You think you have a great home cinema, with a large screen? Have look at these ten ultra-geeky home cinema setups at Deputydog and you might feel differently. Talk about obsession with a movie. Not surprisingly, several are setup to look like the “bridge” on Star Trek. The article has links to several sources, so if you want to learn more about the people behind each home cinema setup, you can probably find out there.

Seth Godin wrote a great article about how the “new” digital movie rental model is priced all wrong, and why reducing the price to $0.50 per rental will actually pay off. [Seth Godin]

The company announced that they’d cut licensing deals with all top film studios. What’s more, the movies available at iTunes Movie Rentals will play on a variety of devices including PCs, Macs, iPods, iPhones, and over Apple TV set-top Wi-Fi boxes hooked up to a TV set. Of course, it’d nice if you can use other media devices. (Whether you can or not, I’m not sure yet.)

Movie rental prices start at $2.99 for older titles and $3.99 for new releases. For high-def versions, each costs a dollar more. You have 30 days to start watching but only 24 hours to finish it. However, you can watch multiple times.

Another important announcement that ties in directly with “iMovies” is a new Apple TV device. There are two models: 40Gb (US$229) and 160Gb ($329). The device comes with the Apple Remote, and Apple TV software is free for downloading once you buy. Basically, you hook it up your TV and to a broadband Internet connection, and voila, downloaded movies without a computer.

And who was it that disagreed with me that Apple would be the “next” Google (and Microsoft and IBM)? Other movie rental companies will be crapping themselves as. of. right. now.

[sources: Apple, C|net]

Dusty Cohl, founder of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) died Friday after a long struggle with cancer. The TIFF is often considered one of the most important film festivals in North America and always draws Hollywood’s celebs.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein reached an independent agreement with striking Hollywood writers. But Warner Bros. is about ready to layoff 1,000 workers. I’m not sure I understand why the WGA is striking independent deals instead of an union-wide deal with the AMPTP so that everyone can go back to work.

Not just for movie pirates: Divx video format tries to go legit at CES.

Porn goes legit? FyreTV’s set-top porn video subscription for $10/month.

Epson now offers a 100-inch theater screen. Okay, so many of us don’t want a projector-style setup, but if you have an extra $7K (for 1080p) lying around, and the actual space for that large a screen, it’s tempting for movie buffs.

One hundred inches not enough? Panasonic revealed a 150-inch plasma screen at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas this month, and Culture Garage has a great list of 10 things you can do with a big-ass TV.

Paramount and Universal are both rumored to be going exclusively Blu-ray, following on the heels of Warner Bros. Apparently they’re waiting for their HD-DVD contract to expire at the end of January. [Engadget]

No matter that Blu-ray players and discs cost more, I guess. But my first impression (not yet well researched) is that it is a superior format. Problem is, I’ve historically detested Sony as much as Microsoft. Sony often offers consumer devices with their own proprietary, incompatible data/ storage/ content formats. And when they started buying out “content” companies (i.e., music labels and smaller movie houses) years ago, some of us shuddered. The thought was, we’d end up with a company that both controlled the consumer electronics aspect of home entertainment as well as the content. We’d get to a point where we had to take what they gave us, with no options. That day isn’t here quite yet, but it might not be far away.

On the flipside, there’ll probably another company that comes out with something else in the future. When you consider that flash drives are getting larger in terms of storage (but staying their same small size), there are people who believe we won’t have regular hard drives on our computers in the near future. (Why would you need to, if physical drives cannot perform as well and don’t offer that much more storage?) So movies might just become available on 4 Gb flash drives. Then there’s no issue of whether to go Blu-ray or HD-DVD.

That is, if Sony, Warner Bros., Disney and other big movie makers allow flash drive content. (Ignoring the issue of protecting the content on the flash drive from being copied, of course.)

1. Warner Bros. had possibly been offered US$250M for going HD-DVD exclusive. (Did Sony top that?)
2. Sony makes the Blu-Ray format, and is a rival of Warner Bros. in the entertainment business. At least they were the last time I looked. (Toshiba makes the competing, incompatible HD-DVD format.)
3. The price of HD-DVD players and discs have been lower than for Blu-Ray. What’s more, in 2007, Toshiba sold nearly twice as many units of HD-DVD players than Sony sold of Blu-ray players.
4. Together, Toshiba and Sony only sold about a million high-def players in 2007, so it seems a bit early for Warner Bros. to make such a decision.
5. Most new PCs will support both formats, so their decision will likely lose them customers that want to use a standalone disc player rather than a PC. It’s possible, then, that Warner Bros. will lose an entire segment of the market in older age categories – simply because such consumers are more likely to prefer a standalone unit.

On the other hand, Disney made the same decision, releasing high-def movie titles only on Blu-Ray. While I think that Warner Bros. and Disney (and anyone else) are making a huge mistake, I watch all my movies on my computer screens, so I’m not personally affected.

[Sources: Engadget HD, Deadline Hollywood Daily, Bloomberg, Gizmodo, Mercury News]

Imagine a color display screen so thin that it’s like paper – especially flexible. E-paper displays have been in development for a short few years, but LG.Philips just came out with one of the largest: 14.3 inches on the diagonal. Except it’s only available in Korea, like many new consumer electronics products.

Soon, I hope. Now just add a frame, a box for the guts, increase the size a bit, and we’ll have paper-thin, Wi-Fi-enabled, Internet-connected, TV screens on all the walls of our homes. Maybe not giant screen TVs, but still some nice home theater equipment to look forwards to.

Somewhere, Big Brother is chuckling in anticipation for when we all have giant screens on our walls.

[sources: Engadget, LG.Philips-LCD]

Flatscreen TV manufacturers are reporting that consumers aren’t really buying many sets over 42 inches (diagonal). Is this surprising? Even though prices have dropped considerably, they’re still costlier than regular TV sets. And then there’s the impending changeover to HD broadcasting. And what about space in the home?

There are sets up to 103″ (even a rumored 150″ screen to come), but how many people really have that kind of space in their home? Even if I could find an uninterrupted wall at home that could handle a TV of just 50 inches, I’d have to figure out where to move the furniture that’s already there.

As nice as the Aquos 65-inch TV screens (pictured above) are, and the LG/Philips 52- and 84-inch screens no doubt are, few people can/ are going to move the furniture around to accomodate.

On the other hand, fast forward a few years and if some manufacturer has combined ultra-thin “digital paper” with TV sets and makes them HD-capable, I’d be first to clear some space on a wall, even possible rotate my furniture to suit.

It’s been talked about for years: a sort of Internet for devices, including consumer electronics and appliances, that are self-aware as to their “roles” and can communicate with other devices, as well as be remotely accessed over the Internet. (Such devices are referred to as being SEDs – Service-Enabled Devices.) Imagine being at work and being able to monitor and turn on devices at home.

This ability is functionally useful for devices in all parts of the house, even entertainment. PS Audio is now offering switchable devices accessible remotely over the Internet which can be used for your home entertainment system. Essentially, you can remotely turn power on/off, reboot devices such as TiVo or other home theater equipment. (The PS Audio Powerplay will be available in Spring 2008. The image above is of the Quintet, one of PS Audio’s special power bars.)

This is one step closer to a home that can be monitored and controlled when you’re away. Maybe it won’t be long before you can go on vacation and not worry whether you left the stove on.

[source: Engadget]