Walk Hard's BD-Live features get tested on Sony's PS3

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 3rd 2008 at 10:59AM

Shortly after finding out what kind of extras would be available on the BD-Live-enabled Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story release, the folks over at The Man Room were able to snag a pre-release copy and give it a whirl on Sony's recently updated-to-Profile 2.0 PlayStation 3. Unfortunately, "slow" was the term of the day. From the initial four minute wait until the BD-Live menu appeared to the four to five minute pause as each "Coxologist featurette" downloaded (in SD, no less), we quickly learned that patience was paramount. Even worse, an HD trailer took 18 minutes to grab on a DSL connection, and there's no apparent way to stream the content versus downloading it in full before watching. Nah, we're not giving up hope just yet, but feel free to hit the read link for a look at just how rough around the edges the whole thing seems right now.

Filed under: Reviews, Blu-ray, Players, Sony

Tags: bd-live, playstation 3, Playstation3, profile 2.0, Profile2.0, ps3, review, reviewed, sony, walk hard, WalkHard

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

doubledown @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:19AM

Nothing downloads quickly on my PS3... I can't figure it out. I have a fast connection and my 360 will download 1GB+ demos around 15 mins. but for some reason the PS3 takes forever, even for small updates. I really hope this gets fixed.

Highly Ranked

CharlieX @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:02PM

Same here. Smoking fast internet, and the 360 screams over WiFi. Not the Ps3...

Neutral

SimbaDogg @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:05PM

are you serious? i've had downloads avg about 350k/sec...and thats faster than the downloads i'll get using torrents or good servers from my comp

Highly Ranked

ddean @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:24AM

Gee, I thought Blu ray was suppose to be so much better than HD DVD. Oh well it is what it is. This makes me want to wait till new BD players come out. Hopefully this will be fixed by than.

Neutral

JimC @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:46PM

Yeah, 'cause the whole world is waiting on BD-Live content before buying into Blu-ray....if I had my way, BD-Live would be dropped as a spec....it is a stupid concept...feature creep talking points....nothing more...

Neutral

Doc @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:37AM

We will just have to wait and see what other titles turn out like to give it a fair chance. Maybe they will change it to stream to video instead?

Highly Ranked

Jeff Regan @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:38AM

Yes, I'm looking forward to Blu Ray having a feature set that matches what HD DVD had back in June of 2006--for half the price. Blu Ray is a great format if next
gen. features aren't important.

Neutral

shawnmos @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:47AM

HD DVD got it right, why can't Blu-ray?

Neutral

DrXym @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:28PM

Because HD DVD didn't get it right. Tell me an HD DVD where the interactive content was compelling.

Neutral

temp1 @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:26PM

HD DVD not get it right at all.

You do know the difference between scripting and full Java right? You know the difference between 30GB and 50GB? You know the difference between 35Mbit/sec and 54Mbit/sec?

HD DVD went for the cut-down, quick to market, much like the 360 did (however Toshiba at least had reliable hardware). This plan never works in the long run...

Low Ranked

Vidikron (FU) @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:07PM

Hah... temp1 got voted down for telling the exact truth? Some of you guys are just sad.

Highly Ranked

Joe T. @ Apr 4th 2008 12:03PM

temp1,
Knowing the differnece is one thing. Seeing the differnce is quite another.

Neutral

Achilles @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:03PM

I'm still waiting for the stand-alone BR-live players to be released before I buy a BR player. I hope these issues get fixed before then but I'm not holding my breath either. Firmware updates are probably already in the making. :)

Patience for the war to end and now patience for BR to get it right. I'll continue to wait. For now, I'll go meditate before I throw this monitor out of my office window. ;)

Highly Ranked

Justin @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:34PM

Did anyone stop to think that because it's a pre-release that maybe the servers for the content haven't been really kicked on anything past a final testing stage?

Maybe that's not the case but considering it's not officially released yet. Guess we have to wait and see.

Neutral

daaper @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:04PM

nope, everyone's just in a hurry to bash...

Neutral

Paul Nicholson @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:11PM

Exactly what i was thinking. Hopefully the servers just aren't up and running yet.

I'm remembering what Steam was like, even on the first day it officially launched. The concept is sound and the technology is there. Just gotta work out the bugs.

Neutral

DrXym @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:29PM

I don't think you can criticise its speed since that is more likely an issue with the servers. You can criticise it for offering no compelling reason for even existing. Let's hope that they build out a proper portal and the thing evolves over time.

Neutral

Vidikron (FU) @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:06PM

Yeah, WTF? Everyone seems to be assuming this is somehow the fault of the Blu-ray format or BD-Live. In reality, it's probably just the server(s) providing the content. BD-Live is actually a much more powerful application that the scripting language used in HD DVDs. There's no reason to think that this is somehow the fault of the format.

Neutral

DrXym @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:27PM

I think the uselessness was pretty obvious for a long time. It was useless on HD DVD and I've never seen why it will be any better on Blu Ray. In theory the larger persistent storage (1gb versus 128Mb) could mean better applications. But in practice I expect most disks will just use it to download trailers and other stuff that should have been on the disk to start with.

Highest Ranked

litlchamp @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:59PM

I have to admit hearing all this makes me wish HD-DVD never threw in the towel. The extra content on HD-DVD was amazing from day one. I am a fan of Blu-ray, love the sound, picture and special coating yet it still lacks. People, bigger is not always better. Blu has had all the time in the world to get this right. I know most of you say that you don't care about the extra content but that's probably because until now all you had was a few bad trailers and some deleted scenes (they were deleted for a reason). Blu, the world of fanboys helped you win the war yet now you give them nothing in return. Since the competition is gone you just sit back and relax leaving the victory parade short lived. I guess it's politics as usual. Talk it up then never follow through. And just a side note. Next time you release an "exciting" new feature don't put it on one of the worst movies ever. Get your act together Blu. Go big or go home. What's standing in your way?

Neutral

Vidikron (FU) @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:04PM

Hah.. I never found anything worth a damn in HD DVDs online features. I voted in a few polls and then got bored.

Neutral

DeadPlasmaCell @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:12PM

True.. There should be a bare bones movie only version and then a separate true "Special Edition" that has all the extras like BD-Live, outtakes, deleted scenes, etc.

Neutral

anon @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:08PM

Yes, let's take the first version of anything, notice how bad it is, and say that the whole idea is crap. By that logic, every console that has ever been out should have been shelved right away since the first generation of games are generally crap and don't use 100% of the systems potential right away, not to mention Blu-ray as a whole with the blocky low MPEG-2 movies that came out around Blu-ray's launch.

Neutral

anon @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:10PM

"blocky MPEG-2", not "blocky low MPEG-2". I should learn to type one of these days...

Neutral

JimC @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:49PM

Someone please tell me one compelling use for BD-Live content?

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