Hasta La Gadget!

The Sky 3D channel has so far been officially available only in 1,500 or so UK pubs, but now its residential launch for all Sky+HD customers is slated for October 1. The 2010 Ryder Cup will serve as a launch event with three days of live coverage from Celtic Manor as the US and European teams do battle; the first ever in 3D, but the third such event it’s covered in high definition. Golf fans won’t be the only ones catered to, Premier League football will be returning once the season starts and today’s announcement coincided with a SkyArts 3D filming arranged by the English National Ballet. Hollywood’s major studios have already agreed to provide 3D movies including Bolt, Monsters vs. Aliens, Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince and more, while Sky has commissioned its own original 3D flick, Flying Monsters presented by Sir David Attenborough. Not quite ready for the 3D revolution? Feel free to put that on the backburner — at least until the 2012 London Olympics — as the network is also adding content from HBO, a large slate of new comedies, Anytime+ VOD, and a Sky Mobile TV iPad app. With an HD channel count of 43 and plans to reach 50 by year-end, there should be a little something there for everyone to enjoy.

Continue reading Sky 3D channel comes home October 1 with Ryder Cup, EPL, movies and more

Sky 3D channel comes home October 1 with Ryder Cup, EPL, movies and more originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier today I reported on the unlikelihood that the next Batman movie will be in 3D. But is that a fluke or part of a trend? If box office numbers are any indication, it’s definitely the latter. More »

XStreamHD is the videophile’s digital distribution dream, but a dream is what it has remained for almost three years. The bad news is the 1TB Whole Home Media Server and clients aren’t shipping yet, but the good news is one of the big studios has signed a deal with XStreamHD to distribute titles day and date with DVD, as well as access to 12,000 catalog titles. This, of course, has to be one of many such deals if the service is to be successful — high quality 1080p video and DTS-HD alone won’t be enough. The content isn’t the only thing that concerns us though, as the up front cost for hardware (we admit we really like the user interface) and the $9 monthly service fee is a lot to swallow for the privilege of renting movies at $3 to $6 a pop. We’ll reserve judgment until we get to play with it for ourselves, but distribution deals like this and a great demo is a good start, if you can call it at start after all this time. The full details are tucked in the press release after the jump.

Continue reading Lionsgate first to sign content deal with XStreamHD

Lionsgate first to sign content deal with XStreamHD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bing, Microsoft’s “decision engine,” is wading into the entertainment realm today with the revelation that searches for music, lyrics, games, TV shows, and movies will get a new special sauce treatment from here on out. You’ll now be able to play 100 basic games right in your search results, along with full-length streaming of songs (first time only, 30 seconds thereafter) from a 5 million-strong catalog. The latter is augmented with “one-click” purchases from the Zune Marketplace (directly through the web, no need to launch the app), Amazon, or iTunes music libraries. Movie tickets are promised to be similarly easy to buy, though the biggest new feature might well be the Bing.com/entertainment page, which acts as a portal into your media consumption with a selection of the most popular content in each category. It doesn’t look terribly different from the iTunes storefront, but given its partnership with Apple’s digital music shop, we doubt Bing’s Entertainment section is perceived as much of a threat — not yet, anyway. As to that other search giant, Google’s been said to already be putting together a music store of its own. Man, all this integration and interconnectedness — just where will it end?

Continue reading Bing Entertainment integrates Zune Marketplace purchases, improves Microsoft’s media swagger

Bing Entertainment integrates Zune Marketplace purchases, improves Microsoft’s media swagger originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony has announced a dedicated camcorder which will use the same E-mount lenses and giant DSLR-sensor found in its new NEX mirrorless cameras. The camcorder, which will be available in the fall of this year, will shoot in the high-quality and increasingly popular AVCHD format.

Who cares, right? After all, if you buy any modern SLR, you can shoot video too. But this seemingly simple announcement is actually pretty huge. SLRs aren’t built for video. They have mirrors that get in the way and the bodies are designed for shooting stills, not for holding one handed and shooting video. They also have limits on clip length.

A purpose-built camcorder fixes all this, and it also gets the big sensor that makes the movies look so filmic by allowing you to throw the background into a blur. Even pretty expensive pro camcorders and TV cameras don’t do this.

Add to that that you’ll be able to use Sony’s new E-mount lenses, and all the old Alpha lenses via an adapter, and you have a rather compelling machine. Sony hasn’t announced any more specs or even a pricing guide, but if the aggressive prices of the NEX stills cameras is anything to go by, this camcorder should be very affordable. Suck it, Hollywood. Indie movie-makers rule!

Sony develops E mount HD camcorder (press release) [DP Review]

See Also:

• Sony's NEX Mirrorless Cameras Are the Smallest in the World …
• Leaked Shots Show Sony Mirrorless Touch Camera Interface