(3D) Blu-ray Player Software for Windows: 2012 Reviews

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Contents

1. Introduction, shared features and limitations (this page)

2. CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Ultra Review

3. ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 Review

4. Corel WinDVD Pro 11, Nero 11 Platinum, Roxio CinePlayer with 3D Reviews

5. Comparison table, overall impressions and conclusion

Here is the new installment in our traditional Windows Blu-ray player software reviews. There's been quite some development in the field since our 2011's comparison. But first things first. Nope, the year may be 2012 (and the end of the world approaching) but there are still no free Windows Blu-ray players. As explained before this mostly comes down to patents and licenses. Licensing Blu-ray technology costs money, which makes it an unlikely proposition for free media players. Laptops which feature BD drives sometimes come with OEM versions of one of the software Blu-ray players described here. But OEM versions are often lacking features and they are not updated as regularly as the retail versions of any Blu-ray / DVD player software package.

Since last year Roxio stopped offering Blu-ray playback in their CinePlayer with 3D although it's apparently still marketed as a 3D player. We don't know the exact reason behind this move but it's probably something related to licensing again. And then Corel bought Roxio altogether. So currently there are just four commercial software packages for Windows supporting BD playback. These are CyberLink's PowerDVD 12 Ultra, ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre 5, Corel's WinDVD Pro 11 and Nero 11 Platinum. Some of these manufacturers sell also low-end packages offering cheaper video playing software with restricted functionality (like CyberLink's PowerDVD 12 Pro or PowerDVD 12 Standard), but for Bluray playback you will always have to purchase the high-end edition. Note that sometimes we will shorten or abbreviate the name of the reviewed 3D Blu-ray player software package but in all instances we will refer to the highest-end version, e.g., PowerDVD will stand for PowerDVD 12 Ultra. Since Nero have disabled BD playback in their trial version and it's more of an add-on anyway, Nero Platinum 11 is included mainly for completeness rather than being actually tested.

Before we delve into the individual Blu-ray player reviews, here are some of the features and restrictions PowerDVD 12 Ultra, TotalMedia Theatre 5 and WinDVD Pro 11 share in common. All of these Windows media players:

• Run on Microsoft Windows 7, Windows XP (with Service Pack 3) and Windows Vista.
• Are capable of Blu-ray 3D playback.
• Offer support of HDMI 1.4.
• Can convert 2D video to 3D.
• Achieve very high picture quality during Blu-ray disc playback and any distinctions among the video players are practically impalpable on a full HD display. (But this is not exactly the case in regard to upscaling standard definition content or any other content of lower resolution to high definition displays.)
• Support hardware acceleration. This means that decoding calculations are done on the graphics hardware, which enables HD video playback on systems having slow CPUs. Note that hardware acceleration will disable some video processing features because it relegates work to the graphics card driver.
• Work with DTS-HD audio and Dolby TrueHD audio.
• Upscale standard definition / low res video files and DVDs to full HD.
• Support AVCHD video playback. AVCHD is currently the most popular HD video format for video enabled photo cameras and consumer camcorders.
• Offer Remote Control support.
• Enforce content protection and will disable frame capture and clip capture (if applicable) from Blu-ray movies. Other functions may also be disabled when playing content protected 2D or 3D Blu-ray discs.
• Support player profile 2.0 of BD-Live.
• Allow for several changes of the Blu-ray region code setting (usually limited to 5) inside the BD player software. Not writing the region setting directly in the drive itself uncovers a nice opportunity for turning your PC into a region free Blu-ray player: Windows 7, XP or Vista, two or three different bluray software packages and just one BD drive on your computer will do the trick.

Our (3D) Blu-ray player software reviews continue with CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Ultra.

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CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Ultra Review: Blu-ray, DVD & Media Player

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(...continues from Page 1: Introduction to 2012 3D Blu-ray Player Software Reviews)

CyberLink's PowerDVD is the oldest media player in this pack. It is also the first that introduced Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D playback. The current version is the freshly released PowerDVD 12.

In the new edition of their 3D Blu-ray player software, CyberLink have diminished the significance of the monikers TrueTheater HD and TrueTheater 3D for the corresponding upscaling and 2D to 3D converting parts of their video processing engine. In PowerDVD 12 they simply call the whole engine TrueTheater Effects. It is only available when hardware acceleration is disabled though as acceleration relies on the video card driver which is not entirely controlled by the software. TrueTheater Effects offer three notable new features. All of these are pretty nice to have for homemade videos, but we don't recommend them turned on for movies.

First, there is frame rate smoothing which interpolates frames to increase apparent smoothness in movement. This is pretty nice for video, especially home videos, but don't ever turn it on for movies unless you want to make them look like TV. Cinema is shot in 24 frames per second, which induces the strobing effect in object movement and camera pans. Some people call it the dream effect. No reason for anyone to want to get rid of it in a movie, so, again, only use this for home videos. Next, there is a video stabilizer, which attempts to decrease image shaking from handheld cameras. Note that it will cut the borders of the video in order to manage a stable core. Last, there is a denoiser to strip videos from noise. Again, nice for home video, but don't use on movies or you will remove filmic grain from the image.

For some time now CyberLink have put focus on online features. Since version 10 PowerDVD integrates MoovieLive, CyberLink's online movie database and community portal. Initially somewhat lacking in content, this service is now more richly populated. The integration allows the user to post ratings and reviews online and to get context information related to the currently watched movie. There is also a counter taking track how many times a movie has been watched globally. This includes all PowerDVD users and is essentially serving as a popularity rating amongst the PowerDVD community. The Live Comments feature enables status updates to Twitter, Facebook and MoovieLive from within PowerDVD. It is probably most appropriate to use with Twitter as it is closely related to the Twitter paradigm. And for the purists, there are options to turn all these online features off. Publishing to YouTube has been streamlined and you can now publish videos to Facebook. YouTube support has been extended to include 3D videos as well as 2D to 3D conversion for YouTube videos. 2D to 3D support has been made universal, now being extended to Blu-ray playback too. The new version also integrates support for the online music store 7Digital, a DRM free music store with a huge selection of tracks and, coincidentally, our music store of choice. (7Digital integration is supported in selected countries initially; US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, to be precise.)

As expected, PowerDVD 12 can be integrated with Windows Media Center. In this case it launches a minimalistic interface (the so called Cinema mode), which blends beautifully with WMC. This interface mode is simple, clean and designed to be friendly to remote control use, but nevertheless includes most features of the Classic mode (except files playback). Cinema mode can also be toggled on through an icon in the standard Classic mode interface. The Classic mode itself has been polished and now looks slicker. The media browser also got some new toys and now can rearrange and scale thumbnails. Scaling also extends to actual playback allowing for real time video zoom in and zoom out.

In another move towards integration PowerDVD can now work and cooperate with various devices. Android and iOS devices (smartphones, tablets) can be used as remote controls for PowerDVD 12. Media files and playlists can be synced with Android and Blackberry devices. Syncing will also take care of any format conversions necessary if the mobile device does not support the source format. PowerDVD can also act as both DLNA server and DLNA client and stream from and to devices connected to the home network. Intel WiDi is also supported for wireless streaming to TVs (Blu-ray playback included).

PowerDVD has always been in the forefront amongst commercial video players in terms of format support. Now in a welcome addition there is support for OGG and FLAC audio files (about time, we may say). The new Matroska 3D format MK3D is also supported. And new is support for DTS-HD 7.1 sound from Blu-ray discs. PowerDVD 12 Ultra can now also play from Blu-ray folders, a feature which was previously unique to ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre. An interesting move toward strengthening its status of a universal media player is the support for various picture RAW file formats from advanced photo cameras. Photo enthusiasts will probably enjoy this.

Our 2012 Blu-ray player software reviews continue with ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5.

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ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 Review: Another All-in-One Media Player

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(...continues from Page 2: CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Ultra Review)

ArcSoft haven't released a new major version of TotalMedia Theatre for more than a year so this part of our 2012 Blu-ray player reviews will partially retell some stuff from last year's article. TMT 5 got some updates during that time though, with optimizations, bug fixes and even some features, so we will cover that.

TotalMedia Theatre 5 was a major update since TMT 3 (version 4 was skipped, thus showing the big leap from version 3). With TMT5 ArcSoft got rid of the multiple editions like Standard, Gold and Platinum and went with just TotalMedia Theatre 5. Pretty nice, that. The others should do well to follow this and unify their offers. The most important addition to TMT 5 was the support of Blu-ray 3D. The Sim3D engine, which is doing the conversions from 2D to 3D, was improved and optimized. After the latest updates the upscaling engine SimHD now includes support for OpenCL on AMD graphics cards (NVIDIA's parallel computing architecture CUDA was already previously supported on NVIDIA hardware). And similar to CyberLink's TrueTheater Effects engine, SimHD includes video post-processing features like noise reduction and framerate smoothing.

ArcSoft have been carefully watching CyberLink's love affair with the Internet. Their online venture though is in a slightly different direction and is mostly focused on YouTube. TotalMedia Theatre 5 can serve as a YouTube browser and player. It allows searches for particular videos and access to the Most Popular and Featured channels. The user can also link and share the currently playing YouTube video to their profile on Facebook.

The user interface of TotalMedia Theatre also got more minimalistic and slicker, and thus feels more streamlined. An elegant interactive grid of thumbnails called Magic View (check the screenshot), which is essentially a very nice media browser, allows browsing all the video lists: user playlists, UPnP media servers, YouTube, the library. You can preview media directly on the grid. A beautiful feature that can also be switched off if you get dizzy by awesomeness like this. There is a Smart Menu feature simulating the pop-up menu of BD movies for DVDs and video files. It enables the user to bookmark scenes or search in IMDB for information about a particular movie in addition to the usual subtitles, audio and chapters options. The integration with Windows Media Center is also improved. It is abundant of features and trouble free.

TotalMedia Theatre 5 added support for various file formats, most notably FLAC, WTV and AVCHD 3D, making it a pretty decent dedicated media player. It also has a pretty extensive and useful subtitles system with manual subtitles selection for video files (unlike PowerDVD's auto subtitles) and What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get positioning of the subtitles. It was also the first Blu-ray player software to include BDMV support (playback from Blu-ray folders). The latest updates have also added various improvements for MKV playback: audio bitstreaming, chapters support, SRT and VobSub subtitles from the container, plus multiple audio tracks support. A notable unique feature of TMT deserving mention is the support for HD DVD. If you happen to have guessed wrong during the format wars and have an HD DVD collection then TotalMedia Theatre should obviously be your player of choice.

A cool recent addition to TMT 5 is the ability to temporarily switch the display's refresh rate to match the frame rate of the video source. This means that if your display has 24hz support TotalMedia Theatre will automatically play Blu-ray discs (and 23.976 fps files) in 24p. Pretty neat. Similarly to CyberLink, ArcSoft have also released Android and iOS apps, which turn mobile devices into remotes for TMT.

One minor annoyance with ArcSoft's video player which keeps presenting itself version after version is the need to reboot Windows in order to finish off the installation of TotalMedia Theatre 5. Yes, you do this once and it is certainly not a big deal, but, hello, this is 2012 and that's a thing you don't endure with neither PowerDVD, nor WinDVD.

Our Blu-ray player software reviews continue with Corel WinDVD Pro 11, Nero 11 Platinum and Roxio CinePlayer with 3D.

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Corel WinDVD Pro 11, Nero 11 Platinum, Roxio CinePlayer with 3D Review

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(...continues from Page 3: ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 Review)

Corel WinDVD Pro 11

Corel have released a new version of their Windows media player WinDVD since our previous Blu-ray player reviews. The company still offers two variants of video playing software: WinDVD 11 and WinDVD Pro 11, with Blu-ray and 3D support only available in the Pro edition.

Corel's WinDVD lacks some of the bells and whistles of PowerDVD and TotalMedia Theatre but Corel have apparently made a serious effort with this version. WinDVD Pro 11 can now convert 2D to 3D and has updated and optimized 3D support. The processing engine has been improved with video stabilization and framerate smoothing. Both have some problems though. Smoothing introduces some weird artefacts, probably interpolation related, most noticeable around patterns in moving shots. Stabilization occasionally creates lateral jumps in the picture with the default lateral stabilization setting. WinDVD 11 also adds support for MKV, MP4 and FLV formats and for playlists.

Corel now have their own online service FlixFinder, which is integrated in WinDVD. It does meta searches in movie streaming services. Currently these include Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. This allows to compare prices, select the best price and watch the movie immediately.

New users are taken care of with in-software Starter Guide, video tutorials and links to a dedicated Vimeo channel. It seems with this version of WinDVD Corel have also tried more aggressively to gain market share. The list price has been lowered to $79.99 and a free copy of WinZip Pro is added as a bonus at the time of writing of this review in the beginning of 2012. The boxed version also includes a pair of 3D glasses.

Other notable features of WinDVD Pro 11 include: uncluttered and clean interface; multitude of power management options for battery control on notebooks; a time-stretch function to squeeze in the end of the movie you're watching in limited time situations; PAL TruSpeed - an option to play sped up 24-to-25 fps PAL videos at their true speed with automatic correction of audio pitch; parental control; clip capture.

Nero 11 Platinum / Nero Kwik Blu-ray

Nero used to offer a Blu-ray playback plug-in for some of their applications. Things are much more simple now: in order to get Blu-ray support you need their flagship application suite Nero 11 Platinum. The suite includes Nero Kwik Media for media browsing, sharing on Facebook and syncing with Android devices, Nero Video for basic video editing, Nero Burning Rom for burning discs (including Blu-ray discs), Nero Recode for transcoding various media formats and ripping DVD discs, Nero BackItUp for files backup.

Blu-ray playback here should really be thought of as a bonus. That is, you should be getting Nero for their other applications and not for the Blu-ray playback alone. Nero doesn't support 3D (including Blu-ray 3D), nor does it support any HD audio formats. Also, note that Blu-ray playback is not included in the free trial so you are not able to test it before buying.

Update:

To confirm the trend of frequent changes in the Blu-ray software world, a new option for BD playback appeared just before publishing this article. It seems that now Nero 11, Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Essentials, Nero Video 11 and Nero Kwik Media can also play Blu-ray movies with the additional purchase of Nero Kwik Blu-ray. You can check this opportunity directly in Nero's store cause it seems there is not detailed information about Nero Kwik Blu-ray at the time of this writing. Our advice to think of Nero's Blu-ray disc playback only as an added bonus to other Nero's applications remains. But if you plan to buy one of the mentioned Nero products or already own one of them you can consider getting Nero's BD software player too cause the price for this addition won't be too high. Even if it's not as good as its competitors and you decide to buy a better video player you can still use Nero's as an option for playing Blu-rays with region codes different than your regular discs.

Roxio CinePlayer with 3D

This paragraph is here to inform that Roxio's CinePlayer that used to be a 3D Blu-ray player is currently only a 3D player. We don't exactly know why Roxio do not offer support for BD playback in their CinePlayer anymore but it could do something with the fact that Corel has recently bought Roxio. There is still 3D video support in CinePlayer with 3D, as the name suggests, so if you happen to be just after a cheap 3D video player and don't care for the lack of Blu-ray playback support too much (although why would you be reading an article comparing Blu-ray player software then?), this inexpensive video playing program may actually be a good option. Also have in mind that Roxio's player offers RealD 3D support.

Let's complete our 2012 reviews of Blu-ray playback software with comparison table and conclusion.

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Blu-ray Software Player Reviews 2012: Comparison and Conclusion

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(...continues from Page 4: Corel WinDVD Pro 11, Nero 11 Platinum & Roxio CinePlayer with 3D Reviews)

Comparison and general impressions

Performance was once again tested on the computer system we used for our 2011's Blu-ray player reviews. It is equipped with Intel i5-430m CPU, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics video card, 4GB DDR3 RAM and MS Windows 7 OS. We actually used the same disc for the 2012's tests, so the result can be compared with last year's (bear in mind that some error of measurement surely exists).

	PowerDVD	TMT	WinDVD
CPU load1	9.0%	6.6%	11.2%
Loading times2	4:12s	9:13s	9:28s
Upscale to HD	Yes	Yes	Yes
2D to 3D	Yes	Yes	Yes
Blu-ray 3D	Yes	Yes	Yes
WMC integration	Yes	Yes	No
HDMI 1.4	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time stretch	Yes	Yes	Yes
Online features	Lots	Some	Some
.mkv support	Yes	Yes	Yes
FLAC support	Yes	Yes	No
Blu-ray folders	Yes	Yes	No
DLNA	Yes	No	No
HD DVD	No	Yes	No
Mobile remote	Yes	Yes	No
Free trial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Built-in updates check	Yes	Yes	Yes
Price3	$99.95	$99.99	$79.99

1. Average CPU load during playback of MPEG-4 AVC stream with hardware acceleration on.
2. Average BD loading times based on 5 measurements with each Blu-ray software player.
3. Regular price; various promos or discounts may apply.

Blu-ray playback quality is good with all three players. Image quality is indistinguishable between them due to decoding being done by the graphics card driver.

Funnily, the problem with WinDVD we mentioned last year manifested itself again. At some point during testing WinDVD refused to run in full HD resolution and started requesting a change to lower screen resolution on startup, then quitting. From then on, this happened on each and every start of WinDVD when there was a Blu-ray disc inserted in the Blu-ray drive. TotalMedia Theatre has obviously been polished in the updates following the initial release of version 5 because there weren't any glitches whatsoever this time around. The table even shows some small performance increase, probably due to optimizations. PowerDVD got a major version update recently and this shows in occasional slight lag in the options menu. No crashes or apparent bugs though. On top of smooth playback PowerDVD 12 Ultra impressively does quick fast forwarding (also on Blu-rays) most notable when dragging the movie playback position on the timeline. None of the others can boast about that. It is worth mentioning that PowerDVD and TMT tend to get updated more often than WinDVD, which may result in fewer problems (if any) with newer Blu-ray discs.

In terms of upscaling PowerDVD still looks most pleasing when software upscaling is used. It is a bit subjective, but to these eyes here this is the case. So if you watch a lot of DVDs or standard definition files it is probably best to get PowerDVD 12. With hardware acceleration enabled the differences between all of the software Blu-ray players vanish and as already mentioned it is better to have any post-processing options in the video card driver's control panel disabled. Image "enhancements" like oversharpened picture, plasticky faces or edge enhancement may appear otherwise.

Conclusion

It is once again a tough call between CyberLink's PowerDVD and ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre. On the other hand, things are simple: both are pretty good, so you can't go wrong with either. Nevertheless, we can safely recommend PowerDVD 12 to online addicts or people who like to have lots of features available, and TotalMedia Theatre 5 to the purists or anyone who finds PowerDVD's online expansion bloated. Everyone else will most likely do fine with either of them, but if you can't make a choice yet better have another look at the dedicated paragraphs: maybe there is something you've overlooked in our reviews which can help choosing the best Blu-ray player software for your particular needs. For users whose main consideration is price, Corel's WinDVD Pro 11 may be a solution although it's not considerably cheaper than its competitors and it's not as inexpensive as last year's cheapest offering in the face of the retired Roxio CinePlayer BD with 3D.

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Duel (1971): One of Steven Spielberg's Less Popular Jewels

Most probably, you've already seen plenty of Steven Spielberg's movies but it's quite possible you haven't seen one of his first films made for the TV yet. Duel is a remarkable movie in many aspects. Duel does not have an extensive cast. It does not sport any huge film stars. One of the two Duel's characters that matter is practically invisible throughout the movie. There is not a lot of talking and almost everything in Duel's an hour and a half long time span happens on the road or along it. Yet, this is a film that captures your attention from the beginning and keeps it absorbed until its end.

Duel's plot is quite simple. David Mann (Dennis Weaver), a man from California, drives through the desert for a business appointment outside of his town. After David passes a massive truck, its driver begins to chase him and does not give up independently of David's attempts to lose him. It appears the truck driver has no other occupation than pursuing David hidden in his big truck.

As unpretentious the plot might seem, it's enough to entertain you for the entire continuance of the movie. Duel starts with random transmissions from various radio stations that are interesting on their own. It continues with some common road activities and subtly proceeds to the thrilling part. From then on, the suspense is constantly there and if you've been wondering what substance could stuff a movie based entirely on a road chase, you are going to stop at this point. It's easy to guess where the movie is heading for and even that the chase could have a tragic conclusion for one of the participants but you will not know who and how until the very end of the film. In fact, you won't be completely sure about the reasons for the pursuit even after Duel ends.

Dennis Weaver has a heavy task in this movie because he must carry out the whole narrative on his shoulders. He copes with the assignment quite well. His character tries to simulate self-confidence but he is a man who has doubts about everything. He is easily frightened and tries to avoid any possible problems, yet this results in overreactions and often inadequate behaviour. David is the perfect guy to be chased by a psycho.

The problem I have with this character though is why he doesn't just turn his car back when he has many occasions to do it and especially when he realizes that he has missed the meeting. This is pretty much the main flaw of the movie since it doesn't fit in the character's profile. David Mann is hardly a man who would like to prove anything to a malevolent stranger. It would have been much better if the moviemakers had decided to present the whole chase as happening after the meeting and David travelling towards home since his wife waiting for him would be a substantial reason to continue in that direction regardless of the truck following him. Of course, it's not very likely to expect from a movie with a plot limited in the aforementioned boundaries to be flawless so this fault is excusable although diminishing Duel's realism.

Despite that flaw and a couple of other minor plot issues the execution of this project is rather good and Duel is an important demonstration of Steven Spielberg's capabilities in his early days. Duel is suspenseful. The events happening along the road are feasible. And the chase itself is memorable and haunting. This results in an easy recommendation of Duel to all movie lovers, a recommendation which is even more easier to the fans of Spielberg or to the admirers of thrilling experiences.

Haywire (2011): A Watchable Film with Wasted Potential

What happens if you put together a beautiful retired mixed martial arts fighter (Gina Carano), an Academy Award winning director (Steven Soderbergh), several famous actors (Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor) and a mediocre story? Well, apparently a haywire movie. Although in reality Haywire is not a disastrous film I expected a better film bearing in mind all of the people involved in its production.

Haywire presents a couple of weeks in the life of secret operations near-freelancer Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) who is regularly hired for various undercover missions via her "boss" Kenneth (Ewan McGregor). After a hostage rescue mission in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly assigned to a new task in Dublin. She has some suspicions though and discovers that she has been set up and her life is in a real danger. Mallory has to use her fighting skills (which she uses well) to survive and her training for secret missions to escape her chasers and get back into the United States where she is determined to find out the truth and to revenge on all implicated in her getting in trouble.

In fact, Haywire starts fairly well and slowly loses potential. While we see some of Carano's martial arts skills, there are a lot of other misused people and items. As mentioned before Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas and Ewan McGregor star in the movie but they are rarely shown on the screen. Michael Douglas plays government agent Coblenz but he is pretty much an expendable character and rarely appears in the movie. Antonio Banderas' Rodrigo is kind of Coblenz's contact but he is almost as redundant as Coblenz himself and it's strange why these two actors have accepted their minor roles in Haywire. Ewan McGregor, whose part is to be the head of the private firm Mallory works for, does not have much to do throughout the movie as well although the amount of his participation could be considered passable. From the rest of the cast, Michael Fassbender is worth a mention giving a good performance as a British agent who is unfortunate to meet Mallory at the wrong place and time.

It should have become clear from the above that Gina Carano is the main driving force in Haywire. But speaking of driving, even the appearance of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution car in the film is not used to its full potential. Mallory drives the car of a random guy who tries to help her but there is nothing noticeable in the few driving scenes to justify the use of this mighty vehicle (even in the light of product positioning). And speaking of that random guy with the car, he is also completely expendable.

The direction of Steven Soderbergh is decent but he has filmed much better pictures than Haywire. There is enough suspense in the movie up till a certain point (mainly while the retrospective sequences last) and after that it becomes quite straightforward without twists and surprises. The only not so obvious part is whether Michael Douglas' character is "good" or "bad" but you cannot be completely sure about this even after the ending of Haywire.

For fans of Steven Soderbergh or any of the actors, Haywire is understandably a must see film. For all of the rest, it's a decent movie but if you have better opportunities for spending your time do not wonder too much which option to choose.

GoDaddy.com Attempts a New Domain Name Registration Scam

I had quite an unpleasant domain name registration experience with GoDaddy yesterday. I don't know if this is a new way for Go Daddy to cheat you and "steal" your money but at least it was the first time they attempted to pull this domain scam on me. I have been using GoDaddy.com for registering domain names for years and I haven't been so displeased by them as other people. The registrar usually tries to sell services you most probably do not want but once you've become accustomed to their methods, they are easy to be quickly omitted. So, until yesterday, I didn't mind to register generic top level domains there. Now, after they supported SOPA bill and my recent obnoxious discovery about them, I think it's time to reconsider using GoDaddy's domain registration services.

So, what's the story? Yesterday, I decided to register a .com domain name for a new website which I intended to create with a friend of mine. We liked a name and I incidentally checked if it was available for registration at EuroDNS (the registrar where I had registered some international domain names, mainly European and Asian). The domain look up at EuroDNS showed that this particular name is unoccupied. So, I went to GoDaddy.com and began the steps required for domain name registrations. What was my surprise when immediately upon entering the domain it showed that the name had been already taken but available for purchase at GoDaddy auctions for $499 USD. I repeated the search several times while trying to figure out what was the reason for this "unavailability" and all of my attempts at Go Daddy showed that the domain name was already registered.

I knew that EuroDNS sometimes displays wrong information about domain availability so I decided to check if the domain name is free at a couple of other domain registrars. I did the check and there was nothing wrong with EuroDNS this time, the domain appeared to be available for registration wherever I checked. Then I thought of another test. I went back to GoDaddy and instead of searching for [domain name].com, I made a search for [domain name].info. And as you might guess, now the .com version was listed as available and ready to be registered.

Obviously, GoDaddy's trick is pretty simple. When you make a domain name lookup at GoDaddy.com, sometimes, they decide to show an unregistered domain as already taken and listed for sale at GoDaddy's auctions. If this scam successfully misleads you, there are 2 options. If you really want this domain name, you'll have to pay tens if not hundreds of times bigger amount for it instead of the regular GoDaddy's domain name registration price. If the multiplied price is too high for you or you are not so much into this particular domain, I suppose Go Daddy assumes that you are just going to register another name with them and thus, they will still get (or keep) you as a customer.

The bad thing is, as nasty as GoDaddy's behavior is, the fraud could actually work quite often. In fact, if you haven't accidentally become aware a particular domain name is available for registration, chances are not very huge that you'll figure out Go Daddy is trying to cheat you. I hope this writing creates some awareness about the described GoDaddy scam scheme and if you think it could be helpful to your friends, just share the article with them.

A necessary addition

Because it appears there are a lot of people with a "headache" that have not other job but to accuse others, here are some further clarifications.

1) I did not write the above because GoDaddy "stole" the domain name from me. I successfully registered that name and I own it now. It has been available for registration for all of the time in question so I have not had any problems with its registration. It was available for registration at all other registrars and even at GoDaddy if I searched for the .info version instead of the .com version.

2) Actually, the whole problem described above lies in GoDaddy's implementation of their website and particularly the domain look up. Apparently, if a domain name has been listed for sale through their auctions (and has not been removed) they directly display it as already taken and they offer it to you at the auction price instead of making a check if the name hasn't become available at the time of the check. I don't know the reasons behind this implementation but it's hard to believe it's implemented this way unintentionally. If this is a scam depends on your definition of the word but definitely, it is not proper.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974): Agatha Christie's Mystery

Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express is packed with great actors. It has a good and interesting (despite being a bit narrow) plot based on a book by the world famous Agatha Christie. The director is arguably one of the best directors that have ever lived. The costumes and all other details are carefully crafted. And pretty much everything seems to be perfect at first glance. Then it's quite strange that although plenty of people like this movie, there are many that nearly hate it. The main reason probably lies in Albert Finney's representation of detective Hercule Poirot who creates a distinguishable character which is easy to be loved but equally easy to be hated too.

Multiple Oscar nominee (incl. for his role in Murder on the Orient Express) Albert Finney presents a really notable Hercule Poirot. He is intelligent but arrogant. He does not show sympathy for everybody. He could be gentle and charming with ladies yet impolite and restrained with particular men. He speaks with accent and sometimes it's hard to understand what he is saying. He manifests a sense of humour but he is also capable to be plain serious. He is a bit annoying at times and overly self-confident most of the time. All this translates to a character that could be simultaneously enjoyed and disliked depending on different people's perceptions.

While Finney gives quite a distinctive performance of Poirot, the rest of the all-star cast has not been misused either. Lauren Bacall as Mrs. Hubbard plays an important part constantly providing Poirot with clues and pieces of evidence. Martin Balsam enacts the train line director Bianchi who shows a lot of concern for the future of the Orient express after the murder has been committed on his train. Ingrid Bergman gets her 3rd Academy Award for a convincing (yet small) role of religious missionary in this movie. Jacqueline Bisset, Vanessa Redgrave, Wendy Hiller, Sean Connery, John Gielgud and Jean-Pierre Cassel are only some of the other renowned actors that make great portrayals in the film.

The movie exposes the life in 1935 with very typical shades. Almost all of the colorful and rich characters are very snobbish. The vehicles, the papers, the costumes are well selected and fits perfectly in the epoch. Sidney Lumet creates enough suspense although he has made tenser movies. The tight environment determined by the dimensions of a train car could call forth some parallels with Lumet's 12 Angry Men but this is quite a different film. In fact, the lack of space here probably furthers any theatrical resemblance that the acting could prompt eventually.

Another moment that could dissatisfy some moviegoers is the fact the ending revelations are not quite naturally coming out of the investigations presented in the film. Still, this is a common "feature" of most of the movies based on mystery books (a recent example could be Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) so it's not such a specific flaw of Murder on the Orient Express. Despite its shortcomings this is a solid film. I can see where both its admirers and their opponents are drawing arguments from but it's a movie that is worth a look even just because of its (kind of a controversial) ending.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011): Nothing Is Impossible

After a gap of several years, Ethan Hunt is back with yet another Mission: Impossible movie. If you've already looked at some of the critique's reviews, you can think that it offers something different or at least some more than its previous installments. The truth is Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol offers primarily more impossibility and this could be good or bad depending on your taste. What could not be denied is that the movie looks spectacular and it is packed with lots of action. Of course, "Is it really sensible?" is a rhetorical question.

The fourth instalment in Mission: Impossible series begins with a rescue mission for getting Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) out of a Russian prison. Shortly afterwards the Kremlin is bombed and the IMF is considered involved in the bombing so the organization is shut down. Ethan Hunt and his team are left alone to stop an insane terrorist (Michael Nyqvist) in possession of access codes for launching nuclear weapons and to clear the IMF's name from the accusation of the Kremlin bombing. A skilled and dangerous female assassin is working for the terrorist while Ethan's team gets an "analyst" (Jeremy Renner) as an unexpected bonus. Despite being constantly short of time both, terrorists and Hunt's team, succeed to visit the distant cities of Dubai and Mumbai in addition to Moscow. And with this team involved, the action scenes are guaranteed anywhere in the world.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol offers everything delivered by the previous installments of these series and even more. It has beautiful (Asian) scenery, gorgeous women (the "good" girl Paula Patton and the "bad" one Léa Seydoux), a semi-annoying tech geek (Simon Pegg), various types of action, straightforward plot, breath-taking operations, a lot of "last second" events and naturally, frequent impossible happenings. Plausibility has never been a strong element in the Mission Impossible series and Ghost Protocol is no exception of this rule. Our heroes bring havoc in all of the places they visit yet we have to believe they are under cover.

In their effort to increase the complexity of the missions, the filmmakers have gone quite too far in some particular moments. For example, there is a scene where a guy of Ethan's team has to go down in a shaft and instead of using just a plain "old school" rope in the vertical direction, the team's tech guru tries to capture the jumper in the air with kind of a computer game machinery. Of course, if you are going to see the movie just because of its impressive action and visual sequences, such flaws are nothing to be worried about.

All in all Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is a film that delivers on expectations. The critique has been a bit too favorable to the movie but if you don't tune yourself for something really great, chances are you'll end up satisfied by this Mission: Impossible experience.

Contraband (2012): Unsurprising Action Thriller Movie

Contraband is the latest Mark Wahlberg's movie. And not for the first time Wahlberg is the main hero in an action film even if he scarcely takes part in the action himself. It seems that Contraband is kind of a remake of a four-year-old movie called Reykjavik-Rotterdam. The more curious fact though is the Icelandic director of Contraband, Baltasar Kormákur, plays the lead (the role of Mark Wahlberg) in the former film. Since Contraband is set in America, I suppose Wahlberg has been the better option for the role. Thus, Kormákur has the "easier" assignment just to direct the remake.

Contraband is about a former smuggler with a legendary status named Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) who has left his smuggling days behind. He lives happily in New Orleans with his wife Kate (Kate Beckinsale) and their two children but unfortunately, Kate's brother Andy seems to have not been listening to Chris advices to stay away from criminal affairs. After a drug transfer executed by Andy fails, Chris is forced to return to his smuggling days in order to settle Andy's debt with Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), a young criminal boss for whom Andy has been working. Chris heads to Panama to import a pile of counterfeit bills but as expected everything goes wrong so he and his newly assembled team have to adapt their behaviour almost in real-time. Meanwhile, Chris' wife and children have the task to survive in the United States until he's back.

Mark Wahlberg is the typical cool male protagonist in Contraband. He does not demonstrate a bunch of new acting skills and as far as I recall correctly, he does not make even a single shot in the movie but still he fits well in the role of a charming leader and respected smuggler. Giovanni Ribisi is not very convincing as a mob boss (which could be attributed to the role itself) so his rough resemblance to Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich would be pretty much everything I will remember him with. Kate Beckinsale hasn't been in a movie for several years and it seems this year she will be back with more than a couple of screen appearances. She does not have a huge role here and it's hard to determine if she's in a good shape by just seeing her in Contraband but her character looks pretty and worried which, I suppose, is what mainly has been anticipated from her.

To continue in this direction, Contraband delivers pretty much everything you would expect from a movie like this. There is a portion of action, a couple of small twists, some thrilling moments, a pinch of drama as well as a few funnier scenes and of course, a happy ending. But on the other hand, this same predictability is what depreciates the film considerably. You can see coming all of the major events and the only non-evident elements in Contraband lies in the details. Another thing I find to be problematic is the filmmaker's decision to include Chris' brother-in-law in the team for the job in Panama having in mind he's not a very dependable guy but apparently this has been important for the plot.

So, a recommendation for this movie is easily determinable and even does not need my meddling: since Contraband possesses exactly what one would anticipate to find in it and there is hardly anything to surprise you in whatever aspect, you should be able to decide whether to see the movie or not without further help.

Friends with Benefits (2011) vs. No Strings Attached (2011)

It often happens that more than one movie exploiting a certain topic is released in a short space of time. Some examples could be Tombstone and Wyatt Earp or The Illusionist and The Prestige. Last year's No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits have been one of the recent couples to join this company. Both movies are typical romantic comedies and explore the mixture of sex and friendship in people's relationships. Yet the couple in either of the movies tries not to be involved in a real romantic relationship so both of the films have a lot in common.

No Strings Attached has Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Kline on its list while Friends with Benefits does not sport actual Academy Award winners but has a good ensemble comprised of Mila Kunis, Justin Timberlake, Woody Harrelson and a few other Oscar nominated actors. So let's assume there is not a particular winner in this aspect. No Strings Attached starts with a primarily physical relationship before complications arrive while Friends with Benefits begins with friendship shortly followed by sexual exercises but still without any initial intention for romantic development. Again, nothing so outstanding on either side. Both movies show a parent with lots of sexual relationships. And both, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, are beautiful actresses although we have seen them looking prettier in other films.

Now, to point out some differences. No Strings Attached is somehow more unfocused. There are events like a funeral and an invitation to an almost unknown person to attend it that seem a bit artificial. The movie starts with a physical relationship while trying to avoid any elements of friendliness. Some of the main supporting characters including Kutcher's female co-worker and his father are annoying at times. The ending is kind of mawkish and on second thought, this is valid not only for the ending.

Although Friends with Benefits seems a bit harried over towards the end, it has less redundant scenes and the whole narrative flows more naturally. The dialogue sports a little more freshness compared to the other movie. The ending is not so sugary despite not being original. The supporting cast (or more correctly the characters they portray) fits better in this movie. Woody Harrelson plays a Justin Timberlake's gay co-worker who is really cool with lots of humorous lines for his short screen presence. Another distinction is Kunis-Timberlake couple is practically in a romantic relationship almost since the very beginning of the film, only they don't realize it at that point.

The above should translate in Friends with Benefits being the better movie but don't expect a huge quality gap here. The film is just a bit fresher than No Strings Attached, funnier and more relaxed. Both are standard romcoms with predictable endings and without unexpected twists during the rest of their time span. If you are a fan of the genre, you can see both. If you are not so much into romantic comedies but you want to pick out one of them, I would suggest Friends with Benefits unless you're a dedicated Natalie Portman or Ashton Kutcher admirer.

Cheap International Calls - A Few Rebtel Secrets

If you are already familiar with Rebtel's cheap international calls, below you will find a few secrets for decreasing your phone bills even further (and if you are not, you can find some Rebtel highlights here).

After my first acquaintance with Rebtel I've continued to be unaware of many of the real advantages the service offers for a long time. In order to save you from discovering all of Rebtel's benefits yourself, I am going to list several of its not so obvious treasures so you can make really cheap international phone calls. I say "really" because after reading these tips, you will be often able to make even cheaper phone calls with Rebtel than you've expected. Many of Rebtel's users remain unaware of these possibilities for quite some time after they've signed up with the service so go through the list below and use every hint you can to your full advantage.

So here are the tips that result in direct saving of money when making cheap international calls with Rebtel.

Use a voucher code to double your deposit

Sometimes, for promotional reasons, Rebtel offers voucher codes so you can double your first deposit. For example, by clicking on this link you can turn your deposit of $10 USD into $20 or your initial $25 USD into actual $50 which you can spend for making cheap international phone calls twice more.

Use international collect calls to speak even cheaper

The so called collect calls are based on a very simple idea that could lower your rates multiple times but most likely you won't be aware of it when you land on Rebtel's website for the first time. What is the actual trick? Let's use an example. If you live in the United States and you want to call a friend in the United Kingdom, Rebtel's fee for this call would be 14.9 cents/minute. And you probably wouldn't know that the rate for calling vice versa (from the UK to the US) is just 1.5 cents/minute which is actually 10 times cheaper. And here is the good news: your friend from the UK could call you in the US by using a Rebtel number without even being a customer of the Rebtel's service. How could this happen?

If you are a Rebtel user, you can give your friend the Rebtel number that will be assigned to your real phone number by the service so when your friend in the UK uses the assigned number, the call will be made with a rate of 1.5 cents/minute instead of 14.9 cents/minute. Your friend would have to pay for the local call and you should cover the international part of 1.5 cents/minute. In fact, if you are in the USA, anyone that lives in another Rebtel supported country will be able to call you without even being a Rebtel customer and paying just the local fees (in case local minutes are not included in their monthly plans for free) while you're covering the international part of the call for just 1.5 cents per minute. Of course, this example could be applied to many other countries and you can check the actual rates between them on Rebtel's website. It's a very simple trick but it gives you the opportunity to make really cheap international calls by just changing the direction of the call.

Make free calls directly from your mobile phone or landline

Another money saving feature of Rebtel's is that you can make free calls under certain circumstances. And you don't need a computer with Skype for this. You can talk with your friends that have Rebtel accounts for free if you have an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry phone. You will have to download a software application in order to use this feature though. You can also make "free" international calls even if you don't have Android, iPhone or BlackBerry phone but you should cover the local part of the call in this case. You can learn more about this feature here.

Use Rebtel to avoid international roaming charges

To maximize your benefits from Rebtel you can use the service to lower the charges for your roaming calls when you are abroad. You can read more about this opportunity here but in brief, you have to do the following. You should buy an international SIM card (which just means a local SIM card for the country you'll stay in) and when you enter the number of this new SIM card in your Rebtel account, you will get a Rebtel number for it. You have to give this Rebtel number to your friends and family in your home country. Now, when they make calls to you using this number you will have to pay only the Rebtel fee for the international call instead of paying any roaming charges to your mobile provider. This is so cause the international part of the call will be routed between the new Rebtel number in your home country (where your regular cell phone provider operates) and your "international" SIM card via Internet. And the good news again is your friends and family do not have to be Rebtel customers for calling you.

These have been all of the hints I can recall currently for using Rebtel's cheap international calls from either landline or mobile phone to their full potential. I hope they will be helpful to anybody wanting to save a few more bucks with Rebtel's voip calls and I wish you cheaper calling.

Cheap International Calls - A Few Rebtel Highlights

I'm going to list below a few highlights that make Rebtel's cheap international calling service convenient and easily recommendable for trial and usage. If you're already familiar with Rebtel's service you probably don't need to continue reading this article but you can still check my hints for getting the most of your Rebtel subscription. With these "secret" weapons you will most likely make the "cheap international calls" service you've been already using to cost even cheaper.

Here is how Rebtel works in brief. After you sign up with the service, you receive a local phone number for each of your contacts so when you dial to your friends, you will be practically making a local call. Rebtel routes the international part of the call via Internet so you pay to your landline or mobile provider just for the local call plus a small fee to Rebtel for their service. You don't need any phone cards, software downloads, computers and headsets for this and you can make cheap international calls from either your mobile or landline phone.

And now, a few interesting points that you should have in mind when deciding whether to sign up with Rebtel.

There is a trial free call.

You have the possibility to test the service Rebtel provides by using the free trial call they offer before paying them. If you have any doubts about the quality of the service or any other concern about Rebtel's cheap international calls this is the way to go.

No phone cards, downloads, computers or headsets

Unlike other similar services, you don't have to buy any calling cards or use a computer and download software in order to use Rebtel's service for making cheap international phone calls. You do not have to use a headset either. Actually, there is a case when you need to download a software application but it is intended for use on your phone rather than on your PC and it's just for the purpose of making free calls to your friends which also own Rebtel accounts. You can read more about Rebtel's free international calling on the aforementioned page with money saving tips.

Use landline or mobile phone

You are not only relieved from using computers and calling cards but you can use either your cell phone or landline phone and the service will work fine independently of your choice. The same is valid for your friends on the other side of the line. It is a VoIP call service that can be used directly from your phone in any moment you like meaning you can make cheap international mobile calls directly on the street or anywhere else.

15 million users company

If this has any significance to you, Rebtel is a winner of several awards for mobile phone services and applications. More importantly, they have more than 15 millions of users in 50 countries around the world.

So, after sharing the above Rebtel highlights for your convenience, now it's time for the tips that could lower your international calling charges. Find them here: Cheap International Calls - A Few Rebtel Secrets

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011): An Old School Cold War Spy Drama

The Cold War was a fruitful inspiration for many spy thrillers back in the days. John le Carré's books about MI6 were amongst the more successful. Some of them have been made into films, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold with Richard Burton probably being the most popular. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has already been made into TV series with Sir Alec Guinness in the main part. So the new version has some big shoes to fill.

The protagonist George Smiley is everything that James Bond is not: plain, quiet and working in an office. The movie is centered on his attempt to uncover a double agent in the higher echelons of MI6, or the Circus as its personnel address it. The movie is directed by Tomas Alfredson, who did Let the Right One In. He brought in the project cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, his collaborator on Let the Right One In. Van Hoytema also more recently shot The Fighter. As expected, the film is carefully crafted.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an old school Cold War spy drama both in themes and technique. It is a slow film which takes its time thus recalling the cinema of the 70's, which, incidentally, is when the story is set. The cast features a lot of top British actors: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, to name a few. This shows in the movie: it is an excellent example of a great ensemble cast elevating the end result. Gary Oldman has a heavy task in the role of Smiley, competing with the previous work of Alec Guinness. He does a wonderful job even though his character doesn't talk much and he can most accurately be described as unnoticeable and plain. In fact, his lack of verbosity is so present that when at a later point he relates an event from the past in some detail, it serves as a counter point. Benedict Cumberbatch as Smiley's assistant also deserves a special mention.

The movie conjures a very strong image of London of the 70's. The atmosphere is almost a character of its own. The film has a brownish grey desaturated look; London of this film is not a colorful place for sure. Characters are often portrayed from a distance. Long lenses are the main workhorse, resulting in abundance of shallow depth of field. All this gives a detached view on the subjects and conveys a sense of suspicion and paranoia. Everyone is watching someone and is being watched themselves.

In conclusion, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one of the best movies of the year 2011. It is meticulously directed, wonderfully played and masterfully shot. And all of this with an almost nostalgic nod to the cinema of old. It is a movie one can't often see these days and a film that the awards season will most likely ignore. So treat yourself and go watch it in a movie theater if you can.

EuroDNS Voucher Code List - 2012 Coupons

Similar to the previous years we are going to list here any EuroDNS voucher codes valid throughout 2012. EuroDNS continues to be one of the strong domain registrars offering international domain name registrations so we hope this list will help to many people who want to save a few bucks when register or renew their generic, Asian or European domain names at EuroDNS. The discount codes are valid for renewals too so you don't need a separate promo code to save on renewal of your old domain names as it is with other registrars. Be sure to browse the whole list of coupons below since often there is more than one voucher code for a particular top level domain name.

Here is the list of EuroDNS voucher codes valid during 2012. The list has been updated on 24/01/2012.

Code TLD Type Discount Expires on
GOEU70 EU ANNUALPRICE 70.00 % 31/01/2012
DMRE4EU12 RE ANNUALPRICE 50.00 % 31/01/2012
DM50EU12 EU ANNUALPRICE 50.00 % 31/01/2012
DM50NO12 NO ANNUALPRICE 50.00 % 31/01/2012
PRLU12A LU ANNUALPRICE 63.26 % 28/02/2012
SORO12A RO ANNUALPRICE 28.61 % 28/02/2012
SOCH12A CH ANNUALPRICE 28.61 % 28/02/2012
SOAT12A AT ANNUALPRICE 25.04 % 28/02/2012
SOSE12B SE ANNUALPRICE 32.18 % 28/02/2012
PBASIA12A ASIA ANNUALPRICE 61.11 % 29/02/2012
NLINFO12A INFO ANNUALPRICE 66.72 % 29/02/2012
NLNL12A NL ANNUALPRICE 50.06 % 29/02/2012
NLLU12A LU ANNUALPRICE 55.91 % 29/02/2012
NLNET12A NET ANNUALPRICE 66.72 % 29/02/2012
NLTV12A TV ANNUALPRICE 58.35 % 29/02/2012
NLASIA12A ASIA ANNUALPRICE 55.61 % 29/02/2012
SOORG12B ORG ANNUALPRICE 50.06 % 29/02/2012
GOBE4 BE ANNUALPRICE 75.00 % 29/03/2012
IT2009 IT ANNUALPRICE 70.00 % 29/03/2012
ES2009 ES ANNUALPRICE 70.00 % 29/03/2012
PBFR5012 FR ANNUALPRICE 50.00 % 29/03/2012
PBES7012 ES ANNUALPRICE 70.00 % 29/03/2012
PBBE7512 BE ANNUALPRICE 75.00 % 29/03/2012
PBIT7012 IT ANNUALPRICE 70.00 % 29/03/2012
PBNL12A NL ANNUALPRICE 45.00 % 29/03/2012
NLSE12A SE ANNUALPRICE 39.32 % 29/03/2012
NLIE12B IE ANNUALPRICE 61.48 % 29/03/2012
NLPRO12B PRO ANNUALPRICE 83.39 % 29/03/2012
NLFR12B FR ANNUALPRICE 55.61 % 29/03/2012
NLAT12B AT ANNUALPRICE 54.21 % 29/03/2012
NLORG12C ORG ANNUALPRICE 50.06 % 29/03/2012
NLXXX12A XXX ANNUALPRICE 14.88 % 29/03/2012
DTES5 ES ANNUALPRICE 72.00 % 31/03/2012
DTDE4 DE ANNUALPRICE 75.00 % 31/03/2012
DTCK6 CO.UK ANNUALPRICE 60.00 % 31/03/2012
DTIT5 IT ANNUALPRICE 82.00 % 31/03/2012
PBPRO12A PRO ANNUALPRICE 83.39 % 30/04/2012

If you do not have an account at EuroDNS but you want to try their domain registration services, you can create a new account here. After your account has been created, you can use a particular discount code by entering it in the "Voucher Codes" section on EuroDNS website. Another option is to enter the EuroDNS vouchers directly during the process of new domain name registration or renewal. The article international domain names from EuroDNS.com can give you more information about this domain registrar in case you don't know much about it.

Explore the Review Maze to find other domain name articles.

Moneyball (2011): Change the Rules of the Game to Be Competitive

Moneyball is about balls more than it's about money. Moneyball is in fact about shortage of money (although it's hard to call having millions of dollars an actual lack). What we have in excess though are balls. Because Moneyball shows not only a lot of baseball balls but also men that have balls to experiment, to go against everyone else and to risk their reputation, professional relationships and careers. Changing the rules requires a lot of courage and it is not always a successful initiative but if you are brave enough to commence it and persistent in doing the changes even after a series of failures, you have good chances to succeed. Moneyball confirms this statement and offers even more to enjoy.

Moneyball is about the 2002 season of the Oakland Athletics, a baseball team of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The club has had a low payroll for the recent years and the team's general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) has grown frustrated of the situation and his unsuccessful attempts "to win the last game of the season". He desperately seeks for an efficient way to achieve more while on a limited budget and thus he encounters Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a Yale economics graduate who suggests that Billy's goal should be to "buy" wins instead of players. Together they embark on an interesting experiment that makes the team competitive and amazes the baseball world.

Moneyball's cast is quite strong with Brad Pitt having the task to present the emotional depth of the lead character in a role not so typical for him. Billy Beane is not only a manager trying to change the rules of the baseball game but also a former player who feels the system has misjudged him and probably has turned his entire life in a wrong direction. Billy is constantly bothered by his past and Pitt brings out the general manager's inner pain well enough. Jonah Hill is very believable as Peter Brand. He is smart, quiet, shy and not so extreme as his superior. Philip Seymour Hoffman appears in the role of the Oakland Athletics' manager who has the hard task to manage a team of players he does not approve. The rest of the cast is Ok although not having a lot to do really.

The narrative of Moneyball is fairly absorbing. I suppose it should be more interesting to a baseball dilettante compared to a baseball fan cause the latter one would be most likely familiar with many of the events that have happened in the baseball season of 2002. One possible issue I see that might or might not bother you is how much of the movie is actually true. The statistics cited in the film are probably correct but what part of the Oakland Athletics' success has been due to the new approach is hard to be judged. Moneyball does not offer a typical happy end which again could be treated as good or bad depending on your particular preference and film perception.

Independently of the season's outcome for the Oakland Athletics, the movie is quite inspiring. Moneyball demonstrates that although it's rather dangerous to change the rules of the game, you can often get a big advantage by doing so. The film has a strong potential to change your thinking and eventually to revise your strategies in life, love, work, etc. and this is what makes Moneyball interesting and deserving of your attention. It's a movie good to be seen not only by sports people but by anyone who frequently faces challenges.

Play Misty for Me (1971): Suspense and Efficient Acting

Play Misty for Me is Clint Eastwood's directorial debut released in the distant 1971. He has embarked on various directions making all kinds of films for the next 40 years but rarely his movies have been so suspenseful as his first effort. This does not necessarily mean that Play Misty for Me is his best film (in fact, it exposes enough shortcomings) but on the thrilling side, the movie has a lot to offer (especially for an early 70s film).

The story revolves around disc jockey Dave (Clint Eastwood), a demented female fan of his (Jessica Walter) and the consequences of their brief affair and Evelyn's obsession when Dave's ex-girlfriend Tobie (Donna Mills) comes back into the picture. It has appeared earlier that Evelyn phones to the radio station every night asking Dave to play Erroll Garner's song "Misty" but this is the nicest of her doings. She spoils Dave's business appointment, penetrates into his house, offends his housemaid and makes his life terrible. As Dave's current love interest, Tobie is in danger even more.

The movie offers plenty of suspense and most of the time throughout its second half you would look forward for something (bad) to happen. The acting contributes a lot to the overall tension. Jessica Walter is a brilliant psycho that makes you constantly wonder what to expect next when she's on the screen and even more when she's not. She looks harmless and in the next moment violent. Her unstableness only intensifies the terror. Clint Eastwood makes one of his strong performances and his self-confidence fits well the movie and its threatening atmosphere. Donna Mills is fragile and unsuspecting, almost self-attracting troubles. The rest of the cast is Ok with director Don Siegel deserving mentioning primarily because of his peculiar game with Eastwood's character.

Now for the worse part. While Play Misty for Me offers enough of suspense, it's not so scary as many of the movies released in the years following it. The narrative and most of the events are predictable and there are almost no surprises. This perception however could be referred to the genre's oversaturation nowadays. Another weakness is the Semi-Obligatory Lyrical Interlude (the name comes from Roger Ebert) when Dave and Tobie walk for a couple of minutes under the tunes of a hit song. Although the scene is nice to watch and shares the dark tones of the movie, the whole sequence is just too long and boring.

Another unnecessary scene is the festival one. I can't find its purpose and probably the only thing it helps for is to make you wondering whether something wrong is going to happen during it. Finally, we have a police officer behaving unprofessionally and apparently marching towards his demise with ease.

Despite its flaws Play Misty for Me is a solid debut effort for Clint Eastwood. Although it has probably not aged quite well, the movie has offered a good thrilling story at the time and efficient performances. It's a film that a lover of the genre will enjoy and it drops a hint of Eastwood's directorial potential which we have been able to witness for decades.

When Fall Movies Are Too Happy or Too Dark What Are the Alternatives?

This is a guest article from our friend Raj.

Major Hollywood productions have recently become more black and white in their emphasis, particularly during the fall season. New films have lately been either entirely happy and sweet hearted affairs (think of Happy Feet Two, The Muppets, the entirely bubbly New Year's Eve, and so on), or rolling to the dark, violent or gloomy side of the human experience (the latest Twilight installment, Immortals, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). There are always films in between, but the most promoted blockbusters tend to trend between one pole and the other.

So what is a moviegoer, from the humble malls of Peoria to the Leicester Square Cinema, supposed to do with their entertainment money, with a range of depicted human experience that is only snowflake white or pitch black? Well, what more and more people are doing is widening their menu for getting access to new movies. Many film lovers are getting acquainted with the smaller, quirkier, and most often more honest independent films that don't necessarily cleave to a particular formula, or paint the world as either Day-Glo colors or as a zombie horror fest. On cable, channels like IFC or Sundance are often proving to be preferable to stay home and watch, compared to new releases.

Others are getting reacquainted with the classic Hollywood and international features released between the '30s and '60s, which offer a sea of choices for those looking for all varieties of possible views and tones about the drama of life, quite often with superior performers doing the roles. This may mean, again, staying at home and being entertained by Blu-Ray discs and Turner Classic Movies selections versus running to a multiplex. Avoiding wasting money is the immediate benefit of this approach to movies, as well as regularly viewing a higher grade, classic example of each genre.

After all, when it comes down to it, it may just be necessary to stop subsidizing the dumbing down of human drama that is going on with current Hollywood product, by not attending each month until they produce a better crop of films. The average family now has two rich sources (DVDs, and cable movie channels) that provide over 80 years of choices to mine from, that makes it possible to skip the latest pile of simplistic box office releases altogether. Perhaps the studios would then get with the program and give the public more original, complex, and satisfying explorations of the human experience.