What is BD-Live on Bluray Players?

BD-Live is the latest standard for Bluray Players that are profile 2.0. It uses your Internet connection and downloads extra content for your BLu-Ray film. The difference between this and a standard dvd is that yes you get extras on a DVD but 9 times out of 10 you won’t watch it, it’s static in that it’s there whether you want it or not and it never updates. With a BD-Live compatible Bluray Player, the film you are watch can add more content that what is actually on the disk not only that but it’s your choice as to what goes on there. So for example lets say that you bought a DVD from 2005, generally on a DVD you will get trailers from up and coming films about to be release on DVD and at the cinema. As the years go on this becomes more and more out of date as it never changes. With a BD-Live compatible bluray player, trailers from the latest DVD and cinema releases can be downloaded for your film thus keeping up to date. With bluray players with a built in hard drive you can store this extra information and play it offline. You can even chat to your family and friends with some of Sony’s machines.

Acording to recent press, demand for bluray’s BD Live interactivity is growing with Sony vowing to continue to build the momentum with new software and hard ware features.  About 3.5 million consumers have already accessed at least one Sony BD Live screen across the more than 80 Sony titles holding such Web capabilities. These screens attract an average of 100,000 unique visitors each week.

Despite this apparent growth in popularity, many are still questioning the validity of BD-Live. The usual argument is that as with the extra features on a DVD, most people hardly have the time or the interest to watch them. A bluray movie has extra features already on the disk that people are unlikely to watch so the question that is being asked is why add more? Clearly some people are interested in this new technology while others think it’s nothing more than a gimmick but isn’t that what we said about the texting option on the mobile phone?