For those who don’t own a PlayStation 3, PSP, or PSP go yet, Sony has just announced some news that may make you want to jump onboard. According to Sony’s press release today, PlayStation Network (PSN) has become the first entertainment system to offer HD movies for rent or purchase from all the major Hollywood studios. Titles from 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution will available in U.S. starting today and soon in the U.K., France, Germany, and Spain. FYI, you can also rent, purchase, and organize PSN entertainment content through your Windows PC for playback on your PSP device using Sony’s Media Go application [demo], or access PSN directly on the PSP via Wi-Fi. All movie rentals will available for progressive download to watch instantly or held for 14-days for later viewing (note: once you hit play you have 24 hours to finish viewing the video). MORE »

Wow, this is wild. It appears that Lionsgate, Paramount, and MGM have partnered to create a new premium TV movie channel called Epix. The channel will feature all the latest movies (even ones that aren’t out on DVD yet) from the participating studios. What’s more, subscribers, those lucky enough to get the channel through their TV provider AND have an Internet service plan with the same company, will also be able to tap into the exclusive EpixHD.com portal to stream any the channel’s currently playing movies — commercial free — in their web browser on-demand in 720p. And the best part: Epix will cost subscribers $0, if and when their TV/Internet provider jumps onboard. [via]

In a move that’s obviously a shot across the bow of Hulu, YouTube has announced that visitors can now view “thousands of television episodes and hundreds of movies” instantly through the site from partners like Crackle, CBS, MGM, Lionsgate, and Starz. Visitors can access the TV show and movie content via the site’s newly added Shows menu tab. In addition, YouTube members can subscribe to partner channels to be notified of any newly added content. MORE »

This quick guide (geared more towards Linux users) leverages two free open-source command line tools that will rip the contents of your DVD movie to your hard drive, unencrypt the files in processes, and then creates an ISO disc image that you can use for playback on your PC or digital media adapter (if it supports ISO playback of unencrypted images). The main reason you would want to follow this process is: 1) you want to backup your movies to your PC in minutes instead of hours; 2) you want an unencrypted copy of the movie that can be played back in its original quality (with DVD menus) from your hard drive; 3) you’d like to have an original digital copy that can be easily transcoded to a single video file for use on other devices. MORE »

Starting today, via iTunes 8.1 and above, users can now purchase HD movies for $19.99 or rent them for $4.99 sometime within 30 days of a movie’s initial debut in the iTunes Store. In addition, users can order movies in advance and have them delivered to their computer as soon as they become available. Some sites are also reporting that customers get a “bonus” SD copy of their purchase for use on the iPhone or iPod; however, I’m not seeing that in the company’s press release (attached below). Please leave a note in the comments, if you find that information to be correct. My guess is that the iPhone / iPod compatible version mentioned in the press release is one that the iTunes software will create for you from the original HD file.

UPDATE: iTunes HD Movies Won’t Play on Older Non-HDCP Monitors MORE »

I’m sure there were a few of you out there who were digging the Movieplex DVD movie manager we covered last week for Mac OS X. Well guys… KavaMovies ($35) is another worthy competitor to look at. As of version 1.2, KavaMovies now includes a wizard that lets users import movies from their “Movies folder, iTunes collection, and other programs” and then provides an interface to assign the right movie data to each title discovered. What’s more, users can launch selections for playback directly from the application, as well as, acquire additional movies for their collection via Amazon, iTunes, and even BitTorrent. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what this program can do. For complete details and tour of its feature, click here. MORE »

Sure there are plenty of people out there who have a large collection of ripped DVD movies stored on their computers, but how many of those are leveraging a movie manager like Multiplex that lets them search their library, attaches movie metadata, provides high-resolution cover art, and wraps it in a mac-inspired management interface? I’d say probably not many – and that’s a shame. Because for $35 ($25 if you buy v1.0 now) you can get the features mentioned above, plus you can look forward to getting full-screen, stadium, cover-flow, and grid views, as well as, LAN based movie streaming functionality compatible with Boxee, PS3, and other UPnP devices / platforms in coming point release updates (all of which are free upgrades). [via]

Aside: Need help with DVD ripping on the Mac? Macworld has put together an excellent resource guide you can check out here.

Now another reason to consider picking up a VUDU box for consuming HD content. VUDU today announced that they will begin selling HD and HDX movies to own. The initial selection consists of 50 films from “top independent studios” with the promise of adding additional releases on the same day and date as the DVD release. Movies will be priced at $13.99 and $23.99 and can be stored on a user’s set-top box or in the company’s online vault, at no charge, to leave space available for future purchases and rentals. No doubt major Hollywood studios (who already are partnered with VUDU for rentals) will be keeping tabs on how well the new service works out. MORE »

In an effort to provide Niveus Media Server and Niveus Storage Server – Cargo Edition owners a higher end movie experience, Niveus Media has integrated the ability for people to download HD quality feature films from HDGIANTS’ movie collection directly through the company’s Niveus Movie Library application. The Niveus Movie Library, for those unfamiliar, is a proprietary movie management application that aggregates and displays stored — and now… available — movies along with high-res cover art and detailed metadata. According to the press release attached below, all movies downloaded from the service will be accessible from the system they were downloaded to as well as Media Center Extenders and other network PCs. Unfortunately, there’s no word on pricing for each HD title, but a preview of the selection can be viewed here.

CORRECTION: Just got an email from Niveus stating the following: “The movies are not downloaded via Niveus Movie Library (or any medium for that matter). The customer orders the movie package from the dealer and HDGIANTS sends the dealer a hard drive with the content. The dealer then loads the content onto the customer’s server and it is integrated into the Movie Library.” Sorry, folks. The press release gave me a different impression after reading it. However, now that we’re getting clarification on how the process works… too bad it’s not the case as previously thought (in regards to downloading HD movies directly through the Niveus Movie Library application).

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Dell is bringing the big screen to the PC screen, making it easy for users to build a personal digital library of their favorite Hollywood blockbusters.

Dell and Sonic Solutions have teamed to make downloading and recording DVD movies easy with the first PC-based Qflix™ drives. Using an intuitive application, Roxio® Venue, movie collectors can search and select from a variety of major Hollywood hits available from CinemaNow, download them on their PC, transfer them to multiple digital devices in their home, and then create a permanent and portable DVD-format copy on Qflix DVD media. MORE »