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Now with HD DVD out of the picture, the Blu-ray camp is free to promote the format’s cutting edge technology, no matter how dull that edge may be. USA Today has a puff piece today on Blu-ray’s upcoming Profile 2.0, known colloquially as BD-Live. The new standard, which is scheduled to debut this fall, requires that Blu-ray players have built-in Internet connectivity capability, something all HD DVD players had at launch in 2006.
No, you won’t need a BD-Live player to watch Blu-ray movies, but you will need one to enjoy several new features. Movie studios are loading future BD-Live-compatable discs with things like MoLogs, which stands for movie blog, where movie fans can share audio and video with each other as the movie plays. (Who would want to do that, and why?)
Other more benign features include trailer downloads and extra language tracks. Didn’t the HD DVD version of 300 do that? But Blu-ray’s superior… Apparently free ringtones could also be part of the deal, but unless they expect people to network their Blu-ray player to their computer then send tones from said computer to their phone—not at all for the consumer electronics novice—it’s seems like a stretch.
Yup, having one high-def disc format is much better for everyone. I’m not saying the format war was a good thing, but now Sony et al. can sit back and claim they’re innovating when, you know, they’re really not.
New features coming for Blu-ray DVD format [USA Today/Yahoo!]