Disney pulls back the cover on Sleeping Beauty's BD-Live features
BD-Live offerings to date have been pretty tame, but Disney's got a few tricks up its sleeve for the first release in its Platinum Edition series, Sleeping Beauty. Blu-ray owners with compatible hardware will be able to chat with friends during the movie using a laptop, BlackBerry or other PDA, make video messages and send them to others, play trivia games, and earn points used to trade in for ringtones, wallpaper or other items. From the moment the disc hits the tray, the iconic castle will feature a backdrop sync'd with weather conditions in the viewer's hometown. As noted in USA Today some owners of Blu-ray players sans-internet will miss out, but with a street date of October 7, there's still time to grab a PS3 or one of the compatible standalone boxes coming on the market. Customer desire for next gen networked features hasn't always been incredibly enthusiastic, but we suspect once the 'tween group gets into this (and High School Musical 3 hits Blu-ray) things could change.
Filed under: Blu-ray
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bradley @ May 14th 2008 4:55PM
I will be buying this when it comes out, and if I don't have a player by then I will buy one soon after. This is my wife's favorite movie and I look forward to the extras as Disney is one of the best when it comes to this IMHO. Disney DVDs seem to be one of the few that I look at most if not all of the bonus material.
kevink109 @ May 14th 2008 4:56PM
Oh boy- Blu Ray has almost caught up to HD DVD-
Mark @ May 15th 2008 4:27AM
HD DVD players only had 128 or 192Mb download memory, so BD Live players have actually surpassed their specs in a meaningful and substantial way. BD-J is also far more powerful than HDi meaning richer online content too.
Whether providers use the power is another matter. This disk doesn't.
Ron @ May 14th 2008 4:56PM
heh heh....the weather feature is kind of cool..
Maxx @ May 14th 2008 5:20PM
yeah it will be super cool to see it raining outside and see it raining on the disk. Disney has also put out the best looking disks period. I am stoked.
Daniel @ May 14th 2008 11:52PM
to bad all i will see is either rain or 90's. i wonder what it does for a huricaine does the castle get blown away?
lakersin2025 @ May 14th 2008 7:19PM
That's pretty cool. I'm going to buy two of them. One for me and one for Nfinity!
Jon @ May 14th 2008 7:21PM
Where is the Lion king ? Aladdin ? Finding Nemo (+ all other Pixar flicks) I love Disney as much as the next but give up what we want
Mr. E @ May 14th 2008 8:24PM
Disney's notorious for dribbling out the classics, but the rumor I heard was that they are so smitten with Blu-ray that they want to do an accelerated release schedule this time around. Of course, knowing Disney, that may mean they take five years to release their classics instead of 10 like DVD. :(
Fortunately this doesn't appear to apply to the Pixar releases. I think they are almost all in production for Blu-ray already, so hopefully next year we will get a bunch. I'm personally most anticipating Nemo and The Incredibles.
Andy @ May 15th 2008 1:22PM
Pixar is on a seprate release schedule than Disney classics.
I cant wait for Nemo and the Incredibles. But Beauty and the Beast and Alladin are what my wife is looking forward to.
Mr. E @ May 14th 2008 8:21PM
Most of those features are of no interest to me, but "the iconic castle will feature a backdrop sync'd with weather conditions in the viewer's hometown" sounds really cool!
Unfortunately that also means that Disney is going to know whenever this disc is put into my PS3 (if I enable the BD-Live features). Not that they'll necessarily know it's *me*, but it's one of the downsides of interactive features.
Dom @ May 14th 2008 8:27PM
Are you serious? Is everyone serious? This is ridiculous. Its cool to see it raining on the disk? Really? Ringtones? Check out this feature, "chat with friends during the movie using a laptop, BlackBerry or other PDA". I'm sorry, I didn't realize I needed a PS3 and Sleeping Beauty to chat with people using my laptop and an internet connection. For the love of God, Engadget-HD, stick with HD!!! EHCH-DEE, not mobile-phone-tivo-textmessage-blackberry-videogameYAY! PLEASE stick to content, not these special features that no one is ever going to use. Everyone, quit playing along with the studios. You dont want these features- no one wants these features! We want more movies at an affordable price. I have a hard enough time getting people to agree that PiP video commentary is worthwhile, let alone some idiotic text messaging service. On that note, what are they thinking with these features? What owner of a latest-gen blu-ray player is going to be lacking options of personal connectivity?
EQC @ May 14th 2008 9:46PM
I can't believe you're the first person to say this! Those "features" are simple gimics that, at best, are neat once. That castle-with-local-weather will be neat the first time you put the disk in if you weren't expecting it (and if you even notice...if it's sunny out, it won't grab your attention).
"Blu-ray owners with compatible hardware will be able to chat with friends during the movie using a laptop, BlackBerry or other PDA"
-- As you said, such things can occur, using a laptop or PDA, without Blu-ray involvement at all. Who needs the extra middleman?
"make video messages and send them to others, play trivia games,"
meh. again, things that can be done on computer anyway.
"and earn points used to trade in for ringtones, wallpaper or other items."
seriously? this is what I've been expecting the whole time. Well, to be fair, I was expecting that the disk would just lead directly to a store where you could pay money for crappy things like ringtones and wallpaper that anybody should be able to make for free...so at least they're sortof making these things free. But on the other hand: the world does not need more annoying ringtones. Ringtones are almost always obnoxious. People need to realize that, and start trying to make their phones less obtrusive.
"From the moment the disc hits the tray, the iconic castle will feature a backdrop sync'd with weather conditions in the viewer's hometown."
Again...this is at least a clever idea...but the novelty will fade quickly.
This is exactly why the so-called obsolete BR 1.1 players and titles are perfectly fine for most people -- there really is very little, if anything, to be gained in profile 2.0.
Mark @ May 15th 2008 4:37AM
@EQC. I think you've nailed it. If I have a broadband, if I have a computer, where is the attraction in all these particular live features? I think playstation owners will be most inclined to hit them because their console's networking is already set up for gaming. Others, not so much. Studios are going to have to try a lot harder than this.
Negativecool @ May 15th 2008 2:06PM
Frickin exactly. My god, kudos to you sir.
I was completely underwhelmed with these "features" that have NOTHING to do with the movie!
There about 5 billion (give or take 3 billion) other more useful ways to combine a classic HD movie that sells itself, and an internet connection.
Ugh!....
But hey, who has the energy anymore to turn their head slightly to the left and look out the window and see that it is raining. Thank god we bought a Cinderella BD, otherwise how the hell would we know?!
Ron @ May 14th 2008 10:03PM
You guys need to try decaf....it's just a disc..
why not the LS2LS7? @ May 14th 2008 10:26PM
Stupid-ass features. I regret that any of this crap with PIP or this stupid scripting battle ever happened.
Anyone recall what HD discs are for again? Oh, yeah, watching movies.
HDpurist @ May 14th 2008 11:07PM
"This is exactly why the so-called obsolete BR 1.1 players and titles are perfectly fine for most people -- there really is very little, if anything, to be gained in profile 2.0."
Agreed 110%. To me, profile 1.1 has always been final spec.
DrXym @ May 15th 2008 12:06PM
1.1 is perfectly fine. It's only HD DVD crybabies who think the ability to hit the web is some killer feature. It's a nice to have and I'm not going to complain if my PS3 gets profile 2.0 but its still a highly marginal feature.
Funnily enough I've asked HD DVD fans a couple of times which HD DVD disk had interactive features so compelling that it justified hooking up a player to get them. Silence... When we see discs with downloadable movies or shows THEN it will be worth it. Silly gimmicks like twitter chat, ringtones are a complete waste of time.
Mark @ May 15th 2008 4:31AM
This list of features demonstrates that BD-Live is going to have to try a lot harder if it wants to prove itself more than a gimmick. PS3 owners might avail of BD Live because their console is hooked up to the net anyway, but how many standalone owners are going to trail ethernet cable around their house just so they can play mini games and win points for ringtones?