Comcast will announce a new subscription video-on-demand service this week that will provide out “out of home” access via the Web, the company announced today

Comcast will call the new service Xfinity Streampix and the new service is obviously following HBO’s lead in confronting Netflix, the Web’s No. 1 video rental service.

Streampix is designed to compliment Comcast’s existing service Xfinity by offering users a much broader selection of movies and TV shows. Variety, the Hollywood trade magazine was first to report the story.

HBOGo, the Internet service that enables HBO subscribers to access every episode of the company’s past and present shows, has become a model for cable companies looking to compete with Netflix. With Streampix, Comcast is adopting a similar strategy.

The service “enables Xfinity video customers to instantly view favorite movies and TV shows in and out of the home,” Comcast said in a statement. The TV shows includes “numerous past seasons of current hit shows and full series.”

This is a smart move. This hits Netflix where it is weakest now; in its selection of videos available for Internet streaming. Netflix is locked out of acquiring the latest movies from the five of the six top Hollywood film studios and managers have struggled to keep the streaming library fresh.

With Netflix companies grumbling about the last of new titles, Comcast will try to offer a wider range of shows than they would have gotten from the regular Xfinity. But there’s a price. A Comcast subscriber must either be a member of one of the company’s triple-play packages (high-speed Web, video, phone, etc) or pay an addition $5 a month for Streampix.

That extra $5 may be the service’s Achilles heel. When it comes to price, Netflix is far less expensive than any of the cable guys.

Comcast said the new service will be available on multiple Web-connected devices, including smart TVs.

Comcast announced a new subscription video-on-demand service today that will provide out “out of home” access via the Web.

Comcast has named the new service Xfinity Streampix and it is obviously following HBO’s lead in confronting Netflix, the Web’s No. 1 video rental service.

Streampix is designed to compliment Comcast’s existing service Xfinity by offering users a much broader selection of movies and TV shows. Variety, the Hollywood trade magazine was first to report the story.

HBOGo, the Internet service that enables HBO subscribers to access every episode of the company’s past and present shows, has become a model for cable companies looking to compete with Netflix. With Streampix, Comcast is adopting a similar strategy.

The service “enables Xfinity video customers to instantly view favorite movies and TV shows in and out of the home,” Comcast said in a statement. The TV shows includes “numerous past seasons of current hit shows and full series.”

This is a smart move. This hits Netflix where it is weakest now; in its selection of videos available for Internet streaming. Netflix is locked out of acquiring the latest movies from the five of the six top Hollywood film studios and managers have struggled to keep the streaming library fresh.

With Netflix companies grumbling about the last of new titles, Comcast will try to offer a wider range of shows than they would have gotten from the regular Xfinity. But there’s a price. A Comcast subscriber must either be a member of one of the company’s triple-play packages (high-speed Web, video, phone, etc) or pay an addition $5 a month for Streampix.

That extra $5 may be the service’s Achilles heel. When it comes to price, Netflix is far less expensive than any of the cable guys.

Comcast said the new service will be available on multiple Web-connected devices, including smart TVs.

(PRWEB) February 22, 2012

Today Alltopics just got a lot hotter in its search engine by adding Movie Reviews to its rainbow of topics and fascinating news stories, thus making it the number one resources for entertainment and news. Whether the reader is a movie fan, or a critic, Alltopics Movie Reviews articles provide hours of fascinating reading as this premiere information website which grabs articles on all things related to the world of Movie Reviews.

The best Movie Reviews news and articles are gathered in one place. With Movie Reviews.alltopics.com users can search all over the globe and web to find the most resourced articles and news for today’s arena of the world of Movies. Alltopics rates the articles, garnered from social networks like Facebook, Google and Twitter, by popular demand. Alltopics is the number one stop on the Internet that helps to find all the latest gossip, breaking news, unusual conditions and news flashes that might reveal Movie Reviews news around the country and around the world.

As soon as the reader enters Movie-reviews.alltopics.com, one will be amazed at the depth and breadth of the articles to discover: What kind of movies make the most money and why? What is the role of movies in the development of entertainment? How important is movie business in America? The answers to all these are in the Movie Reviews section of Alltopics.com, the number one answer-finding site.

It takes just one-minute search on Alltopics to find the most current information from every site and news source on the internet, including Facebook, Twitter and GooglePlus, and all of it rated for popularity. If a website user read and liked it, tweeted it or recommended it, Alltopics keeps it fresh and updated until another topic comes along. The website changes, just like the movie trends, every second, as new and revealing information comes along from around the world.

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AllTopics
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(WJW Channel

Cleveland is the backdrop for new movie (WEWS Channel 5)

Four signs of too much earwax (Sandusky Register)

The Crime Scene this morning

• Cleveland: Police search for victim’s car after double homicide (WKYC Channel 3)
• Mother, daughter, suspect found dead in garage (WKYC Channel 3)
• Car ripped in half in East 55th crash (WEWS Channel 5)
• Vacant home destroyed by fire (WOIO Channel 19)
• Woman jailed in Pa. has trail of fake pregnancies (News-Herald)
• Fire engulfs barn: No injuries reported in Vermilion farm blaze (with video) (Morning Journal)
• Fire guts Pittsfield home’s second floor (Chronicle-Telegram)
• Man who grew marijuana near Roosevelt High in Kent pleads guilty (Record-Courier)
• Twinsburg man who assaulted Kent cop gets month in jail (Record-Courier)
• Deputy under investigation for alleged sexual assault (Sandusky Register)
• Police Blotter: Man Robbed, Suspect Flees on Bus (Cleveland Heights Patch)
• Wild Passengers Get Man Arrested, Charged With Drunken Driving (Solon Patch)
• Residents Find Someone Already Claimed Their IRS Refund (Strongsville Patch)

Around Northeast Ohio

• Women’s Reproductive Rights Fight Brews in Ohio (Ideastream)
• Video Warning! Deputy Dog Warden busted hosing wounded dog (WOIO Channel 19)
• Between the Lines: School transformation plan (WKYC Channel 3)
• School voucher system expands in Ohio (WKSU-FM)
• State board pursuing lawyer’s complaint against judge candidate (Chronicle-Telegram)
• Sewer expert ordered to bring own system up to code (Sandusky Register)
• Fremont reservoir project is 500 percent over budget (Sandusky Register)

Weekend stories you might have missed

Abbey Avenue loop ramp off I-90 west to close until 2013 (Sunday)

Malicious party-switching voters seen in 2008 not expected for Ohio’s Republican primary March 6 (Sunday)

Fresh ideas are needed to help schools with their fundraising efforts: Margaret Bernstein (Columnist challenges readers)

1998 state audit foreshadows allegations of Frank Russo taking kickbacks (Sunday)

Blue-collar roots guide Marcy Kaptur’s folksy — and occasionally fiery — career in Congress (Saturday)

Fairmount Minerals: Achieving uncommon performance from the earth’s most common minerals (Saturday)

Ohio redistricting ballot drive launches while Speaker Batchelder pushes in different direction (Saturday)

Directors Scott Waugh, far right, and Mouse McCoy, next to Waugh, discuss briefing with two Navy SEALs in “Act of Valor.”

After tough-guy video games, a bad Charlie Sheen movie and a flood of recent books about the Osama bin Laden mission, Navy SEALs hope to show their true faces in a first-ever sanctioned Hollywood film.

In the name of recruiting, the Coronado SEAL command approved an action movie starring active-duty SEALs from the Silver Strand. “Act of Valor” opens Friday nationwide.

It’s a bold — and in some corners controversial move — for an elite special operations branch that previously cast itself as the “quiet professionals.”

These are guys who rarely agree to media interviews. Even after East Coast SEALs conducted the mission that killed bin Laden in May, officials who speak for the command wouldn’t acknowledge their handiwork.

So why did eight seasoned SEALs agree to put their faces on 3,000 movie screens?

They see it as a chance to paint their own portrait of their work during a decade of war.

“For the small group of us who participated, the recognizable guys in the picture, we thought there was a unique opportunity to tell our story accurately, where it hadn’t been done before,” said Lt. Cmdr. Rorke Denver, 38, a SEAL officer in the cast.

The Navy’s nod to continued anonymity meant use of first names only in the film. SEAL officials also canceled all media interviews scheduled for last week, apparently because of sensitivity from high up. However, distributor Relativity Media released interviews taped with SEALs.

“When everyone was offered the opportunity, we all said no. Not advertising the nature of our work — (that’s) in the fabric of our ethos. It’s a big gap, or aside, to do something like this,” Denver said, adding that they later agreed to participate after their command embraced the project.

The bullets are real. The backdrop is real, filmed at Coronado Naval Amphibious Base, on Ocean Boulevard in Coronado and at the Imperial Beach pier.

And the vessels are real. The shipboard scenes were filmed on the San Diego-based warship Bonhomme Richard.

Another action sequence uses an operational Navy guided-missile submarine. In one particularly heart-pounding piece of footage, the 500-foot black behemoth surfaces in the middle of the ocean to rendezvous with the team.

Not only do SEALs appear on screen — even trying out their acting chops in band-of-brothers bonding scenes — but most of their real families play themselves.

The movie has delivered a publicity bonanza for the Navy — with SEALs walking red carpets around the country and Navy Leap Frogs parachuting onto Sunset Boulevard last week.

But critical voices have piped up from the military community.

A long-retired Army general advised the top U.S. Special Operations Command official to “get the hell out of the media” during a Washington, D.C., conference Feb. 7.

“One of these days, if you keep publishing how you do this, the other guy’s going be there ready for you and you’re going to fly in and he’s going to shoot down every damn helicopter and kill every one of your SEALs,” Lt. Gen. James Vaught told Adm. William McRaven, according to news accounts.

SMALL FILE SIZE: M 018 Directors Scott Waugh, far left, and Mouse McCoy, next to Waugh, discuss briefing with Navy Seals in Relativity’s Media’s upcoming release, “Act of Valor”. Credit: IATM LLC Copyright 2011 Relativity Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

M 310 Bandito Brothers camera team preps to film Navy SEAL in Relativity’s Media’s upcoming release, “Act of Valor”. Credit: Relativity Media

After tough-guy video games, a bad Charlie Sheen movie and a flood of recent books about the Osama bin Laden mission, Navy SEALs hope to show their true faces in a first-ever sanctioned Hollywood film.

In the name of recruiting, the SEAL command in Coronado approved an action movie starring active-duty SEALs from the Silver Strand. “Act of Valor” will open nationwide Friday.

It’s a bold — and in some corners controversial — move for a special operations branch that previously cast itself as the “quiet professionals.” Even after East Coast SEALs conducted the mission that killed bin Laden in May, officials who speak for the command wouldn’t acknowledge their handiwork.

So why did eight seasoned SEALs agree to put their faces on 3,000 movie screens?

They see it as a chance to paint their own portrait of their work during a decade of war.

“For the small group of us who participated, the recognizable guys in the picture, we thought there was a unique opportunity to tell our story accurately, where it hadn’t been done before,” said Lt. Cmdr. Rorke Denver, 38, a SEAL officer in the cast.

The Navy’s nod to continued anonymity meant use of first names only in the film. SEAL officials also canceled all media interviews scheduled for last week, apparently because of sensitivity from high up. However, distributor Relativity Media released interviews taped with SEALs.

“When everyone was offered the opportunity, we all said no. Not advertising the nature of our work — (that’s) in the fabric of our ethos,” Denver said, adding that they later agreed to participate after their command embraced the project.

The bullets are real. The backdrop is real, filmed at Coronado Naval Amphibious Base, on Ocean Boulevard in Coronado and at the Imperial Beach pier.

And the vessels are real. The shipboard scenes were filmed on the San Diego-based warship Bonhomme Richard.

Another action sequence uses an operational Navy guided-missile submarine. In one particularly heart-pounding piece of footage, the 500-foot black behemoth surfaces in the middle of the ocean to rendezvous with the team.

Not only do SEALs appear on screen, but most of their real families play themselves.

The movie has delivered a publicity bonanza for the Navy, with SEALs walking red carpets around the country and Navy Leap Frogs parachuting onto Sunset Boulevard last week.

But critical voices have piped up from the military establishment.

A long-retired Army general advised the top U.S. Special Operations Command official to “get the hell out of the media” during a Feb. 7 conference in Washington, D.C.

“One of these days, if you keep publishing how you do this, the other guy’s going be there ready for you and you’re going to fly in and he’s going to shoot down every damn helicopter and kill every one of your SEALs,” Lt. Gen. James Vaught told Adm. William McRaven, according to news accounts.

The Pentagon maintained veto power and examined every frame for details that might reveal important tactics, according to producers.

The former “Friends” star demanded that the topless scene from the Judd Apatow-produced film, which hits theaters February 24, be replaced with a tamer version, an individual with knowledge of the movie told TheWrap.

A spokeswoman for Universal, which is releasing the movie, said: “The scene was shot a bunch of different ways, and we have the best possible version.” (Which isn’t exactly a denial.)

Aniston’s publicist, Stephen Huvane, denies that the scene was altered at the actress’ behest. “The scene is how it was always supposed to be,” Huvane told TheWrap.

The scene in question features Aniston going topless in front of TV news cameras. In the version that will be included in the film, Aniston will be seen topless from behind, with her bare breasts shown pixelated on TV screens, as they would appear on a TV news broadcast.

But the movie insider who spoke to TheWrap said that when the film was edited with the frontal nudity in it, Aniston pleaded for an alternate version due to her blossoming relationship with Theroux, whom she met on the set of the film. (The two are now cohabitating.)

The 43-year-old actress, it seems, decided it just wouldn’t be right to share her naked breasts with anyone except her new beau.

In the film, Aniston and Paul Rudd play a Manhattan couple who suddenly become unemployed and seek an alternative living situation, ultimately landing on a rural, free-love commune. Theroux, 40, plays commune inhabitant Seth.

Aniston performed a brief, semi-topless scene — though her breasts were concealed by an open lab coat — in her recent comedy “Horrible Bosses.”

The actress has also displayed a penchant for skin-happy photo-shoots on the pages of magazines such as “Rolling Stone” and “GQ.” (Her most recent appearance in the latter, for its March 2012 issue, features Aniston posing in little more than a black bra with her co-star Rudd.)

Perhaps those hoping for a glimpse of Aniston’s flesh would be better off heading to the newsstand instead of the movie theater.

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

NASCAR returns with the season opener Budweiser Shootout, with 25 cars competing. Visit msn.foxsports.com for coverage and more information.

New movies: ‘The Secret World of Arrietty‘

The new movies opening this week are “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,” a PG-13 superhero sequel starring Nicolas Cage; “This Means War,” an R comedy action movie starring Reese Witherspoon; “Undefeated,” an unrated documentary about a football team; and the animated G film “The Secret World of Arrietty.”

Video: ‘The Secret World of Arrietty’ movie trailer

– GateHouse News Service

 Follow CT Lifestyle Entertainment News On The Courant’s Features Buzz Facebook Page

February 18, 2012

Anyone over PG-13 knows that movie-theater food bears no resemblance to tofu and sprouts. But CR’s new tests show it can be a nutritional nightmare on Elm Street.

It turns out that a large tub of buttered popcorn and a large Coke can supply all the calories the average adult is supposed to eat in a day. Even one serving of pretzel pieces with cheese can provide up to half a day’s calories, almost half a day’s fat, and more than a day’s sodium. Here’s a snack-by-snack summary:

Popcorn: Some large tubs with butter had three-fourths of the 2,000 calories most people should eat in a day and up to 174 percent of the recommended daily fat limit, 65 grams. Sodium levels ranged from 436 to 2,038 milligrams. That’s as high as 89 percent of the recommended daily limit.

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Nachos: Most had about 800 calories and 40 to 50 grams of fat, much more than half the recommended total fat per day. Nachos tended to have even more sodium than popcorn: at least 45 percent of the daily limit.

Pretzels: Sodium was the issue here, too. A few of the pretzel snacks CR’s testers bought exceeded the daily limit.

Soda: The large and jumbo colas had 96 to 174 grams of sugars — about 24 to 44 teaspoons — and 384 to 696 calories.

Bottom line: You can’t sneak your own food into movie theaters, so eat sensibly beforehand, buy the smallest size of theater treats or share. If you watch movies at home, have air-popped or microwave popcorn. Orville Redenbacher light, for example, has 120 calories, 5 grams of fat and 190 milligrams of sodium per serving, which is about 5 1/2 cups when popped.

Editors, Consumer Reports

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