Hasta La Gadget!

Earlier this month, when Dish Network announced that it would be taking over Blockbuster‘s remaining assets, we openly wondered about what the deal would mean for the thousands of (mostly) empty rental stores still scattered across the country. Shuttering all of them seemed like a very real possibility, but it now looks like Dish has plans for at least a few of Blockbuster’s old stomping grounds. On Saturday, the company agreed to assume the leases for about 500 of the 1,700 Blockbuster locations still in operation, according to papers filed with a New York Bankruptcy Court. Of course, it’s still unclear what Dish plans to actually do with these stores — or, for that matter, with the Blockbuster brand, as a whole. But it certainly looks like its long-term vision may incorporate at least some of Blockbuster’s brick-and-mortar roots.

Dish Network takes over 500 Blockbuster locations for some reason originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 08:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Netflix and Redbox have been the new hotness in rentals for the last few years but both have significant drawbacks. With Redbox, it’s the box and the morons who are constantly standing in front of it paging through every single movie in the thing and for Netflix’s Watch Instantly it’s a lack of new releases available for instant viewing. Now there’s a new startup, Zediva, that takes on both of those issues by sticking with DVDs, but instead of shipping them to customers or placing them in kiosks, just streams them on demand from one player, to one viewer (unlike Netflix, sometimes movies are “rented out” if there are no copies available at the moment — renting a flick gives you control of the DVD player, with fast forward and reverse, for four hours) for $1.99 a rental or 10 for $10.

Apparently it’s been in beta for a year but is now available to all and is currently offering new release DVDs the same day they go on sale by simply purchasing them at retail. There’s no HD content yet but it claims Blu-ray titles will be offered soon. The Associated Press talked to a copyright lawyer who points out the case of a hotel that implemented a similar system but was sued into oblivion before calling Zediva “cute, but illegal” so if you decide to check it out, we’d recommend getting through that 10-pack of rentals with haste.

Update: We did recommend haste, didn’t we? Zediva’s registration is now listed as “temporarily full” and prospective users are being asked to join a waiting list. Thanks, Ialo!

Zediva mashes up Netflix and Redbox for $1.99, four hour-window DVD streaming rentals originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you come all this way to the Consumer Electronics Show, why introduce just a single product? You wouldn’t, as evidenced by Maxell’s smorgasbord here in Las Vegas. Kicking things off is the outfit’s new Acoustabar soundbar lineup, which boast integrated subwoofers and hardwood enclosures. The 32-inch Eht model includes ten speaker drivers, while the SD320 delivers 430 watts of audio through five drivers. Moreover, that guy touts a built-in iPod dock, and it allows for connectivity with any TV, DVD player and game console. The 32-inch SD-400 simply steps up to 520 watts of audio.

Once you’re done dreaming of ways to enhance your own home cinema, the outfit has one to consider for the kids. The KDP-1 projector includes an inbuilt DVD player and provides a plug-and-play experience that’ll shoot up an image as large as 45-inches. You’ll also get built-in speakers, a microphone input for karaoke and an undisclosed native resolution. We’ll confess that not knowing the latter scares us a bit, but those who couldn’t care less can find it nowish for $129.99. As you’d expect, Maxell’s also dishing out a slew of new storage products. It’ll be pushing out 1.8- and 2.5-inch SSDs (64GB, 256GB and 512GB models) in late 2011, SDXC cards and readers sooner than that, a number of USB 3.0 flash drives / HDDs and a non-networked. MP-100 media player. There’s plenty of details on earbuds, iPod cases and other accessories after the break, too.

Continue reading Maxell debuts SSD family, Acoustabar soundbars, accessories galore at CES

Maxell debuts SSD family, Acoustabar soundbars, accessories galore at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on September 29, 2009 by CyberNet.

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Looking for a way to back up your old DVDs onto your hard drive? Want to watch your purchased DVD movies on your iPod? You’re certainly not the only one. For some reason however, developers are not very keen on developing tools that do this. Luckily, HandBrake has stepped up to the plate with a free tool that lets you take control of your media.

When starting HandBrake for the first time, you might get a little overwhelmed by all the knobs and buttons, especially if you’re not familiar with the audio/video codec lingo. Don’t worry, HandBrake has got your back. It comes with a truckload of presets, each of which with its own purpose. By using these, you don’t have to mess with video settings as long as you know what you want to do with your video. For example, you can convert your DVD to video formats that work with gaming consoles (Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP), the Apple TV and the iPod/iPhone. There’s also a “Classic” preset in case you have no idea which preset you should pick. Keep an eye on your hard drive though, because some of these presets can quickly make your videos take up a lot of space. In my test, the Classic preset used about 40MB for a five-minute video.

HandBrake also gives you the option to rip the DVD subtitles (if available) and embed them into your video. If you’re in the market for this feature, check the Audio/Subtitles tab.

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There’s one more thing you want to pay close attention to: the aspect ratio. Unless you know for sure that the DVD you want to rip is entirely in widescreen (16:9), you have to intervene before you let HandBrake have a go at your DVD. Otherwise, it will cut off the top and bottom border of the screen when encountering 4:3 video. Depending on your OS, you have to take a different approach to tackle this issue.

• Windows users – On the Picture Settings tab, look for the section called Crop and set the Top and Bottom to 0.
• Linux users – Click on the preview image at the bottom of the window. In the window that opens, look for the cropping options and set Top and Bottom to 0.
• Mac users – Same as with Linux, but instead of clicking a preview image you have to look for a ‘Picture settings’ button.

Once you get that out of the way, you can hit the Start button and go grab a cup of coffee. The ripping process may take a while depending on the speed of your DVD player and the horsepower in your PC/Mac.

Also, remember that you should only use HandBrake for backup purposes or to exercise your personal use rights. Keep it legal, kids.

HandBrake Homepage (Windows, Mac, Linux; Freeware)

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It was only a couple of weeks ago that BlockBuster and Warner Bros were trialling the release of DVD titles into the former company’s rental kiosks on their day of commercial release, but it seems like that’s a future we’re not going to see any more of. The pair have now announced a partnership whereby BlockBuster will offer WB’s new DVD titles for rent 28 days after launch, matching Redbox and Netflix who are also subject to a four-week delay. This follows similar deals being concluded by BlockBuster with Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox, with the major benefits being lower acquisition costs and a direct relationship with the studio. We just wonder if those savings will be worth losing the one big differentiator BlockBuster had working in its favor.

Continue reading BlockBuster to distribute Warner Bros DVD rentals 28 days after release, losing edge on competition

BlockBuster to distribute Warner Bros DVD rentals 28 days after release, losing edge on competition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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