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Disney, Panasonic Preview BD-Live Technology

Interactivity is the new video buzz word

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 16, 2008 
Walt Disney Home Entertainment and Panasonic today unveiled many of the features that consumers can expect from the companies' BD-Live technology, an interactive service Disney and other studios will be attaching to some upcoming Blu-ray releases on DVD.

Since Sony's Blu-ray technology won the media war over HD DVD in March, Blu-ray player manufacturers and studios alike have rushed to develop technologies that can take advantage of the enormous amounts of free data found on the discs, which can hold about 9 hours of high-definition footage, said Peter Fannon, Panasonic's vice president of technology policy, government and regulation.

Sony and Panasonic jointly developed the technology, Fannon said.

MovieChat enables live chat while watching BD-Live movies.

MovieChallenge tests movie fans' knowledge of trivia.

Many of those studios and player manufacturers have adopted BD-Live, which uses Java programming to allow users to play interactive quiz games and other features.

“We're trying to turn passive viewing into an active experience,” Dave Hollis, Disney Studio's senior vice president of Worldwide Business Development and New Technologies, said at the unveiling today in Washington, D.C.

While some critics on the Internet have claimed that the BD-Live features are nothing more than gimmicks, Hollis said they add extended value and repeatability to the video, which some children may watch multiple times.

The BD-Live enabled Blu-ray DVDs will not cost more than previous Disney releases, Hollis said.

Disney intends to feature BD-Live on all future Blu-ray releases under the Disney Home Entertainment name and expects that other Disney companies such as ABC and Miramax will slowly incorporate it.

So far only two films, Saw IV and War, released by Lionsgate Films in January, feature BD-Live. Only a few Blu-ray players currently support BD-Live and even fewer have the Internet connectivity required to take full advantage of Disney's BD-Live Network. Most BD-Live players, including the PlayStation 3, cost between $499 and $700 and demand has been so high that all manufacturers are having difficulty keeping pace, Fannon said.

Consumers who want to buy a Blu-ray player that supports BD-Live need to look for the “BD-Live” logo on the front of the machine.

Fannon said he expects the prices to drop over time as production meets demand and Hollis said he expects this technology to become standard in most new Blu-ray players by October.

Disney's first BD-Live releases, Sleeping Beauty and Tinkerbell, will come out in October. Wall-E and Prince Caspian are in the pipeline but no release date has been set.

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