So I ascertained a copy of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story today, and I decided to see what all the fuss was about “BD-Live”. Prima facie, one thought to himself about how useful mixing the internet with your movie could be. Well, in all actuality I think it’s kinda neat. It’s not mind-blowing, but it makes for a nice package. Along with the Picture in Picture provided with Profile 1.1, I feel that the Blu-ray Association has done quite a bit to prove that Blu-ray is more than just a DVD with “high quality.” The whole package is definitely worthy of being called a next-generation experience.
The move in question was set up just like any other blu-ray film, except it had a separate tab that said “BD-live” on it. When I clicked on it, it took a little while to load up the screen, but there’s a sleek menu-based system. On the left there is a box with your “What’s New”, “FAQ” and “Return to Disc Menu” option, and then on the right half there’s section for Blu-ray previews with the likes of Resident Evil, Men in Black, and Gattaca. There are also three Theatrical previews such as Prom Night, 88 Minutes, and You Don’t Mess With The Zohan. There are both HD and SD versions of each trailer, except for the “What’s New” features since those are actually downloadable featurettes relating to the movie at hand. Once you click on a trailer, the SD / HD options disappear and theres is a progress bar. While one is downloading, you may also attempt to download another. If you choose to return to the Disc Menu, it will pause your download until your return to the BD-live screen. Granted, these are full HD trailers, so they will be relatively big. However, that is why all Blu-ray Profile 2.0 compliant players require at least 1.0GB of space on them. According to the reports I’ve read, the trailers and Blu-ray previews will change every so often, but I am uncertain as to whether or no the “what’s new” movie-related downloads change out every so often, or if those stay consistent. If you exit from the screen and come back, everything stays the same…
It’s a pretty interesting feature, and I can see it adding replay value to certain Blu-ray discs. It can help you keep up with what’s up and coming from that particular film company, and help you find films similar in nature. Basically, things you used to use the internet to look up, isn’t quite necessary anymore. Plus, your Blu-ray Profile 2.0 player is hopefully hooked up to a nicer and brighter display than your computer monitor.
There really isn’t much to gripe out. I suppose my only qualm is that it does not allow for background downloading or early previewing. I would be much more convenient to be able to use the time it takes to watch the film to download these trailers. Sometimes these trailers can be several megabytes in size, and when you’re not on the fastest internet connection ever like I am, sometimes it can be a bore sitting here staring at your TV waiting for these to finish. While it’s not the biggest deal in the world, it would be much less stressful to have that background downloading feature.
