I'm No longer blogging here. You can find my personal blog at Geoff.Kleinman.com

Take Care,
Geoff

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Leading DVD news and review site DVDTalk.com acquired by Internet Brands

Site plans to use new infrastructure resources to fuel growth

LOS ANGELES (October 29, 2007) – DVDTalk.com, a market-leading website that provides news, discussion, and reviews of DVD releases, has been acquired by Internet Brands, Inc., a leading provider of consumer and e-commerce websites, Internet Brands executives announced today.

Founded in 1999 near the start of DVDs entry into the consumer market, DVDTalk.com has rapidly grown into the top online DVD resource. The site features an expansive DVD review database with more than 20,000 DVD, HD DVD, Blu-Ray and theatrical reviews; news about the latest DVD releases; user discussion forums; and an online radio presence dubbed DVDTalk Radio. More than 50 staff writers and columnists regularly contribute reviews, columns, feature articles, and other content to the site.

“Joining Internet Brands gives us access to an expanded support structure, including technology and content resources that will help DVD Talk grow into the future,” said Geoffrey Kleinman (bio), founder of DVDTalk.com. “We’ll use these resources to enhance the DVDTalk experience for our users, keep pace with the fast-changing home entertainment industry, and continue our leadership role with consumers for the next generation of high-definition formats.”

DVDTalk.com joins special-interest sites including Wikitravel.org, BikeForums.net, and FlyerTalk.com as part of the Internet Brands Travel & Leisure division.

“Users of our sites are passionate about their hobbies, and DVDTalk users live and breathe DVDs,” said John McGanty, general manager of the Travel & Leisure division at Internet Brands. “We think that DVDTalk’s thriving community and vast content make it an ideal fit within the Internet Brands family.”

About Internet Brands Los Angeles-based Internet Brands (www.internetbrands.com) is a leading operator of media and e-commerce sites for large-ticket consumer purchases, such as cars, real estate, mortgages and travel. The company empowers consumers to make better product choices and save money. Internet Brands’ sites deliver superior content and consumer insight and have received dozens of “best-in-class” awards.

Internet Brands’ automotive division includes CarsDirect.com, Autos.com, Wikicars.org, GreenHybrid.com, NewCarTestDrive.com and Autodata Solutions. The company’s real estate and finance division includes Loan.com, LoanApp.com, DoItYourself.com, RealEstateABC.com, ePodunk.com and ApartmentRatings.com. Internet Brands’ travel and leisure division includes VacationHomes.com, Vamoose.com, Wikitravel.org, World66.com, BBOnline.com, CruiseMates.com, CruiseReviews.com and FlyerTalk.com.

Internet Brands was founded in 1998 as CarsDirect and added the new parent company name of Internet Brands in June 2005.

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I'm quite happy with this week's segment on the Thom Hartmann show. We cover: Brokeback Mountain, Crash: Director's Cut, New York Doll and Mel Brooks Collection. Give it a listen.

Amazon.com must be in some sort of spat with Disney. If you look on their site, many of the key Disney/Buena Vista Home Entertainment titles are FULL MSRP. I mean come on Chicken Little for $29.99 when DeepDiscountDVD has it for $16.19 - a whopping 45% lower.

Whatever is going on, I suggest Amazon and Disney kiss and makeup because customers are going to take their business not only to other stores, but to other titles!!

Also you've got to love DDD, as they run a $5.99 Disney DVD Sale.

For any of you who might be a stones throw from Portland, be sure to drop by the Longbaugh Film Festival which runs April 6-9th. A short film I shot called Are We Agreed? is playing in the festival. To dispel any speculation - NO, I'm not aspiring to become a director, not looking for some Hollywood agent or career, I've got my hands full with DVDTalk.com which I love running. My formal education is in film and I thought after 14 yrs of not shooting anything, it was time to do another project. If you aren't near Portland, you can catch the short online here. In addition to my film, the fest has a number of films absolutely worth checking out including: So Much So Fast, Black Gold, The Great New Wonderful, Electric Apricot and the Lil' Longbaugh fest for kids from Indie Kids.

For those of you who may have missed me on Friday's Thom Hartmann Show (11:20 am on Fridays.. Air America) here's the audio of the segment. We covered: King Kong, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Iron Weed Film Club's March release Salt of the Earth.

Also here's this week's audio for my segment on KNRK including a look at: Brokeback Mountain, Mel Brooks Collection and New York Doll.

With trumpets blaring, Movielink heralded in the era of "Download to Own" movies. Before you jump out of your seat with excitement (not that you would), catch some of these genius details of the launch. First off Download to Own movies will cost between $20 and $30 (yes MORE than the DVD), next the quality of the download will be worse than DVD. Still with me? Here's the real kicker - you won't actually be able to play the movie on your Ipod or PSP or other portable device. Also while you may transfer the file to another PC (which you must own of course) burning it to a DVD won't make it playable in your home DVD player. So again we've got the movie industry completely out of step with what customers want and need. It seems like just yesterday the studios were pinning their hopes on UMD's and now with that dying a smoldering death they're trying to hedge their bets against the inevitable dip that's coming from the HD wars. The problem here is that most cosumers don't want to pay $20-$30 for a download that can't come with them. $2-$3 sure. But NOT $20-$30. Again the industry has totally missed the mark.

Always thought paying ANOTHER $20something for a movie you already owned to play it on a portable player was insanity. Now it looks like it's nearing the end for UMD as a platform for movies see Yahoo News on The End of UMD. We always kept the PSP UMD Reviews over at VideogameTalk.com as the platform never really felt like it was something that was really meant for DVD Talk. So shocking right PSP is a gaming platform first and foremost.

With the HD-DVD launch getting delayed till April, the Blu-Ray camp is doing everything they can to stay the course and have some sort of launch on May 23rd. I'm still having a hard time getting any response from any of the studios about when their titles will be available for review. And none of them or their PR agencies are knocking at our door to make sure we're covering them. Given the number of PR people I talk to every day for even the most tiny and mundane title, this fact is pretty telling. On surfing for Blu-Ray tidbits I did discover an interesting site F**ck Blu-ray - which makes an interesting case for holding off on supporting either new HD platform. In the mean time I'm happy with my HD-Tivo, and I've got The Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind all set up to record on HBO-HD and Sky Captain and The World Tomorrow in HD ready to be watched. DVD NEVER had this kind of competition from cable/sat!

The other day Netflix sent a batch of titles which they've got the 'exclusive on' (see the list of the titles Here). I think it's an interesting concept, and the way it was explained to me was that many of these titles are getting a release on DVD through this program that wouldn't otherwise been released. A couple of the titles to note in this program are: Forty Shades of Blue (which won Sundance last year), Cowboy Del Amour (which John Sinott will be reviewing shortly) and The Puffy Chair - which will get a limited theatrical release this summer before coming to Netflix DVD.