But, what’s that you say…? Isn’t Sony shooting itself in the foot by offering Netflix users the opportunity to bypass the PlayStation Store’s selection of movies and television shows to access to their Netflix accounts instead?  After all, Netflix users, for the second-lowest possible subscription fee (currently $8.99 DVD/$10.99 Blu-ray), have access to Netflix’s unlimited library of Instant Watch streaming media at no additional charge.

Soon, the DVD rental behemoth will be offering a much wider library of Instant Watch titles, including many in high-definition.  With this in mind, it remains unclear how Sony will continue to corral PlayStation users into visiting their own proprietary shopping service for movie and TV content.  Why buy HD/SD content when you can rent it, and why rent from Sony (priced much higher than that of the Netflix/Redbox pricing models) when you can watch VOD-styled content directly via your existing Netflix account.  Sony’s probably quite thankful that Netflix doesn’t offer games.

Sony is obviously making a play for the 2009 holiday season and the future of its entertainment device by allowing Netflix to stream to the Playstation3.  After all, LG and Samsung had already set up such a deal and moved beyond Netflix with the addition of Amazon-On-Demand, Pandora and other streaming or content download services for their current Blu-ray player models.  Users of these players get VOD-styled cinema and television content via their regular Amazon or Netflix subscription or by purchasing content à la carte without setting up yet another additional account/virtual wallet.

Sony’s attempt to keep everything proprietary doesn’t seem to be working out (Apple still does this best), and it was time for them to keep up with consumer demand for streaming media or end up losing potential Blu-ray player customers who might also be potential gamers.

The L.A. Times this morning reports that Best Buy will be going the pure digital route, and offer content direct to the consumer with possible music and video-on-demand services.  As the market for DVD’s continues to shrink, it seems the new Blu-ray format doesn’t even seem to be getting a fighting chance amid consumer interest in getting content via broadband rather than through physical discs. 

Will others follow suit?  Though Wal*Mart once attempted to sell digital media without a tangible product to purchase (without much to show for it), it remains to be seen if this is yet another setback for Blu-ray as a growth format for distribution by the major retailers.

With price wars this holiday season, and the slashing of prices on new DVD titles, it seems that giant retailers–  the last remaining bunch after mergers and recessions thinned the ranks– are poised to do whatever they can to make a buck, even if it means giving into the still risky and not-quite-profitable new frontier of purely digital content delivered by invisible gremlins to an increasingly fickle public whose tastes shift with the winds.

Apple, Amazon, Netflix and other companies already moving forward in the new frontier of digital delivery must be smiling widely to know they’re already mining pure gold, have branded well for general consumer awareness, and are increasingly poised to corner the market for digital content provided on-demand.

The Canon VIXIA HF S100 is a high-definition Flash memory camcorder with 10x optical zoom. The camera records at both 24p Cinema Mode and 30p Progressive Mode at 1920 x 1080 full HD. It features the SuperRange Optical Image Stabilizer and 8.0-megapixel digital camera functions. List price of the S100 is $1,099. You just have to add-it-to-cart to see the price with $200 discount.

The Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash memory camcorder has a 15x optical zoom with SuperRange Image Stabilizer. The camera records 1920 x 1080 full HD at either 24p Cinema Mode or 30p Progressive Mode. Built-in digital camera uses a smaller 3.3 megapixel CCD. List price is $749, but adding-it-to-cart will instantly discount it down to just over $500.

The Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD (pictured above) records to a 120GB hard drive for up to 45 hours of high-definition video. The Canon 12x optical zoom lens is enhanced by SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization. The HG21 records in both 24p Cinematic and 30 Progressive modes at 24Mbps, the highest bit rate for AVCHD. This camera normally retails for $1,299 but is currently offered at $699 after $600 instant rebate. Check out full specs for this camera.

“The “Clone Wars” goes back to the original Star Wars film when Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker that he was once a Jedi knight the same as your father and that they fought together in the Clone Wars. Since that moment fans have been obsessed with what the clone wars were. This new TV series takes place immediately after the events of Star Wars-Episode II: Attack of the Clones. The series follows Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker and introduces us to some new characters such as Ahsoka Tano a girl Jedi knight as well as characters we already know.”

Season One includes the following episodes:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Ambush (2008)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Rookies (2008)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lair of Grievous (2008)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Cloak of Darkness (2008)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Bombad Jedi (2008)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Duel of the Droids (2008)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Downfall of a Droid (2008)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Destroy Malevolence (2008)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Shadow of Malevolence (2008)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Rising Malevolence (2008)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Dooku Captured (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Jedi Crash (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Defenders of Peace (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Gungan General (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Trespass (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Hidden Enemy (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Storm Over Ryloth (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Hostage Crisis (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Innocents of Ryloth (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Liberty on Ryloth (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Mystery of a Thousand Moons (2009)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Blue Shadow Virus (2009)

Disc features include:

• 22 episodes, including seven director’s cut episodes
• 22 behind-the-scenes featurettes including director and crew interviews
• Exclusive 64-page production journal with original sketches and artist notes
• Sneak peek of season 2
• Blu-ray exclusive: The Jedi Temple Archives: an extensive database of early test animation, concept art, and 3-D turnarounds.

Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One | Reg: $59.99 | Sale: $32.99 | Buy Now

Big-box store Best Buy won’t have any midnight competition now that Circuit City has dissolved. The store will open at midnight and offer a $10 gift card for Reward Zone Gamer’s Club members, as well as other giveaways depending on location. Here is a link to find participating stores.

Walmart is getting in on the fun. The store is giving the first 20 customers at participating 24-hour locations Modern Warfare 2 game covers autographed by the Infinity Ward developers. To find a participating store near you enter your zip code on this page. Walmart is offering a $20 gift card to those who purchase the game online. Not a bad deal considering you’ll basically get Modern Warfare 2 for $39.

GameStop will also be opening stores for midnight sales. Here is a list of their participating locations. It doesn’t appear they are offering any in-store incentives. However, they have been running their “Surprize Attack Sweepstakes” for customers who pre-order the game.

If you want to avoid the mad rush to the stores you can always pre-order Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Amazon.

The L.A. Times reports that Walmart and Target will be creating a bargain basement for some of the newest and most popular DVD titles coming to market this holiday season.  You won’t find the deal in stores, as it’s strictly online… for now. 

Depending on how sales go online this gift-giving time of year, one would expect the retail giants to then make a push on the studios to further discount their titles in-store… and thus, standard-definition DVD continues its downward spiral to the cut-out bins where VHS and Beta once resided at your local Circuit City (ah, nostalgia).

Blu-ray, thus far, is left out of the equation; however, given the high-definition format’s continued sluggish growth as the heir apparent to standard-def DVD, you could make the reasonable assumption that price cuts might also start popping up on newer, recently released titles for Blu-ray after the holidays.

Don’t buy a lunch with that info… just keep it handy ’til late January rolls around, the recession continues and things get reaaaaaal sluggish for major retailers.  As the Time’s Ben Fritz says… you can thank Redbox’s (and Netflix’s) revenue growth for all the price slashing.

Angels & Demons

Partnerships with Warner Bros/New Line, Fox, Universal, Summit, Lionsgate, Sony, Paramount and MGM allow Comcast to offer the movies on the same day DVDs are released. Comcast says its biggest on-demand opening so far was for the movie Twilight, and that 80 percent of their top 10 new releases were available on VOD day-and-date with the DVD.

Comcast’s same day as DVD releases this month include:

I Love You, Beth Cooper (11/3)
The Taking of Pelham 123 (11/3)
Aliens in the Attic (11/3)
The Ugly Truth (11/10)
My Sister’s Keeper (11/17)
Bruno (11/17)
Angels & Demons (11/24)
Funny People (11/24)
Four Christmases (11/24)
Shorts (11/24).

Other blockbusters movies this month include Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

Comcast’s video-on-demand library consists of 17,000 titles, with 2,600 offered in high-definition. New releases can be found on Channel 1 under “Movies & Events” followed by “Just In.”

CBS
8:00 PM Survivor: Samoa New Episode
9:00 PM CSI: Crime Scene Investigation New
10:00 PM The Mentalist New
11:00 PM Local News
11:35 PM Late Show with David Letterman New
12:37 AM The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson New

NBC
8:00 PM Community New Episode
8:30 PM Parks And Recreation New Episode
9:00 PM The Office New Episode
9:30 PM 30 Rock SEASON 4 New Episode
10:00 PM The Jay Leno Show New
11:00 PM Local News
11:34 PM The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien New
12:37 AM Late Night With Jimmy Fallon New

ABC
8:00 Flash Forward New Episode
9:00 Grey’s Anatomy New Episode
10:00 PM Private Practice New Episode
11:00 PM Local News
12:06 AM Jimmy Kimmel Live New

FOX
8:00 PM Bones New Episode
9:00 PM Fringe New Episode

FiOS TV delivers over 600 digital channels, 18,000 VOD titles per month (70 percent of which are free), and up to 50 Mbps download speed.

FiOS will first be offered to 3,100 residencies in Allentown, and is currently available in close to 300 communities in southeastern, south-central and western Pennsylvania.

To get the HDNet Movies titles on-demand, you must subscribe to DirecTV’s HD Extra Pack. To get the HDNet programming, you simply need to be subscribed to HD service from DirecTV.

HDNet runs a range of programming from original content like “Dan Rather Reports” to “Get Out” and “Inside MMA.” HDNet Movies features a wide range of titles from “Lost in Translation” to “The Illusionist” and Kevin Costner’s “Waterworld.” Movie titles are refreshed every month.

HDNet has been on DirecTV’s satellite network since 2001. Demand content from DirecTV requires a DIRECTV Plus HD DVR (HR20 or HR21 models).

Although it will be quite a long time before the technology hits any type of market saturation, In-Stat says there will be enough interest for companies to strategize long-term plans to develop Ultra Hi-Def as a marketable product.

The In-Stat research found the following (summarized):

• Early UHDTVs will begin being made available to consumers between 2017 and 2022.
• UHDTVs in Europe will approach 5% of households by 2021 (and over 28.2% by 2025)
• Japan is expected to be one of the early adopter countries of UHDTV

What is UHD? It’s an advanced video/audio technology that produces 16x the amount of current HD resolution. If you think your 1080p Blu-ray Disc is sharp, try multiplying that resolution by four or sixteen, and adding 4x the amount of audio channels.

Ultra HDTV will increase video resolution to either 3840×2160 lines (referred to as 4k) or 7680 x 4320 (8K resolution) — 16x what Blu-ray currently offers.

Now imagine a sound system utilizing 22.2 channels — not only are you watching high-definition, you are immersed in it.

Dr. Masaru Kanazawa of NHK (Japan’s broadcasting organization) is one of the original designers of HD. A few years back Dr. Kanazawa spoke of the emerging Ultra HD technology and was quoted as saying, “When we designed HDTV 40 years ago our target was to make people feel like they were watching the real object. Our target now is to make people feel that they are in the scene.”

The VMP70 can be used to transfer content from a USB or external hard drive to your HDTV. Service on the player includes HDMI, Component (CVBS), Composite (YPbPr), and SPDIF inputs 2xUSB 2.0. A remote is also included.

The size of the player is 8.03″ x 1.57″ x 5.5″ (Width x Height x Depth), while weight of the VMP70 is a mere .925 lbs.

Viewsonic is running a promotion on the VMP70 for the holidays, setting the introductory price at $98.99.

Features of the Viewsonic VMP70 include:

• Sharing music, video and photos that are stored on your computer via your HDTV
• Connect to either HDMI, component or the composite port in full stereo, supporting DTS, Dolby Digital and SP/DIF interfaces
• Offers the most complete video and audio formats including MPEG1/2/4, DivX/Xvid, H.264, VC1, RM/RMVB, WMA, MP3, DTS, Dolby digital, OGG, AAC and many more
• Access multiple content sources simultaneously and preview digital collections easier

More information and full specs can be found at http://www.viewsonic.com/products/vmp70.htm.

Facing the Giants is a television drama which follows a Christian high school football coach who relies on faith to battle fear and failure. Sound a little like Friday Night Lights? The show will also feature music by artists frequently seen on Gospel Music Channel like Casting Crowns, Third Day and Bebo Norman.

The concert following at 10:30 p.m. will feature Switchfoot, an alternative rock band part of GMC’s “Revealed” music series.

We don’t have confirmation of what channels to find the HD versions of Gospel Music Channel, however the standard-definition channel can be found on DirecTV 338 and Verizon FiOS 224.

Star Wars/animation addicts can get the entire first season of Star Wars The Clone Wars TV series on Blu-ray Disc. Dolph Lundgren fans, (I know there are many of you), will be happy to hear there are two Dolph films ready to ship on Blu-ray — Direct Action and Command Performance. And, world adventurer Richard Bangs will get several travel/documentary releases that take you to Switzerland, Morroco, New Zealand, India, Norway and Egypt.

But that’s just the beginning. Here’s the complete list of Blu-ray Discs shipping tomorrow:

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Two-Disc Edition + Digital Copy) – Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Dennis Quaid

North by Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Book) – Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, and Martin Landau

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 – Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Luis Guzmán, and Victor Gojcaj

Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One (TV Series) – Dee Bradley Baker, Corey Burton, and Terrence ‘T.C.’ Carson

It’s a Wonderful Life – James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Thomas Mitchell (Blu-ray – 2009)

Forrest Gump – Tom Hanks, Robin Wright Penn, Gary Sinise, and Sally Field (Blu-ray – 2009)

Forrest Gump (Chocolate Box Giftset) – Tom Hanks, Robin Wright Penn, Gary Sinise, and Sally Field

Wings of Desire (The Criterion Collection) – Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, and Curt Bois

Transformers/Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) – Shia Labeouf, Josh Duhamel, and Michael Bay

A Christmas Carol - Alastair Sim, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, and Mervyn Johns

Love Actually – Sheila Allen, Rowan Atkinson, Alan Barnes, and Brian Bovell (Blu-ray – 2009)

Rocky: The Undisputed Collection – Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess Meredith

Howards End (The Criterion Collection) – Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Anthony Hopkins, and Vanessa Redgrave

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (Ultimate Collector’s Edition) – Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis, and Johnny Galecki

Aliens in the Attic (+ Digital Copy) – Kevin Nealon, Doris Roberts, Henry Young, and Tim Meadows

Say Anything – John Cusack, Ione Skye, Lois Chiles, and Gloria Cromwell

I Love You, Beth Cooper – Alan Ruck, Cynthia Stevenson, Hayden Panettiere, and Devin Drewitz

Food, Inc. – Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Gary Hirschberg, and Joe Salatin

Witchblade: The Complete Series - Caitlin Glass, et al.

Two Girls and a Guy - Angel David, Robert Downey Jr., Heather Graham, and Natasha Gregson Wagner

IMAX: Mummies - Secrets of the Pharaohs

The Answer Man - Jeff Daniels, Lauren Graham, Kat Dennings, and Lou Taylor Pucci

Girls Gone Wild: Girls Who Love Girls

James Bond 10-Pack – (Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, The World is Enough, Die Another Day, Quantum of Solace)

The Botany of Desire - Narrated by Frances McDormand

Guys Gone Wild: Best of Guys Gone Wild 2009

Earth 2100

Art: 21: Art in the Twenty-First Century – Season 5 – William Kentridge, Doris Salcedo, Carrie Mae Weems, and Cao Fei

Wild Asia: Kingdoms of the Coast – Narrated

Command Performance – Dolph Lundgren, Melissa Smith, Hristo Shopov, and Dave Legeno

Direct Action – Dolph Lundgren, Polly Shannon, Donald Burda, and Rothaford Gray

Richard Bangs’ Adventures with Purpose: Switzerland, Morroco, New Zealand, India, Egypt, Norway – (Offered as separate discs)

Equator: Challenge of Change – Narrated

The Narrows – Kevin Zegers, Vincent D’Onofrio, Sophia Bush, and Eddie Cahill

Screen Dreams: Living Fireplace, Vol. 2

Check out all of this week’s Blu-ray releases on Amazon.com.

The footage, consisting of local news reports, audio, and home movies, was first kept by local news stations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. It was then moved to the The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, a museum dedicated to John F. Kennedy in Dallas, TX.

National Geographic Channel has digitally converted the footage, and compiled it into a detailed time-line. The documentary focuses on several aspects of the event, including the limited security at the parade, witnesses to the event, investigators, photographers, and local newsmen covering the assassination. The documentary will also cover the subsequent assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby.

“While some of this footage has been seen before, I have never seen it put together in such a riveting, compelling manner…” commented Gary Mack, curator of The Sixth Floor Museum. “Watching this film, you feel like you are actually transported back to that fateful day, in real time, and witnessing history live.”

The Extreme 50 package provides up to 50 Mbps downstream speed and 10 Mbps of upstream speed for $99.95 a month. The Ultra package offers up to 22 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 5 Mbps of upstream speed for $62.95 a month.

Comcast says Extreme 50 customers will be able to download a high-definition (HD) movie (Approx. 6 GB) in about 16 minutes. A standard-definition movie (Approx. 2 GB) will download in about five minutes.

Comcast will also increase internet speeds for existing customers with the Performance tier service, who will now get doubled downstream and upstream speeds at 12 Mbps and 2 Mbps, respectively.

Comcast’s new services are currently being added to residential homes in these areas: Acampo, Altaville, Angels Camp, Armona, Arnold, Atwater, Avery, Ballard, Big Trees, Buellton, Camp Connell, Chowchilla, Clovis, Corcoran, Crows Landing, Del Rey, Dinuba, Dorrington, Dos Palos, Douglas Flat, Firebaugh, Fowler, French Camp, Fresno, Friant, Goshen, Grangeville, Grayson, Gustine, Hanford, Hardwick, Hathaway Pines, Jackson, Kerman, Kingsburg, Lathrop, Laton, Lemoore, Lemoore NAS, Linden, Lockeford, Lodi, Lompoc, Los Banos, Los Olivos, Madera, Manteca, Mendota, Merced, Modesto, Mokelumne Hill, Mountain House, Murphys, Newman, Oakdale, Orcutt, Parlier, Patterson, Pinedale, Planada, Plymouth, Rancho Calaveras, Reedley, Riverdale, San Andreas, San Joaquin, Santa Maria, Santa Ynez, Sanger, Selma, Solvang, Stockton, Stratford, Sutter Creek, Tracy, Tulare, Vallecito, Valley Springs, Victor, Visalia, Wallace, Winton, and Woodbridge. From Kings and Tulare counties to the Amador foothills

The Smashing Pumpkins will debut on HDNet’s Concert Series this Sunday, Nov. 1 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The concert, “Smashing Pumpkins–The Fillmore Residency,” features seven new tracks as well as older hits like “Blue Skies Bring Tears,” “Super Christ,” “Starla,” “No Surrender,” “The Rose March,” and “Zeitgeist.”

In 2007, half of the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, decided not to do a national tour but to schedule “art” residencies in both Asheville, NC and San Francisco, CA. “The Fillmore Residency” was filmed over five sold-out shows at the famous Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco.

This is a premiere HDNet broadcast. The network says some of the newer tracks are not available anywhere else.

Other premieres on HDNet next month include “Jesse McCartney: Live from the House of Blues Sunset” on Nov. 8, and “LIZA’S AT THE PALACE….” on Nov. 15.

The new season introduces a bunch of new characters, as well as bringing back favorites like indie-rocker Devin (Stephanie Hunt). Things aren’t exactly the same at East Dillon, where Coach Taylor (played by Kyle Chandler) is faced with the challenge of coaching a new team of players who aren’t exactly model students.

As expected, Friday Night Lights looked fantastic in high-definition and sounded great with surround sound.

Friday Night Lights Season 4 Episode 1 “East Of Dillon” was produced/directed by Peter Berg and written by Jason Katims. Like last year, Season 4 will consist of 13 episodes. The show is scheduled to run for two more years, as DirecTV and NBC renewed a partnership deal through the 2010/2011 season.

Friday Night Lights is normally shown on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.  A rebroadcast of the first episode in high-definition is scheduled for tonight, Oct. 30 at 9:00 on T101HD. Additional rebroadcasts will follow — you can view the full schedule here.

The study in 2007 showed only 26-percent of those interviewed said they watched HD programming everyday. This year, that number jumped to 43-percent.

The research also confirmed other behaviors with regards to high-definition viewing. For one, women are less likely to search for HD programming when turning on their television. Only 19-percent said they did compared to 48-percent of men.

When choosing HD over standard-definition men tend to care more than women — 58-percent compared to 41-percent. And, men also seem to notice more if advertisements are in HD or not — 42-percent compared to 20-percent.

Here is a snippet of the study directly from Knowledge Networks:

iTunes Extras and iTunes LP can now be viewed in fullscreen via Apple TV. iTunes Extras include such content as deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries. iTunes LP adds a more viewable content for full-length albums purchased from iTunes which may include live concert videos, artwork and other content.

Through the iTunes interface, Apple TV users can browse 8,000 movies (including 2,000 in 720p HD), and 50,000 TV shows. For audio, there is a catalog of 11 million songs and 10,000 music videos.

The software update also allows up to 12 generated Genius Mixes playable through your home theater system. For your photos, Apple TV now supports iPhoto Events and iPhoto Faces.

It should be noted the new features are only available if you are using iTunes 9 and Apple TV with the latest 3.0 software.

Although there is a link on the Apple TV webpage directing to the 3.0 update, it seems they haven’t updated the specs page yet.