NETFLIX GUIDE TO AN OSCAR MOVIE NIGHT IN...

With the nominations announced and the Oscar season well and truly upon us, we begin the countdown to the excitement for the biggest awards show of the awards season. Why not get yourself familiar with great films from the list of nominees and previous winners, all available on Netflix.
 
Netflix has tens of thousands of hours to click and watch instantly – including loads of great Oscar winning and nominated movies and a huge list of great movies, previously starred in by this years Oscar Nominees.
 
If you enjoyed Clooney’s best actor nominated performance in Descendants,  why not checkout Good Night and Good Luck or O Brother Where Art Thou?? Enjoy Meryl Streep’s performance as The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, instantly watch her in the The Hours.
 If you were reminded of Woody Allen’s directorial talents in his return to form Midnight in Paris, why not check out his vintage Oscar winning gem, Annie Hall.
And if there is nothing that floats your boat in the current batch of nominees, why not delve into the past and catch up on some of the finest Oscar winning films ever committed to celluloid. Netflix has 45 previous Oscar winners available to watch instantly, all for the one low monthly price of £5.99. Anyone can begin a free, one-month trial of Netflix by simply visiting Netflix.com 
 
Here are 10 must see previous winners that you can watch instantly on Netflix:
 
Dead Poets Society
Fargo
In the Heat of the Night 
Lost in Translation
Midnight Cowboy
Some Like It Hot
There Will Be Blood
The Usual Suspects
The Aviator
Saving Private Ryan
 

DISNEY CINEMAGIC PROUDLY ANNOUNCES THE BRITISH TELEVISION PREMIERE OF CARS 2

                                                   
 

 

- PREMIERES ON SUNDAY, 25TH MARCH AT 4:00PM ON DISNEY CINEMAGIC -

Take your seats as one of Disney’s favourite action-packed automotive animations zooms to screens nationwide this March with the UK premiere of Cars 2 on Friday, 25th March at 4:00pm on Disney Cinemagic. Directed by John Lasseter, and featuring acting legend Sir Michael Caine in his Pixar debut as top British spy Finn McMissile, Disney Pixar Cars 2 is the follow up to the 2006 Golden Globe award winning movie Cars.
In this fast paced adventure, star race car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and the incomparable tow truck Mater take their friendship to exciting new places when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car. Along the way Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage. Torn between assisting Lightning McQueen in the high-profile race and towing the line in a top-secret spy mission, Mater’s action-packed journey leads him on an explosive chase through the streets of Japan and Europe, trailed by his friends and watched by the whole world. 
The film features an all-star vocal cast including Owen Wilson, Sir Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, John Turturro, Jason Isaacs, Eddie Izzard, and Vanessa Redgrave as well as real-life Formula 1 racing champion Lewis Hamilton and NASCAR racer Jeff Gordon who add a touch of authenticity with their cameos in the film.
Disney also offers fans the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of Cars 2 with the release of its Cars Augmented Reality Book.  Augmented Reality is an interactive experience where virtual components are dynamically merged into a live video stream in real time. Fans can control Lightening McQueen as he zooms around the track, help Mater transform into undercover gear complete with high-tech gadgets and then watch both Lightning and Mater fly through the sky!

- Cars 2 premieres on Disney Cinemagic UK on Sunday, 15th March, at 4:00pm -

Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension is available on DVD from March 3rd

Phineas and Ferb are ready to conquer boredom once and for all in Disney’s first ever animated TV movie Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension  which is released on DVD from March 3rd. 

In this great new film, Phineas and Ferb discover something their fans have known for a long time – that their beloved pet platypus Perry is really a secret agent, who battles the forces of evil every day. The boys team up with Perry for a grand adventure in a parallel universe, where they must overcome an even more evil version of their arch protagonist Dr Doofenshmirtz.

The voice cast includes  many top names, such as  British actor Thomas Sangster (Nanny McPhee, Love Actually)  as Ferb,  Vincent Martella (Everybody Hates Chris) as Phineas,  Ashley Tisdale ( star of the High School Musical movies) as the boys’ persecuted sister Candace and Dee Baker (American Dad) as Perry the Platypus.

100% growth in online video views for London Fashion Week AW12

46 British Fashion Designers live stream on over 100 sites in 200 countries

As London takes centre stage globally in 2012, an unprecedented worldwide audience tuned in online to watch the best of Britain’s established and emerging designers showcase their AW12 collections at London Fashion Week. This season's on-schedule shows were live streamed by Rightster (www.rightster.com), the British Fashion Council's official video distribution partner. Rightster's cloud-based software centralised, simplified and automated the distribution of all live and on demand video content from the week for the BFC and its partners. Rightster also facilitated delivery of live streams onto designer and publisher Facebook communities for the first time, including the RoksandaIlincic and Vogue facebook pages, as well as managing the BFC’s official YouTube channel.

Caroline Rush, CEO of The British Fashion Council commented:

“We launched the British Fashion Council's digital strategy in 2009 to harness technology and creativity to promote British designers to a global audience. Each season look for new ways to unite fashion and digital innovation. WithLondon playing such a key role on the world stage this year, we are pleased to meet the demand from a worldwide audience for London Fashion Week content, supported by Rightster’s innovative technology and live video expertise. “

More designer shows than ever before (46) were live streamed by Rightster, as designers ramped up their digital activity to engage a broad consumer and trade audience online, Rightster’s system was used to seamlessly distribute the official content to over 100 broadcast, online and mobile publishers worldwide, with sites such as Elle, Grazia and the Telegraph carrying live and on demand video from the event. This resulted in a 100% increase in the number of viewers year on year, indicating the growing demand from an online audience for live fashion events. 

London Fashion Week is a global event and Rightster delivered live streams to viewers in over 200 countries worldwide, including places as far afield as India, Iran and Israel. The most popular countries measured by number of views were the UK, US, Canada and Germany.  

This season also saw a marked increase in content delivery across multiple platforms and devices, as fashion publishers and designers look to reach consumers wherever they may be. As well as distribution across publisher sites, Facebook and YouTube, Rightster also delivered LFW video onto tablet devices for the first time, via the Times’siPad app.

In addition to distribution, Rightster’s system enabled revenue generation around LFW content, integrating best in class advertising solutions, media agencies and brands to ensure global monetisation of the live and on demand video content. To accommodate often fashionably late catwalk shows, Rightster has developed an innovative feature to enable editorial control over when ads are triggered in a live stream, ensuring that fashion loving audiences never miss a look.

Following the success of London Fashion Week, Rightster in partnership with InDigital Media, the BFC's official production company, will provide a similar digital solution to other major fashion weeks throughout the year.  Charlie Muirhead, Rightster CEO commented: 

"The BFC and London Fashion Week are leading the global fashion industry in using digital to give designers an effective way to increase their exposure. We are now in discussions with a number of other cities to install a similar system for their fashion weeks"

This season demonstrated that live video is now firmly established as an integral part of the London Fashion Week event, bringing the very best of British design talent to a mass online audience around the world.

Socket to flaky WiFi with Power Ethernet Sockets

Power Ethernet Sockets, from British technology start-up Power Ethernet, are the first product to create a high-speed, reliable computer network that’s built into the electrical sockets.  PE Sockets enable users to effortlessly build a rock-solid network capable of coping with the increased demands of superfast broadband, modern multiplayer games and new streaming services without the significant cost of running network cable between rooms and floors.

 

Based on the HomePlug AV standard for Powerline networking, the PE Socket provides 4 Ethernet network ports and a filtered power socket in a device that replaces a standard double power socket in a wall.  It uses a building’s existing electrical wiring and provides a far more reliable and robust solution than traditional plug-in adaptors, which are easily knocked out and damaged.  Its design incorporates over 100 additional electronic components in order to improve both the network quality and the durability of the unit.

 

Installing two or more PE Sockets creates a discrete yet highly capable network, perfect for networking laptops and desktops to Network Attached Storage and home server devices, movie streamers, games consoles and connected TVs.  Connecting any of the PE Sockets to a broadband service enables the sharing of Internet connectivity and digital content among all the devices plugged into them.

 

Power Ethernet managing director, Daniel Rogoff said: “With the UK’s Internet providers now offering superfast broadband speeds, WiFi has actually become a bottleneck in many homes.  With everyone in the home expecting to use one connection for what they want – gaming, browsing, streaming or downloading – wireless just doesn’t cut it.”

 

“Powerline offers such a simple and cost-effective solution to the demands that users are putting on the home network including streaming services, game playing and accessing cloud and multimedia services such as those offered by Apple and Google.  By integrating Powerline directly into electrical sockets, we’re able to offer a simple and permanent approach to creating a high-speed network throughout the building that will look the part in both homes and businesses.”

 

These sockets offer a number of benefits over WiFi and traditional Powerline plug-in adaptors:

 

1) Simple, professional, permanent

Ethernet cables may offer the best connection, but running new cables throughout walls and redecorating afterwards is a huge task and costs quickly mount up.  Power Ethernet Sockets offer a reliable and simple installation as easy as replacing an existing power socket.  There is no need of specialist knowledge of computer networks in order to set up a Power Ethernet network.

 

2) More robust and reliable than WiFi

Although WiFi provides the freedom and convenience to access the network wherever there is coverage, it degrades too quickly over moderate distances with coverage black spots and makes it unreliable to stream movies and services such as iPlayer effectively.  With the built-in managed switch, Power Ethernet Sockets are capable of providing the Quality of Service throughout the home to run a mixture of different bandwidth applications, allowing users to stream video content and play online games at the same time.

 

3) Multiple sockets, multiple uses

Unlike Powerline adapters, each Power Ethernet socket contains a 4-port Ethernet managed switch, enabling multiple devices to connect to a single socket.  Need to extend the network? Purchase another Power Ethernet Socket and it will automatically join the network.

 

4) Advanced filtering

The built-in filtered socket along with the latest in advanced Powerline design carefully filter out unwanted signal noise from the disruptive devices such as mobile phone charges and transformers means that the PE Sockets can communicate at best possible speeds.