Check it out! :)

http://www.universalhidef.com/

You can't do that on Blu-Ray! Maybe never will.

WTF...You can even download trailers and exclusive content on your HD DVD player...this is crazy cool!

So it begins. Good job Universal

UPDATE: I signed up for the universal HD account. So once I get a disc with these features, I can jump right in. Thanks universal.

Does this mean we'll see the Miami Vice disc internet features activated?

I'm a Fan not a fanboy so i won't bash. But this is just to cool. I'm sitting here giddy:D

I am up here in Toronto Canada.... is this available to anyone with an HD DVD player, or just for American residents with a HD DVD player?

Paul

WTF...You can even download trailers and exclusive content on your HD DVD player...this is crazy cool!Yup. Starting with this week's Heroes...:cool:

This is my basis for Universal not even considering offers from the BDA. Maybe one day they will offer a complete system...;)...but that appears to be well into the future. As it exists today, Blu-ray simply CANNOT accomplish what they have promised:

Universal VP Ken Graffeo announced Wednesday that the studio plans to include web-enabled features in all of its new releases on HD DVD, starting with 'Heroes: Season One' on August 28.http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/786

Heh, pretty cool, Universal stepping up! One question though, is it taboo or some sort of industry "no no" to not say "ONLY on xxxx"???? I mean why not make it clear to folks surfing by their page, especially people new to HDM and understand there's a war of 2 formats going on, to say something like: "Heroes, ONLY on DVD and HD DVD" instead of "available now on DVD and HD DVD."

Anyway, it looks cool!

downloading content is available only for machines with built in hard drive/pc
right?

i can't see how my tosh a1 could do that.

downloading content is available only for machines with built in hard drive/pc
right?

i can't see how my tosh a1 could do that.The downloading feature works for all players thanks to the uniform HD DVD standard. I downloaded trailers to my XA2 last night. Yes, the space is currently limited to the RAM on the player. I've read that saving content to network drives is likely in the future. I imagine that's pretty trivial as all HD DVD players are network aware as it is.

Downloading features is a really nice feature, but I'm sure it helps if you've got a Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive since you have that hard drive to load everything too. Toshiba should come out with a machine with a built in storage device or allow you to use USB Memory Cards to upload the data from your machine so it can be stored indefinately. I know the A1 has USB ports on it so maybe that's a feature they will add in a new firmware.

I was crawling in my freaking attic on Monday, running an ethernet cable so I could network my theater room. I tried it out on Freedom Vol 1, and thought the whole thing was very cool. I can't wait to get a chance to play around with my copy of Heroes that just arrived.

Downloading features is a really nice feature, but I'm sure it helps if you've got a Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive since you have that hard drive to load everything too. Toshiba should come out with a machine with a built in storage device or allow you to use USB Memory Cards to upload the data from your machine so it can be stored indefinately. I know the A1 has USB ports on it so maybe that's a feature they will add in a new firmware.

The 2nd gen players have USB as well. I would hope these come into use at some point. Like you said, maybe transferring data or adding storage. Maybe they will even let you hook up an external HDD.

I'm sure Paramount was looking at a lot of stuff that Universal has plans for. Shoot, they wanna sell stuff while watching the movie as noted on the website. I can see why the studios like the full interactive features on HD-DVD. It is just the tip of the iceberg so far on what they can do. Unless BD changes their specs, these types of features will be optional and I'm unsure why studios would waste their time and money designing them.

No one excuse me of being an HD-DVD fanboy, I'm format neutral. Just liking what I'm seeing on the red side recently.

Heh, pretty cool, Universal stepping up! One question though, is it taboo or some sort of industry "no no" to not say "ONLY on xxxx"???? I mean why not make it clear to folks surfing by their page, especially people new to HDM and understand there's a war of 2 formats going on, to say something like: "Heroes, ONLY on DVD and HD DVD" instead of "available now on DVD and HD DVD."

Anyway, it looks cool!

I don't think either blu-ray or hd-dvd wants to do that because both have their exclusive titles. It's better for both sides if J6p doesn't know they can't watch all of the movies on one player.

Downloading features is a really nice feature, but I'm sure it helps if you've got a Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive since you have that hard drive to load everything too. Toshiba should come out with a machine with a built in storage device or allow you to use USB Memory Cards to upload the data from your machine so it can be stored indefinately. I know the A1 has USB ports on it so maybe that's a feature they will add in a new firmware.

Actually even the HD DVD addon has the 150mb of memory built in - as do All HD DVD players.

But USB thum drive storage would be nice

I don't think either blu-ray or hd-dvd wants to do that because both have their exclusive titles. It's better for both sides if J6p doesn't know they can't watch all of the movies on one player.

Great point, makes sense.

Actually even the HD DVD addon has the 150mb of memory built in - as do All HD DVD players.

But USB thum drive storage would be nice

This should be enough space for a trailer or two. Congrats to HD-DVD. Who else thinks that introducing these internet enable disc close to the holiday season is intentional?;)

Actually even the HD DVD addon has the 150mb of memory built in - as do All HD DVD players.

But USB thum drive storage would be nice

Not all, some have 130 megs, like mine(HD-A1). :)

Is it just me, or is anyone else hoping this can be done without a disc at some point? Like, you know how you turn on your Xbox 360 and you're just right there at the Marketplace? They ought to try to do that for these 3rd gen HD DVD players, just have it so you can turn on the player and immediately access it. That'd be a feature I'd be willing to upgrade to a new player for!

Not all, some have 130 megs, like mine(HD-A1). :)

Is it just me, or is anyone else hoping this can be done without a disc at some point? Like, you know how you turn on your Xbox 360 and you're just right there at the Marketplace? They ought to try to do that for these 3rd gen HD DVD players, just have it so you can turn on the player and immediately access it. That'd be a feature I'd be willing to upgrade to a new player for!

130 or 150.. i only looked once. Its probably 130 :)I just thought it was weird when i saw the memory recognized on the 360 and PC

I downloaded trailers to my XA2 last night.How did you do that. I have my XA2 hooked up to the net right now. But the web site (on my PC) doesn't really tell you how to do a content download. In fact, it says "coming soon" at most options.

Can anything be downloaded right now from Universal? I'd like to try it.

Is the "download trailer" feature on all Universal discs? Or is it a disc by disc basis?

Very cool, I doubt like hell I will be downloading anything other than firmware update to my player but again, very cool..

The downloading feature works for all players thanks to the uniform HD DVD standard. I downloaded trailers to my XA2 last night. Yes, the space is currently limited to the RAM on the player. I've read that saving content to network drives is likely in the future. I imagine that's pretty trivial as all HD DVD players are network aware as it is.


Sorry i'am a little slow can you tell me how you downloaded trailers to your player. What was the procedure. Thanks

Yeah, which discs allow you to access the download center? I was assuming it would start with the release of Knocked Up since that's the movie they show it being used with in the trailer, but it sounds like you can already access the hub.

Sorry i'am a little slow can you tell me how you downloaded trailers to your player. What was the procedure. Thanks

I second that question...

I second that question...


I third and fourth that question. I dont see anyway to do it.

Come on HomerJay. I'm sittin' here burning up lamp hours waiting ... with an ethernet cable running halfway through my house down into my theater. How do you download a trailer?

Well OK, I'm starting to put it together in my head ... you can't do this without a "Web Enabled" disc. "Heroes" is the only one right now?

This will drive sales.

Is the "download trailer" feature on all Universal discs? Or is it a disc by disc basis?

It's on a disc-by-disc basis. Heroes is the only release so far that lets you use Universal's download center. You can gain access to the download center via the second disc in the set. At this time, the trailers are very low quality.

I do expect many subsequent Universal releases to have internet enabled features. In fact, I remember Universal once saying that every one of their HD DVDs released after Heroes will allow internet access in some way.

You have to have a title that has the function existent on the disk. I'm not sure if any of the other web enabled disks have that function, but with Freedom Vol 1 you can download the Vol 1 trailer.

Just FYI...the 1st gens have 2 USB ports as well :) All HD DVD players have all the mandatory features.

ko, tossed in the 2nd disc of the hero's hddvd boxed set, and my 360 is just sitting at a screen saying 'loading', after about 30 seconds, a cancel button pops up. is it supposed to be doing something?

ko, tossed in the 2nd disc of the hero's hddvd boxed set, and my 360 is just sitting at a screen saying 'loading', after about 30 seconds, a cancel button pops up. is it supposed to be doing something?It took a while to load on my XA2.

As mentioned by MSmith83, the download center is on Disc 2 of Heroes. It's complete speculation on my part but I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see Universal include the download center and clip sharing ("Best Buddies" feature mentioned on the site listed here) as standard features on future releases. Similar to how Universal added (and thankfully refined sans audio) the screensaver and disappearing timeline (on pause, etc); both of which have become standard.

yes, eventually it got past that, not sure if its downloading (preferable, so it can be updated + common between titles) or copying from the disc, but 7megs of stuff showed up in the storage space for the hddvd drive. and then i managed to glitch it out using the sign up for account/cancel combinations too fast (or the server it connects to is getting hammered and is non responsive)

Anybody able to register. It wont accept my zip code, nor any zip code I enter.

i was able to register on the website, not sure how i do that on the disc

Anybody able to register. It wont accept my zip code, nor any zip code I enter.

I did, went fine. I haven't gotten any kind of confirmation email though.

That's it. They going neutral.

I was able to register on the HD DVD itself.

I just took the Genetics Abilities Test...:) After finishing the test, you are given a pass code to enter at http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/hddvd/. The profile you just viewed on your HD DVD player is now on the website. And they've only just begun to scratch the surface of what will be possible...:D Ahh, the benefits of a uniform platform...;)

Pretty cool...more exposure is a good thing for HDM!

Very Cool! Can't wait until my copy of Hero's gets here tomorrow to try it out.:)

My buddies and I just played around with the online functionality - very very cool.

online stuffs not working for me now on my 360 addon, just goes to a black screen when its selected. =(

Not working for me :/

I get an error NET9999.

Have you done everything on the site regarding getting it hooked up to the internet? I know I had problems on 300's crap online content until I did EVERYTHING they mention(turn DHCP and DNS on). Also, does your error message show up here?

http://www.universalhidef.com/errors.aspx

Yep, my error is there but it's completely unhelpful :p

NET9999: Unexpected response received from the server.

I was able to get 300's online features to work so this might be a problem with their website or my router at the moment. I'm trying this on an HD-A1 incidentally.

Would be cool if they could use NAS with this feature.

I just signed up but when i click to download trailers and content it just gives me the register page again? Any ideas?

Yep, my error is there but it's completely unhelpful :p

NET9999: Unexpected response received from the server.

I was able to get 300's online features to work so this might be a problem with their website or my router at the moment. I'm trying this on an HD-A1 incidentally.

I've got an HD-A1 as well, haven't had any issues since I turned everything on the instructions mention. I have tested it on 300, and that's about it(I burn the firmware updates, so haven't ever downloaded one of those).

Can i download spanish subtitles for Heroes ?

Sounds cool....not enough for me to mess with getting a wireless access point yet. I would only be interested in trailers and I can use my mini and apple.com/trailers for that:)

I've tried KNocked up, evan almighty, and heroes. I get 'unexpected error' when i click submit from the login page of the disc.

If I click 'New Account' everytime, and enter my information it works. But it never seems to work with the name/password that it remembers. Even if i edit the password, I still get the 'unexpected error' message.

I've tried KNocked up, evan almighty, and heroes. I get 'unexpected error' when i click submit from the login page of the disc.

If I click 'New Account' everytime, and enter my information it works. But it never seems to work with the name/password that it remembers. Even if i edit the password, I still get the 'unexpected error' message.

I had this problem with an account I created on the web site. For some reason I had to create a 2nd account through the HD-DVD player (A2) in order to be able to log-in from the player with the 2nd account. The first account I created on the website is useless now.

I had this problem with an account I created on the web site. For some reason I had to create a 2nd account through the HD-DVD player (A2) in order to be able to log-in from the player with the 2nd account. The first account I created on the website is useless now.

Thanks, I'll give that a try this evening.

How do you type on the HDDVD player? Can I just connect a keyboard, because I can't get the cusor to move to the letters.

For you folks having registration problems, as I recall when poking through the setup menu on my HD-A3, there was a toggle option to remember cookies.

I would guess that if this were turned OFF and all cookies were rejected/discarded, these interactive sites won't have a way of remembering your registration details.

Just sayin'.

I haven't hardwired an ethernet cable to my player yet.

How do you type on the HDDVD player? Can I just connect a keyboard, because I can't get the cusor to move to the letters.

I use the remote to move around from character to character. It's quite painful, especially when you have to re-do it everytime.


I've never heard of any USB keyboard support.

this is something the average person will NEVER USE, as they won't connect their player to the internet.

I bet a lot of people would use it, as long as they know about it. Ton's of people have their houses networked, it wouldn't be difficult to plug in a HD player also.

this is something the average person will NEVER USE, as they won't connect their player to the internet.

Didn't someone recently release press stating that 30-40% of the recently purchased players were connected to the Internet? :confused:

That's a pretty big number. ;)

I think that was to attempt to perform the firmware updates.

1. love the evan almighty man dance! in clip. too funny!
can AVS get a man dance icon? would beat the hell out of smileys.
2. U-shop sucks. there goes more money out of my pocket if they offer movie posters.
3. The site looks real good. they needed like Morgan Freeman to do the commentary though, the guy they used just sounded so sterile.
4. they need a downloadable U-control movie on the site so people without players would have a chance to check it out on their computer. the movie wouldnt even have to be high def. Just something to play with to get you wanting more. Show and Tell went out a long time ago. Its now use and feel. Everyone downloads demos to try out first. A demo would be nice.

All for now.

Good going Universal. Nice site.

Off to check this goodness out STAT. Sounds really nice.

I bet a lot of people would use it, as long as they know about it. Ton's of people have their houses networked, it wouldn't be difficult to plug in a HD player also.

ahaha. WHAT? You must live in magical tech wonderland, because I don't know anyone with their house networked.

ahaha. WHAT? You must live in magical tech wonderland, because I don't know anyone with their house networked.

Hmmm....I know I can pull into almost any neighborhood in my area and pick up a handful of wireless networks from my car (most unsecured of course). So I would say more than a handful of people have networks in their house.

Of course it's not everyone, but it's certainly common.

double post

I had this problem with an account I created on the web site. For some reason I had to create a 2nd account through the HD-DVD player (A2) in order to be able to log-in from the player with the 2nd account. The first account I created on the website is useless now.


That did it. For anyone hoping to save time creating an account on the website, don't.

You can't do that on Blu-Ray! Maybe never will.

*yawn* been doing it a year now on my ps3... What took Uni so long?

Hmmm....I know I can pull into almost any neighborhood in my area and pick up a handful of wireless networks from my car (most unsecured of course). So I would say more than a handful of people have networks in their house.

Of course it's not everyone, but it's certainly common.

wireless networks. we are talking about plugging in the hd dvd player.

wireless networks. we are talking about plugging in the hd dvd player.

I am using a wireless bridge for my HD-dvd player. A netgear wge101.

This site is really well done, but have not tried to do this through the actually player yet. Will have to try this when I get home. Sounds like it should be cool.

I am using a wireless bridge for my HD-dvd player. A netgear wge101.

...and you think the average consumer knows how to do this? no, they don't. Those networks? setup by the phone company or cable company, or geek squad. The average american consumer won't be adding their hd dvd player to their network wirelessly. You absolutely cannot make me believe that.

everybody i work with has a wireless setup. they swear by them. There was no geek squad or cable company involved. The stuff is becoming alot more plug and play. we even have apple wireless wifi hooked up to dsl at work and running macs and pcs off of it. Its not really rocket science anymore. If it was then i wouldnt be able to do it.

I agree. Visited the father-in-law over thanksgiving, and he had just dumped dialup for cable modem and had a wireless router. They may not know how to use the router, but most people have one.