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What kind of interactive features would you like on your Blu-ray disc?

post #1 of 74
3/1/07 at 8:25pm
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I'm curious as to what kind of interactive features people would be interested in a Blu-ray disc. Fox has been experimenting with various BD-J features lately, including Trivia Tracks, search and bookmarking functions, and a few lame games. Disney is placing stuff in the PoTC as well:

http://www.blueboard.com/bluray/movie_listing_bdj.htm

Sone things that would be cool would be downloadable subtitles and a much more powerful "personal Scene Selection" which allows you to mix and match parts of scenes into one seamless whole.
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post #2 of 74
3/1/07 at 8:42pm
In movie features suck imo, it takes away from the movie. I just want to watch the movie, that's it.
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post #3 of 74
3/1/07 at 8:44pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by darkjedi664 View Post

In movie features suck imo, it takes away from the movie. I just want to watch the movie, that's it.

Well, it is selectable. Also, the ability to access the network means you could have interactive features that access the web at the same time. For example, instead of the movie info being hard-coded into the disc, the BD-J app could be searching the web for info as the movie is playing and displaying them real-time....
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post #4 of 74
3/1/07 at 8:46pm
In movie features, as in, pop up trivia, or the like. The features you're talking about, are cool. I just don't want anything to distract me from the movie. Extras after the movie are cool.
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post #5 of 74
3/1/07 at 9:26pm
Frankly, I don't want more interactivity. I just want clean, easy to navigate menus for simple selection of what I want to watch. I don't want fancy menu transitions that take more time, and I don't want to have to play a game to access something or hunt for an easter egg.

Commentaries I like, because only the audio has changed, and I don't mind a trivia track either. With a trivia track, it's just a text overlay, so it's not that different from watching a subtitled movie, which I certainly can handle. What I don't want is something that's too distracting, like PIP where you have two video areas to follow. I would rather have the making-of footage separate from the movie.

I know people say that we need these fancy features to set the new formats apart from DVD, but for me just HD picture and improved sound (along with the existing extras) is fine. One thing I like so far is that the high resolution allows for all the features to be listed on one menu page instead of several pages as with DVD.
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post #6 of 74
3/1/07 at 9:42pm
I watched The Descent on blu-ray last night ... I loved the Blooper Reel ... would love to see that on more movies.
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post #7 of 74
3/1/07 at 10:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by asj2006 View Post

I'm curious as to what kind of interactive features people would be interested in a Blu-ray disc.

How about make my popcorn w/ lots of butter & pour me a cold one. Oh- and move the ottoman a little closer to my feet.
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post #8 of 74
3/1/07 at 10:40pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by benes View Post

I really don't want to see BD-J titles because they take away key features like resume in the same way that HDi does on the other format. I know that they can add these features supposedly in authoring but so far they haven't.

And I really don't care at all about interactive crap. Its just hype to get the average joes more interested in these new formats with some silly buzzwords. The "games" on the Fox discs are beyond lame.

Well, we certainly agree on the Fox games

They were simplistic, crude, and not overly imaginative. Then again, there's only so much you can do with a background (the movie) that cannot interact directly with any outside object....

other possibilities: in-movie chat while watching, MSTK 3000 type dynamic overlay (where you can overlay several tracks onto the movie, although i guess we get into licensing issues here?).....

I'm curious to see how Disney developed their own interactive features in the PoTC....Scoundrels of the Sea and Liar's Dice.
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post #9 of 74
3/1/07 at 10:42pm
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Originally Posted by Steves55 View Post

How about make my popcorn w/ lots of butter & pour me a cold one. Oh- and move the ottoman a little closer to my feet.

The first would be possible if a BD disc-resident app sends a message to apps in your microwave oven to start popping the corn...you would have to place the popcorn into the microwave first of course
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post #10 of 74
3/1/07 at 10:54pm
I have nothing against interactive features as long as: 1) they do not delay the release, 2) I don't have to use them, and 3) they don't cost me more.

This idea really hasn't caught on to the consumer very much yet.

It is really annoying that key titles like Batman Begins have been held up in order to add some interactive junk that I would not use anyway!
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post #11 of 74
3/1/07 at 11:32pm
I dont really care.

All I care about is the nice pop up menu. And just give me regular features like Deleted Scenes, Bloopers and Movie trailers and i'm happy.

I would only watch stuff like Warner's IME only on my most favorite movies, maybe. But that would be an extremely few movies.
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post #12 of 74
3/1/07 at 11:38pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Taha24 View Post

I dont really care.

All I care about is the nice pop up menu. And just give me regular features like Deleted Scenes, Bloopers and Movie trailers and i'm happy.

I would only watch stuff like Warner's IME only on my most favorite movies, maybe. But that would be an extremely few movies.

There probably is an audience for such interactive features though, especially for the really imaginative and useful ones.

I remember the time when people were scoffing at the idea of running apps on cellphones, saying things like "I only want to use my phone for calling other people!"

Now, of course, the mobile app industry is a billion dollar industry!
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post #13 of 74
3/1/07 at 11:53pm
The only thing I'd want is color adjustable, moveable, and sizeable subtitles. That would be spectacular for constant height scope front projection systems so the bottom subtitle line wouldn't get cut off!

The rest is just fluff. Give me the most advanced video and audio transfer over anything else!
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post #14 of 74
3/2/07 at 5:38am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Hitchman View Post

The only thing I'd want is color adjustable, moveable, and sizeable subtitles. That would be spectacular for constant height scope front projection systems so the bottom subtitle line wouldn't get cut off!

That actually is a GREAT idea....being able to move the subtitles around the screen to the position you consider "proper" and change the font and sizing (and perhaps color) would be awesome....
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post #15 of 74
3/2/07 at 7:06am
Stop w/ the ads for other movies! Yea- you can skip them but I still hate them. I put in Ice Age & the 1st 5 minutes are ads!!!!

All I want is the movie. No other languages, no CC, no naration from some 3rd rate actor on his take on the making of. Just let me put it in my machine & press play. Director's commentary- how many peope actually watch that more than once? Not me. Waste of space for me. I'd vote for a stripped down cheaper version sans all the extra stuff. All I want is a great movie w/ great AQ & PQ. The other stuff is fluff & not important to me.
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post #16 of 74
3/2/07 at 7:26am
THAT is exactly what I say! Extras are crap IMO. Yet HD-DUD is all "Look at me, I have extras!". Big WHOOP!
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post #17 of 74
3/2/07 at 7:28am
I just want the highest PQ/AQ and the ability to resume and bookmark.

The rest of the stuff is unimportant to me and has no bearing on whether I buy a particular title or not.
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post #18 of 74
3/2/07 at 7:30am
I dont really care about interaction except for one thing "previews". I hate when I start a movie and I get preview of movies that are 2 years old. There is an Ethernet connection on my Pioneer BDP-HD1 and the studios should use it to get the most recent previews from the web.
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post #19 of 74
3/2/07 at 7:47am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tolstoi View Post

I dont really care about interaction except for one thing "previews". I hate when I start a movie and I get preview of movies that are 2 years old. There is an Ethernet connection on my Pioneer BDP-HD1 and the studios should use it to get the most recent previews from the web.

Hmmm...another good idea, and one that I remember was already thought about....basically, the user can set his box so that when playing a disc, an app pulls the latest previews from the web and displays those instead of the embedded previews - so you always get the latest previews. It might even be desirable to have options on this, so a user can set his preferences as to what TYPE of previews should be downloaded e.g. only science fiction movies trailers....
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post #20 of 74
3/2/07 at 7:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SirDrexl View Post

Frankly, I don't want more interactivity. I just want clean, easy to navigate menus for simple selection of what I want to watch. I don't want fancy menu transitions that take more time, and I don't want to have to play a game to access something or hunt for an easter egg.

Commentaries I like, because only the audio has changed, and I don't mind a trivia track either. With a trivia track, it's just a text overlay, so it's not that different from watching a subtitled movie, which I certainly can handle. What I don't want is something that's too distracting, like PIP where you have two video areas to follow. I would rather have the making-of footage separate from the movie.

I know people say that we need these fancy features to set the new formats apart from DVD, but for me just HD picture and improved sound (along with the existing extras) is fine. One thing I like so far is that the high resolution allows for all the features to be listed on one menu page instead of several pages as with DVD.

I agree.
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post #21 of 74
3/2/07 at 10:59am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steves55 View Post

Stop w/ the ads for other movies!All I want is the movie. No other languages, no CC, no naration from some 3rd rate actor on his take on the making of. Just let me put it in my machine & press play.....The other stuff is fluff & not important to me.


Talk about being a luddite
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post #22 of 74
3/2/07 at 11:06am
I want the kind of interactivity that already exists on HDDVD.
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post #23 of 74
3/2/07 at 11:06am
BD needs to fix IME. Not having it is a major drawback for the format.
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post #24 of 74
3/2/07 at 11:17am
Interactive features I want:

Seamless branching: So there could be a theatrical and director's cut.
PIP: This is cool. It's nice to see who's talking and what their reaction is to certain scenes.
Pop up trivia - This stuff is fun.


And that's really it. With that said, Blu-ray really needs to get their asses in gear with BD-J 1.1
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post #25 of 74
3/2/07 at 11:29am
When DVDs were new, several of the studios had a "special feature" where it included filmographies for the cast & crew. You don't see this feature much anymore... which is not that big of a deal since most of the time the feature was useless since they would generally only do filmographies for the cast members who had the biggest part, and these would generally be big-name stars who most people knew anyway.

However, what would be nice is for High-Def media to have something similar to a IMDB page where you could look up filmographies for everyone involved with the film.

Trailers are a MUST for every film as far as I'm concerned... you can get rid of pretty much any other special feature, but KEEP any and all teasers and trailers...

~Alan
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post #26 of 74
3/2/07 at 11:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by eightninesuited View Post

Interactive features I want:

Seamless branching: So there could be a theatrical and director's cut.

Alien Vs. Predator has seamless branching for the two cuts.
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post #27 of 74
3/2/07 at 11:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Gordon View Post

When DVDs were new, several of the studios had a "special feature" where it included filmographies for the cast & crew. You don't see this feature much anymore... which is not that big of a deal since most of the time the feature was useless since they would generally only do filmographies for the cast members who had the biggest part, and these would generally be big-name stars who most people knew anyway.

However, what would be nice is for High-Def media to have something similar to a IMDB page where you could look up filmographies for everyone involved with the film.

Trailers are a MUST for every film as far as I'm concerned... you can get rid of pretty much any other special feature, but KEEP any and all teasers and trailers...

~Alan

I miss the filmographies too. I think they were just thrown on as filler, but I really liked them. It helped when you are driven crazy the whole film trying to remember what else you saw them in. We've got IMDB now, but the filmographies were convenient and interesting.
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post #28 of 74
3/2/07 at 12:58pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fettastic View Post

BD needs to fix IME. Not having it is a major drawback for the format.

I dunno...i think for now, and as expressed by several people here, most buyers buy for the movie, not for any interactive functionalities, which is why Blu-ray is going to win handily with or without fancy schmancy gimmicks.

However, that should not prevent the studios and manufacturers from trying to provide better value for the money spent on their products. The problem with BD-J is not BD-J itself, but the fact that it is taking longer for the studios and manufacturers to solidify the specs (which explains why newer features might break in older players). This will hopefully resolve itself soon.
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post #29 of 74
3/2/07 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fettastic View Post

I miss the filmographies too. I think they were just thrown on as filler, but I really liked them. It helped when you are driven crazy the whole film trying to remember what else you saw them in. We've got IMDB now, but the filmographies were convenient and interesting.

You know that search function in "speed", which is not really a search since it's not free-form? What they can do is allow users to highlight an actor while the movie is playing, have the bd-j app do online searches for info on that person or character, then return the results as a web page pop-up (while the movie is still playing). It would be cool to call up websites on some unknown actor while watching the movie
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post #30 of 74
3/2/07 at 2:55pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dpags View Post

Alien Vs. Predator has seamless branching for the two cuts.

I think he means being able to switch back and forth between versions "on the fly"?
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