BD-Live: Blu-ray's secret weapon or a bust?

As much as we appreciate technology that works, the big question that remains is whether consumers actually want these features. For instance, in the example Disney gave of the video messaging feature, it showed a promotional video of a Dad seemingly on some sort of business trip. He'd sent his kid a message that popped up in the middle of the Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray as she was watching it at home, miles away. Our initial thought was that while the idea of remotely sending a video is conceptually cool, we would probably try it out only once or twice and never bother with it again.

As for text messaging while watching a film, we can't think of anything we would rather do less. We believe teenagers gabbing on screen while watching something like High School Musical or perhaps a movie club may like the feature. But it seems most people would take a pass. Then again, we think Twitter is completely inane, so what do we know.

We don't mind trivia, it's kind of fun to compete against a friend, but the cynical side of us say that the trivia and these other BD-Live features are a way for Disney and other studios to gather personal information and lure us into buying more crap. The studios, of course, would argue that they are trying to get to know us so they can serve us better and give us what we want. That's fine. We get it--it's great for them and great for advertisers. We're just not sure there is a benefit for the consumer.

In an earlier column where we talked about HD-DVD's interactive features, we made some similar observations. To be fair, Disney's core BD-Live features won't be the only BD-Live features on a given disc. The Sleeping Beauty disc, for example, will have an interactive weather feature that changes the appearance of Sleeping Beauty Castle according to the weather in your area (it knows where you live based on your IP address). Other discs will offer customized games, interactive maps, online polls, and other special features.

Some HD-DVD interactive features are already being ported to Blu-ray. For instance, the upcoming Blu-ray versions of Universal's Miami Vice and Heroes are said to include BD-Live versions of some of the better HDi features found on last year's HD-DVD versions. And Warner has delayed the Blu-ray edition of 300 to 2009, specifically so it can load the disc up with the sort of interactive extras found on the earlier HD-DVD version. Among them was the capability to choose your favorite scenes from the film and share your bookmarks with other users. Back in the HD-DVD days--last year, that is--we'd heard talk of a step-up version to that feature: Allowing viewers to loosely re-edit a film by reordering and chopping out certain scenes, and then sharing that "personal cut" with other users. No word on whether--or when--this feature will come to Blu-ray, but studios like to talk about all the possibilities and how we're really just at the starting line, so stay tuned.

We'll give Disney this: Even if we don't think the features are all that useful, we think it's smart that their marketing people came up with a standardized platform based on a core set of features that the company can employ across all of its Blu-ray titles, including those from Touchstone and Miramax. Until studios figure out what works and doesn't work with BD-Live, they've got to rein in costs and have a disciplined approach that attempts to create some economies of scale. Creating special Web sites to support movie-specific interactive features that have to be maintained in perpetuity doesn't exactly seem cost-effective, especially for titles that have only a limited lifespan in public conscience. For example, the HD-DVD of Blood Diamond had some online-enabled features, but how many times are you going to pop that disc back in your player after you've watched it once? While we liked the movie and appreciated its message, who's that obsessed with Blood Diamond?

Ultimately, when it comes to interactivity, the very nature of what movie watching is all about presents a serious challenge. The fact is movies are mostly a watch-once medium. You sit down, you watch the movie, and you move on. Yes, there are certain family titles, especially Pixar/Disney films, which children watch over and over, and which lend themselves better to a full array of BD-Live tricks. And when the occasional cult classic turns up and develops a hardcore following--I'm thinking The Big Lebowski and Office Space, as well as plenty of sci-fi flicks--we can see how you could develop a social community around the disc. The same goes for a handful of TV series.

Unfortunately for studios and consumer electronics manufacturers, what's going to sell Blu-ray in the end is the same thing that sold DVD: Cheap prices on players and the discs themselves. Oh, and the better picture and sound don't hurt, either. That's why we'd buy the Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray. How a'bout you?