Tragedy : Stage6 to Shut Down on February 28 :(

Terrible news (just 2 hrs back) - what a letdown : One of the best Hi-Def free video site will go down on Feb28 (so i'll go on my mad downloading spree till 28th),
2 begin with this classy adrenaline video : http://www.stage6.com/user/trav1085/video/1859436/Adrenaline-1080p

Post on the site: (will have interesting comments there)
I’m Tom (aka Spinner), a Stage6 user and an employee of DivX, Inc., the company behind the service. I’m writing this message today to inform you that we plan to shut down Stage6 on February 28, 2008. Upload functionality has already been turned off, and you’ll be able to view and download videos until Thursday.

I know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many Stage6 users, and I’d like to take a few moments to explain the reasons behind our decision.

We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6 began as an experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that it might not succeed.

In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove that it’s possible to distribute true high definition video on the Internet. And we helped broaden the Internet video experience by offering content that is compatible with DVD players, mobile devices and other products beyond the PC.

So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the day it’s really as simple as that.

Now, why didn’t we think of that before we decided to create Stage6 in the first place, you may ask? That’s a good question. When we first created Stage6, there was a clear need for a service that would offer a true high quality video experience online because other video destinations on the Internet simply weren’t providing that to users. A gap existed, and Stage6 arrived to fill it.

As Stage6 grew quickly and dramatically (accompanied by an explosion of other sites delivering high quality video), it became clear that operating the service as a part of the larger DivX business no longer made sense. We couldn’t continue to run Stage6 and focus on our broader strategy to make it possible for anyone to enjoy high quality video on any device. So, in July of last year we announced that we were kicking off an effort to explore strategic alternatives for Stage6, which is a fancy way of saying we decided we would either have to sell it, spin it out into a private company or shut it down.

I won’t (and can’t, really) go into too much detail on those first two options other than to say that we tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by selling it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two scenarios was possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the lights off and cease operation of the service.

So that’s where we are today. After February 28, Stage6 will cease to exist as an online destination. But the larger DivX universe will continue to thrive. Every day new DivX Certified devices arrive on the market making it easy to move video beyond the PC. Products powered by DivX Connected, our new initiative that lets users stream video, photos, music and Internet services from the PC to the TV, are hitting retail outlets. We remain committed to empowering content creators to deliver high quality video to a wide audience, and we’ll continue to offer services that will make it easy to find videos online in the DivX format.

It’s been a wild ride, and none of it would have been possible without the support of our users. Thank you for making Stage6 everything that it was.

--Tom

Good movie find - Dedication (2007)

First movie post here - so it means it's really been one of my high-rated ones,

Before i started seeing this, my mind was the opinion this was an art movie, perhaps i'd have to hit 10-20 such movies to find a good one. After watching the movie i was of the opinion i'll be ready for even 100 movies to find a drama such as "Dedication" which made me smile all along the 1:35 mins.

Story of a uniquely headed comic author who talks out the most immediate thought on his mind, keeps contemplating his definitions on"Life", doesn't believe the nice gurl relation, but ends up teaming up with a female illustrator upon the death of his respected elder partner to build "Beaver's ;) Xmas story". Then see how the wonderful relationship rolls on -

"Life is a single skip for joy" - an absolute must watch with the gurl ! :)

Plot:

Henry Roth is messed up. A New York children’s book author who tells kids that Santa doesn’t exist, he hates sleeping with - and next to - anyone, including his girlfriend and must lay on the floor, usually with heavy objects on top of him just to feel safe. His motto is Life is nothing but the occasional burst of laughter rising above the interminable wail of grief. “Dedication,” a modern love story in which a misanthropic, emotionally complex author of a hit children’s book series (Billy Crudup) is forced to team with a beautiful illustrator (Mandy Moore) after his best friend and creative collaborator (Tom Wilkinson) passes away marks the directorial debut of Justin Theroux. As Henry struggles with letting go of the ghosts of love and life, he discovers that sometimes you have to take a gamble at life to find love.

Flashbulb's artist support piracy promotion

Benn Jordan, who goes under the artist name The Flashbulb, has uploaded his latest album (Soundtrack To A Vacant Life) to a private tracker with the following message in an HTML file:

The Flashbulb wrote:

Hello listener…downloader…pirate…pseudo-criminal… If you can read this, then you’ve more than likely downloaded this album from a peer to peer network or torrent. You probably expect the rest of this message to tell you that you’re hurting musicians and breaking just about every copyright law in the book. Well, it won’t tell you that. What I would like to tell you is that my record label understands that a large portion of people pirate music because it is easier than buying it. CDs scratch easily, most pay-per-download sites have poor quality and ****ty DRM protection, and vinyl is near impossible to find or ship without hassle. In many cases I wonder why people buy CDs at all anymore. A few like the tangible artwork, some haven’t adapted to MP3s yet, but most do it because they have a profound love for music and want to support the artists making it. Kind of restores your faith in humanity for a moment eh? So, now what? Like the album? About to go “support the artist” on iTunes? Well, don’t. Alphabasic is currently in a legal battle against Apple because NONE of our material (Sublight Records included) receives a dime of royalty from the vast amount of sales iTunes has generated using our material. Want to buy a CD just to show your support? If you don’t particularly like CDs, don’t bother. Retailers like Best Buy and Amazon spike the price so high that their cut is often 8 times higher than the artist’s. Besides, most CDs are made out of unrecyclable plastic and leave a nasty footprint in your environment. If you do particularly like CDs, buy them from the label (in our case, alphabasic.com). After manufacturing costs are recuperated, our artists usually receive over 90% of the actual money coming out of your wallet. In addition, all of our physical products are made out of 100% recycled material. Want to show your support? Go here and browse our library of lossless, DRM-free downloads. Already have that? Then feel free to donate whatever you want to your favorite artist. 100% will go directly to them. Hell, you can even donate a penny just to thank the artist. If you really like ‘The Flashbulb - Soundtrack To A Vacant Life’ and want to show your support without it going to greedy retailers, distributors, and coked-up label reps, then click the button below. [link to http://www.alphabasic.com/index2.htm ] If you send us your mailing address, Alphabasic may occasionally send you various goodies (overstocks, stickers, even rare CDs) in appreciation and encouragement for your support. Thanks for reading. Who knows if my little business plan here will work to fund new releases, but even failure is better than the crappy label/distributor/retailer system musicians have suffered from for over 50 years. We hope you enjoy the music as much as we do releasing it. Finally, if you plan on sharing this release, please include this file. The only reason it is here is to show the listener where he can support his favorite artists! Benn Jordan CEO - Alphabasic Records Personally I love seeing this kind of attitude in people that create and distribute media. It shows that people still create for the love of creating and that the true joy lies in having people enjoy your art.

Proximity Based Geek Lovin'

With my mind on a wedding gift for my friend , i started my hunt for somethin goooood, Here is one from ThinkGeek ;)

The Ideal Lovers Gift

Staying healthy is the key to keeping yourself alive. Video game characters know this all too well. When your red heart gauge reaches zero... you die. For non-bitmap humans like you this is more of a challenge. But luckily after extensive study at ThinkGeek labs we've determined that people feel best when they are in close proximity to something that they adore. Don't understand? We'll luckily for you we've created this amazing 8-Bit Dynamic Life Shirt to illustrate.

Buy one of these glowing shirts for yourself, and gift one to your significant other (boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, fembot 2000...). During your normal activities two and a half pixelated hearts will light up on your shirt. Hey... you're depressed and in need of a recharge. But get within hugging distance of your significant other wearing the matching shirt and suddenly the hearts on both of your shirts start to light up until you're fully powered up. Go too far astray from the source of your affections and you'll drop back down to two and a half hearts again. Got it?

Need an Extra Geek?

Amazing you say? But what if you haven't found a cute geek girl or boy to love? Never fear lonely geek! You can buy an 8-Bit Dynamic Life Shirt and pick up a handy Transmitter Pack to go with it. Now place the transmitter pack near something you love like your Wii, Star Wars figure collection, or maybe in the backpack of that cute girl in chemistry class. When you get close to the transmitter pack then all the hearts on your shirt will light up. You've been revitalized!

Hope Procurement was better,