HOW SHE MOVE NOW AVAILABLE

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HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE HOW SHE MOVE FROM IMDB

Following her sister's death from drug addiction, a high school student is forced to leave her private school to return to her old, crime-filled neighborhood where she re-kindles an unlikely passion for the competitive world of step dancing.

HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE HOW SHE MOVE FROM DVDTALK

A graduate of the Sundance Film Festival class of 2007, "How She Move" arrives in theaters dragging behind a slew of urban dance productions. However, "Move" has heart, respect, and some incredible acting newcomers, making it late to the party, but ending up the best feet-first creation yet.

Finding her pathway to medical school obstructed by financial difficulties, a smothering mother, and trouble with her peers, Raya (Rutina Wesley) struggles to live life her way. When the world of step-dancing comes calling with offers of cash prizes and social acceptance, Raya jumps at the chance to join the local underdog group. Finding herself emotionally drawn to the squad's captain (Dwain Murphy), Raya risks losing the way to her goals, only to find these aspirations might not be what she wants for herself after all.

Imagine "Stomp the Yard" with a budget of $1.25, a higher IQ, and some visual restraint, and there's "How She Move." Perhaps it's unfair to match the two movies together, since both features were created under such different circumstances, yet both offer the audience a chance to watch step-dancing at its most theatrical; a quality that makes the pictures interchangeable at times.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW FOR THIS MOVIE.

HERE IS THE DIRECT DOWNLOAD FOR THE MOVIE HOW SHE MOVE.

RAMBO IV NOW AVAILABLE

RAMBO IV AVAILABLE ONLINE

HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE RAMBO IV

Vietnam veteran John Rambo has survived many harrowing ordeals in his lifetime and has since withdrawn into a simple and secluded existence in Bangkok, where he spends his time salvaging old PT boats and tanks for scrap metal. Even though he is looking to avoid trouble, trouble has a way of finding him. A group of Christian human rights missionaries, led by Michael Burnett and Sarah Miller, approach Rambo with the desire to rent his boat to travel up the river to Burma. For over fifty years, Burma has been like a war zone. The Karen people of the region, who consist of peasants and farmers, have endured brutally oppressive rule from the murderous Burmese military and have been struggling for survival every single day. This is the time when medical assistance and general support from the Christian missionaries is needed most. After some consideration, and due to insistence from his mentor, former military man Ed Baumgartner, Rambo accepts the offer and takes Michael, Sarah, and the rest of the missionaries up the river. When the missionaries finally arrive at the Karen village, they are ambushed by the sadistic Major Pa Tee Tint and a slew of Burmese army men. A portion of the villagers and missionaries are tortured and viciously murdered, while Tint and his men hold the remainder captive. News soon reaches the minister in charge of the mission and with the help of Ed Baumgartner he employs Rambo to lead a rescue effort. With five young and highly diverse mercenaries at his disposal, Rambo has to travel back up the river and liberate the survivors from the clutches of Major Tint in what may be one of his deadliest missions ever Written by stallonezone.com

The next chapter finds Rambo recruited by a group of Christian human rights missionaries to protect them against pirates, during a humanitarian aid deliver to the persecuted Karen people of Burma. After some of the missionaries are taken prisoner by sadistic Burmese soldiers, Rambo gets a second impossible job: to assemble a team of mercenaries to rescue the surviving relief workers. Written by aintitcool.com

HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE RAMBO IV FROM DVDTALK

What began as a franchise of high adventure and bottomless sympathy, before promptly tumbling into a feral cartoon, has found its rightful home here: utter maniacal chaos. "Rambo" marks the return of Sylvester Stallone's Vietnam vet hero, a full 20 years after the release of "Rambo III." It seems that during this considerable downtime, Stallone has reassessed his work as John Rambo and his iconic screen history, and is comfortable raging again in this ruthless exclamation point on a surreal series of films.

Living in Burma as a boatman, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) spends his time quietly reflecting on his life, desperate to evade his demons. When a pack of Christian missionaries (including Julie Benz, "Dexter") comes to Rambo looking for passage into the heart of the Burmese civil war, he reluctantly accepts, but is wary of such dangerous terrain. Returning home alone, Rambo learns that the missionaries were captured by the vicious Burmese military, leaving him in a position to turn his back or assume his psychologically tattered solider mentality and launch into battle once again.

The truth is, "Rambo" is not a return to the sensitivity of 1982's "First Blood" in the same fashion "Rocky Balboa" healed old wounds. Nor is the film a superficial action breeze like the two previous blockbuster sequels. This time Stallone is hungry to prove a point, and he unleashes a torrent of violence in a manner that's just plain berserk. This is a detail that cannot be stressed enough: "Rambo" is a monumentally vicious film.

Stallone (who directs and co-scripted) is angling for the heart of darkness here, exhibiting the devastating Burmese civil war on very realistic terms, eager to stun the viewer with depictions of SLORC army atrocities including beheadings, rape, dismemberments, and further barbaric customs that keep the rest of the volatile country in place. "Rambo" doesn't recoil from any of it, displaying a gruesome rain of death and unspeakable acts of violation. Stallone is creating a bleak perspective here about the Burmese conflict, perhaps distancing himself from the mindless body count thrills of the two earlier films by edging toward authenticity. "Rambo" might seem over the top to some, but it puts the viewer in the middle of pure hell, making vivid points about the futility of peace and war. Here, fighting fire with fire is exhilarating, but there's an unavoidable price to pay.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW FOR THIS MOVIE.

HERE IS THE DIRECT DOWNLOAD FOR THE MOVIE RAMBO IV.

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CNET.COM SAYS YOU SHOULD SELL YOUR HD-DVD PLAYER NOW

CNET.COM SAYS SELL NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HERE IS AN ARTICLE FROM CNET.COM THAT SAYS YOU SHOULD SELL YOUR HD-DVD PLAYER WHILE YOU CAN GET A GOOD PRICE FOR IT:

As you might imagine, after Warner's abrupt announcement in early January that it was going Blu-ray exclusive to help end the next-gen DVD format war, we've gotten a steady stream of HD DVD-buyers' remorse e-mails from readers, wondering what their next move should be. Here's a sample:

Dear David,

Over the holiday break I decided to take the plunge and make a decision in the HD format war. I decided on HD DVD primarily because of the cheaper price on the players and the deals on HD DVDs. I have no real preference either way between HD DVD and Blu-ray, so price and a large stash of Best Buy gift cards swung my vote. Unfortunately, not more then a week after I had purchased my player (which I am very pleased with, by the way) Warner and New Line drop their bomb and pull out of the HD DVD camp. My question now is what should I do with my HD DVD player and the 15 or so movies I ended up with after the holidays? Do I try and return everything, get my money back, and spend it on a Blu-ray player or a PS3; or should I hang on to HD DVD a little longer and see what happens? Also, if I should go Blu-ray, should I buy a PS3 or wait for a good standalone player to come down in price?

In need of advice,
Andrew

Well, Andrew, let me start by offering you my condolences. There are many of us in the same position, including a few CNET editors (I am the ambivalent owner of the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360). Every format war has its casualties, and while we've recommended all along that the smart bet was to sit on the sidelines until things got sorted out, we knew that each side would attract its fair share of early adopters willing, as you say, "to take the plunge"--and in some cases, plunge twice and buy both formats. But now that you feel like a sucker for choosing HD DVD, let's consider your options. Pardon the stock-market analogies, but they somehow seem apropos.

Option No. 1: Hold
The Web is a rather sensationalist place these days, so it would be easy to assume from the headlines surrounding the Warner announcement that that HD DVD was dead (plenty of people didn't know there was a war on, let alone the difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD, but that's another story). However, at the present, Toshiba hasn't surrendered, stores are still selling HD DVD players and discs, and more are on the way. (I recently received an e-mail from Universal's PR team saying Universal is shipping American Gangster on February 11 as planned.) Call it a last-ditch effort, but on January 13, Toshiba, as part of its "new marketing strategy for mass-market adoption," announced price drops on all of its HD DVD players.

You bought an HD DVD player. Now what?

But let's face facts. Unless something radically changes in the next few weeks or months--and it would have to be an almost unimaginable sea change, like Microsoft buying a couple of movie studios and forcing them to go HD DVD-exclusive--you're sitting on a depreciating investment. When Warner stops publishing its HD DVD titles in May, 70 percent of the studios will be aligned with Blu-ray, and it seems only a matter of time before the remaining HD DVD studios--Paramount and Universal--opt out of their exclusivity deals and jump ship. Under the new studio lineup, HD DVD simply isn't economically viable and the negative headlines have already taken their toll on HD DVD sales, with NPD data revealing that Blu-ray has grabbed 92.53 percent of hardware sales in the high-def disc player market from January 5 to January 12, just days after the Warner announcement.

Sure, you can hang onto your HD DVD player and movies with the rather faint hope that Warner might decide to change its mind (there is a petition going around, pleading with Warner to do just that) and that Paramount and Universal won't jump ship. It's not the end of the world, after all. If you bought in the fall of 2007, it's likely that your player didn't cost a ton of money. And you can watch the HD DVD library you've built until your player conks out and eventually replace it with a Blu-ray player or just jump to downloads--including some in high-def--with Apple TV, Vudu, the Xbox 360, or the upcoming Netflix box. (Sony probably has something in the works with the PS3 as well.)

But just say "dying format" a few times. Now say it again. How does that make you feel? A little empty, huh?

Option No. 2: Buy
OK, if I'm essentially saying you're foolish for hanging onto a rapidly falling stock, a terminal short, if you will, what would becoming a buyer of said stock make you? Marginally crazy, but there are those out there who see opportunity in misfortune and can't resist buying something on the cheap--especially if you're a fan of the format and just can't let go. (As anybody who follows this column knows, I've been accused of being a Blu-ray backer, but I maintain I have no allegiance to either side and would gladly part ways with Blu-ray if it were to be vanquished.)

As for the hardware, it's hard to make a case for buying an HD DVD player for more than $100, with the possible exception of the high-end Toshiba HD-XA2, which unfortunately still costs at least $600 ($300 refurbished) but makes a terrific upconverting DVD player. I'm using an upconverting DVD player as a benchmark because that's pretty much what you'll be left with if HD DVD goes away. Entry-level HD DVD models such as Toshiba's HD-A2 and HD-A3 are good upconverters for the price but don't offer some of the features, such as DivX playback, that even some of the more basic upconverting players offer.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE.

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HEATH LEDGER FOUND DEAD ON TUESDAY

ACTOR HEATH LEDGER FOUND DEAD ON TUESDAY EVENING

On Tuesday this week police found the body of actor Heath Ledger dead in his apartment in New York City. Sources say the cause of death may be drug related.

Here is the article about the death from MSN.COM:

Heath Ledger Found Dead in NYC

Jan. 23, 2008, 3:55 AM EST
The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Heath Ledger, the talented 28-year-old actor who gravitated toward dark, brooding roles that defied his leading-man looks, was found dead Tuesday in a Manhattan apartment, facedown at the foot of his bed with prescription sleeping pills nearby, police said.

There was no obvious indication that the Australian-born Ledger had committed suicide, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the SoHo apartment that is believed to be the home of the "Brokeback Mountain" actor, Browne said. The massage therapist and a housekeeper found his naked body at about 3:30 p.m. They tried to revive him, but he was already dead.

"I had such great hope for him," said Mel Gibson, who played Ledger's vengeful father in "The Patriot," in a statement. "He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss."

Outside the Manhattan building on an upscale street, paparazzi and gawkers gathered, and several police officers put up barricades to control the crowd of about 300. Onlookers craned their necks as officers brought out a black bodybag on a gurney, took it across the sidewalk and put it into a medical examiner's office van.

As the door opened, bystanders snapped pictures with camera phones, rolled video and said, "He's coming out!"

An autopsy was planned for Wednesday, medical examiner's office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.

While not a marquee movie star, Ledger was an award-winning actor who chose his roles carefully rather than cashing in on big-money parts. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a gay cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain." During filming, he met Michelle Williams, who played his wife in the film. The two had a daughter, now 2-year-old Matilda, and lived together in Brooklyn until they split up last year.

It was a shocking and unforeseen conclusion for one of Hollywood's bright young stars. Though his leading man looks propelled him to early stardom in films like "10 Things I Hate About You" and "A Knight's Tale," his career took a notable turn toward dramatic and brooding roles with 2001's "Monster's Ball."

Ledger's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a statement: "We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this accident. This is an extremely difficult time for his loved ones and we are asking the media to please respect the family's privacy and avoid speculation until the facts are known."

In the Australian city of Perth, where Ledger was born and raised, his father called the actor's death "tragic, untimely and accidental."

"He was (a) down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving, unselfish individual, extremely inspirational to many," Kim Ledger said, reading from a prepared statement. "Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life."

Ledger eschewed Hollywood glitz in favor of a bohemian life in Brooklyn, where he became one of the borough's most famous residents. "Brokeback" would be his breakthrough role, establishing him as one of his generation's finest talents and an actor willing to take risks.

Ledger began to gravitate more toward independent fare, including Lasse Hallstrom's "Casanova" and Terry Gilliam's "The Brothers Grimm," both released in 2005. His 2006 film "Candy" now seems destined to have an especially haunting quality: In a particularly realistic performance, Ledger played a poet wrestling with a heroin addiction along with his girlfriend, played by Abbie Cornish.

But Ledger's most recent choices were arguably the boldest yet: He costarred in "I'm Not There," in which he played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan — as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress.

And in what may be his final finished performance, Ledger proved that he wouldn't be intimidated by taking on a character as iconic as Jack Nicholson's Joker. Ledger's version of the "Batman" villain, glimpsed in early teaser trailers, made it clear that his Joker would be more depraved and dark.

Curiosity about Ledger's final performance will likely stoke further interest in the summer blockbuster. "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan said this month that Ledger's Joker would be wildly different from Nicholson's.

"It was a very great challenge for Heath," Nolan said. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic."

Ledger told The New York Times in a November interview that he "stressed out a little too much" during the Dylan film and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told the newspaper. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." He said he took two Ambien pills, which worked for only an hour, the paper said.

Ledger was a widely recognized figure in his Manhattan neighborhood, where he used to shop at a home and children's store. Michelle Vella, an employee there, said she had frequently seen Ledger with his daughter — carrying the toddler on his shoulders, or having ice cream with her.

"It's so sad. They were really close," Vella said. "He's a very down-to-earth guy and an amazing father."

Before settling down with Williams, Ledger had relationships with actresses Heather Graham and Naomi Watts. He met Watts while working on "The Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized version of a cult classic skateboarding documentary, in 2004.

Ledger was born in 1979 to a mining engineer and a French teacher and got his first acting role playing Peter Pan at age 10 in a local theater company. He began acting in independent films as a 16-year-old in Sydney and played a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in a 1996 television show, "Seat."

After several independent films, Ledger moved to Los Angeles at age 19 and starred opposite Julia Stiles in "10 Things I Hate About You." Offers for other teen flicks soon came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like.

"It wasn't a hard decision for me," Ledger told the Associated Press in 2001. "It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, `You're crazy,' my parents were like, 'Come on, you have to eat.'"

CLOVERFIELD REVIEW/TRAILERS AND NEWS

CLOVERFIELD REVIEW/TRAILER AND NEWS

Yes I will be putting up a copy of Cloverfield when ever they release a copy on the internet but right now I wanted to hear from you guys how did you like the movie if you have seen it or how excited are you to see it if you haven't see the movie yet. I am waiting for the good copy of the movie before I see it but I hope to see it before I go back to College on Tuesday. What about you guys can you wait to see it or did you wait in line to see it in the big screen. If you want to voice your opinions then go right ahead and comment. Thanks oh yeah and to not leave you guys out here is a few trailers for the movie.

HERE IS ALSO A DVDTALK REVIEW OF CLOVERFIELD

The emperor has no clothes. Or better yet, the monster has perfect focus? It's difficult to review "Cloverfield" without at least mentioning the buzz-guzzling hype machine producer J.J. Abrams kicked off with the arrival of the teaser trailer last summer; a cryptic piece of footage that sent the tails of geeks and bloggers everywhere wagging with gale force velocity. It was a tantalizing glimpse of forthcoming havoc. However, now having viewed the entire film, perhaps a peep was all that was needed. Just a preview to get the blood flowing. Basically a 70-minute YouTube video, "Cloverfield" has all the head-rattling jolt and dramatic verisimilitude of a prank phone call. Assuming the POV of a video camera employed to capture the farewell party for lovelorn Rob (Michael Stahl-David), the night is turned into a living hell when a Godzilla-like creature starts to tear up Manhattan, leaving the city a wide-awake nightmare of decimating army attacks, brutal monster stompage, and assorted 9/11esque references of destruction. With camera in tow, a small group of partygoers scour the city for Rob's spurned ex-girlfriend, finding little hope as the creature's rampage blocks all exits. "Cloverfield" is an ambitious film, endeavoring to resuscitate the panic of seeing a building-sized creature annihilate a city after decades of bad monster movies have reduced such sights to giggles. Its heart is in the right "Blair Witch" place, but the execution is all wrong (not to mention a little late, coming after doppelganger "The Mist"), reducing the scares to puzzled yawns. Director Matt Reeves is armed only with a "single" DV camera to cover the action, and while I applaud "Cloverfield" for trying to find ways to widen the scope of such a limited viewpoint, the routes taken are strangely ineffective; it fumbles the wallop of citywide alarm and tarnishes the "reality" this film is so desperate to abuse. The picture's concept is that the audience is watching a video of the monster attack found after the mayhem, but instead of facing that stark viewpoint head on with punishing cinema verite cartwheeling, "Cloverfield" uses painfully obvious editing tricks, employs peculiar time jumps, and introduces the ludicrous idea that the tape in the camera is somehow screwy, which allows for cringe-worthy backstory flashbacks to Rob and his woman in happier times already committed to the cassette. Now there's some serious storytelling desperation at work. The artifice wouldn't be nearly as maddening if it wasn't so stiffly calculated. Reeves is clumsy peddling the drama, which relies on rotten actors doing the last thing any performer of limited means should do: panic improvisations. The exposition scenes are crude and unintentionally comical, not to mention there's little need for a story or characters at all, making the first 15 minutes of "Cloverfield" feel like a videotaped acting exercise. It's like one of those MTV "reality" shows, only with a monster arriving for a 10-minute cameo (a pretty weak MacGuffin in my book). It also doesn't help the film's crucial suspension of disbelief demand when Reeves and Abrams cast well-known faces in the lead roles. I found it difficult to lose myself in the fantasy when watching the goth chick from "Mean Girls" or spy character actor Chris Mulkey as an Army commander. Of course there's a massive amount of shaky-cam footage ("Bourne Ultimatum," I owe you an apology). With a DV camera in play, how could there not be? Oddly, the handheld jostling is kept at bay during the special effect sequences; again breaking a fourth-wall of sorts, letting the audience take a good, hard look at something the characters should rightfully be sprinting away from. It's minor, but these little divots in behavioral accuracy really start to stack up by the film's ridiculous ending. There will be many who will pore over the minutiae of "Cloverfield" for months to come, swearing there's subtext to debate and hidden details to uncover, arranging a puzzle where there is none. I wish them luck digging in this shallow sandbox of empty thrills.

NEW TRAILER FOR CLOVERFIELD



HERE IS THE OLDER TRAILER FOR CLOVERFIELD



HERE IS THE TEASER TRAILER FOR CLOVERFIELD

GIZMODO PLAYS TRICK AT CES 2008

HERE IS AN ARTICLE FROM CNET ON GIZMODO'S TRICK AT CES 2008:

A few hours ago, the guys at Gizmodo posted a confession about a nasty prank they played in this year’s CES at Las Vegas. Armed with TV-B-Gone clickers, Gizmodo bloggers went around and started shutting off TV displays of different company exhibits or booths, even turning off a whole wall of TVs. The nastiest part was interfering with Motorola representatives while doing their presentation.

I laughed while watching the video but it didn’t feel quite right. It’s funny but in a wrong way. Thinking about it, Gizmodo’s bloggers actions were not appropriate. They could have done it once and stopped but they didn’t. Their explanation was “we pretty much couldn’t help ourselves“. Some people are saying that Gizmodo should be banned at CES, the upcoming MacWorld Expo and in other tradeshows. Bloggers on the other hand are concerned that they too would be banned or not invited because of Gizmodo’s actions.

IF THE FORMAT WAR IS OVER THEN WHAT DID BLU REALLY WIN

HERE IS AN ARTICLE FROM BETANEWS.COM SAYING IF THE FORMAT WAR IS OVER THEN WHAT DID BLU REALLY WIN

We really didn't have enough stories on the format war this week, only a few dozen. And I figured that perhaps to make it an even thirty (or was it forty?) we should close the gap with one more.

The huge trend we saw this week was the move away from the format war. Well prior to Warner Bros.' announcement, it appeared the major CE manufacturers were working to build the functionality some of them had once planned for their high-definition disc players, into their HDTV displays and set-top boxes instead. A great many of them -- with a few prominent exceptions, such as Sony -- were about ready to write off their losses and move on.

And honestly, who can blame them? This farce has gone on for too long, and the differences about which both sides are still arguing are not only negligible, but growing more insignificant by the day. For instance, the Internet functionality and updated interactivity layer being built into Blu-ray Profile 2.0 are already being superseded by systems-on-a-chip planned now for the HDTVs to which they would connect.

To say Jackie Emigh's been digging into some new angles on this story is to say the New England Patriots are scoring some first downs these days. Jackie

Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews: Scott, doesn't the timing of Warner's retraction of Blu-ray support -- just days before CES -- seem a bit strange to you? And isn't that about as odd as the seemingly miraculous rebound in Blu-ray sales from November to December?

At this point, it's kind of hard to believe that it was only this past November that Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer grimly declared the war a stalemate. Industry figures were showing that HD DVD had managed to close its sales gap with Blu-ray in a couple of weeks simply by lowering its prices.

But by December, Stringer was a happy man. Buoyed by an investment estimated at between $500 million and $2.5 billion from Dubai International Capital (DIC)-- a fund controlled by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktuom, ruler of Dubai -- Sony had cut its own pricing on the Blu-ray-enabled PlayStation, and sales had surged back up again in time for Black Friday.

And oh, by the way, a few days after DIC announced its investment in Sony, DIC named Nobuyki Idei -- former chief executive of Sony's chief advisor board -- to the board of its own Global Strategic Equities Fund.

And here we are around six weeks later, after a horrific experience for HD DVD at CES, with some folks already ready to sound the death knell for Toshiba's format.

But ideally, technology wars should be decided on the sole basis of a product's ability to meet the need of its users. And here, Blu-ray and HD DVD each have their advantages and disadvantages.

Blu-ray, for example, is now in the throes of moving from Profile 1.0 to the incompatible Profile 1.1 to Profile 2.0, a format which is expected to introduce still further incompatibilities.

And although Sony and its partners stand to pick up additional revenues from users who decide to upgrade to newer Blu-ray drives, there's every possibility that some of them might migrate over to the HD DVD side, too.

Moreover, Blu-ray products are reportedly more costly to make than those that follow the HD DVD format -- and in many cases today, the price of a Playstation doesn't even cover Sony's manufacturing costs.

So if Blu-ray is in fact going to win the war, it'd really better happen fast, to prevent the kind of price erosion that might interfere drastically with production and profitability.

Yet from a product standpoint, Blu-ray does hold one clear advantage over HD DVD, and it is this: Essentially, Blu-ray disks can hold more data.

Here, Sony seems to have learned well from experience. If you've heard about the old videotape wars between VMS and Sony's Betamax format, you might know that one of the main reasons why Sony lost that particular war revolved around a one-hour tape time for Betamax, versus two or even three hours for the competing VHS.

So, I say, may the best product win the Blu-ray/HD DVD war -- regardless of financial investments and real or rumored studio defections.

Scott Fulton: Yes, Jackie, and thank you for that lead-in: I'm still wondering whether either product can genuinely remain the best product in its category for too long. To that end, I have a theory I'm working on. But I'd like to try it out first on our CES analyst, Sharon Fisher.

Sharon, we're always hearing about companies pledging to "push" the envelope. An old Chuck Yeager phrase. I've always said that in order to create a new platform, you have to "break" the envelope. You can evolve platforms incrementally, but to justify a new one, there needs to be a complete new reason for its existence.

Sharon Fisher, BetaNews Senior CES Analyst: I'd go along with that.

Scott: Why build a new interstate system, for instance, unless our cars can fly now?

Sharon: Heh. You're going to pull in the Freepers with their talk of a Canada-Mexico highway.

Scott: When Comcast advanced its fat pipes model, and demonstrated the idea of turning on the TV selecting what you want to see as opposed to what's on, that changes everything for me. That deals with the very nature of television itself. That's when I heard an envelope rip.

Sharon: I suppose. On the other hand, I'm a big fan of serendipity. I'll watch a movie on TV when I have the same movie in my rack.

Scott: True, but imagine the peace we would have in our lives if the few hours we do spend watching television were watching the good television we want rather than wasting our time with whatever's on.

Sharon: Part of the reason I don't get cable is that I know I'd watch History Channel all day, just because I could.

Scott: My wife would say my 24-hour channel would feature photon torpoedoes.

But think about it: The structure of many people's lives in America revolve around television. The real reason why evening news ratings have dropped is because people work later. The reason why morning news ratings climb is because they go to work earlier.

Then there's prime-time, a three-hour block for most networks. There's an industry devoted to that.

Sharon: Television used to be a social phenomenon, too. Everyone would get together to watch Uncle Miltie.

Scott: And there's "The Tonight Show." Proof right there, viewing habits revolve around time. Pat Weaver, the great former president of NBC and Sigourney Weaver's dad pretty much invented television around the concept of the clock.

Well, along comes Comcast. Granted, they're not really the first to suggest this, but they're the first with the know-how and the capital to actually pull this off.

Sharon: On the other hand, look at what the writer's strike has done to TV. All reality shows, all the time.

Scott: "Reality." Glad I don't live there.

Sharon: I know. When I want reality, I turn off the TV.

With Comcast's tru2way, television could become much more participatory. Think of real-time "America's Funniest Home Videos," sponsored by YouTube.

Scott: But the big suggestion is that it may become feasible for programs to become recorded entities waiting for our perusal. And yes, participatory.

But imagine how that changes the entire industry. The business model of entertainment production.

Sharon: How would they promote them?

Scott: If you didn't have to watch CSI any more...why would you???

Sharon: Hey. Some people like CSI.

Scott: So much of network entertainment is placeholder material in-between a few moments of quality. If there were no revenue to be derived from placeholder material, if people could refuse it if it were offered, there would be a huge depression for the entertainment industry.

Sharon: You know, that's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about the opposite: the few gems out there being overwhelmed with waves of dreck. As I pointed out earlier this week, Comcast's big promotion of HD was...Norbit.

Scott: Waves and waves of dreck....disguised as Eddie Murphy. But wouldn't people reject the waves of dreck out of hand?

Sharon: I don't think people would refuse what was offered, no. It might be a big boon to the sports industry.

Scott: True! A lot of new sports would get new viewers. Softball.

Sharon: Curling!

Scott: Cricket!

Sharon: I shudder to think about the kids' programming, though...as the mother of someone who eats, breathes, and sleeps Hannah Montana. She's put out that I won't spend $3000 and airfare on a Hannah Montana ticket.

Scott: And on that note of nightmare...I bid you good luck with that, Sharon.

Next: Scott Fulton on the lessons of history unlearned.

Scott Fulton, BetaNews: When I was a boy (if I was a boy) growing up in that mighty metropolis I thought Oklahoma City to be at the time, my aunts and uncles would often make the 90-mile trek north to visit me in what my local weatherman lovingly referred to as "the Big Town." They'd arrive in a recent-model Ford stretch sedan that seated about 29 -- never a GM car, always a Ford, for it was Henry who got America through the depression and we all owed him a debt of gratitude.

The Ford LTD back then had a trunk large enough for a queen-size mattress, with room left over for a few sleepers. My Uncle Vernon, a retired chief of detectives, would use that trunk to haul back a month's supply of Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, and 7-Up -- not the knock-offs, but the "real" soft drinks, in glass bottles that clinked around in wooden crates. You couldn't always get the real soft drinks in Southern Oklahoma or Northern Texas, because the bottlers' trucking routes didn't extend very far south of us, or very far north of Dallas. Some people subsisted on Cragmont Cola, Dr. Wells, and Bubble-Up.

My cousins from the back seat of the LTD would beg to go to the movies, because the Big Town always got the first-run films. Not that going to the local theater in Lindsay, Oklahoma wasn't a hoot in itself, at a venue whose décor seemed best suited for the premiere of a Harold Lloyd film. But the Big Town had the Cinerama screens, the plush seats, the ushers with the hats, and on top of that, all the brands of candy -- the local Bunte brand, Brach's, Hershey's, Hollywood, Peter Paul, and the real M&Ms rather than the cheap knock-offs that tasted like buttons pinched off your granddad's overcoat. And we had twin theatres -- not just one screen but two! We had the luxury of choice in the Big Town.

It doesn't take a genius or even a respectably smart historian to know that when Americans want to be entertained or amused, their first requirement is to know that nothing is being held back from them. It's not so much that Americans need to see everything on the menu at one time. It's not only a comfort but a reassurance of their basic principles that Americans know they're not missing out on something to which they're entitled.

The very thought that anyone would invest time and money in an entertainment medium that was guaranteed, through the stubbornness of the very people producing it, to offer less than 100% of what should reasonably be available to them, is in hindsight one of the most bizarre, hare-brained collective mis-reads of American behavior on the part of any multi-billion-dollar industry in the history of commerce.

There are some consumers today who are willing or even eager to invest their time, energy, and money on a promise of a big reward in the future. But not all Americans are gamblers, and too many of us would prefer to gamble -- when we do gamble -- on something more fundamental to our futures than "high definition." If we're going to make the big trek north, if you will, we expect a payoff, not a promise. We won't drive 90 miles out of our way just to end up with a "gussied-up" version, to borrow an adjective from my aunt, of the little hometown theater on Second Street.

It is of little or no consequence to most everyone I've ever met that Blu-ray has more of a share of the available high-def movies than HD DVD; it's like comparing two half-empty bottles of soda. It doesn't much matter which one is closest to full; neither is particularly appealing if it's sitting up there for sale on the store shelf. You kinda wonder who's gotten into it.

And it isn't as though the television industry hasn't had an epic format battle before, or a hard time coming to a decision on either of two ways to go forward.
After World War II up until the early 1950s -- back when Uncle Vernon was on the beat and The African Queen was playing at the local theater in Lindsay -- there was a real format war in the television industry.

The debate was over how to put color on the picture tube. RCA had a system that directed the stream of electrons to painted points of color on the inside of the CRT, creating varying shades of the optical primaries red, green, and blue. CBS had a system with a spinning translucent wheel painted red, green, and blue, through which flickering images were beamed at such a speed and intensity that when they collided on the back side of the CRT and hung around for a few microseconds, they looked colorful.

Now, mind you, the difference between these two formats was gigantic, not aesthetic like the difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD. The RCA system had the advantage of not catching fire when left on for long periods of time, say, an hour. It also introduced the term compatibility from the sociologist's vernacular into the technological vocabulary, in that existing black-and-white sets could show pictures intended for color broadcasts.

Yet it was CBS that set an important standard, in one of technology's most influential battles. You see, thanks to RCA's huge legal department, the matter of which standard should prevail went to the US Supreme Court. And there, setting a precedent which the high court would follow later for picking the winner, it chose the CBS spinning wheel as the national standard. But the court case took so long that, in the meantime, RCA had flooded the market with inexpensive black-and-white sets -- compatible systems that could receive NBC's later color broadcasts.

The standard CBS set was for gracefully bowing out, when it appeared its cause was lost in the marketplace. The company made up a convenient excuse (it literally said the Korean War effort forced it to shift its priorities), and moved over to the RCA field-sequential system by 1954 to make amends. It was awkward at the time, but in retrospect, it was so graceful.

Everyone knows the government has a questionable track record of settling history-making disputes, so it's a good thing they stayed out of today's blue-laser battle. But what we're faced with now, too many years after someone had the bone-jarring idea of upping the frequency on the laser beam, are two sets of technology companies and content providers with differing stakes in the concept of high-definition, battling over the remains of the recorded video market. We are already seeing consumer apathy about the whole idea of having high-def movie discs and at the same time not actually, legally owning them, thanks to DRM, EULAs, and this ridiculous notion held by the studios that we're not all consumers but rather extended lessees of their content. And while we did see buyers a few months ago willing to place a hundred-dollar bet on a discount HD DVD player, for what it's worth, the market at large has rejected high-definition video on blue-laser disc.

So what is it that Blu-ray thinks it has won this week? Any student of history or even an amateur observer of public attitudes knows that you can't win an audience with half of a value proposition. If I know for a fact that a country I live in will only let me read 50% or 70% or 99% of the books printed in the world, for whatever reason it might concoct, I don't want to live in that country.

If I can only see 70% of the movies, I don't want to waste a nickel on the theater that would withhold from me the 30%. I'll drive the 90 miles north, thank you very much, in an LTD that gets 10 miles to the gallon, filled with 30 gallons of Ethyl and 50 gallons of 7-Up. There's a right comfortable place to stretch out in the back if you don't mind the crates and the clinking and the kids with their big bags of candy.

JUST ON SALE: HD-DVD PLAYER FOR $139.00 WITH 9 FREE HD-DVDS

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HERE IS MY NEW HDTV THAT I BOUGHT FOR UNDER 300

HERE IS MY NICE 20 INCH HDTV THAT WAS UNDER THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS





I bought a nice 20 inch Vizio from Amazon.com for under three hundred dollars I got it used but it is working great and I think anyone who wants a great small tv that is for their kitchen or bedroom should check out this great HDTV with digital tuner and everything you would ever need for a Television. here is the direct link for the website so that if any of you want to get a great television you can get it. Click right here for the site.

NEW LINE CINEMAS GONE BLU TOO

NEW LINE CINEMAS HAS DECIDED TO BITE THE BLU BULLET AND GO BLU

HERE IS THE ARTICLE FROM ENGADGETHD.COM

As if anyone expected anything different, New Line confirmed with Variety Magazine that it'll follow Warner to the Blu-ray promise land. While this is a no brainer considering the relationship between Warner and New Line, (also owned by Time Warner, just like Engadget) other studios remain up in the air. When, and if, Universal makes the switch as well is any ones guess, but at this point we doubt many would expect otherwise. But, as we've learned in the last few days, anything's possible, but the idea of having one HD format to adopt is something even most members of the red camp can get behind.

COMCAST LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE FANCAST

COMCAST HAS LAUNCHED NEW WEBSITE FANCAST.COM ARTICLE IS FROM WIRED.COM

Cable giant Comcast on Tuesday plans to unveil Fancast, a TV-and-movie search site that the company hopes will become one of the Web's top entertainment destinations.

After a year of development and six months in beta, the site still isn't all there yet -- but it's already far enough along to become the electronic programming guide that TVGuide.com only wishes it could be.

"The problem is that people don't know how to get their hands on something," says Amy Banse, president of Comcast Interactive Media. "We thought, let's give consumers a one-stop shop."

Fancast is one of several announcements Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is expected to make at Tuesday morning's CES keynote address -- the first by a cable exec. He'll also tout a dramatic expansion of Comcast's video-on-demand lineup and a portable DVR developed in partnership with Panasonic.

The AnyPlay DVR -- announced by Panasonic on Monday, but not available until early 2009 -- is designed to slide out of a docking station on the set-top box and has a pop-up screen, so you can watch it in a plane or a car. It will double as a DVD player, so you'll also be able to watch movies and TV shows you can't find on television.

With Fancast itself, if something is on TV at all, you should be able to find it. If it's in movie theaters or on DVD or available from iTunes, Netflix, Amazon or Web-video sites like Hulu, you can find it too.

Key to the site was Comcast's purchase last year of Fandango, the movie-ticketing site best known for its incredibly annoying sock puppets. News of the deal was greeted with snorts of derision: Would the move pan out, or was it, as blog baron Nick Denton predicted on ValleyWag, "a classic boom-time blunder by an aging corporation eager for the internet limelight"? Given the cable industry's dismal track record on innovation, the smart money was with Denton.

Yet Fancast turns out to be surprisingly well-designed -- and useful enough that the biggest complaint is likely to be, what took so long?

Like IMDB and other sites, it can be searched by title, actor, director and any number of other keywords. But it also takes a crucial next step, leading you directly to what you're looking for.

Take television. You don't have to be a Comcast customer to find a show on your TV lineup. Type in your ZIP code and check off your cable or satellite provider, and Fancast tells you not only what time it's on but whether it's on channel 43 or channel 403.

Other links take you directly to iTunes, Amazon, Netflix and Blockbuster. If you're looking for a film that's still in theaters, Fancast hands you off to Fandango, which provides local times and theater locations, and in many cases a link to buy tickets online.

Fancast is also supposed to play full-screen video from Hulu, CBS.com and -- Roberts announces today -- Viacom networks like MTV and Comedy Central. Unfortunately, this feature is still pretty buggy: On a Mac running Safari, for example, Fancast plays CBS videos but not Hulu's. Tech support is said to be on the case.

Within a few months, Comcast and TiVo customers should be able to click a button on the site and automatically record a show on their DVRs. Banse says Comcast is talking with other cable providers about doing this for their subscribers as well.

Also in the works are "community" features like consumer reviews and sharing recommendations with friends, plus the ability to program your DVR from a mobile phone -- something you can already do in more-advanced countries like Great Britain. "We have another 12 months of work ahead of us," Banse says.

Until then, users will just have to content themselves with the Six° button, which -- you guessed it -- provides links to just about every movie, television show, actor, writer and director anyone has ever been involved with. Kevin Bacon, eat your heart out.

COMCAST NEW PROJECT INFINITY CES 2008 NEWS

HERE IS AN ARTICLE FROM BETANEWS.COM ABOUT THE NEW PROJECT FROM COMCAST CALLED INFINITY

Scott Fulton, BetaNews: During his keynote address later this morning at CES 2008, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is slated to introduce a venerable onslaught of brands to the public at large, at least one of which could have a significant and perhaps historic impact on cable television service.

For now, the big announcement is being referred to as "Project Infinity," and it involves nothing short of the deprogramming of the programs it offers from all its content providers.

Comcast corporate statement Tuesday morning: Project Infinity envisions ever-increasing customer choice that continues the evolution of time-shifted viewing that began with the huge success of Comcast On Demand. Comcast's vision is to give customers exponentially more content choices -- all available to consumers at the click of the remote without having to buy any additional equipment.

Scott Fulton: Conceivably, the service could involve a kind of DV-R on the server side, effectively pre-recording all its shows at the source and delivering them over IPTV connections to digital cable subscribers on their own schedules. It could be a simpler service than you think, since Comcast would only need to store a few cached recordings, which could be far more efficient than distributing millions of DVRs just so millions of viewers can record programs on the receiving end.

And with a local hard drive not being necessary, the cost of service subscription may reflect that one less item.

Likely to be featured as part of this service is a new Comcast brand called Fancast. Subscribers will be able to tune-in on demand to recorded content that viewers have missed, and may do so not necessarily through their TVs. Replayed shows will also be made available through the Web.

Comcast corporate statement Tuesday morning: Need to decide what to watch tonight? On Fancast users can search for video content and entertainment information they're looking for on over 11 million web pages including information on more than 50,000 television shows, 80,000 movies and 1.2 million people combining multiple sources of entertainment information.

So yes, there's a social aspect of it as well. More from Brian Roberts' keynote at CES later in the day.

UNIVERSAL SAYS THEY ARE STAYING RED FOR RIGHT NOW

ACCORDING TO BETANEWS.COM UNIVERSAL IS STAYING WITH HD-DVD FOR NOW.

HERE IS THE FULL ARTICLE FROM BETANEWS.COM:

5:00 pm ET January 10, 2008 -- Universal Studios has officially dispelled the rumors from Variety that it will drop HD DVD and switch to Blu-ray.

"Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format," said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of HD strategic marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment and also co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group.

The response would have come sooner, but many HD DVD executives were on flights home from CES when the story from Variety broke.

2:00 pm ET January 10, 2008 -- The HD DVD Promotional Group is expected to release a statement this afternoon refuting claims that Universal is jumping ship to Blu-ray.

While it's not clear what the statement will say, HD DVD indicated at CES that it still had full support from Paramount and Universal -- the last two major Hollywood studios to be backing the format exclusively.

However, without actual exclusive contracts in place, Universal could still decide to switch allegiances in the future.

It's not clear what led to the Variety claims, but they follow similar rumors reported by the Financial Times -- and later disputed by the studio -- that Paramount would go Blu-ray only.

Sources close to the matter say that neither Variety or the Financial Times bothered to contact HD DVD for confirmation before publishing the rumors.

Posted at 9:23am ET:

The entertainment industry publication Daily Variety is reporting this morning that Universal -- the only HD DVD stalwart we haven't talked that much about during CES week -- is preparing to gracefully back out of its commitment to that format.

The studio would first fulfill its remaining promotional commitments to HD DVD, which is what Warner Bros. has also committed to do through May. Variety also confirmed what had been stated as rumor yesterday that Paramount, the other HD DVD backer, does have a clause in its contract with the HD DVD Promotions Group to back out should Warner Bros. also back out.

BetaNews is on the floor of the final day of CES throughout the day, and will gauge reaction to this news.

BLU-RAY WINNING THE FORMAT WAR AGAINST HD-DVD WITH THE ADDITION OF WARNER BROTHERS

ACCORDING TO WARNER BROTHERS THEY DECIDED TO GO BLU

Just two days before Bill Gates' Consumer Electronics Show keynote, Microsoft's chosen next-generation video format suffered a major setback. Late Friday, movie and television studio Warner Bros. announced that it is discontinuing its support of the HD DVD format, and will release its high-definition home-video offerings solely on Blu-ray Disc beginning this coming May. Currently, the company, which controls nearly 18 to 20 percent of the US home-video market, supports both Blu-ray and HD DVD.

"Warner Bros.' move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray Disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term," said Barry Meyer, Warner Bros.' chairman and CEO, in a statement. "The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass-market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers."

Warner Bros. joins a host of other movie studios--including the Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate--who are backing the Blu-ray format. More importantly for gamers, Blu-ray was created by Sony, which has included an internal Blu-ray Disc drive as part of all four PlayStation 3 models released since November 2006. Besides movie studios Universal and Paramount, HD DVD is backed by Microsoft, which released an external HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 in November 2006. It recently denied rumors that it is working on a version of the Xbox 360 that would have an internal HD DVD drive.

Toshiba, which led development of HD DVD at the same time it was partnering with Sony to create the PS3's cell processor, was openly shocked by today's events. "Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.' decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD," the company said in a terse statement. "We were particularly disappointed that this decision was made in spite of the significant momentum HD DVD has gained in the US market as well as other regions in 2007. HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the US market in 2007."