BD-Live gives viewers a whole lot more, writes STEPHEN FENECH

MORE and more movie lovers and home-theatre enthusiasts are discovering the amazing full high-definition picture quality that Blu-ray Disc can provide.

Anyone with a full HD flatscreen TV or full HD projector will see an amazing difference between DVD and Blu-ray.

But Blu-ray Disc isn’t all about razor-sharp pictures and improved sound. Each disc’s capacity is a massive 50GB, which means there is plenty of room for added features such as deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes documentaries.

Now Blu-ray Disc has gone even further – making use of the internet – thanks to a new technology called BD-Live.

BD-Live opens up a new area of content and interactive features, which will add much more to the viewing experience.

Users are able to download mobile ringtones and wallpapers and even interact with other viewers in real-time.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has just released Australia’s first BD-Live title, Men In Black (bottom picture), starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

MIB will include a bundle of extras, along with a BD-Live-powered interactive trivia game.

Sony’s senior vice president of advanced technologies, Don Ecklund, says BD-Live will allow extra features associated with a certain film on Blu-ray Disc to be delivered to the viewer, despite not being included on the disc at the time of purchase.

“BD-Live will allow content providers to entertain the consumer using the power of the internet,” he says.

Content will also include trailers and teaser clips for new Blu-ray and theatrical releases, as well as “making of” clips that were not available at the time the disc was manufactured.

Ecklund says BD-Live will entice more viewers to embrace the full high-definition format offered by Blu-ray Disc.

“We have had a positive response to BD-Live so far and we think the new BD-Live features we are working on will bring an even larger audience,” he says.

Hollywood is also throwing its considerable weight behind BD-Live, according to Ecklund.

Apart from downloadable content, the BD-Live titles will also allow viewers to interact with other viewers online to discuss their favourite scenes in the movie and recommend similar titles.

With BD-Live, viewers will also be able to play games against online opponents and use the film as a backdrop.

A live demonstration by 20th Century Fox at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year showed how a user can insert themselves as a character in the game created from various scenes of the film Alien V Predator.

Disney will also include BD-Live features as it rolls out new and classic catalogue titles on to Blu-ray Disc.

Sleeping Beauty, which will hit Blu-ray in October, will include several innovative BD-Live features such as live chat and movie challenges.

To enjoy these features on a Blu-ray Disc player, the device needs to have firmware Blu-ray 2.0 and beyond, as well as an Ethernet connection so it can be connected to the internet.

Blu-ray Disc player owners can check the manufacturer’s website for firmware updates which, if available, can be burned to a disc and then inserted into the player for installation.

Some of the first players sold at the launch of the Blu-ray format two years ago may not have an Ethernet port or be compatible with the latest firmware.

A disc’s BD-Live features can be accessed through a BD-Live button on the film’s home menu.

Once activated, the user is taken to the online portal where a menu listing all the features appears.

If a user chooses to download content such as ringtones or wallpaper, the files are stored on the Blu-ray Disc player’s local storage area and then accessed via USB or a memory card slot.

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