There is less than a week left until Christmas, but if you are anything like me then you still have plenty of presents left to buy for your family and friends – so I thought I’d run through a few Christmas gift ideas for tech-lovers here on TechFruit. What do you get someone who already has the latest 40″ TV with a beautiful surround sound system when you’re on a budget? A movie or two to show it all off – that’s what!
What film to choose is really dependant on what type of film your Dad likes (and we all know it is most likely a Dad present) – but if you are stuck for information then here are the top films of the years according to US box Office and Rotten Tomatoes.
Or if you want my pick – Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is part horror, part thriller, part heart-warming family Christmas film – and all parts awesome. If there was ever a film for a Christmas present – this is it!
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US Box Office (IMDB)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
The Hangover Part II
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Fast & Furious 5
Cars 2
Thor
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Captain America: The First Avenger[/twocol_one][twocol_one_last]Rotten Tomatoes (DVD Releases)
Poetry
The Interrupters
Cave Of Forgotten Dreams
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
The Messenger
Bridesmaids
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
X-Men: First Class
A Better Life
Beginners
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There have never been so many ways to buy a movie – DVDs, Blu-Ray, downloads, and streams are all possible today – so which should you choose? Well this partly depends on your budget, as well as on the technological setup of the person you are buying the gift for.
If you are on a tight budget, then DVDs are still the way to go with recent DVD releases costing from between £5 and £15.
If you have a little more money to spend then Blu-Rays are the answer – the definition can be breathtaking on a huge HD television, and the sound fully immersive. Better yet – you can buy triple-play blu-ray discs that can play sets, where for a little more than the straight blu-ray, you get a bundle containing the blu-ray, the DVD, and a digital copy for playback on certain digital devices – clever.
Digital downloads (like the digital copy you get with a blu-ray triple-play) have come a long way over the past few years – with some serious quality enhancements with the latest encoding technology. However, there is still the issue of compatibility and DRM. Whilst consumers would love for their paid downloads to work on everything from their laptop, to iPad, to Android phone – the movie industry is only slowly coming around to this option. They are trying to protect themselves from piracy, but the issue is that those same films are always available on pirate networks for free and are interoperable – the movie industry needs to compete with that.
Maybe next year will be for downloads, but this year it is still all about blu-rays and DVDs.