The Netflix instant streaming experience received a major boost through the just announced deal reached between Netflix and EPIX. The “multi-year deal” will enable Netflix customers to instantly stream titles in the EPIX library, granting subscribers access to movies from Lionsgate, MGM, and Paramount. EPIX will permit Netflix to stream movies 90 days after they more »

Bing has just become much more media-focused. The news comes by way of a Microsoft press release which is detailing all of the new additions that you can expect to find in the Bing search decision engine. Basically, moving forward those who visit bing.com/entertainment will be able to find and in many cases listen and more »

I have spent quite a bit of time browsing around the HP booth here at CES, and they have a very nice selection of notebooks of all sizes. Another one of the hot looking items was the HP Pavilion DV2 entertainment notebook PC. The DV2 is thin and light, however it does have what I more »

In much the same way Blu-ray hopes to eventually ‘kill’ the inferior DVD, DVD has finally buried VHS. “Old news!” I hear you cry, and yes, I appreciate that the VHS has been facing this impending doom for a while, but the day has finally come where we can officially say that it is a thing of the past.

Up until now JVC, the developers of VHS, have been the only major company to still make standalone VHS players, with companies like Panasonic blaming the obviously empty market for them stopping production. The last film to be released on VHS, “A History of Violence,” was released in 2006, completing 30 years of VHS dominated home visual entertainment, which started with “The Young Teacher.” Continued after the break.

Companies are finally realizing that with the economy the way it is that if they want people to keep renting their movies, they need to make them less expensive. Enter the DVD kiosk.

DVDPlay, the country’s first automated and remotely managed DVD rental kiosk company, recently noticed a need to change their pricing to make it even easier and cost efficient for the customers. Starting October 1st, all of their DVD rentals will be only $1, and this price will extend to some of their Blu-Ray titles as well for a limited time.

Plenty more on the DVD kiosk business after the jump.

Finishing up it’s two-day convention in San Fransisco yesterday, YPulse National Mashup is a yearly event that brings together youth media and marketing professionals from brands, agencies, and the non-profit sector to share practices for reaching today’s totally wired youth. And this year’s findings were a rather obvious one for anyone walking around any school, mall, or other teen gathering place. Teens are becoming more and more mobile and cell companies, advertisers, and other media companies plan to be sure to capitalize on this.

And capitalize on it they will indeed be able to. It’s estimated that teens wield a whopping $200 billion annually in discretionary spending. Yep, you read that correctly, and it wasn’t a typo. Two-hundred BILLION. Today’s kids must be charging much more for lawn-mowing services than back in the day, or else get one heck of an allowance.

If certain video and computer games are proving to have better stories, characters and production design than a lot of movies and TV shows, then the Sci Fi Channel’s latest announcement subscribes to the Don Corleone theory of business: keep your friends close but your enemies closer. The channel is joining with gaming company Trion to develop something that’s both a TV show and an online game. The as-yet-untitled show is expected to premiere on your TV and PC in 2010.

There have been many movie and TV-based games but the consensus among gamers is that most of them have sucked. And movies or TV shows based on video games have generally suffered the same fate (see Boll, Uwe.) But Sci Fi Channel officials are quoted as saying that their writers will work side-by-side with gaming designers from day one in the hopes of achieving what many industry observers have hoped would be the next chapter in interactive entertainment. As Sam Howe, Sci Fi Channel president, told the L.A. Times:

The case of the missing NBC video on Windows Vista Media Center PC’s in DVR mode reminds me of Bill Murray’s classic line from “Ghostbusters.” When tempted by a demonically-possessed Sigourney Weaver, Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman says, “I make it a rule never to get involved with possessed people.”

After she nuzzles his neck, he sheepishly adds, “Actually it’s more of a guideline than a rule.”

CNET News reported that Vista PC’s won’t record certain NBC prime-time programming. (We’ll ignore the larger question for now as to why someone would actually want to record “American Gladiators.”) When its reporter questioned Microsoft, the software company released a statement saying that it is honoring broadcast flags – technology that disables attempts at recording – as set forth by Federal Communications Commission “rules.” But those “rules” have no force of law behind them. The networks wanted them a couple of years ago, but federal courts shot them down. Optional installation? Sure. But there’s nothing mandated by governmental agency or Congress.

It’s a different kind of web that has snared Indiana Jones in his latest cinematic adventure. In his first three films, he was always lurking through some spiderweb-draped cavern of one sort or another, and he managed to survive each one. But now (cue John Williams music)…will he live through the danger that is the World Wide Web?

Its US premiere is May 22nd, but “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is screened at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend and the high-speed lines will be on fire as soon as the last credit rolls on the screen at the Salle Lumiere Palais. It’s the latest example of media conglomerates vs. the 21st century as they find themselves once again at the mercy of anonymous bloggers and web-based critics. Already there have been several traditional-media stories about negative early reviews of “Indy 4″ at Harry Knowles’ Ain’t It Cool News website – the pioneer in Internet influence on the media – and how those reviews may have influenced Paramount’s Cannes plans for its Steven Spielberg blockbuster.

May 5 is a very crucial date for AT&T, as the company will begin offering their mobile TV service to 58 markets in the US, which include Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, DC and more. To prepare for this new service, AT&T is also introducing two mobile handsets, the LG Vu and Samsung Access specifically to serve the purpose of providing AT&T customers a great experience when watching TV programs on their mobile phones. This service will be made available by AT&T in partnership with Qualcomm’s Media FLO subsidiary.

For its opening salvo on live mobile TV programming, AT&T will be offering TV programs produced by leading US news and entertainment brands including CBS Mobile, ESPN Mobile, Fox Mobile, NBC 2Go and more. What’s so interesting about these TV programs is that most of them are either news or entertainment programs.This was a result of an AT&T study which showed that these two genres are the most popular type of programs that users would want to watch on their mobile phones.