[Mark Booth]

A group of us over at HDD watched Harry Potter: OOTP tonight via Warner's new Community Screening feature. This is, without a doubt, my favorite HD-exclusive feature to-date!

How it works: Everyone signs up for a Warner account via their Warner HD DVD and then finish the sign up via computer. One person volunteers to be a host and he/she invites others to join the screening. (The screening can be set up in advance.) When the screening time approaches, everyone simply fires up the Warner HD DVD and selects the Web-Enabled Features to activate the Community Screening. The scheduled screening appears in a menu and you click "Join". Once you've joined the group, you can use the HD DVD player's remote to send various premade comments to the group chat. Or, better yet, you can use a computer (I used my laptop) to join the chat via Warner's site. With a laptop, you simply type your comment and hit return. Each chat comment shows up at the top of everyone's TV display with the sender's nickname next to the comment.

The chat comments appear very quickly. Pretty much real time. It all works extremely well and very smoothly! You also see the nicknames of viewers announced as they join or leave the screening.

And, of course, the Community Screening host can pause all players at the same time. Or skip to a different chapter. Or scan forward or backward. It all works flawlessly!

I can't emphasize enough just how much fun this was! Going in, I was skeptical about how much real-world use I would make of this feature. Well, I'm here to say that I want to watch many many more movies this way! It brings a whole new experience to watching HD DVDs! I've already written to Warner Home Video to encourage them to include this feature on ALL future HD DVDs!

Mark

[Adam Gregorich]

Mark-
I'm glad you mentioned this. We talked about doing one here, but I amde the mistake of ordering my copy from WB and it hasn't arrived yet. I look forward to getting mine and setting one up for HTF members.

[Felix Martinez]

As if people chatting or texting away on their illuminated phones in a theater wasn't annoying enough. I mean, I got into home theater so I could watch films in peace

Interesting feature; not sure I will use it for anything other than Rocky Horror, tho.

[Nelson Au]

This is interesting! Though I agree, my first impression is I want to watch the movie.

What it reminds me of is the virtual meeting software, whose name I forget. I used it at my last job where people from all over the world could meet via computer at their own offices. The computer is used to view documents or drawings and everyone would be on conference call. Instant messages also was possible on everyone's screens. This is probably the same thing.

[Averry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich

Mark-
I'm glad you mentioned this. We talked about doing one here, but I amde the mistake of ordering my copy from WB and it hasn't arrived yet. I look forward to getting mine and setting one up for HTF members.

You could snag one in the Best Buy bogo and either cancel/gift off the WB one.


But, I have the patience of a wildebeast on crack.

[Bob_L]

Averry:

I didn't realize there were still wildebeasts in N.D. (But, then, I also thought alcohol was the wildebeast's drug of choice.)


Like Felix, I have some apprehensions about encouraging this, but it's undeniably an intriguing use of the technology. The potential next step of the technology, however, is the more fascinating one to me: That is, connecting a USB microphone to the HD DVD player and enabling verbal communication between all the community sites. I can easily imagine having a lot of fun setting up a film screening with my nieces and nephews in Malaysia.

[Averry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob_L

Averry:

I didn't realize there were still wildebeasts in N.D. (But, then, I also thought alcohol was the wildebeast's drug of choice.)

The introduction of cheap crack cocaine to the wildebeast population had a major impact.


This happened after the Lion King came out, and is why Wildebeasts haven't been in the pulblic eye ever since.

[Adam Gregorich]

Quote:

You could snag one in the Best Buy bogo and either cancel/gift off the WB one.

It's the box set....

Quote:

Like Felix, I have some apprehensions about encouraging this

The nice thing about it is for those who want to do it you can, for the movie only people you don't have to. I have enjoyed the movies, but haven't read the books. It would be fun to watch the movie without it and then watch the movie again linked in with a bunch of real HP fans to get their take on it.

[Paul.S]

I think I might enjoy this as a shorter-term novelty and/or for screening a movie with knowledgeable folks/friends to, as Adam mentioned, get their comments on a film. But I think the text message idiom isn't so conducive to the kind of communication that would facilitate me learning more substantive things from said knowledgeable people. Couldn't we all see the movie in our own due course, then meet at Starbucks and, ya' know, actually interact in three dimensions?

I think this may have appeal for friends screening a personal/group/cult fave, film students critiquing a pic or for a group of people separated by differing time zones/distance. But beyond that--and I do not mean to thread crap--I think this is something of a(nother) "next gen functionality" gimmick that won't sustain my interest on a long term basis.

[Sam Posten]

If I ever use this feature I encourage the vast majority of HTF to come to my house and kick my shins with golf cleats. You will not find a bigger tech enthusiast than me but this seems like a solution in search of a problem. =)

Seriously tho, if you enjoyed it, great. But that the studios are focusing their development budgets on BS 'features' like this instead of real content on HD disks makes me truly shake my head in disappointment.