First interactive Blu-Ray 2.0 discs soon
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is targeting April 8 as the date it will release its first batch of Blu-ray Disc titles that can be connected to the Internet for more bonus materials and features. The musical spoof “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” and the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi thriller “The 6th Day” will be the studio’s first two BD-Live titles. Their release coincides with the launch of a new software update for Sony’s PlayStation 3 that makes the game console the first Blu-ray player with Internet connectivity, an ability known as “Profile 2.0.
“Ultimately, all Blu-ray players will be Profile 2.0. When the format launched in June 2006, Blu-ray players were of the basic Profile 1.0 kind, meaning they could offer neither picture-in-picture nor Internet connectivity, something the doomed HD DVD rival format offered from Day 1. Sony’s two BD-Live titles each include exclusive downloadable theatrical and home video previews along with a FAQ about BD-Live functionality. “Walk Hard” includes three featurettes that star Bill Hader as Derek Stone, a historian and expert “Coxologist.” These featurettes are available only via the BD-Live download. BD-Live titles also have the potential to enable a wide range of Web-based features, including ringtone and wallpaper downloads, peer-to-peer interactions, live virtual events and gaming.
Source: Reuters
So…. Anyone who brought a standalone blueray player cannot play 100% of the new 2.0 discs and have to buy a new 2.0 player??? yes thats how to shoot selves in foot sony!!
Hopefully that dvd vmd will jum#p into the confused market and teach sony a lesson.
it’s all gonna go digital very soon anyways. i’ll be able to pop an “SD like chip” into HD digital player that fits into my hand. All you bluray fanatics will soon be left with a big clunky ugly obsolete bluray player. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are already working on it.
“These featurettes are available only via the BD-Live download.” - Untill the scene rips are out that is!
I feel no urge to get me a BD yet. I think I’ll wait and get the next big thing instead. I just wonder, why just before the release of BD2, the BD1 encryption got broken. I don’t think it’s a mere coincidense. I think the SONY lead BD group has something to do with it - as they are seeing that their offering is not catching on as fast as they’d expected (mainly for the recent price hike), they took this risk to create a broader consumer base hooked into watching HD content.
I’m not happy at all to see an incomplete product win the “Great Format War-II” just because the winning group had more cash power backing an inferior product.
Damn you SONY, damn you to hell!!!
To the best of my knowledge there are already two movies out that take use of BD Live aka profile 2.0 - Saw 4 and War. The fact still remains that no player is able to fully utilize 2.0 features though.
As in BD quality and if one should get it. I’m sure most can live without it, but why should you really? As you eventually move up the ladder and get yourself a big screen HDTV you’ll notice that regular SDTV just won’t suffice, unless ofcourse you spend all your money on a tv that has insane SD video processing equipment.
To me it seems most people here are of the kind that quality comes second while availability is first, IE CAMs and that nasty stuff. To me, personally, I can’t watch a HQ dvd get compressed to 1 cd release in divx any longer without heavy video processing. But then again, the majority of the people i know don’t even know how to calibrate brightness correctly. It’s a shame really, people are missing out on so much. But to each his own, i guess.
OHHHHHH!! #6!!!!
When the first HD DVD players came out, they couldn’t output at 1080p because Toshiba announced to the whole world that 1080i was superior and people bought it and didn’t moan. when they launched their 2nd generation of players, they updated them to output at 1080p and didn’t explain why.
It was also widely known (to those who bothered to do some research into the HD formats) that the Blu-ray standard had not been completed by the time it was launched. It was not mandatory for stand alone players to have an Ethernet port.
Even profile 1.0 was able to beat HD DVD hands down and articles did state that the PS3 was the the best and cheapest way to get into the Blu-ray world.
For us PS3 owners, we should be getting the new firmware this week (v2.20) and there are some nice things included.
So, Bluray v.2.0 will bring additional bonus material and stuff… duh! We have those in DVD for years and without the hassle of connecting to the net to get them. What’s the fuss all about? Marketing for fools or something?
I’m not really sure but I believe early Blu-ray players can be updated via online or via firmware flash (like if you have it serviced, etc.) but some players are 100% non-updateable (especially the cheap or really old ones) in this case it does not mean that you won’t be able to play BD 2.0 discs, it just means that you won’t be able to access BD 2.0 enhancements but you can still play main movies off BD 2.0…
so far the best Blu-ray player is still the PS3 as it supports BD 2.0 and it is a gaming machine.
“BD-Live titles also have the potential to enable a wide range of Web-based features, including ringtone and wallpaper downloads, _PEER-TO-PEER INTERACTIONS_, live virtual events and gaming.”
Anyone else find that ironic?
Just put the damn extra material on the disc. 50 gigs and a dual layer disc and thats still not enough room?
Just marketing nonsense or a way to require/”encourage” internet access now so that later on that connection can be used to snoop or call home to check firmware hacks.
Either way, it’s not needed.
Maybe Sony will sell some PS3s now. They sure ain’t worth buying it for the games!
And #10, I fully agree, but sadly that’s not the way marketing works.
@11
I bought my PS3 for the games, and it was worth every penny.
I guess that makes your statement stupid, and you a idiot.
@2 Blobsters
U r wrong my friend…it will be a long time until HD movies appear in mem. cards.
Why? First because the content will be easily copied if soo,and the studios dont want that(thats because Bluray won the format war,for being the most secure format) and 2nd because mem. cards are a way to expensive technology to distribute content,and people will not have the patience to download the stuff an then copy to the mem card…etc,to much hassle.
yay, so Bluray is finally catching up to HDDVD, only two years later!!!
Wow, Sony needs to stop making horrible marketing movies, oh wait, I forgot that’s what they’re best at. A month ago I thought it was time to finally upgrade to a Blu-Ray player in maybe another year or so, but this is giving me second thoughts. It also still proves even more that HD-DVD was always better, quality and capability (if you don’t believe me look up their tech comparisons somewhere)
Why can’t some other company just come in and have a cheaper, better system, then we can all buy that and be happy!
@15 Fizzycakes
Again…no other company will make a “cheaper, better system,…” because studios wont have it … Bluray is just the best secure(anti piracy) format out there, Hd dvd was just to easy to copy, Blu ray is just a little more difficult, therefor the winer format in the studios point of view.
Downloadable content wont catch on before we all have at least 100mbits connections…lol.
And even then i would like to see you downloading a 25gb movie, when you could just pop in a disc and start watching your movie like in 2 seconds….Admit it…SONY won this one.
geee BlueRay Live probably will cost money
Not only did HD-DVD support picture-in-picture from day 1, but it was also region free.
Regions are just another way of controlling where people buy their movies, meaning if someone in Europe go to the US on vacation, they can’t buy movies there.
HD-DVD was the better format, but Sony bought all the movie companies off. Of course the studios will go with the company that has the “best” copy protection and pays them the most. Just too bad BD+ has been cracked, and digital downloads are getting bigger by the day.
@13 I would if I got the content for free.
The Average Joe(which HDDuD was targetting) probably doesnt even have the basic knowledge or prolly even knows how to import a damn movie.
As for saying that BD-Live movies wont work in old players, they will you just wont be able to access the BD-Live features which would include online games, online chatting etc…
PPl saying “Why not put the features on the disc”, They do this to give further updates to the movie, like deleted scenes that would’ve not been released when the movie came out, add some games, or Trailers. You also got to note that Even though Blu-ray discs come in at 25GB per layer, we are not dealing with Crappy MPEG-2, low bitrate movies, Most of these new releases are around 25mbp/s for video and about 6mbp/s for audio, This can fill up a disc pretty quick, (especially HDDuD discs)
@18
Sony bought off all the companies? wait you mean Toshiba didn’t Pay Paramount/Dreamworks to go HDDuD exclusive? then who did Toshiba give those $150,000,000 to? Sony Didn’t pay Disney/Fox or WB to go Blu they did it because they knew what the better Format was. as for BD+ being cracked you forget that Blu-ray has more security than that, AACS,BD+, and BD-Mark, hopefully they don’t go with BD-Mark but if BD+ remains crackable maybe it will become a reality.
All the people Bashing Sony over BD-Live, Why bash on BD? when HDDuD had it u ppl were going Ape $h1T over it. now u say it is useless and why don’t they put it on a disc?
@Fizzycakes
do you mind explaining these strengths of HDDuD? let me see BD has 54mbps of raw bandwith vs 36.5mbps of bandwith for HDDuD let me see what is better? 25gb per layer vs 15gb per layer, hmmmmm….? now with Blu-Ray CE’s making BD-Live players HDDuD doesn’t even compare, even tho its a dead format now anyways. Also note that Toshiba bought out Paramount/Dreamworks, ever wonder why? they Went Dud right b4 release of Blades of Glory, why is this important? Probably because Starting with Blades of Glory PAramount said they would be using LPCM audio for all future releases, most HDDuD titles wouldn’t be able to cope with the bandwith or the amount of space LPCM takes up, so PAramount would Release a HDDuD and Blu-ray movie at the same time, one would have Lossless audio the other wouldn’t. if yo uwere neutral what would you get?
@19 Amano Jyaku
Yep…and money grows on trees…
Why aren’t the extra features just held on the disc?
The whole point of Blu-Ray is the big data capacity. I think this Blu-Ray live or whatever is just a marketing ploy. It really serves no purpose to the consumer.
I am just going to stick to my 5gb DVDRs and my 700mb avi rips.
Who really has the cash to blow on Blu-Ray crap?
I have not bought or burned a DVD in ages. I just collect the films on my HDD to watch through my widescreen monitor or my 4:3 TV.
Only trouble is that if my HDD ever fails I’m screwed. I have 1TB of HDDs atm but as prices continue to fall I will buy another 500gb to backup onto.
And my question is this…..who gives a flying crap about quality anyway….. new TV, New Dvd Player….for what 90 min of movie…….rather download and watch and get it over and done with. Now all people can afford these expensive toys… these guys are creating the piracy market and then they complain about it.
In China u can buy and original DVD for $1….coz apparently they wanna stop piracy, but in other countrues we gotta pay $20 for a movie…what gives
So basically if u can afford to pay more…they charge more…
@20
There were rumors of 500 million dollars changing hands, allthough no one confirmed it, I (and many other) thinks it did happen.
And look what the security is doing to BR now? Tons and tons of releases, that is what the “experts” said would take years.
Blu-ray is very good, and I have no problems using it (have a PS3) but it’s not the most user friendly format. HD-DVD no regions would have been the best solution imo.
@24 Viranth
Rumors are just that …rumors!!
“HD-DVD no regions would have been the best solution imo.”
Exactly, studios prefer to limit you with regions,to control consumers…again , another reason for the Bluray victory…its just comercial politics.
and remenber…most consumers dont have a clue how to grab stuff from the interwebs…and they dont really care, because most people are against piracy from a ethical point a view.
Have your BD player spied on, now with RootKit! Feel the exilaration of being data mined!
Now, instead of all those bonus materials you have on DVD’s, you will be forced to connect to the networks’ sites.
This is ANTI COMPETITIVE to piracy. the whole point of a BD disk is to skip the internet, not compete with free.
What would we do without the scene, is a hell I’d rather not walk in.
@25 “…and they dont really care, because most people are against piracy from a ethical point a view.”
you’re right. But that’s because the joe 6 pack feels guilty when the **AA tell him that piracy is theft! A Sin!.
Since joe 6 pack is not a lawyer and “Thou shalt not BitTorrent files of dubious origin that may violate copyright in 7 of the following 8 and 3/4 cases and takes place in a country that has signed and ratified the WIPO treaties…. etc etc…”
The media, owned by the **AA is keeping joe six pack feeling immoral. Maybe that’s all they need to justify terrorizing the common folk with lawsuits and still seem like the “good guys.”
Sony really have a knack of opening up doors to piracy!.
They never fail
@27 Atlas
Exactly…but. “The media, owned by the **AA is….”
They dont “own” them, they just share exatcly the same objectives…actually i think studios control MPAA, since it means”Motion Picture Association of America”, dont you?
A lot of this is ridiculous, every few years a new “standard”, upgrade, peripheral is added. I’ll be d*mned when the day comes when we have be “mind chats.” Thinking like: “Hey man, the new Sony Corp has just unleashed download to brain, 40% more mind enslaving!” Sheesh. Good quality picture is nice, I like quality in the picture, But soon enough will be enough. When does a nice picture turn into just a better picture for the propaganda injected into our brains? Is it just a game, or is time quickly approaching when it’ll be a matrix for our brains? and this leads us to the age old adage, New is not always better. and on some other thought tangent, My cousin spent $800 on a new HDTV, and then the thing went on sale for 2/3 the original price. He thought he was “ahead of the curve,” by being the big d*ck in the family with a Big ‘ole American-sized Tv. I laughed. Then I spent my money on a laptop for college. But from his perspective- as we are heavy gamers, I’m lagging behind in tech. I say blah to his Technology divide bull- No this is a technology fail safe. So that when all this bullsh*t blows up in our face I’ll still have the last working build. Good grief.
I think it’s obvious why features like these are needed. Thanks to the quantity and quality of extra features expected by spoiled consumers nowadays, more and more development time is required before a movie can be released. Internet connectivity allows the studio to get their movie out the door on time, and then add patches and extra content at a later time. Same thing has been happening with PC software (especially games) for a long time now. All developers/producers have a permanent case of get-it-out-the-door-asap-so-we-can-make-money-right-now-itis.
sick of BluRay so much I dream about it!!!
@ black man. tis never enough.
scuse’ me while i get a second net connect installed