Apple Movie Junkie » Site Update

Apple Movie Junkie Is Looking For A Few Good Movie Reviewers

Eddie V. — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:18:29 +0000

With all of the movies that make their way through posts on Apple Movie Junkie, and now Cinemira, I’ve never stopped to think about wether or not they’re worth your hard earned cash to rent or purchase. We thought it was time to look for someone with an educated…or not….opinion about movies available through iTunes both new releases or catalog titles. So if you’re looking to express your opinion about movies and share it with others, either through text or video, shoot me an email at eddie.v34 at gmail dot com. I’m not looking for one person in particular, it could be a few, and this is also on a non-paid volunteer basis.

Cinemira’s Face-to-Facebook Fan Page

Sergio G. — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:05:30 +0000

In order to spread the word about the many benefits and features Cinemira has to offer to the movie junkies of the world, we have added a Cinemira facebook fan page to it’s many avenues of communication. So along with our twitter page, you can now catch the latest Cinemira news feeds on our facebook page. Enjoy!

What The Open Cinemira Means To Updates On Apple Movie Junkie

Eddie V. — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:00:53 +0000

For the past 2 plus years, first Apple TV Junkie now Apple Movie Junkie, has been the destination for Apple TV and iTunes movie fans to find out the latest and greets additions on a daily basis. With Cinemira now open to all, and with many of its services automating what we do here manually, we don’t see the need to continue the daily updates. We will continue to post our New Movie Tuesday posts, keep up to date on the $.99 rentals, and keep track of the top 5 rentals and purchase titles. Its a new day for Apple Movie Junkie with the release of Cinemira, we thank all of our visitors over the years for your support, and we hope to continue to provide you with the helpful information you’ve come to expect from Apple Movie Junkie.

Apple TV Junkie Is Now Apple Movie Junkie

Eddie V. — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:43:46 +0000

As the shift of responsibilities of listing new movies slowly moves from this site to Cinemira, and with the focus being more about content then the box we view these movies on, we thought it was appropriate that a name change was in order. Apple Movie Junkie is the better fit as more and more Apple products, in addition to the Apple TV, can be used to view movies from the iTunes Store. This doesn’t mean we’re forgetting our roots with the Apple TV, it just means that the Apple TV will no longer be our main focus. Ultimately we want to find the movies for you to watch, wether they be on the Apple TV or iTunes, and you all can choose the box to view them on.

Coming Soon Page Now With Movies Coming Soon

Eddie V. — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:35:13 +0000

Along with the announcement of ATVJ becoming the official blog of Cinemira we’ve revamped our Coming Soon page. The page now lists iTunes pre-order movie titles. We aren’t listing every last pre-order title available in the iTunes Store but more of the well known high profile movies. We think this new revamped pre-order page will be the ultimate companion of Cinemira’s Notification tool so that you know the moment your favorite movie becomes available for purchase or rent.

Say hello to Cinemira. Manage your iTunes movie collection in the cloud.

Eddie V. — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:42:41 +0000

Lets face it, the movie studios have a stake in what gets promoted on the main landing page of the iTunes Movie Store or on the Apple TV. They’re going to push what they think you should be buying or renting. Don’t get me started on the fact that at least half of the movies that are visibly promoted are only available for purchase and not for rent. Add to this the “viewing window of availability” for new titles, allowing the movie studios to remove movies all together, which can make finding a movie you want to rent or purchase that much more challenging.

Apple TV Junkie has set out to overcome these issues by seeking out and discovering newly available iTunes and Apple TV HD movies, finding hidden iTunes movie gems, and digging up the movies which had once disappeared. The idea for us was to find and push as much of this hidden movie content out of iTunes and onto the web as frequently as possible. It’s obvious that Apple is looking to move the iTunes Music Store experience to “the cloud“, we want to do the same for the iTunes Movie Store. We want to bring the entire iTunes Movie catalog out from behind iTunes and onto the web. The challenge for us at ATVJ is doing all this within a “blog” structure. The flexibility to do all that we want is just not there. This is all about to change.

Finish over at http://cinemira.posterous.com… or continue reading.

For the better part of the last year, our small but dedicated, hard working, and bootstrapy team has been working on a more robust solution to managing your iTunes movie catalog and discovering new content, this solution is called Cinemira. Cinemira is being built from the ground up to not only be the successor to Apple TV Junkie, but to be the ultimate management and discovery tool for all iTunes movie watchers. Cinemira is being built using the open source framework Cappuccino, which will give it a desktop application like experience in your browser.

Cinemira is not a complete replacement for iTunes the application. What Appsaurus is to the iPhone App Store, Cinemira is to the iTunes Movie Store. You still need iTunes to rent or purchase a movie. Cinemira will give you movie management tools which iTunes does not offer. Cinemira gives you the ability to search through the entire iTunes Movie catalog or focus your search to only iTunes or Apple TV HD movies, receive alerts when your favorite movie becomes available to rent, keep track of the daily HD movie additions to the iTunes catalog, and keep track of your personal iTunes movie collection. All this from your favorite browser and operating system. It’s no longer necessary to fire up iTunes in order to manage your iTunes movie collection, all you need is a browser and access to the internet. Most of these features iTunes currently lacks.

To start, the focus of Cinemira will be on the management and discovery of iTunes movie rentals. All though you can search and find any movie in the iTunes movie catalog with Cinemira, finding a rental version of a particular movie is always most difficult. The Cinemira team is looking to the end of January for an Alpha launch. Most importantly, Cinemira will be completely free for all, but only through your support and use of Cinemira will we be able to continue its development. Head on over to http://www.cinemira.com to learn more. We’ll be adding more information to the site and this blog as the launch moves closer. If you have any questions regarding Cinemira or its development please feel free to email us at admin at cinemira dot com. Thank you.

ATVJ Changes To HDTV Page & iTunes HD Page

Eddie V. — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:11:38 +0000

I guess the word “change” is an understatement when those pages will be removed all together. With Apple ramping up their HD movie additions, and their ever increasing catalog of HD TV shows, we no longer have the man power it takes to keep up with a complete listing of all the content. We’ll still be of course listing all new HD content in the iTunes Store, but I would rather remove those pages then display them incomplete. We hope and expect that some things coming in the near future from ATVJ will more then make up for a few incomplete lists.

No Daily Apple TV HD Update Today

Eddie V. — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:15:35 +0000

Until Apple gets its act together and decides to spend a little time on the Apple TV, or we discover a different way to find new HD rentals for the Apple TV, we won’t be seeing any updates in the near future. Apparently, as you can see from the image above, Apple has decided to not offer any HD rentals for the Apple TV beyond the letter “B” or about 300 titles. This “All HD” list is one of the ways we find the new HD rentals, and until Apple decides to fix this, we are SOL. Sorry for any inconvenience folks.

Apple TV HD Movies Vs. iTunes HD Movies And ATVJ

Eddie V. — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:46:08 +0000

As most of the visitors to ATVJ know, our goal here is to track all of the HD content available for the Apple TV wether it be Movies or TV, along with tracking some SD content like the daily new additions or $.99 rentals. With the addition of HD rentals through iTunes, we have run into the problem where the HD rental titles available for the Apple TV far outnumber the HD rental titles available from iTunes. Until Apple or the studios brings the HD rentals for both sources into sync, we will do our best to label everything either Apple TV HD or iTunes HD. Hopefully this will keep everything clear for everyone.

New ATVJ Section: The More You Know

Eddie V. — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:57:17 +0000

We post tips and how to’s about the Apple TV from time to time on the site, but over time they get buried, so we’ve decided to create a new section just for these tips called The More You Know. On this page you’ll find links to help you out with anything from installing Boxee on your Apple TV to setting up your own home media server. If there are any other Apple TV features you would like to see us cover please feel free to let us know. Enjoy.

Apple Spreading Its HD Seeds And We Want To Follow

Eddie V. — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:13:32 +0000

As noted today by just about every Mac enthusiast site around, Apple is finally providing HD iTunes content to our friends across the pond in the UK, and with this new HD content we would like to find a contributor willing to cover it. In fact, we wouldn’t mind adding a contributor from any country where iTunes Movie or TV content is available.

We’ve already got Bill G. from our neighbor up north in Canada covering iTunes happenings and if you feel like joining him in covering your countries specific iTunes video content, shoot an email to feedback at appletvjunkie dot com. Everyone will be considered.

Site Update: New Apple TV Tools

Eddie V. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:43:31 +0000

Thanks to all of your feedback, we have put together our new Apple TV Tools page. On this page you’ll be able to find tools which will help you encode non-iTunes video for your Apple TV. So if you’ve been looking for that software which will help you in converting and encoding that 10 year old .avi home video, or backup your favorite DVD, these are the tools for you. We don’t claim to have the definitive list of encoding software, so if there is a bit of software that you use and don’t see listed please let us know. Also, we are leaving the comments open on this page should anyone want to leave their special process for backup or encoding. And last, but certainly not least, It is important to note that Apple TV Junkie does not condone the use of the software listed on the Apple TV Tools page for illegal purposes. We hope this page will be a great resource for all Apple TV users.

Welcome back SD Rentals… and a new Contributor!

Joe G. — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:50:10 +0000

Hello everyone! My name is Joe G. from Nashua, NH, and I’m proud to be joining the team here at ATVJ. I’ll be bringing back the Daily SD Rental updates as well as helping make some improvements to the site. So if there are any features you’d like to see, leave a comment and we’ll see what we can do. But without further ado, Here are the newest SD rentals added this week as of last night.

70 New SD Rentals

Aladdin
Around the Bend
Babylon A.D.
Babylon A.D. (Uncut)
Battle for Haditha
Benji the Hunted
Blackbeard’s Ghost
Bob and Tom Radio Comedy Tour
Captivity
Cheerleader Massacre 2
Chrystal
Class of 1999 II: The Substitute
Copycat (2008)
Cry of the Winged Serpent
Darby O’Gill and the Little People
David Crowe: Crooked Finger
Delta Farce
Going Nomad
Gus
Hancock
Independence Day
Inspector Gadget
Kissing Jessica Stein
Monkeys, Go Home!
No Deposit, No Return
North Country (2005)
Now You See Him, Now You Don’t
On the Road With Judas
Permanent Midnight
Ping Pong Playa
Poison Ivy 4
Rambo
Rise of the Foot Soldier
Savage Sam
Saw IV
Skinwalkers
Snapdragon
Snowball Express
Starting Out In the Evening
Steel Dawn
Stone Pillow
Summer Magic
Terrorists
The Bank Job
The Biscuit Eater
The Buddy Holly Story
The Cat from Outer Space
The Château
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
The Devil and Max Devlin
The Evil Woods
The Eye
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
The Happiest Millionare
The Incredible Journey
The Million Dollar Duck
The Rainbow (1989)
The Ugly Dachshund
The Wicker Man (1973)
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Special Edition)
Towelhead
Trade
Trapped Ashes
Twin Daggers
Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns
WALL-E
Whispers: An Elephant’s Tale
Witless Protection
Wristcutters: A Love Story

SD Removals

I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With

For the full week’s list, check out the SD Rental page.

ATVJ Wants To Know:What Software Do You Use To Encode Media For The Apple TV?

Eddie V. — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:44:11 +0000

We’ve posted about this before, asking in general, what software you use to backup your DVD’s on to your Apple TV. It was more for spreading general useful information, but as blogs go, these things tend to get pushed to the back and lost.

We’ve decided to start a resource here at Apple TV Junkie, a page dedicated to Apple TV users looking to get alternative media on to their Apple TV and how to do that. And we don’t mean Boxee. All though we believe Boxee will be an important alternative for Apple TV users in the future, we believe it’s not quite ready for prime time and the average Apple TV Joe.

So the question would be to all you, what software do you use to encode media in the proper Apple TV format? This should be both Windows or Mac. All your submission will be important in helping us build our new resource page.

Thanks to ATVJ supporter John D. for the seed to this idea.

Real World ATVJ

Eddie V. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:01:43 +0000

Hi all,

As some of you may know we run a pretty tight ship here at ATVJ. And what I mean by tight ship is there are only a few of us who keep things running around here along with keeping a day job. Well, as small as our little site is, even ATVJ isn’t immune to the current state of the economy and one of has suffered a job loss. What this means for the site is for the foreseeable future we will be holding off on our daily SD movie updates. This has also affected our podcast over the last few weeks, all though we plan on getting a new episode out as soon as possible. We thought it was important to communicate this to our daily visitors as changes happen to the site.

Anyway, life goes on and so does ATVJ, and we promise to do our best to keep the important Apple TV news coming your way.

Thank you all for your support.

Revised HD Podcast Page & New iPhone/iPod Touch Website Interface

Eddie V. — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:30:35 +0000

First, we’ve finally completed the update to our listed HD content with our HD Podcast page. We will be listing the Top 10 HD podcasts as listed by the Apple TV with cover art and direct links to the podcasts in the iTunes Store.

Second, we’ve created a proper iPhone/iPod Touch interface for the website. We’ve decided to go with the WPTouch plug-in for WordPress Templates. We thought this would be the next best thing to a proper iPhone/iPod Touch app. The interface provides all of our website information in an easy to read iPhone/iPod Touch friendly format. You can view a few screen caps below. Give it a spin if you have a chance and let us know if you have any problems.

Special Note Regarding Daily SD Movie Update

Eddie V. — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:17:48 +0000

For those of you who look forward to the Daily SD Movie Update and have noticed that it hasn’t been updated this week, don’t worry, we haven’t abandoned our SD brothers and sisters. Our SD Movie specialist Mr.Sergio G. is taking some much needed time off. But don’t worry, we should be back to your regularly scheduled Daily SD Movie updates by next week.

In the mean time, speaking of SD Rentals…..Superman Returns finally comes to the iTunes Store but only in SD format and no HD? Really?

ATVJ Revamped Donations

Eddie V. — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:41:49 +0000

I’m gonna keep this short and sweet, we’ve revamped our donation process. First and formost I would like to thank everyone who has donated in the past and to everyone who had subscribed to our monthly donations, but the bottom line at this point is that we are opening up the donations to anyone who wishes to donate. All amounts our welcome and feel free to donate as many times as you like. All your donations go to good use in keeping the site running, making improvements to the site and helping us with the podcast. To all previous donators who had been subscribed to the monthly donation, we’ve manually cancelled those monthly payments and we will leave it to your good graces as to when and how much you wish to donate in the future. We hope that we are providing a useful service to everyone and we hope to continue and improve this service with your donations for a long time to come. Thank You.

HD Podcast Episode 6 – The Big VUDU

Eddie V. — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:51:02 +0000

On this weeks podcast we come to you from The San Diego Convention Center, site of the yearly geek fest Comic-Con. This week we discuss VUDU, Blockbuster and the iTunes $5 weekly special with the usual round-up of movie news from new additions to recent removals.

Head on over to iTunes now and subscribe to the podcast or refresh your podcast list to start the download.

HD Podcast Episode 4 – Stream This

Eddie V. — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:42:57 +0000

On this weeks podcast we come to you from Old Town San Diego where we discuss Netflix Streaming coming to the Xbox 360 and the usual round-up of movie news from new additions to recent removals.

We apologize for our weak audio this week. We promise we are working on it!