wii and the PlayStation. Until now, however, the company had an exclusive deal with Microsoft.

"The PlayStation 3 is an amazing video platform," Hastings said in an interview.

This leaves the Wii as the last console without Netflix streaming. But even without it, the Wii is the top-selling console.

Netflix has about 17,000 movies and TV shows available for streaming, though few of them are new releases. This will expand the movies Sony already rents and sells through the PlayStation 3, and will give the company another feature to tout as it markets the PlayStation as a diverse entertainment device.

With a TV ad campaign whose slogan is "It Only Does Everything," Sony is targeting men and women between 18 and 49 and playing up the console's capabilities beyond gaming. Last year, its aim was still younger men, the gamer demographic.

"I think we always knew we made a significant investment in the PS3 and we were ahead of the time in terms of technology," said Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America. "But technology that was mystifying to the consumer three years ago is being coveted now."

To access the Netflix streaming service, PlayStation 3 users will have to pop in a Blu-ray disc that Netflix will mail out. The disc will access the Internet and activate the Netflix system so people can find movies to stream.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Fans boycott Jackson film 'This Is It' - Newstrack India

Posted: 26 Oct 2009 12:36 AM PDT

London, Oct 26 (ANI): Fans of late King of Pop Michael Jackson have launched a campaign to boycott his film 'This Is It'.

The online protest - called This is NOT It, is being supported by thousands of people, who claim that the film features the singer's deteriorating health and the stress of the planned 50 London shows leading up to his death in June.

E-mail Article
Printer Friendly
Text-Size

They claimed 20,000 hits in 24 hours on their website and 13 branches.

"The film has been craftily edited to maximise profits," the Sun quoted spokesman Giovanni Panunzio as saying.

Michael's father Joe and sister La Toya have accused Sony Pictures of using stand-ins in the film. (ANI)

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

3-D: Coming soon to a TV near you - Mydesert.com

Posted: 26 Oct 2009 01:12 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES — Fans scrambled to see 3-D movies such as "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" in theaters this year, and new 3-D televisions could soon have home viewers feeling as if they're surrounded by a spaghetti hurricane on their couches.

Next year major electronics manufacturers Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. plan to introduce 3-D-capable high-definition televisions for the mass market. You'll still need to wear special glasses, though.

Movie studios hope 3-D can help lift the sagging home video market the same way it has pushed up box office results.

The initial price of such sets is expected to be high — perhaps 20 percent more than normal sets of the same size. But costs should come down in the coming years.

Depending on prices, 3-D-ready TVs could be in 28 million to 46 million homes worldwide by 2013, predicts Alfred Poor, an analyst with GigaOM Pro. He estimates that next year, as many as 2.5 million sets worldwide will be sold with 3-D capability.

"We're raising a whole generation of kids who expect to see this effect for their movies at home," Poor said. "I think people want 3-D. I just don't think they're going to want to pay a whole lot more for it."

To avoid the need for special screens, some manufacturers of TV sets are shunning the 3-D technology common in theaters in favor of what's known as "active shutter." That uses an infrared emitter on the TV to tell battery-powered glasses when to flicker the left and right lenses in conjunction with the images on the screen, which gives the perception of three dimensions.

The sets themselves will require relatively minor upgrades from today's models, but the glasses will cost more, raising the price of the overall package.

There's no question 3-D movies are popular.

They generated more than $1 billion at box offices worldwide this year, and on a per-screen basis, 3-D showings typically bring in more than double the revenue of regular screenings when a movie is offered in both versions.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Warner Brothers Nears Deal For Animated Feature - Post Chronicle

Posted: 26 Oct 2009 12:36 AM PDT

Warner Bros. is strutting back into animation. The studio is in final negotiations to acquire a movie pitch centering on a peacock from writers Austin Winsberg and Heath Corson.

The film's story is being kept under wraps.

The move marks a bolstering of animation efforts for Warners, which was once very active in the sector but has since scaled back its theatrical efforts. With director George Miller, the studio did develop and produce 2006's "Happy Feet," the music-themed penguin movie that earned nearly $380 million worldwide and won the animation Oscar. The studio is developing a sequel.

Warners, which controls vaunted properties like "Superman" and "Scooby-Doo," does produce a slew of animation content for television and home video.

Winsberg is a veteran TV writer who has worked on shows such as "Jake in Progress" and "Still Standing."

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

First "A-Team" Set Footage Revealed - WorstPreviews.com

Posted: 22 Oct 2009 05:23 PM PDT

Entertainment Tonight visited the set of the upcoming "The A-Team" movie, getting a chance to speak to the cast and hear Quinton "Rampage" Jackson do his best Mr T impression. Check out the video below.

The story focuses on four wrongly convicted veterans, who escape from prison to become do-gooder mercenaries. In addition to Cooper and Biel, the film also stars Liam Neeson as Hannibal, Sharlto Copley (District 9) as Murdock, and Quinto "Rampage" Jackson as BA Baracus.

The new movie is directed by Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces, Narc), who has promised for the tone to be less silly and more slick. It is scheduled to hit theaters on June 11th, 2010.

Video:

Click here to read more about "The A-Team."

Source: ET

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.