Channel 9 - Entries tagged with Movies

Ping 167: 4Afrika, Surface- Ask Me Anything, Microsoft on Privacy, Redbox on Xbox

Laura Foy — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:14:28 GMT

Get your voice heard and chime in with the Ping community on these stories and more:

4Afrika [03:28]

Surface: Ask Me Anything [12:59]

Microsoft on privacy [08:03]

Xbox and Redbox [18:19]

Ping 156: Bing Maps, SQL database update, Kinect in the movies, Coding marathon

Laura Foy — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 03:23:47 GMT

It's another week of headlines and laugher as Paul and Laura deliver you all the news that Microsoft is buzzing about.

Apple CEO tells you to BING it

Windows Azure SQL Database

Kinect in the Movies

Coding marathon sets world record

Building a rich and extensible Media Platform

Roxanne Beaver — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 21:09:26 GMT

Engaging with rich media—whether watching a movie, video chatting, or playing music—is one of the most prevalent and enjoyable things we do on our PCs today. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/06/08/building-a-rich-and-extensible-media-platform.aspx

Take Windows Media Center to the Movies With Media Browser

Terry Walsh — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:13:51 GMT

One of the must-see plugins for Windows Media Center is Media Browser, a free aggregator application for the platform which takes your collection of TV and Movies and presents it in a stunning UI. It automatically downloads and makes use of relevant TV and Movie posters, DVD and Blu-ray cover art, backdrops, fan contributed artwork, ratings and a host of other metadata to create a media rich view of your content.

Media Browser will also pull the latest movie trailers and video podcasts from the Internet, comes with a number of high quality themes for changing the colour scheme and layout of content and best of all, is completely free!

Head over to mediabrowser.tv to learn more about the latest release of the app, which has been released this week. It convinced me to cut the cable and go with Media Center full time in the living room as our DVR, and we haven’t looked back since.

Bing Gets into Entertainment with Music, TV, Movies and Games

Sarah Perez — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:34:00 GMT

Bing’s latest update expands the search service from being a simple “decision engine” to being a Web destination in and of itself. With the new upgrade, rolling out now, Bing has added an entertainment vertical featuring music, TV shows, movies and games. You can land on Bing’s new entertainment offering via a traditional search or you can browse through them at www.bing.com/entertainment.

In the music section, you can find lyrics, photos, videos and tour dates for your favorite artist or band, but even more notable, you can stream music. By integrating Zune into Bing, there’s access to over 5 million songs available for your listening pleasure. And if you want to buy a track, Bing points you to Zune, iTunes and Amazon.com’s MP3 store.

A second integration from Microsoft Games provides access to detailed information on over 35,000 games including reviews, cheats, walkthroughs and more. Plus, almost 100 casual games are available to play right from within Bing. Just search for a game and then click the “Play Now” button that appears under the listing.

Finally, there’s video. Bing now offers thousands of episodes from 1500+ shows, thanks to new partnerships with Hulu, Viacom and CBS. This “Bing TV” section will serve as a one-stop-shop for online TV viewing, offering everything from clips to full episodes and even local listings.

Movies aren’t left out either: reviews from critics, Facebook and Twitter sentiment, and other info from Bing Maps that helps you navigate to your favorite theater are included here.

Everything except the TV listings should be live now – those will come over the next couple of weeks. Zune music playback is also ramping up now – more songs will be available in a few days.

Netflix HD Now in Media Center

Sarah Perez — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:44:00 GMT

Last week, Netflix began rolling out a new feature that allows subscribers to watch some titles in high-definition when streamed to the web via Silverlight. The update, supported on both Mac and PC platforms, allows the HD streaming to occur in the browser by way of the Netflix player.

Now that same HD streaming is available in Media Center too. Ian Dixon reports that Netflix members running Windows 7 will have access to over 1800 movies in HD in Windows Media Center. In addition to streaming, from within the WMC Netflix app, you can also search your Netflix library, manage your Instant and DVD queues, filter searches and more.

Now Streaming to Your PC: HD Movies from Netflix

Sarah Perez — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:25:00 GMT

Netflix’s “Instant Watching” feature allows subscribers to the movies-by-mail service to skip the wait and stream movies directly to their PCs or Macs. The service uses Microsoft’s Silverlight technology to provide the streams, not only because of its ability to work cross-platform, but also because it offers DVD-player like controls for starting and stopping movies as well as a great timeline feature that improves the fast-forwarding and rewinding experience. Silverlight’s Play Ready technology protects the content, too, while delivering dynamic streaming based on users’ connection speeds.

Now, according to the Hacking Netflix blog, the site is streaming more than half its HD titles to both Mac and PC. At last! To see if the title you want is available in HD, mouse over it and look for the words “HD available” in the Format section, advises the blog post. You can find all the HD movies available here on Netflix’s website (login required). Some users report they’re not seeing this option yet, which implies a staged rollout, so keep checking.

MSN UK to Stream Full-Length Movies

Sarah Perez — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:01:00 GMT

OK, I’m officially jealous. The UK version of the MSN web portal will soon start streaming full-length movies thanks to a new deal with Paramount Pictures. The movies will be made available for viewing in the MSN Video Player which debuted last summer and exited beta last month. In addition to movies, Video Player users also have access to a wide range of clips, plus the 1000+ hours of TV shows, trailers and music videos already available.

Also good news for Video Player users: the movies will be free. No word yet on which movies it will show or what day this new feature will launch. However, we do know that they’ll initially be available in the UK, with a rollout to Italy, Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands to follow.

(via TechRadar)

Twilight Fans: Check out Bing's Virtual Twilight Tour

Sarah Perez — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:10:00 GMT

If you’re a Twilight fan, then you’re likely anxiously awaiting this week’s opening of New Moon, the latest movie to detail the events taking place in Stephanie Meyer’s vampire-themed saga about a human/vampire romance. In the meantime, you can gear up for the big event with a exclusive online tour, courtesy of Bing, of all the locations mentioned in the book from the Cullen house to the high school to the hospital where Bella seems to spend a lot of time.

At The Virtual Twilight Tour website, you can pull up the various locations on the map then watch related videos that show the actual locations used in the filming. (For example, did you know that Bella Italia is a real restaurant?)

You can also watch exclusive videos like the featured video called “Land of Legends” which talks about the vampires of Forks, Washington or a clip from a “Stephanie Meyer Day” event. There are also links to online photo galleries from the new movie, actor photos, and Twilight rumors on MSN’s celebrity-themed Wonderwall site.

The new Twilight application uses Bing Maps Silverlight control for location context and integration of the video and audio elements, but most visitors won’t care about that part…they’re just there to see Edward, Bella, and everything else Twilight-related that they can get their hands on.

(via the Bing Maps blog)

Tesco and Silverlight delivering the full disc experience without a disc

Ben Waggoner — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:25:00 GMT

I'm here in Amsterdam with furious jetlag, but happy to finally be able to discuss one of big things I've been working on for a while. We've been working on using Silverlight to deliver full interactive movie experiences ala Blu-ray and DVD, liberated from the shiny disc. I've been frustrated for years that, despite the PC being a much deeper interactive platform than disc players, digital downloads so far have included much less interactivity than even basic DVDs. They've just been a rectangle of video and a single track of audio: no alternate language audio or subtitles, no menus, no extras, no director's commentary. With Silverlight, we're pushing hard to change that. We've now announced our first major customer: UK retail giant Tesco. Here's the press release, and the money quote:

Tesco, one of the world’s leading retailers, and Microsoft Corp., worldwide leader in software, today announced a collaboration to launch the next generation of home video viewing. The new service, built on Microsoft Silverlight technology, will deliver a similar level of quality as consumers have come to expect from DVD and Blu-ray, but with advanced Web-based interactivity and a viewing experience that goes beyond other digital playback products in the marketplace.

Starting in the autumn, Tesco will allow customers in the U.K. who purchase certain home video titles from Tesco to download “digital copy” versions of movies to their Windows-based or Apple Macintosh computers in a “virtual DVD” experience. The digital copy versions will include a similar level of video quality, interactivity and bonus content available on the physical products. In addition, the digital copy versions will provide consumers with extra network-connected features such as auto-updated trailers, exclusive bonus content, movie viewing parties with online chat, related music offerings such as MP3s and ring tones, and networked games.

Yep, the goal is to provide everything that DVD and Blu-ray can do, and beyond. And it'll be launched by Tesco this fall. There's more details and a screenshot on the Silverlight Team Blog. This is going to be a very big deal, and I'll be talking about it plenty going forward.

Drama: a Windows App for Viewing Netflix

Sarah Perez — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:20:00 GMT

Drama is a Netflix desktop client designed just for Windows Vista (and presumably now Windows 7) users. The app, an upgrade from thirteen23’s previous Netflix application cine.view, is an attractive WPF client that lets you browse trailers, view new releases, search Netflix’s library and manage your queue. Oh yeah, you can use it for streaming your movies, too.

You can either browse through the titles or search by name. Once you find one you’re interested in, you just have to click on the title to access the movie’s details, view the trailer, or to add the movie to your queue. You can also rate (star) movies on this detail page too.

Drama lets you rearrange your Netflix queue by dragging and dropping the thumbnails of your movies around. Then, when you’re ready, you can launch your “watch instantly” titles right within the application itself.

To use Drama, you need a Netflix.com user account first which you can get from their website. To install Drama, just click here.

Blockbuster And Microsoft Collaborate On Mobile Video Service

Sarah Perez — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:42:00 GMT

Blockbuster announced today that they are teaming up with Microsoft on a set of new mobile services that will let customers watch movies on any device with an internet connection. Some of those services will be powered by Live Mesh, a platform that allows for synchronization of data between devices.

Because Live Mesh is open to anyone wanting to use its technology for sharing data, any 3rd party developer can take advantage of the opportunities provided to build their own apps, which is precisely what Blockbuster intends to do.

Blockbuster will use Live Mesh as the basis for their new service, a service where they imagine their users pausing movies on one TV and picking them up at the same place on another, for example.

"Eventually, we'll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen," Blockbuster CIO Keith Morrow told The Dallas Morning News. "More immediately, we could use this technology to reach into airports. Travelers could quickly download movies from Blockbuster kiosks to their portable media players."

Today, the platform has primarily been used for syncing files and folders between PCs and mobile phones, but the Live Mesh team always promised that file sync was just the tip of the iceberg. Now we can see just how true that is.

LiveUpload For YouTube

Sarah Perez — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:29:00 GMT

The plugins just keep coming! In addition to the new LiveUpload for Facebook plugin for Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta, there’s also a LiveUpload for YouTube plugin available. As you can imagine, this plugin allows you to upload your videos from Windows Live Photo Gallery (yep, it organizes videos, too!) to YouTube. But what’s great about this plugin is that it also installs into the new Windows Live Movie Maker Beta, too. There, the plugin adds an option to the button on Movie Maker’s ribbon menu called “Publish on Web.” When you click that plugin, you’ll see the option to click “LiveUpload to YouTube.” (If you also installed the “LiveUpload for Facebook” plugin, it’s available here, too).

From the Photo Gallery, you'll find the plugin under Publish > More Services.

When using the plugin, you can configure multiple YouTube accounts and select the one you want at the time of publishing. You can enter in the video Title, Description, and Keywords in the boxes provided and choose both the Category and the Permissions level from the drop-down lists. Click “Publish” and your video is sent directly to YouTube. What could be easier? You can get this plugin from here.

HD Netflix Movies Coming To Xbox

Sarah Perez — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:04:00 GMT

Out of the 10,000 or so Netflix movies and TV episodes which will be coming to the Xbox on November 19th, there will also be 300 HD movies available for streaming, too. This feature is only going to be found on Xbox 360, not on the other Netflix media consoles like the Roku nor on Netflix’s own “Watch Instantly” portal. It’s an exclusive feature just for Xbox LIVE subscribers (in the U.S.)…well, at least for now. I’m not sure about you, but I’m not exactly rushing out to get a Blu-ray drive now that I know I can just stream HD movies instead.

Oh, and for those who were fretting about the HD Netflix HDCP restrictions – Engadget just debunked that. Stream away!

Sneak Peek: Netflix On the Xbox

Sarah Perez — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:50:00 GMT

On November 19th, Xboxes everywhere will be updated to the “New Xbox Experience” – that’s the blanket term for the revamped and refreshed Xbox UI. The New Xbox Experience includes features like avatars, updated gamercards, new themes, an updated video marketplace, a new game store, and so much more. Of course, one of the most highly anticipated features that’s going to be revealed on the 19th is the Xbox/Netflix integration. All Xbox Gold members with a Netflix subscription will soon be able to instantly watch movies from their Netflix library right on the Xbox – and there’s no extra charge for doing so! The Netflix library offers over 12,000 movies to choose from, but if you can’t find something you like there (or you’re not a Netflix subscriber), the new Xbox Video Marketplace will also offer tons of content to choose from. There, you’ll find over 20,000 pieces of HD and standard def content which includes both movies and TV shows.

If you’re dying for a sneak peek at theses upcoming features, the Gamerscore blog has a few more details and screenshots.

My Movies Plugin, Now For Home Server

Sarah Perez — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:57:00 GMT

The upcoming My Movies plugin for Windows Home Server has a lot of people excited. Already available for Windows Media Center users, the plugin will soon allow Home Server users to organize their extensive movie collections and use their Home Server as more of a media server. According to a new post on the We Got Served blog, the plugin will function as a standard server for My Movies clients, will include an automated “Disc Copier,” will automatically monitor movie folders added to or located on a WHS share, and will function as a metadata provider without the need for a My Movies client for Microsoft DVD library, Niveus Movie Library, Open Media Library, Media Portal, and hopefully soon XBMC. The plugin isn’t available in its final form just yet, but if you just can’t wait to try it out, a pre-release version is now available for download from here.

MSN UK Launches WALL•E Portal

Sarah Perez — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:58:00 GMT

For fans of the Disney blockbuster, WALL•E, you have to go check out MSN UK’s new WALL•E portal. This site has a lot of downloads and other goodies for Windows Live, including Messenger Packs, Display Pictures, and Backgrounds for Windows Live Messenger as well as desktop wallpapers for your PC. You can also download an animated signature which you can use either in your email or as your forum signature. To get access to these free downloads, just visit the portal here: wall-e.msn.co.uk.

My Movies Media Center Plugin

Sarah Perez — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:51:00 GMT

WeGotServed has the scoop on another new plugin for Media Center - and it’s one of the more useful ones we’ve seen, too. This plugin, called My Movies, adds an extra tab to the “TV+Movies” button in Media Center and shows a list of all the ripped movies stored on your Windows Home Server, including cover art, cast and crew info, and even a link to a trailer. Of course, we can't condone ripping DVD's, but there is plenty of info on the subject.

With My Movies you are able to index your movies, browse them, stream them for viewing, share your movie database with multiple clients, and configure each client with its own parental control limitations. You can download the MyMovies plugin from here.

It's Official: Get Netflix on your Xbox 360

Larry Larsen — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:19:00 GMT

This morning we announced support for Netflix service as being built-in in an upcoming software update to 360 service. As C|Net points out, there have been some workarounds for this in the meantime, but this solution will allow you to stream natively and without a dedicated Media Center PC.

Also announced is a shared movie experience that will let you watch a movie at distance with up to 7 friends at once. Major Nelson promises more details on this later today.

3 Ways To Stream Netflix Movies From Your PC to TV

Sarah Perez — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:47:00 GMT

Last year, Neflix started offering the ability to stream movies over the internet to your PC. Of course, for Windows Media Player enthusiasts, the next logical step was to port Netflix into Media Center by way of a plugin. Luckily, there's a pretty active developer community for WMC, so we ended up with not one, but three, Windows Media Player plugins from which to choose: vmcNetflix, MyNetflix, and NetflixMC.

But which one is right for you? Let's compare:

MyNeflix

System Requirements: Vista MCE, .NET 2.0, Netflix WatchNow player
View Netflix queue
Manage Netflix queue
View history
View recommendations
Browse movies by title, genre, or top 100
Browse "Watch Now" movies
Play movies in full screen
Nice interface, very responsive
Does Not Work With Extenders
Download MyNetflix

vmcNetFlix

System Requirements: Vista MCE and Netflix WatchNow player
View Netflix queue
Manage Netflix queue
View history
View recommendations
Browse movies by genres; sort by title or year
Browse "Watch Now" movies
Keyword Search
Play movies in full screen
Support for x64 and x86
Support for Netflix Instant Queue
Support for Episode Listings
Prevents standby/sleep mode while downloading
Clean interface, easy to browse, runs smoothly
Works With Extenders
Download vmcNetflix

NetflixMC

System Requirements: Vista or MCE 2005 and .NET 2.0 or 3.5
Browse movies by genre
Browse "Watch Now" movies
Fast, Real-time "Watch Now" search
Bookmark "Watch Now" movies
TV Series episode selection
Image caching stream speed settings
Menu Personalization
A bit slow, still a “beta” app
Runs on extenders but WILL NOT play WatchNow videos
Download NetflixMC

So which one should you choose? The quick answer here is that if you have Windows XP, you only have one choice: NetflixMC. For Vista users, both MyNetflix and vmcNetflix are nice, but the extender support that vmcNetflix has makes it the clear winner. You can download vmcNetflix here.

Download Iron Man Demo for Free

Sarah Perez — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:44:00 GMT

If you're like a bunch of people I know, you're pretty darned excited for the upcoming Iron Man movie. As you may know, there will also be an accompanying Iron Man video game for Xbox. Both game and movie will arrive on May 2nd, but you can sample the game now, for free, via the demo available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. According to the description on Major Nelson's site, the game lets you: "Immerse yourself in hardcore shooting action and explosive combat from the film as well as exclusive content created just for the game. Customize your Iron Man suit and battle against armies of fighter jets, tanks, armored Super Villains and more. You are a One Man Army. " (via Xbox 360 Fanboy)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End - for the XBOX 360

Laura Foy — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:07:00 GMT

Aaaargh! Get ready to play as Captain Jack Sparrow and his charming cast of characters. Beyond incredible character likenesses and tongue in cheek dialogue, there's actually great gameplay as well. Pull off sword-assisted acrobatics, adaptive combat and classical dueling in unique gameplay. Experience the Pirates of the Caribbean world in never-before-seen detail, going beyond the films' events and storylines to introduce new locations, an extended story, legendary pirates and a unique ending. Live and die by the sword, matey!

Change a bulb, change everything.

Laura Foy — Tue, 22 May 2007 20:40:00 GMT

Al Gores Academy Award Winning documentary about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth" has exponentially heightened America's awareness about the state of our environment. The film is both frightening and motivational. I met with the producer of "An Inconvenient Truth", Lawrence Bender about his latest effort to help save the planet : 18seconds.org. On his site and in this interview you'll learn about some tiny changes we can all make in our daily lives that can drastically help preserve our planet. Watch this interview, visit 18seconds.org and spread the word.

Newtek Lightwave 3D creates emmy nominated nuclear explosions!

Laura Foy — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 23:08:00 GMT

If your friends are anything like mine- you guys love to settle in front of the TV and watch Jack Bauer kick ass on 24. Well- the season premiere episode this year created a ton of buzz amongst digital artists and graphic animators. Jarrod Davis of Zoic Studios created the most realistic, brilliant nuclear explosion to ever go off over the city of Angels. I tracked down the man himself to see what software, hardware and undeniable skill is required to create this kind of digital art. And now...he shares this knowledge with you. Watch and learn.

Spinning DVDs like vinyl with the Pioneer DVJ 1000

Laura Foy — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 22:45:00 GMT

Remember when DJ's just played music? Well those days are in the past now. At CES this year I was awestruck by the performance I saw at the Pioneer booth. "DJ Roonie G" took control of the Pioneer DVJ 1000, the worlds first DVD turntables, and mixed music CD's with movies- both professional and home made. He created a visual and musical masterpiece where all traditional lines became blurred. You have to watch this piece...and demand all your favorite DJ's do the same. Clubbing has never been so cool.