Classic Movies and New Movies for Christmas 2012

There are 48 days left before Christmas 2012 arrives. When talking about Christmas movies, I would always think about comedy movies while Home Alone series (I prefer only 1 and 2)are definitely the top classic Christmas choices.

Classic Christmas Movies:

1. Home Alone (1990)
DVD Release Date: October 5, 1999
Run Time: 103 minutes

As the youngest kid of the family, the 8-year-old little boy Kevin often feels like being the subject of ridicule from his siblings and cousins. He wishes "his family would disappear" and  he is mistakenly left at home while his big family heading to Paris for Christmas holiday. Home alone with little money and food, he has to fight against two idiotic burglars. With the help of the neighbor “murdererish” old man, the recidivists got caught.

It makes the Christmas Eve full of joy and laughs.There is a happy ending: family gathering and family reunion, both for Kevin and for the old man. Merry Christmas!

Great Videos for 2012 Thanksgiving Day

2012 Thanksgiving Day  is just around the corner. As is generally known as a day for celebrating the big harvest of the year, it is a time for family gathering together for a big dinner of turkey and pumpkin pie, which could be regarded as the symbols of Thanksgiving Day. Besides, you can also join the Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC or in Detroit, or Philadelphia.

Thanksgiving Day:
What and when is Thanksgiving Day?

Thanksgiving began as a tradition of celebrating the harvest of the year. It is celebrated primarily in America and Canada. In Canada, it is always taken place on the second Monday of October, while in the US; it is held on the fourth Thursday of each November. Historically, Thanksgiving had roots in religious and cultural tradition.

History of Thanksgiving Day

Besides the feast, there are movies about Thanksgiving Days and songs about it.

Turkey Catchers (1999)

Disney classic. Mickey, Donald and Goofy open a turkey catching business and their first customer is a pompous pilgrim. The three friends come up with the perfect plan, but when they finally catch their game, will they let their new-found friend become the main course? (from YouTube)

Thanksgiving song

From Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Come Darkness, Come Light: Twelve Songs of Christmas" album. I really love the beatiful song and the musci video. May we always be grateful.

In spite of US and Canada, there are many other countries celebrate such special times of the year. They are named in different names and held in different forms while they share similar meanings: celebrating the harvest and being grateful.

A day of Thanksgiving 

Here is a list of Thanksgiving in some other countries:

China: Mid-autumn Day Moon Cake Day on August 15th of lunar calendar. Mainly celebrates the harvest and family gathering.
Germany: early October festival, Erntedankfest.
Grenada: national holiday of Thanksgiving Day on October 25th.
Japan: Labor Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday.
Liberia: the first Thursday of Nov. is Thanksgiving Day.

Well, right after Thanksgiving, Black Friday shopping tide is coming as millions of goods on sale for your best deals. 

Family Movies 2012 on DVD for Family Weekend Night

Nowadays, people are always on the go, busy with never-ending work, even after work or on the weekends. How long has it been the last time you have some quality time with your family members? Well, you can try some warmhearted family movies with your family members. Below are some family movies 2012 released on DVD, get some and enjoy yourselves.

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

Theatrical Release Date: 06/08/2012
DVD Release Date: 10/16/2012
Run Time: 85min.

This 3D computer-animated comedy movie by DreamWorks is still about the story of Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, and Melman the Giraffe, who are still fighting to get back home- Big Apple. A lion, zebra, hippo, giraffe, four penguins, two monkeys, three lemurs certainly would make the journey full of fun, and make your weekend night enjoyable.

Windows 7 to Windows 8:No DVD Playback and More

Windows 8 finally came to face the world on October 26th, with its several forms: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 RT, and Windows 8 Enterprise.

Are you going to update your Windows system from Win 7 to Win 8? If you are not decided yet, let’s check out how Windows 8 has changed compared with its previous version.

1. The “Start” button is removed. As an initial option for all its previous versions, this menu has been there since Windows 95. So is the “Start” menu. This is designed to fully support the “start screen” full-screen menu, which changes from still to dynamic icon.

2. Windows Aero is killed. The Aero Glass - the graphical centerpiece of Windows Vista and Windows 7 disappears in Win 8 as to support Metro start screen.

3. Flip 3D is replaced by Modern UI app. All those animations and transparent glass effects are gone as well as the disappearance of Flip 3D. For Windows 7 or Vista, (key) Windows + Tab allow you to view Flip 3D.

4. Windows update desktop notifications won’t appear on the desktop. All notifications about Windows updates will be shown on the login and lock screens.

5. Some desktop apps will not be available on the desktop. Or will only be seen on the Windows 8 “start screen”.

6. Windows backup and restore is also no longer possible in Windows 8.
 

7. Windows Media Center and DVD playback
As Windows Media Center won’t be pre-installed as a default program, Windows Media Player is not available as well. If you do not install Windows Media Center and purchase Media Center upgrade, no DVD playback is allowed. Even if you download the feature packs will you only be able to play DVD in Media Center, not in WMP. To play DVD in Windows Media Player, an add-on for DVD support from Windows Store is necessary. But for free option, you can try VLC Media Player, or some other video players for DVD playback. Besides, Windows DVD Maker remains no more.

The reason for this is mainly because of the rise on streaming online videos and the decline in DVD and other traditional/physical discs.

Well, there is some kind of tricks we can solve some of the dislikes in Windows 8. After all, it provides many more promising new features. It's technology, people move on! What do you say?

Related Articles:

DVD Playback is not Supported in Windows 8 Without Built-in WMC
Best Free Options for DVD Playback in Windows 8
Best Free Video Player Software for DVD Playback 

Free Media Players for Background Playback on Your Mobile Phone

As has been discussed previously, sometimes we just want the audios while watching videos. Or, you'd like run another app while watching videos/listening music. On such situations, we need video players that enable video playback on the background, when you close the screen or while running other apps. Here are some more video players allow background playback for your reference.

1. BS Player
BS Player(Ad-supported video player) is really a powerful video player, it allows DVD Playback as has been mentioned in my discussion before.
It is featured as the best hardware accelerated video player for Android smartphones and tablet PCs.
Besides, it supports background playback in popup window for both video and audio.

2. Uz Media Player(Beta, Video)
Well, this is a video player to use with other apps at the same time, which means it supports background video playback. Even if you hide your player screen, it will still run the video/music you are just playing.
It is just a beta version, and only supports some of the popular formats that are commonly-used, and only be compatible with several models. Hope it will be improved soon.

3. Act 1 Video Player Trial
It is a trail version of video player, which mainly used for video media on your SD card. It’s really annoying that the trail version (free) only allows video playback limited to 2 minutes.
That’s really terrible, the only reason I list it here is for its background playback function while playing other apps or when you turn off the screen. If someone would be interested in it, you can have a try.

4. Background Video Player
Well, as can be told from its name, it certainly should fulfill the needs for background playback. This is a quite newly-released video player on Google Play. As a media player, it supports video playback in the background with random functionality. Maybe you can regard it as a useful in-car music player.

5. No Video Player
Though named somehow a little weird, as a video player, No Video Player does play videos while you can also shift to background playback mode with only audio playing. Just turn off the screen and listen to the audio part of your videos, this would certainly save battery.

6. MX Player
(as have been introduced before)
Well, there are many limitations, hope they would be removed as they improve.

No matter for what reasons you’d like video playback on the background available, you can have a try with these free apps I’ve searched and collected. For different purposes, you may pick up one right for that.

Upcoming Action Movie DVD Releases on Nov. 2012

This week, several wonderful movies like Magic Mike, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Seeking a Friend for the End of The World, etc. are available on DVDs. Next month (Nov. 2012), there will be several great ones on DVDs, as an action movie fan; I would like to collect some of the best action movies on DVDs.

The Amazing Spider-Man (PG-13)

Publisher: Columbia Pictures
Release date: November 9

The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler. It is a reboot of the Spider-Man film series, portraying the character's origin story and his development into a superhero while a high school student.

The Expendables 2 (R)

Publisher: Lionsgate
Release date: November 20

The Expendables are back and this time it's personal. It is a sequel to the 2010 action film The Expendables. It is actually Action movie stars’ gathering: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Men in Black 3 (PG-13)

Publisher: Columbia
Release date: November 30

It is the third installment in the Men in Black film series. In Men in Black 3, Agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) are back. Agent J travels in time to MIB's early years in the 1960s, to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history.

Principal photography began in 2010, taking place ten years after its predecessor Men in Black II. And in fact, it is fifteen years after the original Men in Black. What also attracts people’s attention is that Barry Sonnenfeld returned as director while Steven Spielberg executive producer.

There must be some interesting extras unveiling the background stories which are my favorite parts of DVDs. Let’s wait and see.

Video to Music: Android MX Player Background Playback

From the downloads and rates in Google Play, MX Player for Android Smartphones definitely is on the top of the most popular players for Android phones. As a free media player (well, it is ad-sponsored – ads appear while pausing or so; for ad-free version, it costs $5.37), it supports almost every video file with subtitles.

The recent massive updates in Google Play Store of version 1.7 have largely enhanced this app in many aspects: it packs a new H/W+ decoder, support for Tegra 3-powered devices, Vietnamese language translations and especially the realization of background playback function.

The background playback feature enables users to enjoy the audio of the video file as it plays in background mode- it means that users do not have to pause or turn off the video while you hit the home button as is always the case with most video players. This is how it is done: (in full screen) Menu – Play – Background play; Or Menu – Settings – Player – Background play, thus playback will be continued in the background even after screen closed.

To return video mode, just hit the tidy widget MX Player installs to your Android’s notification panel with basic playback controls and playback duration counter just like most music players do.

In fact, there are occasions when we prefer audios only rather than videos: a speech which you only want the sounds or music videos while you are traveling on the train and trying to get some rest by listening to music. It may save battery power consuming. You can probably try this feature. You can download it from Google Play for free(supports Android 2.1 or higher).  If there are other video players with background playback feature, please leave a comment.

Related Article:

Free Media Players for Background Playback on Your Mobile Phone