HD DVD still pushing the barriers of interactivity!

[Blurry]

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6425092.html

MARCH 16 | Universal Studios Home Entertainment is making advances in HD DVD extras with new features on Children of Men and Smokin’ Aces, out March 27 and April 17, respectively.

These HD DVD/standard-definition DVD combos are more advanced than the studio’s September 2006 release Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, said Kevin Collins, Microsoft director of HD DVD evangelism.

Smokin’ Aces integrates Google Earth to identify specific locations of assassins during the film.

On Children of Men, viewers get a chance to see the film’s featured video billboard advertisements in their entirety. Viewers only see clips during the film, but on the HD DVD, they can click on each of the approximately 10 billboards and watch the complete ads. Although neither title uses Web connectivity, Collins said three HD DVD titles with such connectivity will street this year.

Nevertheless, Collins said he hopes that the Children of Men and Smokin’ Aces HD DVDs will help promote the format, which has been selling fewer units than rival Blu-ray Disc over the last couple of months. To date, Blu-ray titles have featured relatively little interactivity, as its BD-Java technology is still being fine-tuned.


“We are still scratching the surface of what we are capable of doing, but Universal is leading the format in terms of exploring all the different aspects that are out there now,” said Collins. “By the holidays, there will be a lot more features.”

Earlier in the week, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment executive VP Danny Kaye said that a Web-enabled X-Men trivia game would soon be available.

All of this sounds pretty damn cool.

[Blu-News.com]

It sounds awesome. The Smokin' Aces thing sounds cooler though. Children Of Men's interactivity sounds more like "view commercials" while your watching the movie imo. That would suck if movies got that way in real life, watch 20 minutes and then a movie trailer.

[TaiwaneSTUD]

i'm happy universal is trying to make the most out of HD DVD for the consumers.

what is sony doing to its blu-wizard technology? still fine-tuning? for how many years? 3?

[Pat H]

Earlier in the week, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment executive VP Danny Kaye said that a Web-enabled X-Men trivia game would soon be available.

Holy sh*t NO WAY!!!! A trivia game? Damn, Fox is pushing the boundaries, I just hope the blu-ray players' processors can handle it.


Unfortunately though, unless HD DVD steps up the marketing campaign a few notches, we may all have to suffer with BD-J in a few years

[TaiwaneSTUD]

seriously, trivia game may sound like a good idea...

but if it's not incorporated into movies or games (2k sports games), it's hard for the general public to actually go to the feature and play the game out of bordom.

[BedKo]

personally anything is better than nothing and that is what I've been seeing from HD these last few months. Therefore competition is great. Regardless of the format u support

[willpooted]

More interactivity for advertisements? Not a "feature" for me.

[1080p]

Originally Posted by willpooted

More interactivity for advertisements? Not a "feature" for me.

I believe the advertisements mentioned in the HDi content for "Children of Men" are not real commercial ads. They are fake ads that connect with the movie's storytine. The story takes place In 2027.

[GJN]

Wow! An opportunity to watch advertisements! I can already see the future of product placement... Is this really why we bought into HD? No thanks.

[KaneRobot]

I said a few months back when everyone was flipping out about HD-DVD being a ghost town at CES that one of the things they should take advantage of to give themselves a little boost is the potential of online connectivity. It's not going to "win the war" (and it's getting old hearing that phrase), but it's a nice perk for those choosing to go with HD-DVD.

It's obviously in the infancy stages, but hopefully we'll see quick evolution. I'm not much of an idea guy so I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but stuff like the Google Map thing sound cool.

[jm9843]

There are some people in this thread who lack essential reading comprehension skills. The advertisments are not for actual products; they exist within the movie's storyline.

Very cool if you ask me. I'm really looking forward to it next week.

[Headhunter]

Sounds good, hopefully 360 add-on users like myself won't have any problems using this Web-enabled features.

[LuciferEternal]

I know people have already mentioned so, but this is the same just one more time for the idiots... The Children of Men "ads" are totalitarian state propaganda for the people within the movie. For example, one of the signs read, "Avoiding Fertility Tests is a Crime." Then in contrast right next to it is a graffitied sign that reads, "Last One to Die, Please Turn Out the Lights." Later there is a commercial on a train television that talks about how hiding illegal immigrants is a crime. These are the sort of "commercials" that they will be allowing you to watch completely.

I personally am really excited about this feature!

[Blurry]

Originally Posted by LuciferEternal

I know people have already mentioned so, but this is the same just one more time for the idiots... The Children of Men "ads" are totalitarian state propaganda for the people within the movie. For example, one of the signs read, "Avoiding Fertility Tests is a Crime." Then in contrast right next to it is a graffitied sign that reads, "Last One to Die, Please Turn Out the Lights." Later there is a commercial on a train television that talks about how hiding illegal immigrants is a crime. These are the sort of "commercials" that they will be allowing you to watch completely.

I personally am really excited about this feature!

Put into that context, it makes a lot more sense. They probably put a lot of effort into making those commercials and tying them into the storyline but in the end were only able to put in small excerpts - no wonder they want people to be able to see them in their entirety. I remember being interested by the commercials in "Blade Runner" and would have liked that feature as well...

[g.k.]

The Google Earth thing sounds interesting (at least from a technology perspective) but who cares about the clicking and watching the advertisements during a movie? Include them as a special feature, sure.

Unfortunately a lot of this touted "interactivity" is just being used for gimmicks.