BD-Live Is A Waste Of Time
I’ve had a Blu-ray player for over a year now and as far as I can tell, BD-Live is a complete waste of time.
No Web No BD-Live
If your Blu-ray player isn’t connected to the Internet then you can’t access BD-Live features. My Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray disc player doesn’t have a wi-fi connection and needs an ethernet connection to get online.
Wi-Fi Rules
My Wii has built-in Wi-Fi and makes it super easy to get online. If Blu-ray player manufacturers want consumers to waste their time with BD-Live then make it easy! Add built-in Wi-Fi to your players! There are a few Blu-ray players on the market now that have built-in wi-fi. Sony is just now releasing a Wi-Fi player but it won’t be available until August - Sony BDP-S560.
What is BD-Live?
It’s taken me over a year to really want to know what BD-Live is. Sony describes it on their site as:
a newly developed Blu-ray feature that enables you to access content via your internet-connected Blu-ray player. BD-Live can allow you to download a variety of up-to-date content (e.g., refreshed previews and exclusive special features), and can also enable an exciting state of the next generation possibilities, such as ringtone/wallpaper downloads, peer to peer interactions, live events and gaming activities.
Yawn. Apparently exciting state of the next generation possibilities means “IM friends while watching the movie and comment on your favorite scenes”. This is the one feature that is common discs for Ghostbusters, The International and The Da Vinci Code.
Useless Features
C’mon. Are you really going to use your remote and a crappy messaging interface on your TV to chat with friends? No. You’re probably going to pick up your BlackBerry or iPhone and communicate with them instead through text messages, tweets, email, or gasp, voice!
BD-Live wants to engage the user and put them at the center of the movie experience. My question is why? When did consumers start asking for this? Watch this rather unconvincing demo of BD-Live on YouTube. BD-Live is nothing more than a cheap gimmick to sell Blu-ray disc players and older movies in the studio catalogs.
If the studios want to sell more Blu-ray players and movies they should stop wasting their R&D dollars on BD-Live. Nobody wants useless “interactive features” when they watch a movie. Lower the price of the players, lower the price of the movies and sales will increase.
Posted in Home Theatre and Movies at 7:37 PM
