Thanks to the demands of movie studios, as of April 15th any pay-per-view movies you record to your DirecTV DVR will disappear after 24 hours. [
DirecTV]
Thanks to Mark!
blockbuster
Hacking Netflix reports that many
Blockbuster locations don't use a centralized network to keep tabs on Total Access usage. The tip was originally reported by Kevin Tostado, who took down his post after a ball-busting conversation with Blockbuster in which they asked him to cease and desist. Fortunately, Google's marvelously efficient spiders reached Kevin's site before Blockbuster and preserved the post.
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Netflix has been asking its members about their Xbox 360 usage habits as it considers whether to stream movie rentals over the device. Are you a Netflix subscriber who owns a 360? Were you surveyed? [
Reuters]
movies
Cablevision and Popcorn Home Entertainment have announced a new service that lets you watch movies immediately through Cablevision's set-top box whenever you buy the DVD through their menu system. The DVD is mailed to you, but
in the meantime you have the on-demand version for "instant gratification," reports Reuters.
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identity theft
Between December 2006 and January 2007, Mann Theatres in Southern California printed the expiration dates of credit cards on receipts. If you were one of the lucky suckers who saw a movie there during this period and paid via credit card, Mann's lawyers want to make things right by giving you
two free movie tickets and some free popcorn. However, to qualify for the free tickets, you have to
provide your credit card number. This is like the end of "The Lion King" where the new cub is held aloft—the circle of life continues.
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Correction:
A Panasonic fat cat (and probably also a big wig) wrote in to let us know that Panasonic does indeed make a Blu-ray player that can play
1.1 Blu-ray discs: "The current Panasonic model available (DMP-BD30) is based on version 1.1 (BonusView) and capable of playing Blu-ray discs offering the added interactive features such as PiP."
movies
Netflix has removed the monthly limits on all but its lowest-cost plan in an apparent attempt to position itself more competitively against Apple, which is expected to announce a downloadable movie rental service tomorrow. Now for as little as $8.99 per month you can
watch as many movies on your PC as you can download.
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consumer electronics
After the
past week, it seems more and more likely that Blu-ray will be the movie disc format of the future. But with the exception of the Playstation 3, current Blu-ray disc players were built without future-compatibility capabilities, so come this October owners won't be able to take advantage of features like Internet connectivity or enhanced interactivity (whatever that means—details are sketchy). "One key Blu-ray developer told BetaNews that although he builds discs for studios including Fox and Lionsgate, he did not buy a Blu-ray player for personal use." Regarding current Blu-ray player owners, Blu-ray developers told BetaNews,
"They knew what they were getting into."
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movies
After David Pogue's
public complaint last week that some movie trailers go too far in misleading consumers about the movie, he was contacted by the director of both "National Treasure" flicks, Jon Turteltaub, who
offered his opinion on the practice: "What's funny is that the filmmakers do exactly what you do. I was watching the final trailer for my movie, saying what you said: 'Ummm....that's not in the movie, that's not in the movie, THAT'S not in the movie.'"
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we're using the internet
The
New York Times says that Comcast has some big plans brewing that will allow consumers to watch TV and movies over something called the "internet," as well as offering the ability to remotely control their DVRs.
Comcast has set up a site called Fancast.com where viewers can watch more than 3,000 hours of television shows from NBC, Fox, CBS and MTV and where they will soon be able to remotely program the digital video recorders in their homes. The shows on Fancast are available free. Comcast has yet to say how it will price the rest of the content as its plan moves forward.
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truth in advertising
David Pogue has an interesting rant in today's Circuits column about the movie "National Treasure: Book of Secrets"—or more specifically about its trailer, which is chock-full of scenes, dialogue, locations, and plot references that are nowhere to be found in the actual movie. He asks,
"Just how different can a trailer be without becoming false advertising?" We immediately thought about last year's kids flick "Bridge to Terabithia," which was advertised like a whimsical Narnia spin-off but in reality was about the death of a major character.
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Fox and Apple have reached a deal that would allow movie rentals through the iTunes Music Store. No official announcement yet, so no details on pricing, date, or how the rentals will work. [
Reuters]
questionable content
Question #17 of Moviefone's year-end poll asks, "Who was the hottest movie star MILF?" At first glance, we were a little surprised to see an all-ages website asking whose mom you'd like to engage in sex with. On the other hand, maybe Moviefone is intentionally an adults-only site—the copy on the front page says, "Vote on your favorite movies, celebrities and nude scene," and we don't imagine too many of the "Enchanted" demo is going to have much of an opinion on that last category.
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dish
Dish Network customers can get the Cinemax movie channel for one cent for year if they switch to paperless billing. Here's how:
1. Call 1-800-333-DISH
2. Go to Billing
3. Ask rep about a promotional Cinemax deal for 1 Cent for signing up for autopay and paperless billing.
People posting in various forums caution that this won't work if you've had Cinemax in the past 6 months. Also, the Cinemax will be canceled if you cancel the autopay and paperless billing. Deal ends 1/31/08.
(Photo: Tubes.)
drinks
Remember Brawndo from "Idiocracy"—the world's best and only beverage, the one that mutilates your thirst, and is so awesome that we even use it for irrigation? It's now a real product, for those of you who enjoy mixing satire about commercialism with actual commercialism. (Wait—how does that work?) Naturally nobody over 12 years old or sane will probably want to actually taste it—it's just another bad energy drink with fun packaging—so Sarah at CalorieLab has
taken a bullet for the rest of us. Good; now we can go back to watching reruns of "Ow My Balls."
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Consumerist
