Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Blu-ray Highlights: Week of March 8th, 2015– Follow That Bird

Summary: There are lots of great Blu-ray movies on this week of March 8th, 2015, just like: Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, The Sound of Music, The Breakfast Club,Wolfcop, White Haired Witch, The Soft Skin and so on. Here is listed a haul of newly released Blu-ray Discs. Enjoy it~
  
New Blu-ray Discs Releases: 

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 ‘– Katniss and her crossbow are back in the latest installment of the YA dystopian-future franchise. Because it’s the popular thing to do these days, the producers have split the final book in the series into two movies. Despite that, reviews were pretty strong. The Blu-ray includes a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, making this one of the few decent movies available in that format. (Be warned that copies sold through Walmart reportedly only have lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.) Also, Best Buy has an exclusive SteelBook version. 

Unlike the last installment, ‘Catching Fire’, director Francis Lawrence has forsaken the annoying alternating-aspect-ratio gimmick in favor of a traditional 2.40:1 ratio throughout. When I asked him about this, he explained: “Yeah, I totally dumped that crap just to show Freakyguy666 what’s what. LOL. PWNED!!” True story.* 


Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb ‘ – Notable only for the fact that it marks Robin Williams’ final film appearance, this third and allegedly last entry in the middling family franchise petered out without making much of an impression during the holiday season. It will probably still sell well on video, as these things usually do. I sat through the first two of these for the benefit of a friend’s children, but they have fortunately moved onto other things now. 
 
 
Life of Riley ‘ – Legendary French auteur Alain Resnais (‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’, ‘Last Year at Marienbad‘) passed away at the age of 91 last year, barely a month after the Berlin Film Festival premiere of his final feature. The movie mixes live action and animation, as well as film and theater, in telling the story of a group of friends dealing with the news that their (unseen) friend is dying of cancer.
 



Russell Madness ‘ – I gather that this is one of those ‘Air Bud’ things, or at least a knockoff. From what I can ascertain, the title is supposed to be a pun on “Wrestle Madness,” which I guess is supposed to somehow be a play on Wrestlemania. Or something. Yeah, it’s really strained, even by the standard of kids’ crap. I’m grateful that my own kids are still about a year away from becoming obsessed with garbage like this.
 

Source: http://www.highdefdigest.com/blog/bluray-highlights-mar-10-2015/

You can also get the other Blu-ray movies on Mar 1th, 2015. Have fun with your family! 

Learn More Blu-ray to Any devices Tips: 

Blu-ray to TV- Enjoy Blu-ray movie on widescreen Smart TV
Blu-ray to Android- Convert Blu-ray to Android Tablet/Phone on Windows 8.1/8/7
Blu-ray to iPad- Copy 2D/3D Blu-ray contents to iPad Air on Mac
Blu-ray to iPhone- How to Convert Blu-ray to iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus?
Blu-ray to Xbox One-Copy Blu-rays to Xbox One for playback via Plex

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Rip Blu-ray to MP4/MKV to use in Xbox One with fast speed

Summary: It seems to be a great idea to play Blu ray on Xbox 360 in your leisure time. This article will just show you how to convert Blu-ray to Xbox 360 video with high speed. 

Xbox One generates a DVD/Blu-ray drive, which is a great improvement, making users playing Blu-ray/DVD more conveniently. But, the Blu-ray Disc will be scratched or damaged due to repeat use. So what is the best way to get Blu-ray file into something Xbox one can stream, without losing either the quality? In this page, I will share a simplest way to play Blu-ray on Xbox one with ease. 



As we know, Blu-ray provides HD video sources for playback. But if you want to have a try to watch Blu-ray movies on Xbox One, you need to rip Blu-ray to Xbox One compatible format first.To save you from the awkward situation, Pavtube BDMagic for Windows comes to give you a hand. For Mac users, you can try to Pavtube BDMagic for Mac - which allows you to copy Blu-ray movies to Xbox game console on Mac Yosemite 10.10 (including Mavericks and Mountain Lion). 
  
This Blu-ray to Xbox One ripper offers specified video formats for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and many other game hardware like PSP, PS4, Wii and more. With it, you will be able to watch any Blu-ray/DVD movies via Xbox. Its build-in editor lets you touch up the Blu-ray/DVD video as you like, which include trimming, cropping, rotate, merge and apply special visual effects, etc. It also able to fetch and embed the metadata informatyion to the video. 

Rip Blu-ray to MP4/MKV to use in Xbox One with best quality

Step 1: Load Blu-ray Movies

Kick off Blu-ray to Xbox One Converter and then load source Blu-ray movies by clicking "Load BD" button. 



Note: Subtitles and audio tracks could be selected after loading Blu-ray movies.

Step 2: Output settings

Here we select mp4 with H.264 codec for Xbox One. Click the Format drop-down list, and select “Xbox 360 HD Video(*.wmv)” from "Zune/Xbox 360 Device" category. You can select other Xbox360 format for watching. 



Optional settings: This Blu-ray to Xbox One Converter allows you to adjust video/audio settings. Video and audio parameters of selected profile could be adjusted, including: video codec, audio codec, bit rate, frame rate, channel, etc. You could click settings button to enter the Settings panel. 



Step 3: Convert Blu-ray to Xbox One with MP4/MKV 

Hit the convert button on the main interface to let this Blu-ray to Xbox ripper start converting. Once the conversion is finished, you could transfer the converted Blu-ray movies to MP4/MKV to use in your Xbox One for unlimited playback. Enjoy. 

Related Guides:

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

New Blu-ray Discs released for this week of March 1, 2015

While upcoming new Blu-ray movies like Avengers: Da Vinci's Demons: The Complete Second Season are gearing up to head into theaters this spring, the big Blu-ray companies are still churning out some Academy Award nominees and winners, along with some holiday favorites. From big franchises like Space Dandy: Season 1 and Foxcatcher to smaller releases, like The Imitation Game, there are plenty of great DVD/blu-ray releases this month. Check out the list, below. 

Some decent looking releases this week!! Let’s get to it: 

Top 1. Life Partners 



Street Date: March 3rd, 2015 
Genres: Comedy, Romance
Starring: Leighton Meester, Gillian Jacobs, Adam Brody
Director: Susanna Fogel 

Plot Synopsis:

At 29, the most long-term relationship Sasha (Leighton Meester) and Paige (Gillian Jacobs) have ever been in is with each other, using their co-dependent friendship as an excuse not to venture out into the dating world alone. But when Paige meets nerdy Tim (Adam Brody) and starts to get serious for the first time, the nature of their friendship begins to shift. Fearing she's being cast aside, Sasha tries to keep their relationship the same, but does growing up also mean growing apart?

Top 2. Innocence 



Street Date: March 3rd, 2015
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Horror
Starring: Sophie Curtis, Kelly Reilly, Graham Phillips
Director: Hilary Brougher 

Plot Synopsis:

Haunted by the death and dreams of her beloved mother in a Montauk surfing accident, 16-year-old Beckett and her father, novelist Miles Warner, move to Manhattan and attempt to piece together their shattered life. Now enrolled at the exclusive Hamilton preparatory school, her psychosis and hallucinations intensify with the dubious suicides of current and past students, as does her first love for Tobey Crawford. The discovery that her new school may be run by a coven of beautiful and seductive women who perpetuate their youth by drinking the blood of virgins becomes the ultimate challenge of Beckett and Tobey s young lives. 

Top 3. Believe Me 



Street Date: March 3rd, 2015 
Genres: Comedy
Starring: Alex Russell, Zachary Knighton, Nick Offerman, Johanna Braddy, Miles Fisher, Sinqua Walls, Max Adler and Christopher McDonald
Director: Will Bakke

Plot Synopsis:

Sam (Alex Russell) stands on stage as thousands of fans go wild. Smart, charismatic, handsome, he moves them with his message, and when he calls for donations to his charity, the money pours in. Only thing is, Sam doesn't believe a word he's saying. 

Just months earlier, Sam was a typical college senior focused on keg stands, hookups and graduation. But when a surprise tuition bill threatens his dream of law school and leaves him thousands of dollars in the hole, he's forced to think outside the box. Convincing his three roommates they can make a killing exploiting the gullible church crowd, the guys start a sham charity and begin campaigning across the country, raising funds for a cause as fake as their message.

For Sam, embezzling money is easy compared to getting attention from the person he cares about the most. When Callie (Johanna Braddy), the tour manager and Sam's love interest, finally uncovers the guys' ruse, it's Sam's moment of truth.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Can the iPad Air 2 play 720p or 1080p MKV files on Mac natively?

Summary: Chances are you need an effective way to play 1080p, 720p MKV files on iPad Air 2 by converting MKV to iPad supported video formats.  
 
With 9.7-inch low reflectivity Retina screen, iPad Air 2 is a great tablet which allows you to enjoy the vivid images beyond the limits of your eyes. <Review: Apple Leaks the New iPad Air 2 >. 

Adding MKV movies to iPad Air 2

After you got the iPad Air 2 tablet, you may want to copy some 1080p or 720p Videos to iPad Air 2 for watching. But how to watch 1080p and 720p HD videos like MKV, WMV and AVI on iPad Air 2 smoothly and make them perfectly match the premium screen of iPad Air 2? Here, check out this top iMedia Converter for Mac and convert 1080p/720p MKV movies to your iPad Air 2 with supported format

Tip: For Windows users, Pavtube offers freeware MKV to iPad Air 2 Converter to convert MKV to iPad Air in lossless quality. 

Steps on: How to Play 1080p/720p MKV movies on iPad Air 2 on Mac with perfect quality 
  
Step 1: Import 1080p, 720p MKV 

Run the iPad Air 2 MKV Converter for Mac. Click "Add File" to load one or multiple .mkv file(s) into the program. Besides MKV, you can also load FLV, AVI, WMV, VOB, TiVo, MPG, MOV, etc.  

MKV to iPad Air 2 Converter

Note: You can also use this iMedia Converter for Mac to help you rip Blu-ray/DVD or ISO files to iPad Air 2. Enjoy it! 
    
Step 2: Choose the right file format for iPad Air 2 

Click “Format” bar, you can get the optimized videos for iPad Air under iPad > iPad Air HD Video(*.mp4). To get 1080p video quality, just choose iPad>iPad Air Full HD Video(*.mp4). 

best file format for iPad Air 2

Tip: If you like, you can click “Settings” to change the video encoder, resolution, frame rate, etc. as you wish. 
 
best settings for iPad Air 2

What’s point? The supported resolution of iPad Air goes up to 1080p, though video playback and most apps never break out of 720p. For watching videos on iPad Air, 720p with 1500~2500kbps is just all right. I found bitrate higher results in big file size, and lower visible quality loss, and vice versa. 
   
Step 3: Start 1080p/720p MKV Videos to iPad Air 2 Conversion 
  
Tap the Conversion button, it will start 720p/1080p videos to MP4 conversion for iPad Air 2 on Mac immediately. Click “Open” to find the result MP4 videos after the conversion and transfer them to your device with ease. 

Further Reading: 

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Chromecast MKV- Solve MKV files won't transcode to Chromecast issue

A step by step guide on how to convert MKV to Chromecast playable MP4 format to solve MKV wouldn't transcode to Chromecast issue.

mkv files won't transcode to Chromecast

Here is my situation: I have a large number of "mkv" movies. Plex will play the .mkv movies fine on my PC using the Plex Web interface. Now the problem: This is a Chromecast forum so I'll start there. When I use the native cast utility within Plex, the video will not transcode to the Chromecast. The audio makes the trip, but the screen remains gray with a mish-mash of mainly purple pixels along the top edge. I have tried varying the connection playback options (all the obvious things) but no deal. Would you help me out? Thanks!!
mkv files won't transcode to Chromecast

Google Chromecast is a digital media player that allows you to stream MP4, WebM, MPEG-DASH, Smooth Streaming, and HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) video formats on your High Definition Television (HDTV). The MKV video which can't be played with audio through Chromecast may contain DTS or AC3 audio codec which is unsupported by Chromecast. If you would like to stream and play unsupported local MKV video through a Chromecast, you have to first of all convert your mkv videos into Chromecast compatible ones.


Here Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate is suggested. Acting as the Chromecast video converter as well as audio converter, it can easily convert various formats, not only MKV, but also MOV, M4V, MPG, MXF, MTS, M2TS, M2T, AVI, FLV, VOB, WMV, WTV, DVR, DV, SWF, TS, and etc to Chromecast supported video format and tons of audio file like AMR, AC3, AAC, APE, WMA, WAV, M4A, M4R, CAF, VOC, QCP, MP2, 3GA, and etc to Chromecast compatible audio format. In addition, it supports 150+ video presets for popular devices like the iPad, Android devices, game console, etc. For Mac users, get the equivalent Mac version. Just get the right version and follow the steps below to convert MKV for adding to Chromecast.

(Read Best Ultimate Video Converter Review) 

Download Video Converter for Chromecast:



Tutorial: Casting local MKV video files to Chromecast

Step 1: Load original MKV files

Click "Add Video" button on the main interface to load your MKV files to the program. (Drag & Drop function is included.)



Step 2: Select output format

Click "Format" and choose MP4 from "Common Video" or HD MP4 from "HD MP4" as output format, which can be recognized by Chromecast easily.



Tip: Adjust the video and audio parameters including the Bitrate of Video&Audio, Video Size, Sample Rate, Frame Rate, Audio Channels, etc., by clicking the "Settings" button on the main interface for getting the best quality.

Step 3: Start MKV to Chromecast Conversion

Tap the ConverT button on the main interface to start transcoding MKV to Chromecast. The process will be finished soon. After the conversion, you can easily find the encoded MKV video clips in the destination folder by clicking "Open" button to locate the converted video files. Drag the video file you want to play into the Chrome browse and click the browser extension, select "Cast this tab", the local video will be streamed to TV directly for easy playback.

With the new optimized acceleration technology, the super speed video conversion now is 6X faster than before and surpasses most regular video converters. What's more, this video file converter ensures zero quality loss. With its built-in video editor, you can personalize and retouch your videos in clicks.

More related:
Find more solution at Chromecast column. 

Source: How to Cast unsupported MKV video Files through a Chromecast