Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jesse Skeen 
HD-DVD used this too, but all the Universal discs I've tried with online extras don't have them online anymore.
BD-Live is much too slow and cumbersome- every time I try to use it, it takes several minutes just to connect, then the interface is ridiculously awkward. I thought the 'record your own commentary' thing would be interesting, but it looks like Warner's already taken that offline. One disc I checked had a link to listen to other people's commentaries, but it just led to an empty box, and there was a message elsewhere saying the feature had been discontinued. (Don't know how it would've worked anyways as I can't plug a microphone into my BD player.)
Only decent use for it I've seen is to show current trailers instead of ones on the disc that get outdated later, but those should be accessible without even having to load a disc. I had one crash while playing anyways.
Bottom line is, the majority of people who actually buy blurays are film buffs. And such people want to actually watch the movie without needless distractions. We don't want to suddenly log online and "learn more about the movie." We can do that after, not during. A lot of people don't like going to theaters because it's hard to concentrate on the film while there's a baby crying in the back (always) and people snapping popcorn and texting all over the place. And the sticky, butter-coated floors. We get dvds and blurays so we can actually concentrate on the movie, enjoying the crap out of it in an unedited pristine print (we hope). Extras should be something to enjoy after the movie; they needn't be "interactive," and as most posters have pointed out--the online content disappears shortly after the bluray's release...so the whole exercise seems like a big Fail anyway.
I think these dumbass features all started on the "Sleeping Beauty" bluray, the back cover of which boasts that you can "Watch, Chat and Play with Friends Online While Watching the Movie." I foggily recall there being a feature in which you could scan in a picture of your pretty face and put it in the movie somehow (or something like that). And I was thinking--as if Disney's interesting "restoration" process wasn't bad enough, now they're trying to make a movie look like a stupid webpage so you can click and chat while watching your movie. I don't think Walt Disney had any such thing in mind while busting his butt to put out those movies. A movie should be a very, very different experience than logging online. Don't endeavor to meld the two just because you think your fanbase will be more comfortable with their purchase. And I feel the filmmakers themselves would prefer you to view their art undisturbed.
