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Netflix hikes rates for Blu-ray subscribers

Your next Netflix billing statement will increase if you have the optional Blu-ray access. The amount of the price increase will be determined by which plan you have. For the regular 3 DVD (Unlimited) plan the rate will increase from the $1 extra per month to $4 extra per month.

Netflix already charges an additional $1 per month on top of the regular subscription cost for Blu-ray access due to the increased cost to purchase the high-def format. The entry price did drop two years ago $1 per month, so the additional $1 for Blu-ray was a wash.

This is unfortunate but understandable. The number of Blu-ray titles now available is incredibly high, my video queue has over 450 titles on it and I’d say a good 30% of them are now available on Blu-ray.

Blockbuster to deliver video through TiVo

Blockbuster is still trying to play “catch up” with Netflix. The red-envelope DVD rental company can be streamed through several Blu-ray devices and some HDTVs, but these would be new purchases. Blockbuster is teaming with TiVo to bring their video service to an already installed user base.

Blockbuster OnDemand will be available with all new and existing TiVo Series2™, Series3™, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL DVRs. Titles will be available for rent or purchase.

While this may be good for Blockbuster, TiVo users have been able to rent or purchase videos from Amazon Video On Demand for almost a year now.

You can read the Blockbuster press release at Blockbuster.com

Warner offers Archive Collection for download

Warner Brothers has been digitally restoring their entire collection of motion pictures over the last several years. Now they are making their entire collection available to the public on www.warnerarchive.com for download or DVD.

Initially only 150 titles have become available, but the studio plans on providing their complete catalog of 6,800 films. Previously only 1,200 have been made available on DVD and 4,100 on VHS due to the limited market for these classic motion pictures.

The DVDs will be manufactured-on-demand so Warner will not have to warehouse product. This limited how many catalog titles could be replicated in the future due to cost of shelf space in retail outlets.

Future plans include bringing television programs and WB’s animation collection to the online store.

NBC Universal content now available on Playstation Network

Announcing the ubiquitous nature of on demand video streaming is like announcing the Pope is Catholic. It should be common knowledge by now. So this latest move by NBC Universal isn’t the biggest news story of the year. However, this should give us a solid indication that NBC Universal is in the game for good.

The Sony PlayStation Network has teamed with NBC Universal to allow renting and purchasing of movies and television programs for playback on the Sony PlayStation 3 and PSP portable device. Video can be transported from the PS3 to the PSP in standard-definition.

Last year NBC Universal pulled all of their content from iTunes and many speculated they were concerned about letting their property out via the internet. But they also formed Hulu with News Corp (Fox), so maybe they were just trying to move traffic in that direction. They later returned to iTunes, so it was most likely a contract renegotiation. (Apple is known to keep $0.30 of every dollar sold on iTunes.)

The PlayStation Network now claims 1,300 movies and 4,500 TV programs in both high-def and standard-def. There is no subscription fee, but titles are either rented or purchased (starting at $1.99 and $9.99 respectively). You must own a PlayStation 3 or PSP to access the service.

TV.com offers 1080p video streaming

Online video is starting to get competitive. In recent news, Hulu’s content partners pulled all of their content from TV.com and Boxee. And now, TV.com has launched a beta of their 1080p video streaming service.
The content will be repurposed network programming. Currently there are only a few videos from CBS including CSI, Survivor, and Late Show with David Letterman.

The content will be ad supported, so you will watch a few commercials throughout the program. This is about the same as hulu.com.

Hulu has a wider variety of content from multiple networks currently, but only offers an extremely limited selection of 720p high-def video. We counted 6 items total at Hulu.com/HD.

To check out the new TV.com service, head on over to this link: TV.com 1080p Beta

Challenge: Build a surround system for under $700

I was given a challenge to build a good surround sound system for under $700, let’s see if I can do this. The room is about an average family room with about 370 ft2 for approx. 3700 ft3. There is a 50″ LG plasma on the wall sourced with a PC, Sony DVD player and over-the-air TV. The requirements for the system include iPod compatibility, and wireless rear speakers.

My first order of business was picking a receiver. The Pioneer VSX-918V-K is well received and reviewed (hell, I own one), it’s under $250 (with free shipping from Newegg) and has iPod on screen. This is the perfect receiver for this situation. It will provide enough power to fill the room, enough connections, and has HDMI for future upgrades.

Next I calculated the cubic feet of the room to find how much air I’m going to need to move for the subwoofer. A 12″ sub is the right size here. But not any sub will do because they’re clearly not all created equal. A Velodyne Impact-12 can be had on Amazon for $299 with free shipping. This is a great deal because the 10″ version sells for the same price.

We’ve already swallowed up $550 of the budget, leaving $150 for speakers. I’m beginning to think this can’t be done. Where do I make concessions to hit the budget? I could just buy a cheap five-speaker package and upgrade those later, or I can cheapen up the sub to have a more balanced system now. Of course I do have to keep in mind a wireless speaker system is about $100 alone.

My first concession would be to live with wires to the rear speakers for a while. Buy the transmitter for Christmas on sale. This particular room has an L shaped sofa with one end of it nearly reaching the front wall, so the speaker wires can be run those few feet to the sofa and hidden until they get to the back of the seats where the rear speakers can sit on stands. Wireless speakers also require wire, just not all the way to the front of the room.

Everybody’s situation is different, so we need to take into consideration the primary use of the system. If it’s movies I would say stick with the better subwoofer and get smaller, cheaper satellites with a focus on the center channel speaker for dialog. If it’s music I would move money towards bigger front speakers and cut into the price of the subwoofer. In fact with big enough front speakers you might be pleased with the bass output enough that a subwoofer becomes a luxury item you add later on.

You can get inexpensive satellite speakers from Polk Audio for about $40 each. So if you take away the wireless requirement temporarily, and mostly want the impact of movies, go with the receiver and subwoofer above along with five Polk satellites. You might have to buy stands too which would add another $30 or so, making your total $778, a little over budget for now.

But that is for someone with an upgrade path in the future. Let’s stick to the requirements I was given and find a good, balanced system for under $700 with iPod and wireless rear speakers.

The Final Product

I stumbled across the DCM Cinema1 5.1 speaker system for $279, which is much less than the $399 sticker price. This is a good little speaker package. The shipping was $29 for that set. The Cinema1 comes with four 7″ tall satellite speakers, one sideways center-channel speaker, one 10″ 100W subwoofer, and four satellite wall mounts.

The DCM speakers require a little extra juice to get good volume levels, and the Pioneer VSX-918V-K has 95W per channel, which should be enough to power them effectively (though you might have to turn the volume up a bit). This receiver also has an iPod menu on screen when you plug your iPod into its front bezel’s USB port.

As for wireless connectivity, the Rocketfish RF-WHTIB wireless rear speaker kit sells for about $100 (less if you find it used), and connects to the receiver’s speaker outputs so you don’t have to worry about pre-amp outputs. I found it selling for $84 on Amazon used.

Last thing required are a pair of speaker stands. Amazon has Atlantic speaker stands for under $40 with free shipping.

This comes to a total of about $697 with shipping included, just under $700. Not bad for a day’s work, and a decent system to boot.

Blockbuster downgrades service

Blockbuster Total Access online subscribers who have looked at their online queue in the past week have probably noticed a new banner notice at the top of their queue page.

Clicking on the banner will take you to this page on Blockbuster.com, which explains a new Blockbuster policy change: “any free in-store movie exchanges will count towards how many online rentals you may have out under your plan. Your next online movie will ship after the in-store movie exchange has been returned to the store you rented it from.”

Previously, Blockbuster would ship you the next movie from your online queue as soon as you exchanged a movie instore. Now they will not ship you another movie from your online queue until you return the instore rental back to the store.

Is Blockbuster actively trying to lose subscribers and push people over to Netflix? It certainly seems like it. This service downgrade causes Blockbuster to lose any advantage that it once had over Netflix. Other Blockbuster subscribers on DVDRentalForums are also upset over the change and are headed to Netflix.

Instead of trying to continually improve their service, Blockbuster continually makes it worse. Bye bye Blockbuster! I’m ditching them and going with Netflix.