Wednesday, April 9, 2014

'Men in War' Proves Sherman Was Right The Cast


Olive Films | 1957 | 102 min | Not rated | Apr 15, 2014 (6 Days) 

 
IT appears that the underlying purpose of Sidney Harmon's new film, "Men in War," is to show that the famous observation of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman was justified. War, in this low-budget picture, which came to the Capitol yesterday, is brutal and agonizing. It is unequivocal hell.
From the very beginning, when the camera brings us in touch with a platoon of hard-pressed American infantrymen cut off from their battalion during the Korean war, it is one long display of horror and misery as the soldiers, under the command of a tired and tormented lieutenant, try to slog their way back to their lines.
Half of the bruised and bearded soldiers appear to be suffering from battle fatigue, which causes them, at embarrassing moments, to do weird and incautious things. These unaccountable fellows are constantly having to be dragged down to the ground. The other half appear to be so frightened that they have to fee prodded to move. The courage and ingenuity of the lieutenant are unrelentingly taxed.
And, to add to his troubles, there early comes into his group a sergeant of nasty disposition, tending a colonel who is out of his mind. The colonel just sits there and gazes into space, but the sergeant gripes and growls, questioning the lieutenant's decisions. Yes sir, brother, war is hell.
So, we might add, is the experience of sitting through this film, which runs for an hour and three-quarters and never gets out of that ugly terrain. It is not just the war, it is the monotony of seeing the same things happen over and over again—feet dragging through dust, faces sweating, guys jumping up and going mad. The screen play by Philip Yordan and the direction of Anthony Mann are made up largely of previous war-film indications of human behavior that mean little when repeated so many times.
It is a relief when the lieutenant and the nasty sergeant, survivors of the band, wipe out an enemy bunker and permit the picture to come to an end.
The lieutenant is played by Robert Ryan and the sergeant by Aldo Ray. Both are rugged, ruthless soldiers, by the rules of realism here laid down, and James Edwards as a careless Negro and Philip Pine as a scared noncom are among the dozen or so actors who stumble and sweat commendably.
It is hard to figure what audience, if any, should be recommended to this film. By now, there are not many people who are unacquainted with the facts of Hollywood war.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Today's Films: “young at heart” Blu-ray movie review

117 min | Not rated | Apr 08, 2014 (New Release)
   

The rare pairing of Hollywood and recording icons Doris Day and Frank Sinatra is available for the first time on Blu-ray via a new edition of the 1954 movie musical YOUNG AT HEART.

Storyline:

Young at Heart centers on a family headed by a music-loving patriarch (Robert Keith, Men in War) and his musically inclined daughters looking for romance. Doris Day (That Touch of Mink) plays the youngest daughter, Laurie, and Gig Young (City That Never Sleeps) plays Alex Burke, a likable composer who comes for an extended visit and eventually wins the hearts of all three sisters. Frank Sinatra (Come Blow Your Horn) plays Barney Sloan, a cynical songwriter hired by Alex to do arrangements for an upcoming Broadway show. The praiseworthy cast also includes Dorothy Malone (The Tarnished Angels) and Elisabeth Fraser (So Big) as the older sisters, Ethel Barrymore (Portrait of Jennie) as the family's matriarch and Alan Hale, Jr. (TV's Gilligan's Island) as Robert Neary, a successful businessman engaged to the oldest daughter (Malone). The first screen pairing of "Old Blue Eyes" and "America's Sweetheart" will have your heart smiling and your toes tapping with timeless tunes by the Gershwin brothers, Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer. Young at Heart was directed by Gordon Douglas (Only the Valiant) and beautifully shot in color by the great Ted D. McCord (The Sound of Music, East of Eden).

Doris Day and Frank Sinatra star in this remake of the 1938 hit "Four Daughters."
In this version, Gregory Tuttle has just three daughters, one of whom falls for a melancholy musician named Barney Sloan. But she's already betrothed to Alex Burke, the man who hired Barney to arrange the music for a musical comedy. That doesn't prevent Laurie and Barney from eloping. But his insecurity is so deep and so destructive it nearly costs them their happiness... and his life.
Features a classic song score, performed by Day and Sinatra.

Doris Day is a small-town girl who helps a jaded and struggling musician (Frank Sinatra) find happiness through her love and support. Ethel Barrymore gives a fine supporting performance. A remake of 1938's "Four Daughters."

40th Anniversary Edition is digitally mastered from the original film negative and includes the original theatrical trailer.

Additional song composers: Don Pippin and Al Rinker. 

Several new songs were written for the film.

Filmed in three-strip Technicolor.

Remake of the 1938 film "Four Daughters," actor John Garfield's film debut, directed by Michael Curtiz.

Young at Heart Reviews:

"...[The music] is tops..."
-- Mike Clark, USA Today


Ripping Blu-ray to Apple TV 3 with subtitles and Dobly Digital 5.1 surround sound

In terms of an overall, pants-on-couch experience, the Apple TV is still the best streaming box you can plug into your tube—followed by a Roku. Since Apple supports 1080p now, with the new Apple TV 2012 (Apple TV 3rd generation), you can streams a large catalog of available-to-anyone video that’s nearly as high-fidelity as Blu-ray. Of course, most of you are not about to pay iTunes’ ridiculous prices to watch 1080p HD movies and TV shows you already own on Blu-ray. Instead, you can get the movies off Blu-ray into iTunes for Apple TV 3 streaming in HD 1080p quality. If you have a great sourround system, you can even watch Blu-ray movies via ATV 3 with Dobly Digital 5.1 surround sounds and proper subtitles.



To achieve your goal smoothly, I will throw a detailed tutorial up. This article mainly explains how to backup and convert Blu-ray to Apple TV 3  with AC3 5.1 audio while keeping desired subtitles and how to play Dobly Digital 5.1 sounds on ATV 3.

First, the most important piece of the equation is that you have a Blu-Ray ripping tool hooked to your Wins or Mac PC. Most of you are likely familiar with the excellent Handbrake for ripping standard Def DVDs, but while the latest version of the software has added SOME support for reading Blu-Ray folder structures, it cannot yet decrypt the Blu-Ray discs the way it can with regular DVDs, so you’ll need to add an intermediate step. The software I recommend here is Pavtube Blu-ray Ripper(available for Windows or for Mac users. Get the Windows version here, and the Mac version here).

Frankly, I tried several softwares and I can tell you that NO ONE comes even close to the simpleness and great quality that Pavtubes softwares deliver. I’ve had success using the software to convert Blu-ray discs to 1080p videos with subtitles and Dobly Digital 5.1 for Apple TV 3 streaming. This software is so simple to use and gives me exactly what i was looking for. I’m saving and digitalizing my entire collection and now been able to put them on iTunes and watch them wirelessly on my Apple TV 3 with extraordinary quality of Audio (DD 5.1) and Video (1920×1080).

The software works like most other Blu-ray rippers I’ve used. Pop in your disc, choose an Apple TV 3 output profile, and start the conversion. Then go get a cup of coffee (conversion takes time).

Note: As for ripping Blu-ray to Apple TV 3 1080p videos with Dobly Digital 5.1 and subtitles, a BD drive is required for ripping Blu-ray disc.



P.S. and Tips:The program has a number of presets for Apple TV, Apple TV 2, and Apple TV 3rd Generation under "Apple" category, to export a Apple TV 3 1080p video with ac3 5.1 pass-through, "Apple TV 3 Dolby Digital Pass-through (*.m4v)" preset is recommended.

The best video format and settings for streaming Blu-ray to Apple TV 3 with 5.1 surround sound:
Format: Apple TV 3 Dolby Digital Pass-through (*.m4v)

Video Settings

Codec: h264
Resolution: 1920*1080
Bit Rate: 5000 kbps
Frame Rate: 24 fps

Audio Settings

Codec: aac
Sample Rate: 48,000hz
Bit Rate:160,000 bps
Channels: Stereo



When you choosing "Apple TV 3 Dolby Digital Pass-through (*.m4v)" as output, an AC-3 encoded audio track will also be included for Apple TV 3 to Pass-through Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (also know as AC3 5.1), so that it will work in surround sound when Apple TV 3 is connected to audio receiver, and in stereo when Apple TV Gen 3 is connected with TV only(Apple TV 3 itself can not play 5.1 audio directly, it needs the receiver in your surround system to decode the 5.1 audio into six channels and distribute them to six speakers).

I’ve already convered how to set up Apple TV 3 for streaming HD videos with Dobly Digital 5.1 sounds, you can check out to learn how to play AC3 5.1 on ATV 3.Select subtitles. For watching videos via Apple TV 3 with subtitles, you can select wanted subtitle language you like from "Subtitles" option. If not, just leave it alone.



3) Click on "Settings" you could easily set bitrate, frame rate, codec, channels, sample rate, etc to adjust parameters that affect video quality and file size for the video you prefer. Remember the file size is based more on bitrate than resolution which means bitrate higher results in big file size, and lower visible quality loss.

Once the conversion completes, you can Import new 1080p .m4v file into iTunes. In this way, you can stream 1080p Blu-ray movies through Apple TV 3 to your wide Screen TV for playback with Dobly Digital 5.1 sound and proper subtitles.

Hope this article helps.
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Saturday, April 5, 2014

DVD to Nook HD/HD+ – How to Rip DVDs for Playing on Nook HD/HD+ Tablet

Summary:This guide will show you the steps to rip and convert DVD to Nook HD/HD+ Tablet videos so that you can play your favourite DVD movies on your Nook HD/HD+ Tablet anytime, anywhere.

As one of the second generation of 7-inchers which gained traction, the Barnes & Noble Nook HD/HD+ Tablet features a brilliant HD display which brings your entertainment to life in stunning clarity on a vibrant 1440-by-900 spectacular high-resolution display. With over one million pixels in your hand, text is sharper, gameplay is smooth and dynamic and much more – HD movies are more vivid. If you have some DVD movie collections and want to watch DVD movies on Nook HD/HD+ Tablet, you’ll need to convert DVD to Nook HD/HD+ Tablet supported H.264 or MPEG4 first. To help those who’re interested in doing this likewise, here I would throw a quick tutorial up.



Above all, let us have a look at the video formats supported by Nook.

Nook HD/HD+/HD+ supported media format:

Audio: MP4, M4A, 3GP, AAC, MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG, AMR 
Video: MP4, 3GP, WEBM, AVI 
Gallery pictures: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP 
Reader/Other: PDF, ePUB, DRP, ePIB, FOLIO, OFIP, CBZ, TXT, RTF, XLS, DOC, PPT, PPS, PPSX, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, LOG, CSV, EML, ZIP

For those of you in the know, to get the work done, a DVD ripping tool is needed. Most of you are likely familiar with the excellent Handbrake for ripping standard Def DVDs, but keep in mind that that program can’t rip copy-protected DVDs without a third-party add-on, and it doesn’t have Nook-specific profiles. So you’ll need to add an intermediate step, the software highly recommended here is Pavtube DVD Ripper.

Basically, the software can help you encode DVD also DVD ISO/IFO to Nook Tablet highly supported MP4 video files with high output video quality and fast ripping speed. Besides, you are allowed to edit the DVD movies by trimming, cropping, adjusting video effects, etc. to get the very wanted part and effects as you like. Moreover, this DVD converter can also help you convert DVD to all other popular video formats like AVI, MOV, MKV, WMV, FLV, MPG, etc. for playing and sharing on iPhone, iPad, Archos, Zen, Blackberry, YouTube, Facebook, etc. bypassing the DVD copy protection. Just download it and follow the steps below to download and put DVD movies onto Nook HD/HD+ Tablet for smoothly playing.

TheEasy Way to Convert DVD movies to Nook HD/HD+ Tablet compatible video formats

The quick start guide below uses DVD Ripper Windows screenshots. The way to rip DVD movies to Nook Tablet on Mac is almost the same. Just make sure you get the right version according to your computer operating system.

1. Add Movies

Launch the top DVD Ripper for Nook Tablet, insert the DVD disc to your computer drive, and then click the "DVD Disc" icon on the interface to navigate to the videos you want to convert. You can also add ISO file, IFO file or DVD folder.



2. Choose the output video format and output folder

Now choose the output format for playback on your Nook HD/HD+ Tablet. You can get optimized videos for Nook HD/HD+ under Format > Android > Nook Tablet(*.mp4). The output videos could fit on your device perfectly. You can also click "Setting" to change the video encoder, frame rate, resolution, etc. Below is the best format settings for ripping DVD to Nook HD/HD+ Tablet per my experience, you can take it as reference:



Video
Codec- H.264
Resolution- 1280×720 (HD)
Bitrate- 1500/2000kbps (bitrate higher results in big file size, and lower visible quality loss)
Framerate- 24fps

Audio
Codec- AAC
Sampling rate- 44.1khz
Bitrate- 128kbps
Channel- stereo

3. Start the DVD to Nook HD/HD+ Tablet Conversion

When you are satisfied with all the settings, you can click "Convert" and let the software do the DVD to Nook HD/HD+ MP4 conversion. After the ripping, you can click "Open" to locate the converted MP4 video files. Connect your NOOK to a computer, and just copy them (drag-and-drop) to the appropriate NOOK folder without limitations!

Tips: Before the conversion, you can click on the dropdown list of "Subtitles" to select your needed subtitles so that you can view DVD films on Nook HD/HD+ Tablet with proper subtitles. 

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Film Review: “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones”Blu-ray movie

 Summary:

Directed, written by Christopher Landon, based on the film “Paranormal Activity” by Oren Peli. Camera (color), Gonzalo Amat; editor, Gregory Plotkin; production designer, Nathan Amondson;  set decorators, Teresa Visinare, Julie Ochipinti; costume designer, Marylou Lim; sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat), Walter Anderson, Ed Novick, Steve Nelson; re-recording mixers, Joe Dzuban, Daniel J. Leahy; visual effects supervisor, Woei Hsi Lee; visual effects, Atomic Fiction; special effects coordinator, Mark Gullesserian; stunt coordinators, David Rowden, Charlie Croughwell; assistant directors, Mark Anthony Little, Dale Stern; casting, Carla Hool. 

 
  
Pleasantly disposable 'Paranormal Activity' spinoff invests the found-footage horror franchise with some welcome diversity and humor.

It would be a wild exaggeration to suggest that “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones” breathes new life into the increasingly fumes-fueled found-footage horror subgenre, but it certainly represents a shot in the arm for this series after 2012’s poorly regarded “Paranormal Activity 4.” Functioning more as a mythology-expanding spinoff than a proper sequel, this fifth installment (the first directed by longtime series writer Christopher Landon) smartly moves the setting away from airy suburbs to overcrowded working-class apartments, and introduces a winning sense of humor that almost compensates for its relentless reliance on every terror trope in the book. A pleasantly disposable slice of off-season chiller product, this Paramount release should easily win the weekend’s box-office race. 

I think you may like a great Blu-ray ripper to tranffering all the latest Blu-rays to you all device, you can read:Blu-ray/DVD copying Tool

Friday, April 4, 2014

The best solution to play AVI videos on Kindle Fire HDX Smoothly


Kindle Fire HDX is powerful for reading e-books, but for videos playback.The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is a novice friendly tablet that costs a lot less but performs the same or even better than any other "top shelf" tablets on the market. This tablet simply sets the highest standard for a media consumption tablet. Kindle Fire HDX tablets are the first tablets to be powered by the 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, making them the first to clock in at over 2 GHz. It provides 3x more processing power than the previous-generation Kindle Fire HD and, combined with 2GB of RAM, provides faster app launches, faster website load times, smoother multi-tasking, and better overall performance. 
  
  
AVI is named for audio video interleave. It’s also a multimedia container format. As wikipedia said, AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback. Anyway, this format can’t be played well by Kindle Fire. Wanna watch AVI videos on Kindle Fire HDX? And haven’t found out an available way to make it? Don’t worry, the following article i will share you my own solution to make AVI Videos playing on Kindle Fire HDX. 
Need to be Prepared in advance, an AVI to Kindle fire converter ultimate is necessary. If you are a beginner, you may be confused about this, such converter is an app that can help us converting one format to another we need. For Kindle Fire HDX, we just need converting AVI to h,264 mp4, this format is friendly with Kindle Fire HDX and supplies pretty good video viewing experience. Here i use Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate to show you how to use such 3rd party tool. 

Of course, you should download and install this Kindle Fire HDX Video Converter Ultimate on your computer at first. If you are Mac users, you can choose IMedia converter for Mac . The process is very simple and won’t take much time. Foxreal studio also make many patches for us to get the presets of latest devices, Kindle Fire HDX preset included. Now, please follow the tips to do it step by step. 

1. Run this conversion software. Add your AVI video files. 

2. Edit videos to get the effect you want and this tool supplies some editing functions, such as crop, trim, replace audio, remove interlace, add water mark etc. If you need, just click “” button. You will find a editing bar like this:  
 
3. Choose Kindle fire formats
Since you have installed the patch, this step is rather simple. Just Click on “Format”, located in “Android” category, then you can easily find the “Amazon Kindle Fire HD H.264(*.mp4)”, just select it. 

Note: By Clicking"Settings", you will open a "profile settings" window. As follows, you can adjust some parameters to get the video quality you want. But you should know, higher quality with bigger size, Please pay attention to the storage space of your  Kindle Fire HDX 
  
  
4. Press the "Convert" button, begin to convert AVI videos for Kindle Fire HDX. 

Thanks to the CUDA technology of this AVI Converter, the conversion speed is much faster, you will get the result video in a short time. When it’s done, copy the converted video to Kindle Fire. Now, everything is ok. Just enjoy your time! 
Tips:
If you need to download free video player, you can read: Best Free Video Player Apps for Kindle Fire HDX roundup & download 

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Thursday, April 3, 2014

“47 Ronin”: The Inside Story of Universal’s Samurai Disaster

 
Director: Carl Rinsch
  
Writers:Chris Morgan (screenplay), Hossein Amini(screenplay), 2 more credits 
  
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ko Shibasaki |See full cast and crew

Summary:
  
If ever a film was in need of an honourable death and a respectful burial it would be 47 Ronin, a cursed samurai epic that features a somnambulistic performance from a shell-shocked Keanu Reeves. Carl Rinsch's $175m drama was shot back in 2011 then found itself sat on the shelf for over a year, beset by bad omens and the stench of decay. It limps into cinemas and falls on its sword with a sigh.
Reeves is Kai, a disreputable mixed-race killing machine who rides to the aid of a band of exiled ronin in a mystical feudal Japan. Before long, our hero is slicing ogres, wrestling witches and romancing his lordship's daughter with the selfsame air of irritated bemusement. Meanwhile, ranked alongside him, the ronin (represented by a group of estimable Japanese actors) have their work cut out tackling reams of expository English-language dialogue. This dialogue appears to have leapt, fully formed, off the nearest idiot board.
47 Ronin is murky, muddled and leaden, although it's not quite the unmitigated disaster it's been cracked up to be. Rinsch's lethargic fantasy plotline at least comes leavened by some vibrant visual flourishes. I enjoyed the drifting ground fog that takes on human shapes, while the sorceress's green dress is made to twist and writhe like the bedclothes in an MR James ghost story. In the thick of the battle, Kai eventually proves his mettle and impresses his betters. They used to revile him and now they realise they love him. Kai accepts their grovelling apologies with a pained little frown. His thoughts, as ever, appear to be directed elsewhere.

Doc you want to watching these movies on your smartphones & Tablet? There have the easiest way to transfer it with best formats to your all devices.