Disney BD-Live: Comments and Opinions

[ajmrowland]

I wouldn't mind if Pixar put a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at TS3 on Up's BD-live features.

[ajmrowland]

Quite frankly, I think the "new" BD-live system is a downgrade. True, there was never much to do with it, but at least the old network tried to do something worthwhile. Here, it's a bunch of trailers and ads that we either know about or have seen a million times before. They even remain the same. When they "update", they should actually update, not just the list of available titles.

[goofystitch]

While the new Disney BD-Live Network is really just a promotional site to advertise upcoming releases, I am glad to see that some features on recent releases actually use it for cool stuff. 'Earth', for example, has a menu that is connected to BD-Live and has different features each month. And 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' and 'Up' both have games that use the BD-Live network during play.

In addition, my experience with other studios' BD-Live networks is very similar to Disney's current network, being 99% advertisements for upcoming releases. At least with Disney's network, I have interest in most of the film. The previous version was appealing in theory, but they never developed it to a point where it was useful.

[ajmrowland]

My experiences have been slightly different with other studios: less commercials and more movie-related content.

[goofystitch]

The only other studios I've bought Blu-Rays from have been Sony (who's BD-Live network is nothing but trailers for upcoming Blu-Rays and their Blu-Ray club) and Warner Bros., whose network has the potential to offer extra downloads for some releases, but for the movies I've bought (The Wizard of Oz, Wily Wonka) the only thing to do is watch previews for upcoming releases.

I would say that Disney's current network is very similar to Warner's. There is the potential to have extra downloadable content, but the only Disney release that I've found to use that feature has been Prince Caspian.

[SpringHeelJack]

Thus far, I've have admittedly little experience with BD-Live, but from what I've seen, it looks pretty unessential. I have no real desire to watch trailers or chat with totally random people while watching a movie (Seriously?).