In the 12 months since Blu-ray emerged victorious over HD DVD in the battle for high-definition format supremacy, BD-Live has gone from having huge potential as a key sales and marketing feature to becoming a footnote on the spine of a handful of Blu-ray movies. And despite the fact that some studios like Disney are actively pursuing the technology, its implementation still feels like a random collection of ideas that lacks cohesion and focus. And sadly, it doesn’t really look like things are going to change any time soon.
Pioneer has three BD-Live Blu-ray players out in April, the BDP-120 hits under $US300, but the step-up BDP-320 and Elite BDP-23FD actually sense the TV you’re watching and tweak video output for max awesomeness.
Chris Nolan just hosted the live, on-demand substitute for a Dark Knight commentary track last night. So why was I left unsatisfied after squinting at my TV for two and a half hours?
Just a little reminder for Blu-ray/Batman fans in the audience—that live screening with director Christopher Nolan is tonight at 6pm Pacific. Here’s what Warner says you need to do to participate:
Dark Knight sold 600,000 Blu-ray copies on its opening day alone–that’s more than Iron Man, the previous #1, sold in its first week. And surprisingly, Blu-ray accounted for around 20% of total sales of 3m. You guys are buying a lot of Blu!
The latest version of the people’s Blu-ray ripper, Blu-ray Disc Ripper 1.4, is the first to support BD-Live titles. BD Ripper 1.4 now grabs the AACS folder, which might be needed for BD-Live flicks to decrypt downloaded content. That means it in effect copies the BD-Live extended content, bringing us one step closer to running downloadable BD-Live goodies on a ripped disc. You still need an AACS key to make the magic happen, but those are easy enough to find. What was that about 10 years, blah blah Blu-ray blah blah unbeatable blah blah? [TG Daily]
It must be Australian Blu-ray day or something. After finding out about Samsung’s free Blu-ray player promotion and LG launching their BD300 in Australia, Panasonic has decided to join the BD Profile 2.0 bandwagon and release the DMP-BD35 in Australia just in time for Christmas.
Along with all the standard Profile 2.0 features (BD-Live, HD audio decoding, PIP), it also offers some pretty sweet benefits to owners of their PZ850 series plasmas (like me). There’s x.v. color and Deep Colour for more realistic colour reproduction, and PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus, which reproduces the colours as close to the original film as possible. There’s also 24Hz mode (granted, you don’t need a Panny plasma for this one) and support for 7.1-channel audio, even if your system doesn’t decode all eight channels.
If that sounds like it might entice you, then you can pick up the DMP-BD35 for $495 RRP, or cheaper in the shops.
A few days ago, I mentioned that the only new special feature on the forthcoming This Is Spinal Tap Blu-ray would be a crazy game that threatens to put Rock Band to shame. It’s just a BD-Java game, so there’s no real chance of that, but we did get pictures that show it’s at least bound to be fun for 15 minutes. Only thing, judging from the pic above and the second shot down after the jump, it looks a little like it could just as easily be the BD-Live game for Village People: Can’t Stop the Music. [Original Press Release]
Sleeping Beauty is Disney’s first classic animated film to make its way to Blu-ray, and it’s loaded with legitimately compelling BD-Live extra features. Format War Central tried to check these out, but got smacked with a 57 page EULA followed by a 63 page Privacy Policy before they could view any of them. Also upsetting: the new ending, in which Princess Aurora, upon waking up from Phillip’s kiss resolves to become a copyright lawyer for a large electronics company. [Format War Central]
