Harry Potter DVDs and Blu-rays to vanish at the end of the year

I thought I would write a short little post today since it appears Warner Home Video is going to pull the entire Harry Potter series on both DVD and Blu-ray from store shelves at the end of this year.

What does this mean? It means that if you want the unedited theatrical versions of these movies without any Star Wars-type changes you had better consider buying them very soon as the future re-releases of these movies may likely have additional scenes that were cut in the original version shown in theaters and/or have alterations such as different music in some scenes.

I don't think this is a smart move for Warner Video as original DVDs may be "phased out" by the movie studios before we see the re-release of these movies to home video if they wait like 5 years to bring them back to stores in disc form. That would mean that in order to buy and watch Harry Potter movies in the future, you would be required to have a Blu-ray player. People without Blu-ray players would likely be upset with Warner not being able to play them on their regular DVD player. But of course by then Blu-ray players will likely have come down a lot more in price than they have so far.

So the bottom line is that we might have a long wait to see what the re-release of the Harry Potter series of movies will be like. They might be the same exact discs and packaging, or they could be significantly different.

FOX brings back 2 old shows for November Sweeps

Remember "America's Most Wanted" and "30 Seconds to Fame"? FOX is bringing them both back in time for the November sweeps ratings period.

Now the bad news. First, "AMW" is back on this weekend only. It will probably disappear again until the February Sweeps period next year when it will only be shown once again. "30 Seconds to Fame" is back on Saturday nights for only a few weeks, and the episodes are the same repeats they showed earlier this year.

The good news about the "AMW" special this Saturday is that it will be an original 2 hour program and not a 2 hour repeat.

Maybe this is a sign that FOX might bring these 2 shows back with original episodes on a year round basis. Maybe they will also finally change their mind about canceling "Human Target" which should have not happened last season especially with the lower than expected numbers for "Terra Nova" and "The X Factor". The only problem is that Mark Valley has already moved on to starring in "Harry's Law" now, but they could probably get him again if they offered the right amount of money. Or they could always introduce a new Christopher Chance while keeping the old Winston and Guerrero on the show if Mark Valley is not available to come back.

Beware of the following type of e-mail scam!!

Above is a partial scan of an e-mail I have recently received twice.

It appears to be a speeding ticket notice from the New York State Police. The only problem is I have not been to New York in quite a long time.

The above notice is likely a scam as it requires you to open an attachment which is a very popular choice for sending many types of computer viruses.

If you are sure you have not driven in New York State lately, get rid of this e-mail immediately!!

If you are from New York or have driven in New York and are NOT sure if it is a real ticket, I would advise you to call up the New York State Police by phone to verify if you actually have a ticket because I doubt the New York State Police issues tickets on the Internet in this manner.

My video review of the SkipDr Laser Lens Cleaner is now on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel

Yes, I know it has been several weeks since I have uploaded a video to my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel. I had been rather busy with work, seasonal stuff, birthdays, etc. for a while, but now things have gotten more back to normal now.

Well finally I have put together a new video review. This time I am reviewing the SkipDr Laser Lens Cleaner from Digital Innovations. I purchased this cleaning disc at Fred Meyer after I had some success a while back cleaning my drives with a similar Philips Magnavox cleaning disc that I had borrowed. This disc can be used on just about any type of machine that has a CD/DVD drive including Blu-ray players, HD DVD players, Microsoft XBOX video game systems, Sony Playstation video game systems, Portable DVD Players, and DVD Recorders.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Shortly after I purchased this item, SkipDr was replaced with the name CleanDr by Digital Innovations. Everything else between the older SkipDr and newer CleanDr Laser Lens Cleaning Discs are probably almost identical.

I also want to mention that I am continuing to use the new version of my Video Review Opening Theme song on this video review. The improved version is the one I created using the Magix Music Maker 17 software which I recently reviewed for this same series of video reviews on my NATHANROADINWA Channel on YouTube.

As always, let me know what you think about my video reviews by commenting and rating them, and look for the other videos I have done on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel too.

--> CLICK HERE <-- to see my SkipDr video review and my many other reviews that I have uploaded to my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel page.

Updates on the WDTV Live Deezer app and Best Buy.COM webpage loading problems

Recently I mentioned that BESTBUY.COM was not working correctly with Mozilla's Firefox Browser. My Firefox browser was recently updated automatically when I started Firefox and this happened after I first posted about the BESTBUY.COM incompatibility issue.

Unfortunately, the updated Firefox browser continues to have problems loading pages from BESTBUY.COM. I have to click the stop button on the browser and then reload the page using the reload page button at the top of Firefox before the Best Buy pages tend to appear. Hopefully Mozilla and Best Buy will see this and work out their incompatibility issues soon.

I also recently mentioned that the Deezer application on the WDTV Live Plus media player has a search feature which returns no results no matter what you enter as a search term.

Well I installed Deezer on an Archos 32 Internet Tablet and went to the Deezer website. While you can listen to radio stations on Deezer and listen to the top music lists, the search feature is disabled on all the methods I have tried. This used to be not the case with Deezer. However, Deezer is in the process of doing official launches in other parts of the world such as in the UK next month and here in the US in the future even though they let certain devices here in the US already access certain features of their service.

I know what you are probably thinking. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to not allow certain features to be used until a certain date, but it probably has to do with getting rights to use music here in the US that they already can use in Europe where Deezer is based out of. Hopefully Deezer will get their full US service up soon or it will probably be time to start looking for alternative music services.

Best Buy.COM issues with Firefox browser

This is to let people know that if you are having problems accessing the Best Buy website, BESTBUY.COM, that there are apparently some incompatibility issues between the Best Buy HTML code and Mozilla's latest Firefox browser version.

I figured this out after I tried Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and the pages started loading fine without taking forever to load or else having to stop the loading of the page to make the webpage appear like I had to do in Firefox to make the page appear eventually.

It is sad that there is this kind of incompatibility still in the year 2011 since many current High School kids have been raised their entire lives with the Internet now.

Last Day to use Fred Meyer Savings Certificate (AK stores ONLY) and Deezer search issues on WDTV

This is a reminder that today is the last day to use your week long Fred Meyer Savings Certificate for $10 off a $50 purchase, $20 off a $100 purchase, or $30 off a $150 purchase or greater in selected departments.

But I will not be taking advantage of this savings certificate since it is only valid at the Alaska locations since this savings certificate is to get Alaskans who get their annual Dividend fund from the state to spend their annual state dividend check at Fred Meyer. So us Washingtonians are out of luck unfortunately. Which is a shame since this is the time of the year where Fred Meyer rarely puts out any savings certificates to the other Northwest states.

Unfortunately in other bad news, the search option in the WD TV Live Deezer application is NOT currently working. The search options in other apps such as Tune-In and YouTube are working, so this is apparently a Deezer only problem. Hopefully Deezer and Western Digital are looking for a solution for this problem as I can not access any music from Deezer other than the top songs and radio options. You can't currently look for any song by title or artist right now which is very frustrating.

Steve Jobs' death only one of several major tech stories this week

This morning, the Today show on NBC dedicated almost the entire first half-hour of their program to report on the passing of Steve Jobs.

However, many Digital Music/Tech stories this week have been downplayed in the media.

First, like I mentioned yesterday, Napster is going to be merged with Rhapsody and the Napster brand will be discontinued which will eliminate a major competitor to Apple in the online digital music business. Best Buy, who currently owns Napster, decides to throw in the towel because of Apple's dominance.

Second, was news this week that Microsoft Zune devices are no longer going to be manufactured. Zune was one of the main alternatives to Apple's iPod. Microsoft also decides to throw in the towel because of Apple's dominance.

These stories come in addition to the recent announcement earlier this year that WalMart was ending its online digital music service that was in direct competition with Apple's iTunes store.

So Apple has managed to knock out 3 major competitors just this year alone: WalMart, Best Buy, and even tech giant Microsoft!

But there are a few other tech stories which are getting very little coverage as well. I will briefly mention them.

First, Western Digital is releasing a new model to the WD TV line. It is going to be called "WD TV Live" which is confusing since they already have a "WD TV Live" model. The new model has built-in wireless unlike the previous WD TV models and some cosmetic changes, but the features and online services are pretty much the same as the older versions of WD TV Live and the Live Plus models.

Second, Archos is now listing at least 2 models of their Gen9 series of internet tablets on their website though they might not be for sale quite yet. The new models appear to have 3G capability in addition to Wi-Fi. But the 3G might not be a built-in feature and may require a thing to be plugged into it.

It appears that the moral of this story is that even though it seems like much of Apple's competition seemed to die around the same time as Steve Jobs this year, there is still some hope for competition and innovative products from companies other than Apple this year.

Update to "The End of Napster" entry

I wrote the last entry earlier today entitled "The End of Napster". In that entry I mentioned how Apple will be well off even without Steve Jobs as their spokesperson.

Well just a few minutes ago I learned on the news that Steve Jobs had just passed away according to Apple. I would like to let Steve Jobs' family know that I am sorry for their loss. I was not criticizing Steve Jobs in the last entry, but the fact that Apple has been and will be a dominant player in the online digital music industry for many years to come. And I would really like to see alternatives to Apple's offerings which are becoming harder and harder to find with the end of both Walmart and Napster's digital music service offerings.

I am asking for any major retailer or company to fill the void that is being left by the exits of Walmart and Best Buy from the digital music service business. We need more than just Amazon and Apple to obtain and listen to online music.

The End of Napster

Well it looks like Napster is about to be no more. Best Buy, who purchased the company back in 2008, was apparently unable to get Napster to be a leading contender in the digital music business. They are selling it to rival Rhapsody meaning that everyone who was subscribed to Napster will apparently now be subscribed to Rhapsody instead.

This sale just comes weeks after Wal-Mart shut down their digital music store.

Even without Steve Jobs as Apple's spokesperson anymore and even with an iPhone release that many are disappointed with, Apple has to be happy with the end of both Wal-Mart and Napster digital online music services this year. These 2 closures should increase Apple's iTunes store market share to a larger piece of the pie yet.

Well there is still an Amazon.COM to challenge Apple's iTunes store dominance. But let's be honest: Apple will be in really great shape for some time to come.

A Fall 2011 TV Update

NBC has just cancelled "The Playboy Club" after 3 episodes making it the first show to get pulled this season. It looks like it will be joined very soon by "How to Be a Gentleman" on CBS and "Free Agents" on NBC. Replacing "The Playboy Club" on Oct. 31 will be "Rock Center" which is a new news magazine type program with NBC's Brian Williams and Harry Smith. It is still strange seeing Harry Smith on NBC now after being on CBS News programs for so long.

FOX's "Terra Nova" is not really bad but not really good either creatively, but I don't think it will last more than 2 seasons on FOX which is how long many other shows have lasted on FOX such as Human Target and the recent Terminator series.

But the show to keep an eye on this Fall will likely be "The X Factor" also on FOX. It might be only getting around 11 Million viewers now, but that is how American Idol's First Season started out. And by the end of Idol's First Season, it was around 22 million viewers for the Finale. I think "The X Factor" will catch a lot of people off guard as the season progresses.

Chris Christie for President? Might not be that bad of an idea!

Sorry for the long absence again between posts. There is a lot of talk lately of people wanting New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie to run for President. Since I haven't been to New Jersey in a long long time, I can't say how good of a governor he is for that state.

Then I saw that he looks rather obese when they showed video of him walking on a recent news report. So many people might want to pass on him as a candidate just based on his weight.

Well currently over in the European nation of Denmark, there are efforts being made now to tax foods with a certain percentage of fats or greater. This is to prevent Denmark from having soaring obesity rates like here in the United States and Great Britain. A similar type tax was attempted here in Washington State with 2010's "Candy Tax". Fortunately this tax which was taxing everything from licorice, energy bars, and sweetened nuts based on the definition of flour and candy was repealed by the passing of an initiative last year by Washington State voters.

With a Gov. Chrisie as President, there would likely be more tolerance for obesity in this country as not all cases of obesity are from people eating too much "junk" foods. It is likely that genetics does play an important part in people's weights and not just food consumption.

With around 1/3 of the US population currently being labeled obese, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie might be just what this country needs: Someone to represent the big people of this country.