TV, Movies & Home Theatre - Page 49

Here's some news on the lighter side: At a press screening over here in the USA, it would appear that a projectionist is a bigger foe to the Avengers than, say, the evil god Loki. The new film "The Avengers" is already out overseas and garnering rave reviews is gearing up to hit US theaters this Friday.

As a press screening for the new movie, a projectionist accidentally hit the delete button. One would think that some sort of safeguards would be in place but, alas, it appears that this movie file is just like any other file. No word has been given on exactly why it couldn't be recovered or why there was no backup.

This screw up resulted in all of the press having to wait in excess of 2 hours while a new copy was downloaded. The fact that they just download another copy is actually somewhat ironic with all of the piracy claims being thrown around accusing other people of doing the same. I realize that they pay to show the movie, but it still is quite ironic.

Peter Jackson is pushing the envelope on a near-century worth of 24fps film technology by shooting his upcoming epic 'The Hobbit' in 48 frames per second. Jackson has unveiled his first public tease of the movie at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas.

First up, you have to remember everyone is used to the 80-year-old 24fps footage in films, but Jackson has doubled this up to 48fps and it can be quite weird for people. I have a friend who has a Panasonic Plasma and never used his motion smoothing tech on his HDTV, I flicked it on for him and he hated it. I said to stick with it for two weeks, which is something I did years ago. He will never go back and has now purchased a 120Hz LCD screen for his gaming rig.

This technology takes adjusting, your eyes are used to seeing all footage in movies at 24fps, so jumping up to 48fps feels too smooth - too, unrealistic. Panning shots look ultra-smooth, but so smooth it looks completely fake. Public reaction of the 48fps footage was strange, where one projectionist has compared it to made-for-TV gear, while others compared it to Mexican soap-operas and TruMotion.

Sony has begun shipping what it calls its most advanced Blu-ray player of the year, the BDP-S790. The Sony BDP-S790 should hit stores on May 6, and pre-orders are starting now, with the player setting you back just $250.

How does the BDP-S790 stand out? Well, it sports a dual-core processor, which gives it much more performance than most Blu-ray players on the market. It can also upscale video to 4K resolution to match current 4K projectors and future 4K TVs. The dual-core processor also gives the player the ability to convert 2D video to 3D in real-time, 16-bit image processing and overall quicker response.

Wi-Fi is built directly into BDP-S790, which can access both the Sony Entertainment Network as well as multiple movie and music services including Amazon Instant Video, Flixter, Netflix, Slacker, Pandora, and Vudu. Social networking doesn't get missed out, with Facebook and Twitter sharing as well as DLNA media sharing included with the BDP-S790.

HBO Go hasn't exactly rolled out to connected TV devices too well over the past few months, but things could change for Xbox 360 and Comcast customers. They may already have access to some of the HBO Go content through the Xfinity TV app, but this could change soon enough.

Multichannel News sources are saying that access could open up this week, now that "other business issues" between Comcast and HBO including how subscriber information is handled with third parties has been solved. There's no word on streaming access for Time Warner Cable customers, or access on Roku and Samsung-based devices.

For now, the news should excite a few, and hopefully we see more of this type of rollout to connected TV devices. The future of TV is going to be things similar to this, so I'm enjoying the change we're experiencing right now. Even if I'm locked away all the way down in Australia without an Xbox 360, or Comcast, or HBO Go. Still good news for those of you with a 360 and as a Comcast customer.

We are being greeted to a re-release of James Cameron's Titanic, which is being done in 3D, and there is one specific, and very detailed change being done to the movie. After much nagging from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cameron made one edit to his 1997-released film, which is in relation to the star formation during the sinking of the Titanic.

Most directors would not have bothered with changing it, but Cameron has a knack for perfectionism, and Tyson convinced him to change it. The scene in question is when we see Rose reclining on a piece of driftwood while looking up at the sky. Tyson first e-mailed Cameron years ago, where he noted that the star field she was looking at was incorrect for the night of April 15, 1912 at 4:20am, and bought up the issue more and more over time as the two ran into each other over the years.

Finally, Cameron's team asked Tyson to send over an accurate sky map for the date and time, that is used on the 10th anniversary director's cut of Titanic. The new, updated star formation will also be seen in the new 3D re-release of the film, too. Cameron also described Tyson's original message as "quite snarky", but conceded that he did in fact, have a point. Cameron says:

The trailer to Total Recall is now out, and if you haven't seen the original which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, I suggest you do - it's a great film. This new Total Recall is based on the 1990 film, but unlike the original film, the new one has strong political influences, as mentioned in the 1966 novel. Check out the trailer below:

Well, doesn't that look awesome? I think so anyway. I actually yelled out "f*** yes!" when Colin Farrell's character took out the room of guards, while the camera swung around the room in one shot. Very nicely done, Les Wiseman. The movie has a reported $200 million budget, so that would be why the special effects look impressive.

Total Recall hits on August 3, 2012 and stars Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel and a favorite of mine: Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad fame.

AnandTech have tackled something I haven't had the time to test yet: iTunes gear in 1080p. They've tested the iTunes 1080p downloads to the proper Blu-ray Discs (BRD). The only issue is they were forced to take actual photos of the screen, versus screenshots, because of the hardware and DRM-based limitations, boo.

The screen used was identical in both tests, a Dell U2312HM monitor with a 1920x1080 resolution, a MacBook Air connected through the DisplayPort port, and a Panasonic DMP-BD65 Blu-ray player that was connected with a HDMI-to-DVI cable. AnandTech then used the movie 30 Days of Night, which was filed in the common Super 35 film format, and transferred itno the 2k digital intermediate, which means it was edited in the digital domain.

Now, considering that the BRD version of the movie is a dual-layer BD 50 disc that sports both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS-HD tracks, the iTunes version is not very big at all. The iTunes version is just 3.62GB, and contains the stereo AAC track as well as the Dolby Digital 5.1 track. AnandTech have a few photos showing the difference between the versions, so you should check the rest of the story out here.

Boxee has slowly been making their Boxee Box more awesome, but I think today's change will catapult it into the hearts, souls and pants of many more. Boxee has just teased they're nearly ready to introduce Pornhub.

Yes, Pornhub. Pornhub is considered the YouTube of porn, where it offers user-generated video, as well as professional-grade content. Yes, it's porn, but porn is a multi-billion market, and Boxee are smart for entering that arena. Boxee are also not new to offering adult services, such as Fyre.

Pornhub will make its ad-free debut, free to watch is a great way to get customers interesting. It also claims its the first, official free adult app on Boxee to do so. This marks the first move of Pornhub being made available on TVs. Right now, Pornhub's bread and butter (I was going to use a pun, but I'll keep it clean!) is still the web, where they enjoy an insane 100 million page views per day, with 25 million visitors and 3 billion page views per month.

I've just watched the new trailer to The Avengers, and holy crap it is amazing. The first trailer was good, but this had the hairs on the back of my neck well and truly standing.

The trailer shows off some insane action, and the scope and scale of the movie is shown much better in this trailer. I'm loving that they have crammed so many characters into one movie, something that could've only been dreamt of 20 years ago.

There are tonnes of tracking shots in the movie, one-liners should be rampant, too. I just love Robert Downey Jr playing Tony Stark. Chris Evans plays Captain America amazingly, too. It's also good to see the soon-to-be new Bourne playing Hawkeye, too.

In a surprising turn of events, CBS may end up producing shows for Netflix. Right now, CBS make 20 or so of their shows at their own production facilities, mainly for themselves. But in the company's earnings call today, CEO Les Moonves said they might end up producing something for Netflix.

They are the only words used to describe the news, with nothing else to dab on as flavor. Moonves did not offer any other details, and won't do until they've signed a deal. Netflix offer even less, by saying "Anyone and everyone who produces content is looking to do deals with Netflix", said Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey.

Considering that Netflix launched a show called "Lillyhammer" last week, which is their first original series, and later this year will debut a show from mastermind director David Fincher, and the incredibly talented Kevin Spacey called "House of Cards", we could be in for a change in TV as we know it. 20th Century Fox is also developing a new run of the hilariously-awesome "Arrested Development" for Netflix.

Get ready for more Special FX pr0n, as Michael Bay is now confirmed to direct yet another sequel to the phenomenally successful Transformers series. The movie doesn't have an official name outside "Transformers 4" at the moment, and it doesn't even have a cast, or story yet.

The news was rumored last year, but confirmation has now come from producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura, where he says that a fourth Transformers is planned and should hit in 2014, with veteran Transformers director Michael Bay to direct. MTV spoke to the producer, who said:

Dem be fightin' words from Samsung... Samsung's AV Product Manager said in an interview today, that "TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are...great, but let's face it that's a secondary consideration".

We all know that picture quality is important, but what if Apple can come along and truly redefine what we think about TVs? Gesture control, voice-controlled, iTunes-powered, and more? Apple could truly come in and change everything we think we know about TVs, just like they did with the iPhone.

Let's also think that most people don't even know the difference, or can't see the difference, between 480p, 720p and 1080p. I personally have many friends, who could not tell the difference between an XviD clip, and a 1080p clip. To me, the difference is day and night. To people who buy a $600 1080p screen, versus a $4000 1080p screen, they can't see a difference. All Apple needs to do is use a good quality panel, and make it, different.

I'm a huge fan of the Bourne trilogy, which starred the always great Matt Damon. If you didn't know, they're restarting the Bourne movies, with a new cool action guy. Jeremy Renner. You might remember him from The Hurt Locker, and most recently, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Renner also stars in the upcoming The Avengers, as Hawkeye. Anyway, the trailer to The Bourne Legacy is here and boy does it look like a great tease. We don't see much of the movie, but what is shown, looks good. Renner looks like he's in top form, and there should be the usual twists, turns and all-out action that Bourne movies are famous for.

Some people are disappointed that Matt Damon isn't returning to a role he made himself famous for, but for me, I really don't mind. I see the Bourne movies like the Bond movies, continue the theme, make it a great action movie and I don't care. Renner should replace Damon quite nicely.

CES 2012 - One of my final meetings at CES was with the folks at BitTorrent in their suite at the Hilton hotel. We were given an introduction to some of the new features inside the latest version of the BitTorrentPlus client.

Brad from BitTorrent started by giving us a demo of "Disconnected" on the BitTorrentPlus client and its ability to transcode files that have been received through the BitTorrent network. He downloaded a torrent file (a .3gp file) from a mobile phone and while it's playable on a PC, it's not playable on other devices such as media players.

It's really a simple and quick process to convert the file, copy to a USB drive and then plug into a BT certified device (in this case a Blu-ray player) and playback the file which was converted from a .3gp file to a .mkv file which is supported by a vast amount of media players. No longer are you required to use third party tools which can be complex to convert files. It's all done within the BitTorrentPlus client.

I don't know how this can be found offensive, maybe it should be taken the other way: as a tribute. Steve Jobs was such a huge influence on society itself through the gadgets he saw released, that he makes it into one of the most iconic TV shows in history: The Simpsons.

In this weeks episode, titled "Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson", Homer is being interviewed on TV, where along the bottom, the news ticker reads "Steve Jobs unveils iGhost".

In this episode, Homer becomes a Glenn Beck type, after Bart uploads a video of him having an Alec Baldwin-ish aeroplane meltdown moment. During an interview on Fox News, the news ticker flows and shows up some funny, but fake headlines: "Europe puts Greece on eBay", "Congress postpones end of world to 2013", "Satan tweets support for Santorum", and the big one, "Steve Jobs unveils iGHOST".

I fondly remember the first Paranormal Activity, I followed it for a while and had an early viewing of it and loved it. It wasn't the best horror movie, but it did what it was made to do: be super cheap on budget, be a decent movie and compared to Avatar, made a crap tonne of money-to-budget ratio.

According to a Paramount press release, there's a fourth Paranormal Activity coming out this year. Now, the second one (to me) was the peak of the series, I have a newborn at home now and those scenes are just... powerful. I mean, what would you do? If it were you? The third one, while good in explaining the back story, just didn't have enough scares.

A fourth one, I'd love to know what direction it would take. Here's the press release from Paramount:

Most people I know haven't even heard of 'Prometheus', so if you haven't, then check out the trailer below. The movie works two ways, by itself as a stand-alone Ridley Scott-directed movie, and secondly, a sort-of prequel to Ridley Scott's awesome 'Alien'.

Alien really changed things up in the genre when it came out, and paved the way for James Cameron's awesome Aliens. Prometheus looks much more epic in scale than what I thought it did, so for those of you who have (like me) watched the constant trickle of leaked screenshots, teasers and real lack of info, the trailer will really blow you away.

The atmosphere of Prometheus is thick, Ridley Scott has done an amazing job making it feel like it really is a totally different place to Earth. Something that has impressed me, a lot.

Fast Five was a fairly big hit for Universal, considering it was the fifth movie in the Fast and the Furious franchise. It pushed the franchise beyond just car racing and car-based set pieces, to action-adventure crime films. The fifth movie also sported a decently large cast consisting of series regulars Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, as well as bringing back favorites such as Michelle Rodriguez, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, and Eva Mendes.

There's now rumors floating around that there's a sixth movie in the works, and it could even be shot back-to-back with a seventh. They might even be one big interconnected story. Vin Diesel has gone as far as talking of the sixth movie, where he's been quoted:

Sequel to the 2009 action flick, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra is nearly here, with G.I. Joe: Retaliation arriving in the middle of 2012. Today we have the first teaser trailer to the new movie, which has some new stars in the form of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Bruce Willis. Yes, Bruce Willis!

The above trailer shows off a bunch of scenes from the movie, and a tease of the storyline. It seems the G.I. Joe's have been wiped out after an attack, and the 'retaliation' from them is what the movie seems to be about. Bruce Willis is in it, so it's an instant buy for me, as cheesy as he has become lately, I have an old school 80's/90's action movie love for the guy.

The new G.I. Joe movie still includes some other big name stars such as Channing Tatum, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Stevenson and Arnold Vosloo who plays Zartan, whom the G.I. Joe team have to face off against.

Michael Bay did say he was done with Transformers after Dark of the Moon, the third outing in franchise. Shia LeBeouf has said the same thing multiple times, but the old saying goes "money talks," and I'm sure a lot of the green has been waved under Bay's nose.

Bay's next movie is a "low budget" flick called "Pain and Gain," after which would leave him open to direct a fourth Transformers movie in late 2012. Bay has had a long-held desire to make Pain and Gain and is reportedly one of the major road blocks in a fourth Transformer movie being made. If a deal is finalized, Pain and Gain will begin filming early next year to keep Bay happy, and then get him back behind the camera for Transformers 4 directly after Pain and Gain.

Bay has made a comment or two regarding another Transformers movie, he was quoted at the grand opening of Transformers: The Ride: