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Sony Demos BD Live Interactive Capabilities
Gaming, ringtones, PSP transfer and custom trailers shown with Blu-ray discs.
Up until the Blu-ray "Final Specification" (version 1.1), the HD-DVD promotion group has been emphasizing their format's superior interactive abilities as a major advantage.
Sony decided that, at this year's CES, they would demonstrate the new interactive abilities of Blu-ray by bringing in Hollywood writer, director and producer Dean Devlin and film critic Leonard Maltin.
Maltin reminisced about past CES video introductions and then pointed out that the new interactive abilities will enable filmmakers and directors to apply another level of creativity to their films.
Dean Devlin, whose credits include "Independence Day" and "Godzilla," said he has been shooting his films in digital for the last five years and now he feels the content can be directly translated via Blu-ray to the consumer's home.
Devlin even pointed out that, in many cases, a Blu-ray disc is better than seeing a film theatrically because there can be a wide variance in the quality of prints on a major film.
For Devlin, DVDs and Blu-ray discs allow for longer cuts of films, he says, since audiences will not sit through a film that is longer than two and a half hours in a commercial theater, but will in the comfort of their own home.
He feels that the extra interactivity that Blu-ray now has allows him to draw in and add more information to his films. He says that the consumer at home will be immersed in a "world" that he can create and will encourage multiple viewings of a title on Blu-ray.
Don Ekland, Sony executive vice president of advanced technologies, came out to demonstrate Blu-ray's interactivity feature set, now called BD Live.
From a BD Live menu on the "Godzilla" disc, he sent a ringtone selected from the BD Live menu to a cellphone in the audience, which then played the ringtone on the phone.
As cool as that may seem to some, Ekland then took a Sony PSP, put it into to USB transfer mode with a PlayStation 3 and was able to transfer a special portable version of the whole film to the PSP.
Although he only downloaded part of the film, he noted that it will take less than three minutes to to transfer a typical film. He said that there are currently 25 million PSPs worldwide now that can take advantage of this feature.
Next, another Devlin film coming out soon on Blu-ray, "Men in Black," was loaded and from the BD Live menu, he loaded a BD game. It's very similar to the game "Scene It" in that clips from the movie were shown and two players with their BD remotes or PS3 controllers attempt to answer questions as quickly as possible.
Although the demonstration was local with two players, the play could be done online. These BD games will also support chat functions.
Sony decided that, at this year's CES, they would demonstrate the new interactive abilities of Blu-ray by bringing in Hollywood writer, director and producer Dean Devlin and film critic Leonard Maltin.
Maltin reminisced about past CES video introductions and then pointed out that the new interactive abilities will enable filmmakers and directors to apply another level of creativity to their films.
Dean Devlin, whose credits include "Independence Day" and "Godzilla," said he has been shooting his films in digital for the last five years and now he feels the content can be directly translated via Blu-ray to the consumer's home.
Devlin even pointed out that, in many cases, a Blu-ray disc is better than seeing a film theatrically because there can be a wide variance in the quality of prints on a major film.
For Devlin, DVDs and Blu-ray discs allow for longer cuts of films, he says, since audiences will not sit through a film that is longer than two and a half hours in a commercial theater, but will in the comfort of their own home.
He feels that the extra interactivity that Blu-ray now has allows him to draw in and add more information to his films. He says that the consumer at home will be immersed in a "world" that he can create and will encourage multiple viewings of a title on Blu-ray.
BD Live Demonstrated
Don Ekland, Sony executive vice president of advanced technologies, came out to demonstrate Blu-ray's interactivity feature set, now called BD Live.
From a BD Live menu on the "Godzilla" disc, he sent a ringtone selected from the BD Live menu to a cellphone in the audience, which then played the ringtone on the phone.
As cool as that may seem to some, Ekland then took a Sony PSP, put it into to USB transfer mode with a PlayStation 3 and was able to transfer a special portable version of the whole film to the PSP.
Although he only downloaded part of the film, he noted that it will take less than three minutes to to transfer a typical film. He said that there are currently 25 million PSPs worldwide now that can take advantage of this feature.
Next, another Devlin film coming out soon on Blu-ray, "Men in Black," was loaded and from the BD Live menu, he loaded a BD game. It's very similar to the game "Scene It" in that clips from the movie were shown and two players with their BD remotes or PS3 controllers attempt to answer questions as quickly as possible.
Although the demonstration was local with two players, the play could be done online. These BD games will also support chat functions.
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About the Author
Andrew Finkel is an avid gamer as well as the principal of Synergistic Wellness Technologies, a cross industries gaming, consumer, and home healthcare electronics consultancy company. He can be reached at 410-486-4999 or andrew@synergisticwt.com. His Xbox Live Gamertag is CEProgamer and his Playstation Network name is Remixer.
9 Comments
Actually in the case of Blue Ray there are more than 18 companies producing players with that list reaching 25 by the summer and HD-DVD has Toshiba, Micosoft,Venturer,and Onkyo so it is not really just Sony that will have that much individual control.
The recent Financial Times article yesterday that revealed that Paramount has a specific back out clause based on Warner Brothers decision to only support Blue Ray is a another really deep blow to HD-DVD.
Also the piece that Julie Jacobson just posted on the Adult industry warming up to Blue ray based on PS3 requests form thier customers for Blue Ray based adult content is yet another indication that things are becoming more and more grave for HD-DVD every day.
http://www.cepro.com/article/leading_porn_studio_announces_8_blu_ray_titles/
Andrew
Congratulations Blu-ray, you now have features that EVERY HD DVD player has had for two years.
And Andrew, if you’re going to shill for BD, you might want to learn to spell it correctly.
It is ridiculous they are touting these features as new or groundbreaking when HDDVD has had them since the beginning.
And this is slightly OT, but Dean Devlin is a moron. “Audiences will not sit through a film that is longer than two and a half hours in a commercial theater.” American Gangster made $43.5 million on OPENING WEEKEND in November (over $130 total gross) in the U.S. And the biggest box office hit of all time is 3 hours long. What he meant to say was “(Since 2000) Audiences will not sit through my movies because they are putrid.”
Oh yeah, and he has been shooting his movies on digital for the last 5 years b/c for the most part they have been low budget straight-to-TV garbage.
And what does all this have to do with enjoying a movie? Where are the alternate views and the interacting with the movie? I’m banking on VUDU and other download options but part of having physical media is all the extra content pertaining to the movie. Or am I missing it as BD already does this and these demoed features are being added?
OK. Now put the players to market at a price point near what I paid for my HD-A3, and you’ll REALLY have my interest.
Nothing like listening to the laments of early adopters. Maybe 1% of Americans have bought an HD or Blu Ray machine. Everyone knew that either there would be one winner or there would be two formats with people being angry that their fave movie wasn’t on their format.
Eventually there will be more formats. New features on receivers that people want, better HDTV’s, better front projectors at cheaper prices, etc.
Such is life.
Greg
i thought this was going to be earth-shaking when i read the article but it appears it is only bda attempt to catch-up with what hd-dvd already has in place. the only difference hd-dvd already has it up and running and blu-ray now has a vision. what a crock!!! ” a bird in hand is worth two in the bush”
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Although I am an HD DVD fan, I have to admit that these features sound impressive. Most of them, however, exist right now on every HD DVD player.
The ability to transfer movies to PSP’s sounds very cool, but makes me shudder a little bit. It’s looking a little too much like the fulfillment of what some of us have been afraid of: Sony thinks it’s their world, we just happen to live in it. Sony has a history of locking customers into proprietary formats. Why on Earth would we want to give any individual company, much less Sony, control over all future HD disks?