Sony Pictures responds to your poll results, discusses the future of BD-Live
By Richard Lawler 
posted May 11th 2009 4:28PM
posted May 11th 2009 4:28PM
Marty responded to questions about the plan for BD-Live by noting that Sony Pictures includes it on every title (up over 80 now) and while the first year was about laying the foundation of the technology, while now the company is turning towards education, providing more options for personalization, expanding the capabilities and taking advantage of its connection to the internet. Up next? Expect features like RSS feeds, live streaming events and integration with mobile devices as the Blu-ray experience continues to evolve, while it's not designed to replace the web they still see opportunities to enhance the on disc experience after release. A current example? The Da Vinci Code Blu-ray disc, launched last month, just this weekend was updated with video downloads of the Rome premiere of Angels & Demons, bringing viewers right in on the red carpet of the sequel, and letting them redeem coupon codes for tickets.
As for our unusual poll results? From Sony's end, he provided poll results from their BD-Live titles where out of over a thousand responses, 90% replied that that they were either very or somewhat more likely to use it on other Sony Pictures titles, and over 80 percent were more likely to purchase other Blu-ray discs with BD-Live on them. Between that, the now over 4 million visits to its screens, and over 100,000 unique visitors each week they're confident it is gaining traction and bringing viewers back to see what's new again and again.
"We're not taking away from one thing to add onto this, we're just adding this on as a whole other complimentary benefit." |
"On BD, we deliver to every part of that answer. First of all, the picture quality and audio quality are always top of the line for us. That's the very first thing. We always have the TrueHD lossless audio. We definitely never pull back on that. We also know there's a balance on added value, some people like to watch long featurettes but then we know there's this new generation we need to cater to as well, they really feel like their entertainment should be compelling, but always connected experience. So we want to make sure we have something that can always be new and fresh, and be downloaded as well but it shows the diversity of the platform right? Because there's always the best high definition picture that's available, it adds the best high def audio that's available, it offers added value content in high definition and it displays it, with incredible graphics and HD graphics and that end of it. Blu-ray titles have digital copy, and it enables, now, BD-Live. That's why this platform is so diverse and it's such a great offering to the consumer. It appeals to the people that love PQ, people that want to download things, people that want to be portable and on the go. We're not taking away from one thing to add onto this, we're just adding this on as a whole other complimentary benefit."
"On the speed part, we're constantly analyzing, and we've made multiple benefits to improve it. A lot of that is always going to be dependent on bandwidth of the user and what they may have locally, but we are constantly look at how to deliver content the fastest. The network portal itself, we've optimized it to make it as quick as possible. Just like all technologies, it will get faster, better and more compelling over time."
As far as finding out who is interested in what BD-Live has to offer, we were told that Sony estimates as much as 90 percent of its traffic is through the PS3, but especially with WiFi and out of the box Profile 2.0-capable players hitting the shelves this year -- like its own BDP-S560 -- they expect to see those numbers shift in the future. To get more involved than just the super connected gamer market, he mentioned Sony's different portals, family oriented, R-rated, PG-rated, and so on, and the inclusion of internet features on discs like Kramer vs. Kramer and Ghandi. The most popular features so far? Short form video content, like trailers or Da Vinci Code's exclusive video, with good response on other implementations like Casino Royale's trivia game and Step Brother's edit & share a music video section.
As year two of the BD-Live movement continues, recent developments both from Sony and others show studios may finally be getting a handle on what makes sense in bringing the internet to the living room movie experience, and they certainly believe it has the capability and expansions to improve far beyond what's been seen so far. There's no doubt that its picked up a negative rep around these parts, but its possible that things could turn around in time to satisfy both the hardcore already invested and the mass market customers the high definition disc format is hoping to pursue over the next year or two.
It is nice to see SONY is listening. After every PS3 Update, I grow to love my PS3 more.
... but too bad they seem to be spinning numbers to try to prove otherwise.
I agree, man, there's been so many awesome features added to the PS3 since I bought it.
Let's hope that patent app means we'll all get PS2 support back and maybe even anti-aliasing/anisotropic filtering and running them natively in a higher resolution. Because the upscaling/smoothing effect they got on my 60GB is kinda junk.
As a European/Norwegian who orders a lot of blu's from the states, there is one BD-live posibility I would love to see implemented on every US disk release. Thats the posibility to download norwegian subtitles. That would make my wife watch all the movies I buy... I wouldnt even mind paying a few cents extra for that service :-)
ha, a worthwhile downloadable feature? good luck! enjoy playing crappy games off your BD player ^_^
But seriously, that would be awesome. Not for me personally, but this is a function that a lot of people might actually care about, you know?
I totaly agree with you. As a fellow norwegian I miss the possibility to have languages for dl. I'm not that interested in subs, but as a cartoon lover I would like to be able to get the norwegian dub for these movies. I too buy most my dvds from uk or us since they are much cheaper overseas.
I have only tried bd-live once, and it didn't work because of my strict firewell. I tried contact Sony in Norway for the technical details of how bd-live works so I could try to work around it, but they didn't know. Hard to find technical details on the net too.
You guys actually read Engadget?
Hey Sony, how bout you cut the bull, put BD-Live on ice at least until I care to watch all your product-pushing preview mumbo jumbo, and cut the cost of a BD by $10? Saves you a bunch of development cost and web portal integration (that most of us don't give a rip about), and helps the consumer afford more discs.
Here's a poll: How many of you fellow EHD readers actually participate in these spineless marketing gimmicks where you rush out to buy a new release, full (over?) priced BD, just so you can watch preview video or obtain discount tickets on a sequel? O yeah, especially if that content is already available on the movie's website, which most would probably prefer accessing from a computer...IF they cared to.
I swear, BD-Live is as bad as forced commercials/previews before you get to the disc's main menu.
So who took that Sony Poll ? People Interviewing for a job at Sony ?
The Poll was probably a BD-Live feature built into the disks -- you had to access it to take the Poll !!
Screw BD live until you actually put something worthwhile in it. Give me more titles with digital copy.
slysoft is your friend... well, they are mine anyway
bd live is a joke. drop it an lower the cost of the disc. if i want the type of content bd live is supposed to offer i'll get it online via my laptop.
I have no interest in BD-Live.
Instead of BD-Live, how about reducing the licensing fees, thereby reducing the cost of the players AND media.
Novel, I know.
Maybe I'm the exception, but I see absolutely no value on BD-Live. Other than the studios pushing more crap onto consumers, BD-Live is the equivalent of crapware that comes loaded on Dell and HP computers.
Like posted earlier, put this BD-Live nonsense away, and lower the price for the movies. No one has asked for BD-Live other than the studios. And that poll presented by Sony holds no merit. Maybe they're the same people who've voted to keep UMD part of every new release of the PSP.
Sony is just as bad as all of those American companies who cannot be trusted. Executives in corporate america are full of it! All of them will do anything to prove their jobs are needed! This Marketing VP is no different from anyone in the Banking Industry or Auto Industry! He needs to take his medicine and give this up. BD Live is useless and will continue to be so! Prove me wrong Mr. Marty!
"Sony is just as bad as all of those American companies who cannot be trusted. "
As opposed to the companies of every other country that can be trusted by default. Way to go with the blatant anti-american angst.
I buy discs to watch the movie and maybe the deleted scenes. I really don't give a rats ass about BD Live, and would just as soon see them kill the feature and drop the price of the discs.
BR Discs needs to get down to that magic 'impulse buy' price point and B&M's where MOST people buy their movies.
Q: Who the heck needs or wants BD-Live?
A: Nobody.
If you're bored enough, you can see any of the same boring garbage on the internet, and much faster too.
Sony, please get it through your heads that nobody wants it!
Just worry about sound and video quality, and bring out more titles!
Who care about BD Live? It's like I rarely even watch extra features on a normal DVD. I just want to watch the movie, not deal with the extra crap they put into a disc.
As much as I like BD, those numbers from Sony is just total BS. They probably made a poll with a carefully selected demography of people that gave them the answers they wanted.
BD Live is the most unwanted feature on a BD that I can think of. It comes just, barely, above unskippable ads and such crap.
I have blocked my (Sony) BD player from connecting if there's BD Live crap on the disk.
Sorry, your player requires a firmware upgrade to play this disk.
Eventually the same thing will happen to various BD Live titles as what happened to the online features on HD DVDs. The servers will be shut down, or at least the content for various titles will be removed to make room for new releases. Yeah BD Live is a cool idea, but with the ever changing nature of online I'd rather that content be directly on the disc.
For the first few months, the Dexter Bluray was the only one I owned with BDLive. Let's just say the bad taste is still in my mouth. If a studio knows what features they want to include on a disc via BDLive, just put them on one of the discs instead. I don't need the strain on my bandwidth. It is soooo irritating to buy a bluray and put it in the player and watch a progress bar fill. This is why I didn't watch the movie through Amazon on my Tivo. This is why I didn't watch the movie through the PSN or Xbox Live!. As far as RSS feeds and free tickets, I have a computer and a cell phone. Include a voucher in the sleeve or have a website that accepts my serial number for a ticket. As far as social networking like facebook in the new Watchmen bluray that is coming out, instead of putting a system like this on an individual bluray, take a page from boxee and integrate a social element into your firmware. As far as that hilarious poll goes:
Man at supermarket: Hello sir/mam, I am conducting an poll.
Man/woman who didn't avoid man with clipboard: Sure, i've got opinions
Man with clipboard: If you were given the option to download lots of awesome features on a bluray, would it make you more likely or less likely to purchase it?
The same could be true of a free banana with purchase, or a paper sailboat with purchase; just because people would rather have something as not have it, doesn't mean it isn't @#$%.
Q for Sony: Do you have plan for "Download Subtitle" option in BDLive?
I have kid's so I need to lower down volume, but I can't find subtitle in my language!!!
Imagine that I can go online and pick up audio and subtitle. That what you need to do.
I know that a lot of people will appreciate this.
BTW: BDLive is cool thing as long as it's not affecting price. And yes, match DVD price.
I definitely want to add that downloadable alternate subtitles would be a very useful BD-Live feature for my family. Greek is hardly ever an option and we would like them. I believe subtitles will become more and more available as more 3rd parties create them and more studios allow the BDs be authored into the menu. The German version of "The Orphanage" has a German subtitle BD-Live option for instance. At least any disk with BD-Live has a certain level of future-proofing. In the future it could have many extra subtitles added, even years from now... Here's hoping...
Even if I still used optical media, I seriously doubt I would bother with BD-Live. Controlling a rich interactive application with an IR remote is like playing soccer with a football.
For me BD Live is a waste of time and effort. I just want to watch the film.
I think all this Java stuff extras causes more problems with playback. I use the internet for details on a film.
You know what might be interesting to BD-Live? Twitter/Facebook integration...
Just a thought...
See, when I go to watch a movie I don't want people contacting me, and I sure don't feel the need to comment on it every few seconds in an online world. Twitter, Facebook and the rest have become way too intrusive to me. Here's a shocker for you - 99% of the world doesn't care about anyone's twittering on the last scene they watched in Batman.
Downloadable subtitles would be nice. Some movies here in Norway are released with scandinavian subs only, which is just horrible. Most of the time English subs are way better, especially for comedies.