Is BD-Live just a SCAM..?

[CrazyFool]

Okay, so I bought 'King Kong' on Saturday and spent a good part of the weekend enjoying repeated viewings of the best scenes in the comfort of my living room. That was great, but after I grew weary of it I listened to the director's commentary while doing chores around the house. That was pretty fun. But Sunday evening I settled down into my easy chair to get to the really good stuff... the 'making of' stuff. Imagine my dismay when I was told that I could not view any of these special features unless I was connected to BD-Live.

What the hell is that B.S.??? For one thing I don't watch TV *at all* so my TV is not connected to cable. I couldn't connect to BD-Live if I wanted to. Another thing is that I have a pre BD-Live player. So, again, I could not connect to BD-Live even if I wanted to.

But that's completely BESIDE the point. I should not have to connect to BD-Live just to view the stuff that normally comes on every decent DVD.

[Hedchekr]

Well I assume thats to save space on the disc, so not everything is compressed to s***, I do understand that that sucks for you, people like me on the other hand have no interest in watching that stuff at all, I would rather them put my movie and sound at a lower compression rate on the whole disc and leave those extras online. But thats just me.

[bajor27]

Originally Posted by Hedchekr

Well I assume thats to save space on the disc, so not everything is compressed to s***, I do understand that that sucks for you, people like me on the other hand have no interest in watching that stuff at all, I would rather them put my movie and sound at a lower compression rate on the whole disc and leave those extras online. But thats just me.

Agreed. Though I am a tad worried about how long those extras will be available online. I'd still much rather a 2nd disc for extras, but if it's 1-disc + online or just 1-disc with more compression, I'll take the online stuff anyday.

[Clark Kent]

The studios are still groping in the dark for suitable applications of BD-Live. I do think that every possible feature that can fit should be included on the disc itself.

[CrazyFool]

So it is a cheap a***d scam.

The extras should be included on a 2nd disc if they cannot be contained on one disc without compressing the movie.

[Rob J in WNY]

I have only recently connected my Sony S350 to my network, and have found BD-Live to be somewhat cumbersome, rather than a pleasure to use.

I like the idea for interesting and up-to-the-minute and/or educational extra content, such as on the Kung Fu Panda BD, but the registering and logging in is a chore on other BDs, such as Disney stuff.

I do believe that BD-Live has yet to land on its feet in a larger way.

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by CrazyFool

But that's completely BESIDE the point. I should not have to connect to BD-Live just to view the stuff that normally comes on every decent DVD.

You aren't missing much anyway. It just isn't worth getting riled up over not being able to get it. The reason for King Kong having limited special features is because two versions of the already long movie are on the same BD.

My S350 is connected to my LAN but only to get firmware updates. I don't normally watch special features even if they're on the BD unless it's something really special.

Even so I tried BD-live and found it to be too bothersome. It takes too long to download the content. Once downloaded I often had to register online before being able to view it and yet another name/password to deal with. Some studios let you see limited stuff without registering. It's just too many hoops to go through to even bother with it. I watch movies to relax and enjoy. My experience with BD-live wasn't.

[SkantDragon]

I think BD Live will ultimately do for Blu-ray what alternate camera angles did for DVD.

[schweizergarde]

Donnie darko included a second disk for the extra features....cept it was a DVD.

[Clark Kent]

Originally Posted by SkantDragon

I think BD Live will ultimately do for Blu-ray what alternate camera angles did for DVD.

That is a very good analogy right there.

[Ray O. Blu]

I personally don't care too much for extras, so I don't log in to use the BD-Live function. Extras should definitely go on a separate disc. I just want the main feature to have a top-notch transfer.

[RedIsNotBlue]

The thing with BD-Live is that you can get features AFTER the release of the Blu-ray which is an awesome thing to have. The thing is though this function has barely been taken advantage yet. But BD-Live is not exactly out of the testing waters it needs more time. I also enjoyed the BD-Live chat with Christopher Nolan while watching The Dark Knight. In an nutshell BD-Live can be an interesting and fun thing to toy around with but like I said for the most part studios have just basically been using it as another use for promotion.

[Jeff Kleist]

I think BD Live will ultimately do for Blu-ray what alternate camera angles did for DVD.

Not quite a fair analogy

Alternate camera angles weren't used mostly because they cause the main feature to become bitstarved. DVD, like HD DVD after it had a lot of "the look and sound of good enough" about it, and there just wasn't enough bandwidth to start with, let alone devote to alternate angles.

BDLive doesn't depend on anything on-disc, so it's a lot more likely to be exploitable

[onehothemi]

Originally Posted by SkantDragon

I think BD Live will ultimately do for Blu-ray what alternate camera angles did for DVD.

HAHAHAHAHAHHA Priceless... so true tho... I hate the fact there is an angle button and NO angles.

[mr.hidef]

Someone I personally know who works closely with SONY, says what we have seen thus far with BD-Live is "BARELY" the tip of the iceberg.

[Jeff Kleist]

Someone I personally know who works closely with SONY, says what we have seen thus far with BD-Live is "BARELY" the tip of the iceberg

Definately true. Disney has an entire team of hotshots who do nothing but sit in a room thinking up cool stuff to do with BDJ

[Squozen]

Originally Posted by mr.hidef

Someone I personally know who works closely with SONY, says what we have seen thus far with BD-Live is "BARELY" the tip of the iceberg.

Yes, they are capable of making it MUCH slower and more cumbersome.

[CrazyFool]

Originally Posted by rwojtalewicz

You aren't missing much anyway. It just isn't worth getting riled up over not being able to get it. The reason for King Kong having limited special features is because two versions of the already long movie are on the same BD.

If they start removing the special features from one Blu-ray disc... they will start removing the special features from ALL Blu-ray discs.

Like I said. It's complete B.S. They should include the 'making of' and other cool special features on a 2nd disc if they can't squeeze it onto the 1st disc.

[Danger Boy]

BD Live is a JOKE!


TV's are now coming out with internet connection boxes with them.. so you can hook up to special content from X brand of TV.

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by mr.hidef

Someone I personally know who works closely with SONY, says what we have seen thus far with BD-Live is "BARELY" the tip of the iceberg.

Considering how Sony has the absolute worst implementation of BD-Live, that doesn't really mean much. And now Sony has started slapping a link to their crappy BD-Live site on every disc so they can have another bullet point in the list of extras.

Pretty much every major studio has used it more effectively than Sony. Disney's is pretty polished although you still run into features that say "Coming Soon" when you try to access them.

I think there is potential, but I have to second the others here and don't think it lies in downloadable features. Maybe stuff like downloadable subtitles, but like others have said I fear that downloadable extras won't stick around. I've already experienced that disappearing content when I rented Sony's Starship Troopers 3 and found they were on Part 3 of some interview series (I guess I shouldn't be surprised the crappy experience was brought to me by Sony).