timmjan tailore calahan

[Eboni Kleifgen]

Thanks to the folks at Microsoft and Netflix, I've gotten the new Xbox 360 console upgrade and have started watching Netflix movies on my Xbox this morning. A couple gaming sites have been doing some reviews as well and have raised a bunch of questions, some of which I have already asked Microsoft and Netflix and will update this post if I get answers.

The new Xbox 360 console update, which will be release to the public on November 19th, includes the highly anticipated ability to stream Netflix content to the Xbox 360 console as long as you are a Microsoft Live Gold customer and a Netflix customer.

After downloading the new console update and then downloading a small Netflix update, you active the streaming functionality by entering a code from your Xbox 360 into your Netflix account via the computer. From there, you can add Netflix videos into your watch now queue and they instantly show up on your Xbox 360. Navigating through your movies is done by going to the Netlfix box in the "Video Marketplace" channel which takes you to an app that allows you to very cleanly and very quickly flip through the movies in your queue. The movies are represented by cover artwork of each movie and even when you have a hundred or so titles in the queue, the app is super fast. I would compare the experience to being almost identical to flipping through albums in iTunes using Cover Flow. The only major downside here is that movies still have be added via the computer first, before they can be played back on the Xbox 360.

Once you select a movie, you get a screen with details about the video and the ability to rate the content as well as the ability to start, resume or remove the video. When you select play, the app checks your connection speed and buffers the video. For me, the videos buffered very fast and I never waited more than about ten seconds for any video to start. That may not be the startup time for the average consumer though as I am on a 20MB FiOS connection. While most movies are in SD, Netflix has to date made about 300 videos available in HD, many of which are TV series and not actual movies. Watching the SD movies on a 50" plasma screen looked amazing and HD is really incredible. The quality of the stream is all based on your connection speed and I am waiting on Netflix to hopefully give me details on the encoding bitrates being used. But the bottom line, the video quality is really, really good and in my eyes, is DVD quality with no frame rate issues.

Netflix and Microsoft have clearly thought about the experience, the ease of use and the quality of the videos being delivered and overall, I expect users will be very happy. That being said, this hands on review leaves me with three main questions that will dictate how successful the offering will be.

For starters, what is the business relationship and model behind the new service? With three parties involved, Microsoft, Netflix and content owners, whom is paying whom to make all this happen and how will money be made? I know this is a new service to start and hence, a clear business model has not yet been established. But over time, one will have to emerge.

Second, does the availability of getting movies on the Xbox 360 now mean that more content owners and in particular, major movie studios, will start giving Netflix the rights to encode and deliver more first-run movies? Hopefully so, but they still control the content and have a big say in the success that the Netflix service will have.

I recently purchased an Xbox and I must say, considering that have yet to acquired a sports game, that I am very impressed. I got the Xbox 360 pro (with the 60gb hard drive) and this allowed me to take full advantage of the recent updates for the New Xbox Experience (NXE).

There is a metric ton of videos, demos, pictures, community games, themes and online goodness that really extend the entertainment experience of the Xbox. The interface is really intuitive and looks great in 1080p.

Netflix Instant Watch is a really significant addition and adds a really solid value, if you are in fact a Netflix subscriber. The only problem with Netflix Instant Watch is that there is a really limited movie list and it can take quite a while to find a decent movie for your Instant Queue. The HD movies streamed consistently without interruption and the picture quality was pristine.

The other problem is that you cannot add movies to Instant Queue directly from the Xbox, you have to go online via a PC, but the instant queue will update almost immediately. There was an announcement of a Netflix app for Windows Mobile so this should relieve that bottleneck (or maybe I could create a Media Center app).

The only real unresolved disappointment was the poor performance of Windows Media Center. While it only took a few minutes to connect to my home PC, once I got it up and running the controls were really slow (I mean in the order of 10-20 seconds per click). My network is running fine, it handles high def streaming with ease. So right now am I assuming there is some contention between the various apps that can share data from my Vista PC (Zune, Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center).

Unlike the previous sequel, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the original Ghostbusters, Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), and Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), get to play larger roles alongside the current generation of Ghostbusters in Frozen Empire. Under the guidance of Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) and Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace) and her brother, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), have come to New York to develop new technology for busting ghosts.

Second chances are all too rare in life, and John (Harry Connick Jr.) really needs one in the rom-com Find Me Falling. Unfortunately for John, his choice location for a respite from his failing music career is a place where some of the locals choose to commit suicide.

Rather than abandoning the victims to their fate, Hunt, John Brooder (Matthew Fox), and others form a rescue party to bring them back home. But as they venture deeper into dangerous territory, the posse finds themselves facing threats on all sides, which may make a safe return impossible.

Meanwhile, Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel) attempts to rally the people of Azeroth in defense of their world. But amid an overwhelming threat against orcs and humans alike, Lothar may have to come to terms with Durotan so they can stand against their mutual enemies.

For a movie that is based on a video game franchise, Pokmon: Detective Pikachu is surprisingly friendly to first-time viewers who know nothing about the small Pokmon monsters that are pitted in battles against each other for the amusement of humans. In Ryme City, humans and Pokmon live together and enslaving the creatures is against the law.

Shia LaBeouf found some cinematic redemption in The Peanut Butter Falcon, a dramatic comedy that cast him as a fisherman named Tyler who has worn out his welcome at work. While fleeing from his former associates, Tyler meets and befriends Zak (Zack Gottsagen), a young man with Down syndrome who wants to see his idol, The Salt Water Redneck (Thomas Haden Church), to learn how to become a professional wrestler.

The names and faces may be different, but the story remains largely unchanged from the original. An oil fire is out of control, and the only way to put it out and save lives is with controlled explosions using nitroglycerin. Franck Gastambide, Alban Lenoir, Ana Girardot, and Sofiane Zermani play a group of disparate and desperate individuals who agree to transport the nitroglycerin across hundreds of miles of dangerous terrain. At the end of their journey is a payday that could change their lives forever, assuming they live long enough to get paid.

Sixteen years after creating a fake Thanksgiving trailer for Grindhouse, Eli Roth turned it into a real movie with all the elements of the holiday. It might be the best Thanksgiving horror film ever made, largely by default, since the rest are pretty bad. The story begins with a Black Friday rampage that goes horribly wrong and leaves several people dead.

One year later, someone is going around town dressed as one of the original Pilgrims, John Carver, and carving up people who were there on that fateful Black Friday. Whoever is under that mask is apparently out to kill as many people as possible, and even the cops seem powerless to stop the murders.

Denzel Washington spends so much time sitting down and sipping lattes in The Equalizer 3 that you may start to wonder if the actor himself is injured, and not just his character, Robert McCall. After nearly getting himself killed while recovering stolen funds, McCall slowly recovers in a small town on the coast of Italy. McCall also becomes close to the doctor who saved him, Enzo Arisio (Remo Girone), as well as the police officer who brought him to safety, Gio Bonucci (Eugenio Mastrandrea).

When Leo makes his bid for freedom, he accidentally reveals his ability to speak to Summer (Sunny Sandler), one of the students in his classroom. Through Summer and the other students in the class, Leo discovers a new purpose in life while contending with mean substitute teacher Mrs. Malkin (Cecily Strong).

The three primary Minions, Kevin, Stuart, and Bob (all three of whom are voiced by Pierre Coffin), are genuinely eager to please Scarlet and help her seize the throne of England. However, their incompetence and honest mistakes accidentally make Scarlet their nemesis even when they really want her to succeed.

Not even fleeing the country is enough for the assassin to evade an international manhunt, as well as two rival assassins, The Expert (Tilda Swinton) and The Brute (Sala Baker), who have been hired to take him out.

During the 1990s, George Foreman shocked the boxing world by becoming the oldest world champion nearly two decades after he had lost the title. Big George Foreman finally gives the legendary boxer his due with a biopic that chronicles his life story, from living in poverty to Olympic gold and an unmatched career in the ring.

90f70e40cf