New question for iPod: Am iDrunk?

These days, the iPod can be many things. A musical instrument, a gaming device, a phone, a taxi hailer, a trail tracker.

Apparently, it can also be an alcohol breathalyzer.

With iBreath, a $79 accessory that plugs into the base of the iPod, you can perform your own field sobriety test. The person using it exhales into a retractable “blow wand” and the internal sensor measures the blood-alcohol content. Within two seconds, it displays the results on an LED screen. A reading of .08 or above sets off an alarm, signaling a blood-alcohol level above the legal driving limit in all 50 states.

“We are absolutely not advocating drinking and driving, but we know that people just don’t observe that,” said Don Bassler, chief executive and founder of David Steele Enterprises in Newport Beach, an online retailer and creator of the iBreath. “We don’t want people to think that this makes it all OK, but it’s a safety device that we hope people will use, and it may save lives.” 

Not everyone is as optimistic about its prospects in terms of preventing alcohol-related incidents.

Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said she was worried that young people would use the breathalyzer for drinking games, to see who can score the highest reading. (iBreath caps the readings at .20, more than twice the legal definition of intoxification.)

Read the story.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Blu-ray propels 'The Dark Knight' to strong early DVD sales

Sales of "The Dark Knight" DVD are off to a blockbuster start, and the new Blu-ray high-definition format is helping to offset the effect of the economic pain that's causing overall DVD sales to decline this year.

Consumers snapped up 3 million DVDs on Tuesday, when "The Dark Knight" hit shelves in the U.S., Canada and Britain. As much as 25% to 30% -- or 600,000 copies -- were purchased in Blu-ray. That surpasses the previous record set by "Iron Man," which sold 260,000 Blu-ray discs upon its first day of release.

Studio executives say it's a sign the format is gaining traction with consumers. "It's encouraging," Ron Sanders, president of Warner Home Video, told Times staff writer Dawn C. Chmielewski. "The Blu-ray sales of 'Dark Knight' were exceptionally strong and much higher than our projections."

Read the full story at the Entertainment News & Buzz blog.

-- Chris Gaither

Photo: Scene from "The Dark Knight." Credit: Stephen Vaughan / Warner Bros. Pictures

Deal brings Netflix movies and TV shows to TiVo

Netflix continues to expand the reach of its "Watch Instantly" video streaming service, striking a deal to make its movie and TV shows available to about 1 million TiVo owners who have high-speed Internet connections.

The partnership represents a bit of back to the future for the two companies, which originally announced a video-on-demand deal in the fall of 2004. That earlier agreement unraveled because of a combination of technology and rights issues.

Fast-forward to today's news, in which Netflix said it would provide access to a digital library of about 12,000 movies and television shows on the TV, through the TiVo Series3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL devices. The two companies begin testing the on-demand service Thursday in several thousand homes and expect to make it broadly available in early December. 

The new streaming service comes at no additional charge to Netflix and TiVo subscribers.

The partnership represents an attempt by TiVo to differentiate its service from the generic cable DVR offerings. In addition to recording, TiVo offers subscribers access to Amazon.com's video-on-demand service, which allows viewers to buy TV shows and buy or rent movies. It also delivers YouTube videos for free. The Netflix agreement brings expanded selection of independent films as well as mainstream movies provided through its own deal with Starz, the premium cable service.

"In addition to TiVo subscribers having the ability to record everything off of their cable and satellite, now they have the ability to download movies on a rental or purchase basis," said Tara Maitra, TiVo's vice president and general manager of content services. "Our whole goal is ... to be your complete source for all your entertainment content."

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Chmielewski covers the entertainment industry

Photo of Netflix on TiVo by TiVo. Screen features image of Beetlejuice, (c)1988 Geffen Film Co. All rights reserved.

RealNetworks, Hollywood studios sue each other over DVD copying software*

The six major Hollywood movie studios sued RealNetworks today, asking a federal court in Los Angeles to stop the digital media company from distributing new software that they claim allows consumers to copy movies illegally.

RealNetworks also sued, asking a court to declare that the company's new RealDVD software program, which allows users to copy DVDs to their computer hard drives, is legal and complies with the DVD Copy Control Assn.'s license agreement.

The software, which was announced earlier this month, goes on sale today for $30 at www.realdvd.com. The company's claim that it is the first software program to give consumers a simple and legal way to copy movies and TV shows from DVDs onto their computers now seems in doubt.

Although the company said its product is for copying movies one owns, nothing stops someone from using it to copy rented DVDs. The studios said that the software allows someone to "rent, rip and return" a movie from a rental store such as Netflix or Blockbuster.

The studios are seeking a temporary restraining order to ban the sale of RealDVD, which they say illegally bypasses the copy protection built into DVDs.

"RealNetworks' RealDVD should be called StealDVD," Greg Goeckner, general counsel for the Motion Picture Assn. of America, said in a statement.  “RealNetworks knows its product violates the law and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America’s movie makers and the technology community. "

In its own statement, RealNetworks defended its software, saying "it does not enable users to distribute copies of their DVDs."

"RealNetworks took this legal action to protect consumers' ability to exercise their fair-use rights for their purchased DVDs," the company said. "We are disappointed that the movie industry is following in the footsteps of the music industry and trying to shut down advances in technology rather than embracing changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases."

* You can download a PDF of the MPAA lawsuit here, and the RealNetworks lawsuit here.

-- Michelle Quinn and Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: The Hollywood sign. Credit: Don Ryan / Associated Press
     

No longer just a trivia repository, IMDb now shows movies and shows

The millions of people who visit the Internet Movie Database to learn about movies and television shows can now stay there to watch them.

Parent company Amazon.com today said IMDb.com, famous for providing casts, memorable quotes and other trivia from film and TV, had started offering more than 6,000 feature films and television episodes for free viewing online.

The current selections include recent and classic films, such as "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," "Hoop Dreams" and "Some Like it Hot." 

The lineup also includes such hit television shows as "Heroes," "The Simpsons" and "The Office," together with television classics including "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Star Trek."

Content is provided by the NBC Universal and News Corp. online video venture, Hulu, as well as by CBS, Sony Pictures Television and more than 500 independent filmmakers.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: From left, Steve Carrell, John Krasinski and Rainn Wilsom in a scene from "The Office." Credit: NBC Universal

ESPN to launch online action sports network

ESPN says it will launch an online hub for action sports. Think X Games, the twice-yearly competition that ESPN also created featuring skateboarding, surfing, motocross, snowboarding and others. Dawn Chmielewski of The Times has the scoop on the Disney-owned channel's fall launch of the ESPN Action Sports Network.

Photo: Bob Burnquist in the X Games Skateboard Big Air finals at the Staples Center in 2007. Credit: Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times

Person Dawn Chmielewski

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Saving 'The Dark Knight' from online pirates

Building buzz for "The Dark Knight" was easy. The tough part for Warner Bros. was keeping the film off the Internet before it was released in theaters.

Reporter Dawn Chmielewski takes you behind an unprecedented anti-piracy effort by Warner Bros. to keep the latest Batman film from being bootlegged, which the studio feared would have cut into box-office sales. As she notes, "The success of an anti-piracy campaign is measured in the number of hours it buys before the digital dam breaks." To that end, Warner Bros. employed a strategy that included staggered delivery of film reels, spot checks of theaters and even distribution of night-vision goggles to keep would-be film pirates at bay.

It seems to have worked. She writes:

Warner Bros. executives said the extra vigilance paid off, helping to prevent camcorded copies of the reported $180-million film from reaching Internet file-sharing sites for about 38 hours. Although that doesn't sound like much progress, it was enough time to keep bootleg DVDs off the streets as the film racked up a record-breaking $158.4 million on opening weekend. The movie has now taken in more than $300 million.

Read the full story for more details about the effort and to learn how "The Hulk" provided inspiration for the bootleg-fighting campaign.

-- Chris Gaither

Photo: Heath Ledger as the Joker in "The Dark Knight." Credit: Warner Bros.

Stan Lee, Walt Disney Studios launch "Time Jumper"

Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man, is revered as a superhero in his own right by comic book fans. Now he's rapidly becoming one of Hollywood's most wanted.

Lee's comic book creations have been box-office gold this summer, with "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk" grossing $313 million and $139 million, respectively. 

So, the Walt Disney Co. used the forum of Comic-Con, the annual comic book convention in San Diego, to announce that it was deepening its partnership with Stan Lee's POW Entertainment.

The home entertainment group will work with Lee on a new digital comic book, "Time Jumper." Readers can follow the exploits of a new crew of superheroes, however they choose: online, via mobile phone or old-fashioned comic book format. 

"Time Jumper" blends old-fashioned storytelling with technology that extends well beyond dialog and thought bubbles. In its digital form, it'll include music, voices and fast-paced story-boards.

Now for the geeky narrative details: "Time Jumper" follows the exploits of our hero, Terry Dixon, who is an agent of a secret government organization known as HUNT (short for Heroes United, Noble and True). He has a cellphone called The Articulus that has the one feature you can't get -- yet -- from Apple's iPhone: a time machine.

We wonder if it's possible to travel to a time where there are no dropped calls!

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Chmielewski, a Times staff writer, covers the Walt Disney Co.

Top photo: Stan Lee. Credit: Reed Saxon / Associated Press

Bottom photo: Time Jumper. Credit: Disney

3-D films making journey to the center of the living room

"Journey to the Center of the Earth," the 3-D remake of the classic Jules Verne adventure tale, didn't exactly break box office records. The Brendan Fraser vehicle came in fourth last weekend and has pulled in $43 million in U.S. box-office receipts. Part of the problem is that many theater owners hadn't yet installed the equipment necessary to show the Warner Bros. film in 3-D.

But Hollywood's enthusiasm for the technology is behind the formation of a task force to help bring stereoscopic 3-D home -- we hope, sans those goofy special glasses.

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers will hold its first meeting of entertainment technology executives next month at USC to discuss setting standards for delivering 3-D video to the home. The goal is to create a single master that would reach the living room through a variety of distribution channels, be it Blu-ray discs, cable and satellite providers or the Internet.

"The benefit for consumers is having a new, enriched experience in the home," said Wendy Aylsworth, senior vice president of technology for Warner Bros. and a member of the engineers group. "For the content creators, we're seeing a big uptake in 3-D theatrically, a greater interest from consumers in going to see those kind of movies."

Eye-popping 3-D was initially viewed by studios and exhibitors as way to provide audiences the kind of dramatic experience they couldn't get at home. It's not for every film, notes Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office measurement firm Media By Numbers. But it generated enthusiasm for the animated film "Polar Express" and Walt Disney's "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert," with the latter pulling in more than $65 million.

Now, studios are searching for a way to repeat the experience in the home -- and to give a boost to home DVD sales.

"What I think it will do is ensure an additional revenue stream on DVD, to take it from big screen 3-D to the small screen and complete the theatrical-to-home cycle,"  Dergarabedian said.

Hardware manufacturers, whose high-definition TVs ...

 

'Wall-E' draws design inspiration from Apple

Disney can’t resist making those little self-referential jokes in its films, to throw a visual bone to its die-hard fans. In last year’s film, "Enchanted," the characters dine in an Italian restaurant named the Bella Notte, a fleeting reference to the 1955 animated film "Lady and the Tramp."

In "Wall-E," which opens Friday, Pixar Animation Studios indulges in its own bit of homage to its one-time corporate cousin, Apple. (The two companies shared a chief executive, Steve Jobs, until Walt Disney acquired Pixar.)

The character’s love interest (the sleek, rounded, pearly white robot named Eve) looks as if she could be found in an Apple store. Indeed, director Andrew Stanton told Fortune Magazine that he had consulted with Jonathan Ive, the Apple design guru responsible for the futuristic look of the iMac and iPod.

The lovable, animated trash compactor named Wall-E also is an apparent Apple aficionado. In one scene, he rummages through his collection of trash heap treasures and retrieves, what else, an iPod. He even wakes up to the familiar Mac start-up chime when his solar panels are completely charged.

Wags might call this stuff shameless product placement. We think it may be kissing the ring of Jobs, who, in selling Pixar to Disney, became the entertainment giant’s single largest shareholder.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Image: Pixar Animation Studios