The film has an all-star cast including Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Paul Sorvino and Lorraine Bracco. The movie fallows the life of Henry Hill (Liotta), who moves his way up in the mob business.

Here’s a fun little fact: GoodFellas actually has the ninth highest count of “F”-Words with about 300 F-bombs dropped. Wow.

If you’re interested in buying the 20th Anniversary Blu-ray, here’s what you’ll get:

• A 34-page digibook filled with pictures and facts
• Two commentaries and three featurettes
• Feature-length documentary Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film

It’s crazy that it’s been 20 years since it’s release. Any of you planning on buying the 20th anniversary edition?

Image: Amazon

Post from: EveryJoe

The funny thing is, Universal attempted this exact same thing a while back when the company still supported the now-defunct HD-DVD format. So it’s not too surprising that they’d resurrect the idea now that they’ve thrown their weight behind Blu-ray.

These “flipper” discs, as they’re called, allow consumers to not have to choose between old-school and high-def, since you’ll get both on a single disc. The first release on the flipper format will be the three films in Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne trilogy — The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum — all of which arrive January 19, 2010.

If the idea catches on, additional “flipper” discs for other films are a sure bet.

Post from: EveryJoe

Netflix and iTunes already offer streaming movie rentals to computers and game consoles, and more and more DVD and Blu-ray players are coming equipped with the ability to stream video from online services. Today, Best Buy announced that it’s adding CinemaNow’s DVD streaming service to “every Web-connected device” the retail chain sells.

So I have to ask the inevitable question: How long will it be until physical media goes away forever, in favor of entirely digital media?

There’s a report going around that Apple has been courting major TV networks to create a $30-a-month subscription service within iTunes that could replace monthly cable bills in consumers’ homes. Everyone pundit out there seems to agree that in the near future, no longer will we buy physical DVDs or Blu-ray discs or anything else to be held in our hands. “Cloud computing” will be brought to the masses for all of our entertainment needs, with movies and TV shows available for instant, on-demand viewing via the Internet or some kind of intranet service.

All this digital media will still come at a price, of course, but the videos already available on services like  iTunes and Netflix demonstrate that the lack of disc production equates to reduced prices for the consumer. Put simply: digital media costs less to produce than its physical counterpart, because nothing tangible has to be made.

We’ve been following the ebook trend a lot lately, and this digital media revolution strikes me as something very similar. Instead of physical books or magazines or newspapers made of paper, we’re starting to buy electronic books to be read on special devices, and we’re reading our magazines and newspapers on the Internet. And soon, instead of buying discs or tapes or anything else, we’ll purchase electronic videos that will be stored on a hard drive or streamed to a special media device and pumped straight to our high-def television sets.

And there are signs that other forms of entertainment media are shifting in this same direction. Video game download/subscription services already exist, though haven’t widely caught on beyond simpler games like those found on Xbox Live Arcade. The music industry is already feeling the crunch of the digital revolution, thanks largely to iTunes — it’s growing increasingly rare that consumers buy actual CDs anymore, preferring the cheaper and easier-to-manipulate digital tracks. Heck, even comic books have started migrating to the digital realm.

What do you think of this trending digitalization of media, across all mediums? Will you miss owning physical media you can touch with your hands? Or will be the near-infinite choices offered by cloud computing make it all worthwhile?

DVD image: Wikimedia Commons. Apple TV image: Apple, Inc.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Insignia NS-BRDVD3 Blu-ray Player outputs at 1080p and comes with a remote control and an A/V cable (HDMI cable sold separately). It plays BD-ROM discs, standard DVDs, and MP3 & WMA audio, and has a USB port built in.

Best Buy’s deal, which discounts the player down from a regular price of $149, doesn’t include $7 shipping, but the in-store pickup option will eliminate this charge. A Netflix subscription is required to access the service, and the device needs an Ethernet connection to connect (no wireless support built-in).

But with all this box offers, it’s an unheard of price point. Is this a sign of things to come about a month from now, when Black Friday arrives? How low can Blu-ray players go?

Image: Best Buy.

Post from: EveryJoe

Panasonic is going to unprecedented lengths to show consumers how this new technology works — and why you’re going to want it. Three custom-built, expandable tractor trailers are traveling the nation, each containing a Full HD 3D Home Theater experience. Each truck can accommodate between 25 and 35 people at a time.

The Tour trucks will visit corporate headquarters of retailers, trade shows, industry conferences, universities, and athletic events. One truck will be present at Panasonic’s booth at CEDIA Expo 2009, which is set to take place September 9-13, 2009, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. The tour also plans to play for an extended stay at the Staples Center in L.A. in conjunction with Los Angeles Lakers games this fall and winter. Panasonic hasn’t announced a complete list of tour dates and locations yet, but it’s probably a safe bet that Las Vegas’ infamous Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January will have at least one of the trucks on hand as well.

The tour is expected to run through March of next year, with the goal of letting more than 500,000 people experience this new technology for themselves. More information is available at panasonic.com/3D.

Images: Panasonic Corporation of North America.

Post from: EveryJoe

Panasonic has just announced that as of today, Amazon Video On Demand is now available on its entire line of Blu-ray players. So in addition to playing those incredible high-def movie discs, your Blu-ray player will also now instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Amazon’s catalog of 45,000+ titles, including more than 1,000 in HD.

Panasonic has already been offering Amazon Video On Demand on its line of VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVs as of April ‘09. Today Panasonic is extending the reach of its VIERA CAST software to include its line-up of Blu-ray players as well. Existing Panasonic Blu-ray owners need only download a freely offered update from Panasonic when their Blu-ray player is connected to the Internet.

Panasonic’s VIERA CAST network also brings viewers access to YouTube, Picasa, Bloomberg News, and weather. Panasonic intends to add more directed websites to the service over time.

Post from: EveryJoe

Samsung’s Plasma Series 650 and above HDTVs, LED Series 7000 and above HDTVs, and all 2009 model Blu-ray players will get a firmware update this fall that will allow users to search the entire OnDemand library, and then stream any movie directly onto their TV, with no other hardware required. (Sorry international movie buffs, but the Samsung/OnDemand deal is for U.S. residents only.) The firmware update will come as a free download.

Post from: EveryJoe

From Panasonic’s press release:

The continued trend toward Full HD in TV broadcasts, discs and digital AV equipment has spawned demand for innovative digital recorders. Panasonic’s response is the “HD Everything” concept – products that allow anyone to easily control, preserve and share a wide variety of Full HD images.

Specs include:

• DVR recording in high-def
• Copy up to 24 hours of content from the DVR over to a single Blu-ray disc in high-speed copy mode
• High-image-quality PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus and P4HD
• Dolby TrueHD and DTS-Master Audio Essential sound
• Save images from an HD camcorder or LUMIX digital camera, or music from CDs onto the built-in hard disk drive or a Blu-ray Disc
• Support for Panasonic’s VIERA CAST Internet function, so users can easily access Internet content such as YouTube and Picasa Web Albums
• freesat+ Twin Tuner allows you to record two programs at once
• 1080/24p playback

View the full specs for all three models at Panasonic’s HD Everything website. No word on when or if these three models will be released outside the UK.

Image: Copyright 2009 ©Panasonic.

Post from: EveryJoe

There haven’t been very many computer releases so far that feature Blu-ray drives, and while we all wait for Apple to jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon, Sony has stepped up to the plate with a very affordably-priced PC that has a nice, sleek look, a widescreen display, built-in webcam, a strong variety of ports and software, and all in a package made of 98% recycled materials.

Here’s a look at the full specs for the VAIO NW laptop, the first in a new line of affordable, Blu-ray-inclusive PCs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card
• 15.5 inch widescreen display, with Sony’s XBRITE-ECO LCD technology
• HDMI output connector, should you want to watch your Blu-ray discs on a big screen TV (meaning you get a PC and a Blu-ray player all in one)
  
• Transluscent, textured touchpad
• “Display Off” button to turn off the screen while the notebook continues to run in the background (surprised Apple didn’t think of this first)
  
• “Instant Internet” button launches directly to the Web without waiting for Windows to load (nice!)
  
• Comes with Sony software: VAIO Movie Story, VAIO MusicBox, and Click to Disc/Editor
• 3 USB ports
• ExpressCard, SD card, and Memory Stick PRO slots
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit pre-installed
  

If the VAIO NW can live up to the hype, that low price is absolutely astounding, and it all comes in a sweet package that will let the casual PC-user do just about anything they want. The VAIO NW comes in three colors: walnut brown, birch white (pictured), and rattan silver. Look for it to start arriving in Sony Style stores and other licensed retailers this month, as well as online retailers.

Image: Copyright 2009 ©Sony Electronics Inc.

Post from: EveryJoe

There’s a catch: you can’t buy it online. You have to leave the house, drive down to your local Walmart (which, let’s face it, is probably less than 300 feet away — right between McDonald’s and Starbucks), and buy it there. Online ordering nets you the player for $168, and I’m guessing a $40 savings is worth a quick trip down to Wally World. Am I right?

Either way, it’s unheard of to find a Blu-Ray player for under $200, and this same player is currently listed at Amazon.com for $360, which puts Walmart’s price almost two-thirds off!

Image: Copyright 2009 ©Magnavox.

Post from: EveryJoe