Sony blocks content on Xbox 360 - The fallout of HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray persists

Posted at November 19, 2008 @ 7:58 am by Ighuaran in Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, Microsoft, Netflix, Xbox 360, video games

I have now mentioned in two posts that the exclusive arrangement between Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Netflix which affords the viewer realtime HD video on demand streaming of over ten thousand titles, would pose a real threat to Sony and overpriced Blu-Ray.  Well Sony has demonstrated this to be true by blocking its (Columbia) catalog from streaming via Netflix as Xbox 360’s New Xbox Experience goes live this morning.

As reported at Xbox 360 Fanboy:

“According to Joystiq (and confirmed by MTV Multiplayer) Netflix has pulled all Columbia Pictures content from the Xbox 360 instant view library due to “licensing problems.” But, wouldn’t you know, all the blocked content can still be viewed online and through all other Netflix enabled TV devices except for the 360.

Netflix hopes to license all the currently blocked content to the Xbox 360 in the near future.”

Sony is known for its less-than-scrupulous turf wars, often upsetting consumers by viture of its insistence upon proprietary hardware and codecs.

 

[Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Friendsite] [Furl] [Google] [Ma.gnolia] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [MySpace] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [Sphere] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tags: § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § §

No Comments

New Xbox 360 Experience Launches Today in Tandem With HD Netflix Streaming

Posted at November 18, 2008 @ 3:30 pm by Ighuaran in Box, Microsoft, Netflix, XBLA, Xbox 360, cinema, independent, indie

Xbox 360 owners rejoice - the next phase in the set-top entertainment paradigm is upon us.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, Microsoft was able to forge an exclusive partnership with online DVD rental mogul Netflix that brings the catalog direct to your home entertainment system (with an existing Netflix membership) at no additional cost.

Today, the New Xbox Experience (NXE) goes live, and Netflix HD streaming is already available.  Here is the official press release:

Movies Instantly Streamed From Netflix to the TV Debut on the Xbox 360

More Than 12,000 Movies and TV Episodes are Available to Watch Instantly At No Additional Cost to Current Netflix and Xbox LIVE Gold Members

LOS GATOS, Calif., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, today announced that Netflix members can have thousands of movies and TV episodes instantly streamed to the TV via the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system when the New Xbox Experience premieres nationwide tomorrow. Adding to a growing number of Netflix-ready devices, the Xbox 360 is the only game and entertainment console that lets users instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix to the TV. There is no additional monthly fee for Netflix members who are also Xbox LIVE Gold members.

Netflix members simply add movies and TV episodes from a growing library of more than 12,000 choices to their instant Queues at the Netflix Web site. Those choices are automatically displayed on the TV screen via the Xbox 360 and, once selected, will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds.

“This is an important and exciting moment for Netflix and Xbox,” said Netflix Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Kilgore. “We believe the New Xbox Experience — with thousands of choices available to be streamed instantly from Netflix as one of its key enhancements — offers consumers a great at-home entertainment option and provides terrific value as a holiday gift idea.”

Netflix also said it is taking the first step in instantly streaming movies and TV episodes in high definition with the introduction of approximately 300 HD choices that will play with standard definition audio via the Xbox 360. The company said it intends to increase the number of HD choices available and will eventually add multi-channel audio. Classic, adventure, musical, foreign and comedy movies now available to watch instantly in high definition include “La Vie en Rose,” “Flawless” and “Heroes.”

All Netflix members can rent from over 100,000 titles on DVD. They can instantly watch movies and TV episodes from a growing library of choices on their PCs and Intel-based Macintosh computers, as well as on their TVs via one of the Internet connected Netflix ready devices sold by Netflix partners.

[Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Friendsite] [Furl] [Google] [Ma.gnolia] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [MySpace] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [Sphere] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tags: § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § §

No Comments

A Tough Day In Los Angeles

Posted at November 15, 2008 @ 11:03 pm by Ighuaran in Uncategorized

From the moment I step out of my building, I can see something strange is going on in the world.

Perhaps it is because I was playing Fallout 3 - the new painstakingly detailed First Person Shooter for Xbox 360 about the world after a nuclear apocalypse wherein a dictatorship like American government known as The Enclave continues to broadcast euphemisms over any available transmission source long after the holocaust - that I am particularly off-put by the ominous red glow hitting the bottom of the cumulus clouds - at noon on a sunny day.

Los Angeles sunset through volumetric fog from the fires, 2008. Photo by the author.

I comment on this to the cashier at the Lebanese Pizza/hookah lounge, about the color of the clouds and how hot it is and he assures me that where he comes from in the heart of Mexico, this would be considered a cool, moderate climate.  I get my food, and stop in to the Russian deli where I purchase some pelmeni and a jar of pickled mushrooms.

It occurs to me, as I drive down Sunset Blvd. on a very hot mid-November day, that John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie just wouldn’t make any sense were I at my cottage in Northern Ontario, Canada amidst the soft blowing tips of the spruces and the gentle rippling of the lake, but they sure do here;  punctuating the frenetic activity of these Hollywood streets as hundreds of drivers negotiate one another’s hierarchy and whether to let one another in, race past leaving a wake of exhaust and dust, or simply pull over for an iced mochaccino.

I am at a gas station where the price of gas is exactly ten cents less per gallon than the one directly across the street.  I pay the attendant and notice a flashy picture of Barack Obama, newly elected president of the United States, on the cover of TIME magazine flashing a suprisingly smug smile, with a monocle and cane, driving a Rolls - an article about Barack and FDR.  As I exit two gangstas climb out of their polished SUV, shuffle through the parking lot in their unlaced Timberland’s, giving me a once over.  No problems here.  A woman dressed like a gypsy sifts through the garbage at the bus stop.  Across the street people brunch on the sidewalk, discussing their screenplays.

I reseat myself behind the wheel, and the DJ from the radio is talking about how it is a tough day for Los Angeles:  Sylmar, a town just north of the San Fernando Valley (that’s the porn capital of the world to those of you living on Mars) is on fire - six hundred families have lost their homes overnight in a trailer park.  In Montecito, a paradise-like town near Santa Barbara, forty homes have been lost to the fires.  Similar stories in Corono, and Olive View - where patients ran from a UCLA hospital when a wild fire raced down the foothills of Los Angeles, burning nearby office bungalows.  There are several dozen more stories like this today.  I wouldn’t have known had I not turned on the radio.  Mom will probably call at some point to see if I am still alive.

I turn onto Hollywood Blvd. and spot a twelve-year-old kid with headphones like earmuffs jogging, red-faced, down the sidewalk, followed a block later by his chubby, aging father, who struggles to keep up.  I recognize that I am now closer in age to the father than to the son.  I got carded when I purchased cigarettes yesterday.

Jim Dickens plays “Ain’t Nothin’ Like the Blues” - his telecaster snaps back in anger, but he keeps beating it down; mean, and sultry.  It reminds me of a song by a band that used to play at the Whiskey - a racous epic having to do with L.A. women and how her hills are filled with fire.

Given the heat, I decide to close the venetian blinds in my apartment, smoke a cigarette and play Fallout 3 until it cools off outside.