Sony BD-Live

[EricJ]

May be old news by now, but:
After months of theoretical geek-discussion about Profile 2.0 and BD-Live (and all those cool HDi features that HD-DVD was going to bring us, on our wireless/Ethernet modem! ), finally got my first peek at Sony's version of Internet BD-Live, via wireless PS3 and a copy of "Cirque du Soleil: Corteo"
(Although "Dralion" and "La Nouba" were better, but I'd watch any Cirque in 1080. )

After about two-minutes of loading, what popped up onscreen was a sort of proto mini-Playstation Network, with:
- A "magazine-style" index offering "Spotlight" on this month's promoted disks (previews for new titles, and a web-Blackjack game for "21"),
- The standard downloadable Blu previews as already available on PSN (which took about the same length of time to download as PSN's
- An index of what extras I'd already collected, which I assume would stay on the hard drive and be accessed from any Sony disk.
- (And presumably any web-exclusive disk content, if there'd happened to be any for this title.)
Seems like all the content was on the Sony server, and the software only is there to plug the machine into this month's latest "issue" of extras.

So, THIS's what all the waiting-for-2.0 fuss was about?
I can live with it--Like all those DVD frills (Alternate Angle, anyone?) that never caught on as toys, but ended up as useful disk-extra tools, I can see this New Thing being harnessed for useful purposes.
Just so long as I don't have to pull the disk down three years from now, and wonder whether anyone still wants to chat about a Cirque show.

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by EricJ

May be old news by now, but:
After months of theoretical geek-discussion about Profile 2.0 and BD-Live (and all those cool HDi features that HD-DVD was going to bring us, on our wireless/Ethernet modem! ), finally got my first peek at Sony's version of Internet BD-Live, via wireless PS3 and a copy of "Cirque du Soleil: Corteo"
(Although "Dralion" and "La Nouba" were better, but I'd watch any Cirque in 1080. )

After about two-minutes of loading, what popped up onscreen was a sort of proto mini-Playstation Network, with:
- A "magazine-style" index offering "Spotlight" on this month's promoted disks (previews for new titles, and a web-Blackjack game for "21"),
- The standard downloadable Blu previews as already available on PSN (which took about the same length of time to download as PSN's
- An index of what extras I'd already collected, which I assume would stay on the hard drive and be accessed from any Sony disk.
- (And presumably any web-exclusive disk content, if there'd happened to be any for this title.)
Seems like all the content was on the Sony server, and the software only is there to plug the machine into this month's latest "issue" of extras.

So, THIS's what all the waiting-for-2.0 fuss was about?
I can live with it--Like all those DVD frills (Alternate Angle, anyone?) that never caught on as toys, but ended up as useful disk-extra tools, I can see this New Thing being harnessed for useful purposes.
Just so long as I don't have to pull the disk down three years from now, and wonder whether anyone still wants to chat about a Cirque show.

I've experienced Sony's version of BD-Live on a few discs and it really leaves much to be desired. From your description, it sounds like there is no exclusive online content for the Cirque du Soleil disc you have otherwise it would have shown up in the Spotlight section.

Just from an aesthetic perspective, their BD-Live interface looks like crap. It takes way too long to load up, especially when that lackluster interface is all that they you get in the end. I don't think they should include a BD-Link on a disc unless they plan on offering exclusive web content.

Another issue I have is that they mapped the various sections (Spotlight, Previews, etc.) to the colored button on the Blu-Ray remote but they didn't follow the order of the buttons on the remote (I'm assuming that the colored buttons are in the same order on every Blu-Ray remote control). The first button, red is mapped to the Exit function, which is the last thing in the BD-Live interface. Even accepting that red means stop (thus Exit), past that they STILL didn't go in order. It's really annoying and just bad interface design. To me, it would be like putting the fast-forward button on the left side of a remote or ordering the number keys by their spelling (8, 5, 4, 9, 1, 7, 6, 3, 2 - how painful that would be).

Downloading the extras for Paramount's Transformers disc is far less painful.

I'm hoping Disney's planned use of it provides a good example to the other studios (Sony included) on what the true potential of BD-Live is. With Warner, I'd just settle for them getting off their *sses and provided lossless audio on every disc.

[Geonosis]

Universal has the best online experience, it is visually really cool and simple. Sony's is too plain, unattractive and the content is iffy. So far nothing innovative or new like movie chat, games, etc. I really expected SPHE to lead the industry with a compelling and dynamic BD-Live portal. I think Disney will do a great job with Disney BD-Live next week.

[2099net]

I got the US Starship Troopers Trilogy yesterday (it took a while to be sent to the UK) and I see on their BD Live they have "time limited" downloads. For example Starship Troopers 3 has a "Comic Con Q&A Panel" download. The only problem is, its Part 2. There's no way to download Part 1, as its been replaced by Part 2!

Then to add insult to injury, Part 2 expires on September 23rd to be replaced by Part 3. So the poor saps who buy the UK release (29th September release) won't even have the chance to download Part 1 or Part 2 at all, even if they put their disc in on the first day of release!

Once these comic con panels are taken down off the download area, I can't see many other (if any) Starship Troopers 3 specific content being added. I really can't see the point of "limited time" downloads, its effectively removing bullet points from the back of your box within one or two months of release.

Is that how Sony see BD Live? Extra content if you happen to buy the film on release date, but probably nothing at all if you happen to be late to the party or happen to have the misfortune to live outside of the USA in which case you've missed out because you bought the local copy?

[yuZe]

I cannot use BD-Live. I have an updated PS3 system and BD-Live supported "The 6th Day" Blu-Ray but I cannot use it. There is no menu or something appears. How can i solve it?

[Kyo28]

Originally Posted by yuZe

I cannot use BD-Live. I have an updated PS3 system and BD-Live supported "The 6th Day" Blu-Ray but I cannot use it. There is no menu or something appears. How can i solve it?

There's BD-Live content on The 6th Day?

Come to think of it, I'm in the same boat as you are. I use a PS3 and I can't see any online content in my The 6th Day BD. However, discs like Transformers go online without a problem and I could download everything (including the cool new menu bars).

So, I would also be happy to hear how to proceed to get BD-Live content for The 6th Day.