Consequently, the executives said, it may be next year before BD Live titles are released in large numbers.
The executives made their remarks at yesterday's Entertainment Supply Chain Academy conference, according to Video Business.
Disney and other studios are planning to add several interactive features to upcoming Blu-ray high-def discs, including chat, ringtones and personalized weather displays. The ITV features can be accessed via Internet connections in the set-tops.
However, the companies charged with making mass copies of the discs said yesterday that the complexity in adding the ITV features via a technology called BD Live is slowing production.
Video Business writes that the executives say they must worry about ensuring the discs are compatible with current players -- and future players that receive firmware updates.
Rolf Hartley, senior vice president of Sonic Solutions, says the obstacles created by BD Live means that some interactive titles may have to wait until 2009.
"The (interactive) players will still be needing firmware upgrades. Implementing BD-Java (the format’s programming language) and BD Live will take regular adjustments. To think that we’ll get it right in the first go-around would be conceited. All of this should shake out in 2009," Hartley told Video Business.
Other replication executives said demand for Blu-ray titles is growing, but the industry is still adjusting to producing the discs en masse.
Commentary:
Here we go again.
While some tech geeks. journalists and industry officials (particularly at Disney) get weak at the knees over these new interactive features, few consumers will actually use them. People want to watch movies, particularly in gorgeous 1080p high-def video.
Downloading a free ring tone or playing a silly game while they watch might make advertisers excited, but it will make movie lovers yawn.
Interactive TV is dead -- despite dozens of attempts to revive it by industry officials clueless about what their consumers really want.
But Blu-ray companies continue to flog this dead horse, slowing consumer acceptance of the Blu-ray high-def disc in the process.
How?
In the spring, CE companies announced that Blu-ray players would have the ITV features, which are unavailable in most current models. Consequently, the companies essentially told consumers that they shouldn't buy current Blu-ray players because they will be obsolete before the year's over.
And they said this about two weeks after Toshiba officially pulled the plug on HD DVD -- the time when consumers might be most interested in buying a Blu-ray player!
"The High-Definition-video war may be over now that Toshiba has conceded defeat for its ailing HD DVD format, but those interested in buying a high-def Blu-ray player still might want to wait for new features coming in the fall," USA Today said in an article on March 19.
And now replication companies are being forced to jump through hoop after hoop to make copies of the discs -- all because of these new interactive features.
For Blu-ray companies to allow this to happen is dumb -- almost as dumb as engaging in a format war.
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