BD Live released too early.

[vmaxkevin]

IMHO BD Live is a prematurely released technology. The theory of it is great. A bit gimmicky, but cool nonetheless. Unfortunately, it's a bit like a store that has opened while still under construction. Some features are not available and inputting and submitting information is a draining almost painful experience. It took me at least 15 minutes to register Walk Hard the Dewey Cox Story. And after all that, it wouldn't accept my info. I don't know why and I don't care. I will not bother registering it. It's simply too time consuming. The juice just isn't worth the squeeze. What a way to drive a wedge into an evening! My wife told me that if I wanted to go through that excercise again I should probably do it early in the morning before everyone is up. Why couldn't they have waited a couple of years until they could get it working properly? It seems very "unhollywood" to release such a half-baked product (Ishtar excluded I can't help but think that this kind of experience would put people off of the whole thing, making the days of BD Live numbered. What a shame.

[jkwest]

lets see...in your first ten posts you've *****ed about:
Firmware
720p vs. 1080p
BD Live
Lossless Audio

am I missing anything else?

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by vmaxkevin

IMHO BD Live is a prematurely released technology. The theory of it is great. A bit gimmicky, but cool nonetheless. Unfortunately, it's a bit like a store that has opened while still under construction. Some features are not available and inputting and submitting information is a draining almost painful experience. It took me at least 15 minutes to register Walk Hard the Dewey Cox Story. And after all that, it wouldn't accept my info. I don't know why and I don't care. I will not bother registering it. It's simply too time consuming. The juice just isn't worth the squeeze. What a way to drive a wedge into an evening! My wife told me that if I wanted to go through that excercise again I should probably do it early in the morning before everyone is up. Why couldn't they have waited a couple of years until they could get it working properly? It seems very "unhollywood" to release such a half-baked product (Ishtar excluded I can't help but think that this kind of experience would put people off of the whole thing, making the days of BD Live numbered. What a shame.

Maybe you should have started with Disney's implementation of BD Live. It is several magnitudes better than the crappy Sony one you were dealing with. But I've had zero issues with any of the various BD Live implementations. Either you picked an unfortunate time when Sony was having server issues or your problem springs from user error.

[Mouse]

I've never liked the idea of BD Live. I think they should just include ALL extras on the disc from the start. No download times & better quality. The whole Disney thing with watching the movie with other people around the world... Why? Why would you want little kids screaming and asking questions while you're trying to enjoy the movie?

Physical media FTW.

[owa]

Some, like Universal, will save your login info if you want it to so you only have to enter it once.

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by Mouse

I've never liked the idea of BD Live. I think they should just include ALL extras on the disc from the start. No download times & better quality. The whole Disney thing with watching the movie with other people around the world... Why? Why would you want little kids screaming and asking questions while you're trying to enjoy the movie?

Physical media FTW.

You're making two points and mixing them together. I agree that the extra video content should be on the disc to begin with. It's not really even about download times or quality. I don't have faith that those extras will be there in 2 or 3 years times. Case in point, Sony's Starship Troopers 3 had various parts of interviews from Comic-Con available. I rented the disc and they were already on part 3 with parts 1 and 2 no longer available.

Second, you've obviously never actually used Disney's BD Live features. Why would there be little kids screaming and asking questions? There's no audio component to Disney's BD-Live so the kids would have to be in your house. The point of shared viewing is to connect families and friends. If you don't enjoy watching movies with your family and friends, that's your own problem. You're not going to be watching the movie with random strangers. At bare minimum, you have to know someone's BD Live ID to even invite them. And then they have to accept the invitation. Please know what you're talking about before knocking something.

I think it's too early to judge BD Live. It's barely been used and who knows what uses the studios will come up with for it. For example, I think the live viewing with Christopher Nolan that occurred with the Dark Night was pretty cool. I didn't take part, but it shows some potential for the format. Realistically, you could say that the same thing could have been accomplished 10 years ago by telling people to pop in the DVD at a certain time and log into a specific chat room.

[vmaxkevin]

Originally Posted by jkwest

lets see...in your first ten posts you've *****ed about:
Firmware
720p vs. 1080p
BD Live
Lossless Audio

am I missing anything else?

Sounds like you've missed the point if nothing else.

[vmaxkevin]

Originally Posted by caliminius

Maybe you should have started with Disney's implementation of BD Live. It is several magnitudes better than the crappy Sony one you were dealing with. But I've had zero issues with any of the various BD Live implementations. Either you picked an unfortunate time when Sony was having server issues or your problem springs from user error.

I agree. Disney is far superior to Sony's BD site. It's just frustrating to spend the time and money setting something up and it's mediocre at best. I'll hang in there...

[vmaxkevin]

Originally Posted by owa

Some, like Universal, will save your login info if you want it to so you only have to enter it once.

Yup. Thank goodness Sony does too. I couldn't imagine going through that every time.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by vmaxkevin

Sounds like you've missed the point if nothing else.

I think his point is you've joined the site and started posting like you're an expert on many things when a lot of what you've posted flies in the face of actual facts, not opinion, BD-Live notwithstanding.

[FendersRule]

Originally Posted by vmaxkevin

You would need a TV the size of a dance floor to see the difference between 1080p and 1080i even 720p for that matter

This is all the credibility that needs to be said with this person.

/end thread

[VHS4Ever]

BD Live is an overrated feature. It is more annoying than useful. And movies hardly have new contents.

[vmaxkevin]

Originally Posted by VHS4Ever

BD Live is an overrated feature. It is more annoying than useful. And movies hardly have new contents.

Thank you. I agree totally. It has a lot of potential but I really believe that this feature will put off the average consumer that are not as enthusiastic as a lot of people on this forum because there is so much to be done that could make this a truly dazzling feature. I'm sure it will get there one day. Hopefully everyone will hang in there with it.

[Marquoz]

I guess I'm in a minority, I've always derided HD-DVDs use of online features, and I'm deriding Blu-ray's use of online features. I don't see much of the point of it. If they want to give me extras, put them on a disk that so I have them in perpetuity. I don't have any desire to chat with the director of the movie, I don't want to do trivia while watching a movie with other people, I don't want to see even more previews for movies then I see on TV, the starting of the movie, on Blu-ray.com, on websites, beamed into my brain by space aliens, etc. For those that enjoy it awesome, for me, it's a waste of bandwidth.

[micks_address]

i think BD live has great potential for adding content once a relase has come out.. .. what id like to see is say with sequels.. if you look at something like transformers.. wouldnt it be cool, if you could load you your copy of transformers and blu - and go into the bd live section and watch 'making of' segments of the second film, you could download trailers and look at designs/story boards etc... get a real insight how the fim is being made..

its a great promotional opportunity for studios... they could stagger content right up the release date..

i know this only applies to sequels but its still a good use of the tech..

simillarly if they had use BD live on batman begins they could have drip fed info on the Dark Knight and whipped more of a frenzy encouraging people to go out and buy Batman Begins ever more..

id also like to see a 'single sign on' for bd live.. where all the studios use the same portal site and branch from that.. at least that way you're not entering details all over the shop on different sites..

or if a director created a new commmentary track for a film - wouldnt it be great if you could download that using BD Live instead of there being a double dip on the disc

or if there was a video game coming out for the film, that you could download it and play it on ps3.. (ok i know thats tying to platform.. but where's the harm)

anyway there just a few thoughts.. i'm sure there's loads of different potential uses of the tech.. hopefully we'll see it more streamlined and easier to use going forward with more added value

[supersix4]

my first try was on dexter season 1 and while it loaded very quick there was nothing on the bd live site or how ever they had it set up.

I thought it would be something I could use but after that I think I'll pass on the extra stuff and just enjoy the movie

[jsteinhauer]

It's pure gimmickry that had to be rushed in order to shut the HDDVD fanboys up who were in pure heaven visiting webstores and participating in polls.

[Halcro 1]

I dont vare for BD Live period ,,,,,, I just like the movie some extras like a DVD and thats it ....Give me a great video and audio transfer and Im good

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by caliminius

You're making two points and mixing them together. I agree that the extra video content should be on the disc to begin with. It's not really even about download times or quality. I don't have faith that those extras will be there in 2 or 3 years times. Case in point, Sony's Starship Troopers 3 had various parts of interviews from Comic-Con available. I rented the disc and they were already on part 3 with parts 1 and 2 no longer available.

Second, you've obviously never actually used Disney's BD Live features. Why would there be little kids screaming and asking questions? There's no audio component to Disney's BD-Live so the kids would have to be in your house. The point of shared viewing is to connect families and friends. If you don't enjoy watching movies with your family and friends, that's your own problem. You're not going to be watching the movie with random strangers. At bare minimum, you have to know someone's BD Live ID to even invite them. And then they have to accept the invitation. Please know what you're talking about before knocking something.

I think it's too early to judge BD Live. It's barely been used and who knows what uses the studios will come up with for it. For example, I think the live viewing with Christopher Nolan that occurred with the Dark Night was pretty cool. I didn't take part, but it shows some potential for the format. Realistically, you could say that the same thing could have been accomplished 10 years ago by telling people to pop in the DVD at a certain time and log into a specific chat room.

No I have never used any BD Live feature. I don't even allow my PS3 to connect to the internet when watching movies. Since you seem to be so knowledgable on this matter - why would you want to watch a movie with people that aren't even there? If you pause the movie to get up and use the restroom (or for whatever reason) would the movie pause for everyone else? It all just seems pointless to me. I'm just stating my opinion on the matter here. My opinion is the whole BD Live feature is useless. I've not once seen a single thing this feature has utilized that I would care to take advantage of. Other people have - sure. Just not me. So, my opinion is if they really want to reach the widest audience then they will put everything directly on the disc to start with. This will also help the people who don't have internet at their home.

[bhampton]

BDLive is junk.

(I also hate digital copy but at least digital copy sort of works. I download all the digital copies since I've paid for them but I still have no use for them.)

Blu Ray is the best but they are tacking on junk... At least I can ignore the fluff it which is exactly what I do.

When I want to go online... I sit at a computer or laptop... I don't think hey let me go grab a movie and surf through that.

-Brian