Acetrax is closing: Download movies by 21 June or lose them
Home CinemaMovie streaming and download service Acetrax is being shut down by owner Sky on 21 June -- so if you've bought films through it you need to download them pronto.
The Swiss company was bought by Sky in May 2012, and is best known in the UK for its smart TV apps, which let you stream films directly to tellies from the likes of Samsung, LG and Panasonic. Like many streaming companies it lets you rent movies for 24 hours or buy the right to stream them whenever you want, which will obviously be affected when the service closes. Continue reading...
Lovefilm votes for John Goodman show, buries Zombieland
Home CinemaAmazon's great TV commissioning experiment has picked new TV shows for its Lovefilm streaming service, with John Goodman-starring political satire Alpha House and Silicon Valley sitcom Betas set for full series online, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, zom-com Zombieland, a follow-up to the Woody Harrelson movie of the same name, has taken an axe to the brainbox after fans panned it. "I'll never understand the vehement hate the pilot received from die-hard Zombieland fans," whinged writer Rhett Reese. "You guys successfully hated it out of existence." Continue reading...
Live TV could be delayed to improve subtitles suggests Ofcom
Home CinemaOfcom has criticised the quality of subtitling on live TV shows, proposing a short time delay to improve the situation.
"Viewers have made clear that there are continuing problems with the speed, synchronisation, accuracy and presentation of live TV subtitling," the UK communications regulator says. It's asking broadcasters what they would think of "the feasibility of delaying live programmes for a short period of time (perhaps a few seconds) in order to improve the quality of live subtitling." Continue reading...
Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 14 speakers are stylish but pricey 
Home CinemaIf you want your living room to ooze style from every angle and you don't care how much it costs, Bang & Olufsen's new set of surround sound home theatre speakers will be right up your alley.
The standard setup consists of four satellite speakers and a main sub-woofer which will set you back the cool price of £2,500. A five speaker setup will be a better choice, however, if you don't also already own one of B&O's speaker-equipped tellys -- that extra satellite brings the total to £2,800. Continue reading...
Vikings TV show raids UK as Lovefilm streaming exclusive
SoftwareNorse-em-up TV series Vikings is landing in the UK, but will only be available to those who own a Lovefilm subscription.
Amazon-owned Lovefilm, which competes with Netflix through its 'Instant' streaming service, has snapped up exclusive rights to air the show in our green and pleasant land. Continue reading...
BT Sport nets you free Premier League with BT broadband
Home CinemaBT is kicking off against Sky Sports by offering BT Sports channels -- including Premier League and European football -- for free with a broadband package.
If you order your Internet from BT, you can watch high definition BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN for free on your TV, smart phone or tablet, and online. A new app will bring the new channels to your phone or tablet. Continue reading...
Toshiba TVs with DivX Plus add DVD features to online movies
Home CinemaThe next generation of Toshiba smart TVs is adding a host of new features to movie streaming. Thanks to support for DivX Plus Streaming, you'll be able to stream films from selected movie services with DVD-style features like subtitles and chapters -- oh, and they boldly claim no buffering at all.
The new line of Toshiba DTVs with DivX Plus Streaming support Rovi's DivX Plus video format. Toshiba and Rovi claim films streamed in the DivX Plus Streaming format start instantly and play continuously with no annoying spinning wheel or stuttering and buffering, no matter the quality of your broadband connection. Continue reading...
Netflix exec: 'Piracy drops wherever we launch'
Home CinemaHow do you stop people pirating movies and TV shows? Get stern with them? Threaten to lock them up? Rather, give them a better selection of legal offerings, according to one Netflix exec.
Ted Sarandos, the company's chief content officer, says that wherever Netflix launches, the number of people pirating movies and shows goes down. "One of the things is we get ISPs to publicise their connection speeds -- and when we launch in a territory the BitTorrent traffic drops as the Netflix traffic grows," he told Stuff. "So I think people do want a great experience and they want access -- people are mostly honest. The best way to combat piracy isn't legislatively or criminally but by giving good options." Continue reading...
Skyfall leads 37 per cent Sky rise in UK movie downloads
Home CinemaBrits are locked inside their houses, shunning the sunny outdoors in favour of on-demand movies, new stats from Sky show.
During the first three months of 2013, the average number of weekly downloads from Sky's catalogue of on-demand TV was a whopping 460 per cent higher than it was in the same period last year, the firm has boasted. Continue reading...
Star Trek Into Darkness is an enjoyable space romp, but avoid the 3D
Home CinemaGood news on the follow up to the brilliant 2009 reboot of Star Trek: for fans of futuristic action spectaculars, the new Star Trek film is well worth ponying up a tenner to see.
I attended a screening of Star Trek Into Darkness in an IMAX cinema, which on the up side, meant I got to enjoy the amazing soundtrack at its immersive best. Continue reading...
Promate lumiTab is a bonkers Android tablet with a projector
LaptopsOf course! Why didn't I think of this? The world's been waiting, breath bated, for an Android tablet with a built-in projector and thank goodness for Chinese vapourware tech maker Promate -- it's only gone and drawn one built one.
The concept is simple. And totally nuts. You want to share your legitimately downloaded movie with your friends and adoring family -- instead of plugging your device into your TV with a clunky HDMI cable, you just turn on the built-in projector and BAM! 100 inches of low-res entertainment on your wall. Continue reading...
Orange is the New Black headed to Netflix worldwide this July
Home CinemaFresh comedy series Orange is the New Black is Netflix-bound. Thirteen hour-long episodes of the original comedy-drama series are set to hit the online streaming service worldwide on 11 July.
Based on the memoirs of Piper Kerman, Orange is the New Black stars Taylor Schilling, from 2012's The Lucky One, as Piper Chapman, sentenced to a woman's prison for a year for her association with drug-runner Alex (Laura Prepon). This is quite the change from her comfortable life in New York with fiancé Jason Biggs -- can she adapt and make friends, or will she sink behind bars? Continue reading...
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 battles Nexus 7, has boring specs
LaptopsSamsung has a new tablet toy to battle the Nexus 7 -- but its latest effort is unlikely to have Google's popular tablet quaking in its boots.
The Galaxy Tab 3 is a 7-inch sequel to last year's Galaxy Tab 2, which came in both 7 and 10.1-inch versions. This year's model courageously comes in just one size, but the hardware on offer doesn't exactly set our hearts aflame. Continue reading...
IllumiRoom projector explodes Xbox action out of your TV
Home CinemaMicrosoft's new projector concept, IllumiRoom, could let the next Xbox take over your whole room. First shown off at CES in January, the company's research division has explained the idea in more detail in a new video (embedded after the jump).
IllumiRoom isn't a real product yet, but the idea is that it's a projector that sits on your coffee table, wirelessly connected to your Xbox -- but it doesn't replace your TV. It uses a sensor to see where your TV is and blocks out that part of its projection, enhancing your experience with explosions and movement in your peripheral vison. Continue reading...
TalkTalk treads the boards with new Digital Theatre channel
Home CinemaTalkTalk is coating theatre's fourth wall in glass, and bringing some of Britain's finest stage performances to its telly customers with a new Digital Theatre Channel. The channel bursts into song -- jazz hands and all -- on TalkTalk Plus TV today, and will charge a minimum of £3 to customers wishing to take in a show.
The telecom giant has partnered with Digital Theatre, a company that records live performances to allow audiences to gaze through the proscenium arch from the comfort of their homes. Continue reading...
Ghostbusters, Spider-Man among first Blu-rays for 4K TVs
Home CinemaSony is launching the first films aimed specifically at 4K TVs. Ghostbusters, Taxi Driver and not one but two Spider-Man movies are appearing as Blu-ray films "Optimized for 4K Ultra HD TVs" -- but before you rush out and drop £35,000 on a new TV, they aren't really 4K.
The packaging screams 4K, but the discs contain 1080p versions of films that have been released in the cinema in 4K. Although based on each film's 4K cinema release, which was based on the original 35mm print, it remains to be seen if there's any appreciable difference between these sort-of-but-not-really-4K discs and the standard 1080p versions. Continue reading...
Iron Man 3 is fresh, ferrous fun, but should you see it in 3D?
Home CinemaAfter the snooze-fest sequel, we weren't expecting much from a third Iron Man outing -- especially one that had to follow the hero-packed Avengers Assemble.
Thankfully though some fresh ideas make the step-down to just a single superhero an easy one to bear, and prove that the repetitive process of sequel-making doesn't have to feel repetitive to the audience. Continue reading...
YouView update fixes broken fast forward, improves search
Home CinemaYouView is adding new features and ironing out a range of problems. The new software update begins today and improves search and simplifies the guide.
What are the new features? Souped-up search, for a start, making it easier to search programmes that are on now or starting soon, while search suggestions will return results matching the exact search term used. Continue reading...
Netflix family plan coming to the UK for multi-streaming fun
Home CinemaNetflix is bringing its new family-focused multi-stream deal to the UK, a company spokesman confirmed to me, but the company is yet to announce prices or a launch date.
Whereas now you can only stream two things at once on the same account -- to your TV and a tablet, say -- under the new plan you'll be able to watch four things. The TV and movie-streaming service unveiled the new plan in the US yesterday. Continue reading...
Amazon Original shows go live, you pick which become series
Home CinemaEver fancied being a bigwig TV studio exec? Well now's your chance. Amazon is streaming 14 pilots through Lovefilm (which it owns) right now, and you can decide which get the green light to be turned into series.
The shows include eight adult comedies and six children's animation series. Among them are Alpha House, starring John Goodman, Zombieland (based on the film of the same name), and Onion News Empire, another spinoff from the satirical news network. Continue reading...
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