movies

Ready to take the high-def DVD plunge? I wouldn't. I think most HDTV owners are better off with a decent (and inexpensive) upconverting DVD player, which makes existing DVDs look a helluva lot better and saves you from having to choose sides in the ridiculous Blu-ray versus HD DVD war.

On the other hand, if you're tired of waiting and want to enjoy every pixel of your 1080p TV right now, consider the Toshiba HD-A20 HD DVD player. Circuit City has it on clearance for $249.99--not quite the sub-$200 price point the players need to … Read more

The race for the best 3D movie projection technology began in earnest last week with the release of Beowulf, and I'm here to judge the first lap.

Beowulf, which recounts the Anglo-Saxon adventures of a Swedish prince of that name, is the first wide release of a 3D movie, showing on hundreds of screens in 3D. And for the first time, viewers had the choice not only of watching with Imax 3D and Real D projection technology, but also newcomer Dolby 3D.

Based on watching the movie start to finish three times, the 3D winner is Dolby 3D--and not … Read more

Edward Burns' latest film, Purple Violets, won't be coming to a theater near you, but you won't have to go far to see it. The movie is available to anyone with $13 and an account at iTunes. It is the first time a feature film has premiered at the Apple media store.

Burns first landed on the scene in Hollywood with his highly successful 1995 film The Brothers McMullen. He wrote, directed, produced and starred while managing to spend less than $30,000 putting together the vehicle that would pave the way for his role acting in Saving Private Ryan.

… Read more

As ghouls swished gently over my head, it was as if the floor was shaking.

No, wait, that was the floor shaking.

At first I wasn't sure if 3D movie technology had advanced even further than I thought. But it turns out that Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas wasn't supposed to be that scary.

The crowd at San Francisco's Sony Metreon mall took the 30 seconds of rolling in stride, but there were all sorts of whispered queries as to whether that was the movie or an earthquake.

And when the lights came on after … Read more

Imax is following the smaller-format movie industry to digital projection technology a bit more rapidly than earlier planned.

The company plans to install three prototype systems in the second quarter of 2008 with a full transformation in the second half of the year. Previously, the company had planned to begin the transformation sometime between late 2008 and mid-2009, the company said.

"Several key exhibitors, studios and consumer research groups have already experienced the digital prototype we've been running for the past several months, and we are very encouraged by the unanimously positive reaction to the next iteration of … Read more

Video stores appear to be heading the way of the car hop and drive-in theaters.

Movie Gallery, which operates under the names Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video, and Game Crazy, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, according to a story by Bloomberg. The collapse of the country's second-largest video-rental chain is staggering when one considers that only two years ago, Movie Gallery's stock was trading at $33.

On Tuesday, the stock closed trading at 22 cents, less than the cost of a movie rental.

Netflix and video-on-demand services being offered by cable companies have cut deeply into the traditional video-rental … Read more

One of the most frequent questions I get from CNET Download.com users is "What free software can I use to edit video?" If I didn't respond to you personally, it's likely because there's not an easy answer. It depends on what type of video you have, and what you want to do with it.

Let's start with the basics. If you didn't know, you likely already have Windows Movie Maker, which was included with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and recently beefed up for Windows Vista.

The XP version of Movie Maker is adequate for putting together clips into larger videos, adding simple transitions, and making basic edits, but I can't recommend the experience. The review on CNET Download.com is overly harsh, but it encapsulates several problems you may encounter.… Read more

Dolby has signed up a passel of cinemas to use its Dolby 3D movie technology, the company announced Monday.

At the ShowEast conference Monday, the company offered a list of independent and chain theater companies that will use Dolby 3D: Carousel Cinemas, Cinema City, Cinetopia, Cobb Theatres, Kerasotes Theatres, Malco Theatres, Marcus Theatres, Maya Cinemas, Megaplex Theatres, Starlight Cinemas, Sundance Cinemas, Warren Theatres, Kinepolis Group of Belgium and Supercines of Ecuador.

But Dolby still isn't saying how many screens total are equipped with its technology, a key measurement of how the relative newcomer is faring against incumbent Real D. … Read more

You can call Microsoft many things--but you definitely can't call it boring. Or sane. In a fit of undeniable lunacy, Bill Gates' staff invited us to jump out of a plane last week, so that we could experience some new features in Vista. It didn't make any sense then, and it makes even less sense now.

According to Microsoft's public relations guy, the idea was to film us skydiving, and then send our adrenalin levels through the roof by letting us edit the footage in Windows Movie Maker. Stupidly, we went along, and this accompanying video is … Read more