Lone Deranger
macrumors 68000
Haha.. wow.. this sounds so tacky!
Blu-Ray is nervous.
Blu-Ray is nervous.
Universal Studios to Launch iPhone Features for Blu-ray Discs
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Electrolytic
Suspended
Watching a blu ray movie on the iphone or any phone = cool.
View and interact with a "Virtual Car Garage" highlighting the cars used in the film = LAME...
View and interact with a "Virtual Car Garage" highlighting the cars used in the film = LAME...
Tilpots
macrumors 601
Ha! First Apple product to officially support Blu-Ray: iPhone. 
WTF!?! Something's seriously wrong with this picture.
I think your HO is wrong on every level.
WTF!?! Something's seriously wrong with this picture.
I think your HO is wrong on every level.
vipergts2207
Suspended
Yes, because adding functionality is a bad thing.
You don't even have to be lucky. You can find BD players for LESS than $200 at walmart. The wholesale cost of millions of BD drives to Apple, would not add much to the cost of a MBP. And if it's an option then people like dellsfan wouldn't even need to worry about it (of course if it's an option Apple would probably add their premium.)
happydude
macrumors 65816
*sigh* you'd think eventually apple will catch up to the competition on add in blu ray readers. even if physical media storage is going by the wayside, it'll be around for many many more years to come. it would seem to make sense to make some money off it now while it is the latest and greatest. not to mention, allow your consumer base to play with the latest and greatest. a mac mini and/or apple tv with blu ray 1080p options, even if just in BTO would be amazing and what i am waiting for in order to update our media center!
zombitronic
macrumors 65816
i don't get it. why do they do this complicated "connect your blue ray player to the internet" stuff?
A good Blu-ray player will already be connected to the internet. Many Blu-rays actually get updates (which are stored in the player's memory). This usually adds interactive content or menu updates.
I agree that Blu-rays are a waste, especially from a storage point of view. At roughly 25GB per movie, you could fit about 40 movies on a 1TB hard drive. A 1TB hard drive is $80. 1TB of blank Blu-ray discs would cost about $800 to $1,000. No doubt, the studios get their media for less than this, but if the cost of the media is reflected in the consumer's retail price AT ALL, the consumer is getting screwed.
That being said, the price for a studio to distribute a digital copy of a movie is next to nothing, since there's no physical property being sold. If they can sell it directly from their own servers/sites, even at $10 per 25GB movie, 40 movies would only cost you $480, with the price of a 1TB hard drive included. This $10 is ALL profit minus the costs of server upkeep. Compare this to about $1,000 or up if you were to buy movies on Blu-ray disc format. For the studios, there's the cost of media and materials and the middleman. I'm surprised no one has figured this out yet, other than Apple with the iTunes store, but they are the middleman.
To the studio's credit, the iTunes store is a popular and convenient way to distribute video. But what's the hold up with 1080p content?
I don't get it...
I find it fascinating that the first thing they do with an iPhone app is somehow "tie" the Blu-Ray DVD to some useless crap about the tech specs of cars, which you just download from the app store for free anyway. And then some people actually get excited about this.
Only after they've earned your derision and lost your attention do they think of something useful, like a remote control. (Exactly how they give you a remote that works on ANY Blu-Ray player is beyond me right now, but I'm open to new things.)
Funny how people who work in advertising get upset because they are derided as useless time-wasters, unable to make a useful contribution. Wasn't it in one of the Hitchhikers' Guide books, where the advertising exec hold up the square wheel and says, "OK, then: YOU tell us what color it should be."
I find it fascinating that the first thing they do with an iPhone app is somehow "tie" the Blu-Ray DVD to some useless crap about the tech specs of cars, which you just download from the app store for free anyway. And then some people actually get excited about this.
Only after they've earned your derision and lost your attention do they think of something useful, like a remote control. (Exactly how they give you a remote that works on ANY Blu-Ray player is beyond me right now, but I'm open to new things.)
Funny how people who work in advertising get upset because they are derided as useless time-wasters, unable to make a useful contribution. Wasn't it in one of the Hitchhikers' Guide books, where the advertising exec hold up the square wheel and says, "OK, then: YOU tell us what color it should be."
AppleNewton
macrumors 68000
just make a companion website to the film; its such a waste to make interactive dvd/br stuff..I dont think ive known anyone that uses that.
oh well, cool plug for apple i suppose.
Instead of all the fancy garbage, they should include a BR Digital Copy Rip of films =D
oh well, cool plug for apple i suppose.
Instead of all the fancy garbage, they should include a BR Digital Copy Rip of films =D
rumplestiltskin
macrumors 6502
At last! The answer to a question nobody's asked
All I can say to the BluRay fanboys is: The train has already left the station, fellas. You can show off your BluRay players like my brother-in-law shows off his LaserDisc player; an obsolete piece of junk.
Downloads are the future and Blu-Ray's not part of it.
All I can say to the BluRay fanboys is: The train has already left the station, fellas. You can show off your BluRay players like my brother-in-law shows off his LaserDisc player; an obsolete piece of junk.
Downloads are the future and Blu-Ray's not part of it.
TheSlush
macrumors 6502a
Web-Browsing Experience -VS- Entertainment-Viewing Experience
Exactly. The only reason this announcement may have the illusion of coolness is because a lot of people kind of fantasize about their iPhone eventually becoming their "universal life remote" that's connected to everything around them and can control everything seamlessly. So your iPhone as Blu-ray remote control -- yeah, kinda cool... Your iPhone being able to connect to the disc and manipulate three-dimensional objects -- yeah, kinda cool.
But I honestly cannot understand why the media companies and studios continue to attempt to merge the web-browsing experience with the entertainment-viewing experience. They are two different experiences: one active and one passive, one close-up and one across the room, one generally multitask-oriented and the other generally attention-oriented. Therefore, for the most part I think it's safe to say that most people simply don't want to do one intently while they're doing the other intently.
At least I don't. I don't want to chat with friends while I'm learning whodunnit. I don't want to look up production details in the middle of a car chase. I don't want to update my Facebook profile while the bad guy is dangling off the edge of the cliff.
However, I suspect that I am at odds with the distracting, held-back-in-kindergarten idiots out there who insist on texting in the movie theater during a movie, all of whom I am in the process of hunting down and murdering, one... by... one.
Exactly. The only reason this announcement may have the illusion of coolness is because a lot of people kind of fantasize about their iPhone eventually becoming their "universal life remote" that's connected to everything around them and can control everything seamlessly. So your iPhone as Blu-ray remote control -- yeah, kinda cool... Your iPhone being able to connect to the disc and manipulate three-dimensional objects -- yeah, kinda cool.
But I honestly cannot understand why the media companies and studios continue to attempt to merge the web-browsing experience with the entertainment-viewing experience. They are two different experiences: one active and one passive, one close-up and one across the room, one generally multitask-oriented and the other generally attention-oriented. Therefore, for the most part I think it's safe to say that most people simply don't want to do one intently while they're doing the other intently.
At least I don't. I don't want to chat with friends while I'm learning whodunnit. I don't want to look up production details in the middle of a car chase. I don't want to update my Facebook profile while the bad guy is dangling off the edge of the cliff.
However, I suspect that I am at odds with the distracting, held-back-in-kindergarten idiots out there who insist on texting in the movie theater during a movie, all of whom I am in the process of hunting down and murdering, one... by... one.
deconstruct60
macrumors G5
Studios sell RW disks or mastered read only disks? The technology of the disks are substantially different if comparing RW to RO media.
The blank blu-ray disk prices are high because the volume is still on blank DVD-RW. However, yes will probably being higher than spinning hard disks when gets to steady state. The upside on disks is that slightly easier to store in smaller numbers. (can take the disk and drop it in a safe deposit box with more room left over than if stuck a whole 1TB drive in there. ). Similarly if your incremental archives grow at a 25-50 GB clip you can store
just that incremental.
However, holding a library, back-ups, and media distribution/control are two different problems (grouping the first two into one group).
Errr. there is the cost of the movie/content you seem to be blowing off here. Likewise the adversting/marketing costs. Distribution handlers etc. Is $10 a movie ticket cost or just a nice round number?
For every successful movie there are bombs too. The successful ones have to cover the costs of the bombs also. Then you have to pay for the pay for the 7 digit hollywood executive overhead on the projects.
Perhaps increased distribution costs? You are talking about how quickly your going to fill up TB of disk. If all delivered over the internet that is TB of bandwidth. TBs of bandwidth costs more than GBs bandwidth. More server congestion means have to deploy more servers to offer same level of service ( response times , download times, etc. )
deconstruct60
macrumors G5
As a famous rap song goes .... It is all about the Benjamins baby... (i.e., follow the money).
Companies pay producers for product placement. In other words commercials embedded into your movie. Interactive features highlight these commercials. Since these commercials are more prominent they can charge more money for them. Hence, the feature.
You're thinking they are putting this in for the benefit of the consumer. It is there to make you more of a consumer.
There are a subset of folks though who do watch for the placement and/or specific actor. ( Some folks will go if the actor/actress is hot. Some folks will go if cool tech/cars/etc. will be in the movie. Plot? Composition? No, they are there for the stuff. These features highlight the stuff. )
TheSlush
macrumors 6502a
Right you are, right you are. But we consumers can be side-stepped for only so long, no? If only a small minority of consumers want/access these extraneous ill-conceived features, how long will the product placers be willing to pay for them? Surely these lame attempts to merge live web with movies can't survive Darwinian evolution for very long if no one wants those experiences to be merged.
deconstruct60
macrumors G5
1. With the iPhone/Touch tie-in you get to ride the hype wave of those products for your product.
2. Internet/WiFi players ( if you don't already have one) probably cost a bit more than the ones without. So you get to sell at a higher unit cost ( while providing some more value for disk set and/or player. For those customers on the edge... "What the heck does Internet on a player buy me if anything? ". This is a "for example ..." ) Will snare more gadget freaks this way.
3. What is likely downplayed is that yes.... your player's standard remote will probably have access to these exact feature too. However, the standard remote has no where need the hype factor as point #1 above. Since the iPhone/Touch doesn't have the IR link the remote does, you use the internet to loop the remote commands back into the player. Easier for the iPhone/Touch to play the virtual remote role than it would be for a computer to do it.
Not yet ...
Agreed that streaming movies in HD has replaced a lot of disk rental, if that is what you mean. It is very nice, but NOT the quality I've seen on BD in the stores (I don't have a Blu-Ray player).
Does anyone actually purchase movies by downloading, meaning DVDs? I've not heard of it being a regular practice.
It will certainly be a long time before it is practical to download 25 GB. At 20 Mb/s (2.5 MB/sec), that is about 166 minutes of download time.
I think Blu-Ray is safe for premium content for a while. My apologies for my previously posted bad math when I said 166 hours! 2hr and 46 minutes is not quite practical, either. When we can download in about 15 minutes it will become practical.
Agreed that streaming movies in HD has replaced a lot of disk rental, if that is what you mean. It is very nice, but NOT the quality I've seen on BD in the stores (I don't have a Blu-Ray player).
Does anyone actually purchase movies by downloading, meaning DVDs? I've not heard of it being a regular practice.
It will certainly be a long time before it is practical to download 25 GB. At 20 Mb/s (2.5 MB/sec), that is about 166 minutes of download time.
I think Blu-Ray is safe for premium content for a while. My apologies for my previously posted bad math when I said 166 hours! 2hr and 46 minutes is not quite practical, either. When we can download in about 15 minutes it will become practical.
Why would I want iPhone-enabled features on a Blu-ray disc? Just to impress my friends at how cool I am for using that combination of technologies.
After a minute or two I wouldn't use it again, since I'd probably have more fun playing a regular iPhone game or a web-based Flash game.
After a minute or two I wouldn't use it again, since I'd probably have more fun playing a regular iPhone game or a web-based Flash game.
OddyOh
macrumors 6502
BD-Live lame so far
I've seen a few BD-Live features so far, but am far from impressed. The only kinda neat thing was on the "The Dark Knight" disc, where you could connect and take part in a chat with the director. But, that was a one-time thing, so what good does that do any of us now?
The rest of it is merely links to studio websites, which then tell you to visit the site on your computer... Or download 'exclusive' video content that easily should have been fit on the Blu-Ray in the first place.
Nope, just put the movie and the special features on the disc, I require no more than that!
I've seen a few BD-Live features so far, but am far from impressed. The only kinda neat thing was on the "The Dark Knight" disc, where you could connect and take part in a chat with the director. But, that was a one-time thing, so what good does that do any of us now?
The rest of it is merely links to studio websites, which then tell you to visit the site on your computer...
Or download 'exclusive' video content that easily should have been fit on the Blu-Ray in the first place.Nope, just put the movie and the special features on the disc, I require no more than that!
you sir are out of your gord, and just because you fail to come to grips with a growing medium, thats fine. I bet there would be a substantial amount of users that would jump at the chance to have apple support Blu Ray. show me where i can buy a 50GB SSD or flash memory for under $30 and i believe you.
I've seen a few BD-Live features so far, but am far from impressed. The only kinda neat thing was on the Batman Begins disc, where you could connect and take part in a chat with the director. But, that was a one-time thing, so what good does that do any of us now?
The rest of it is merely links to studio websites, which then tell you to visit the site on your computer...
Nope, just put the movie and the special features on the disc, I require no more than that!
I agree, i to date have yet to check out BD-Live at all, and for that matter special features, just give me the best audio and video you can pack onto one disk with maybe alternate endings and i am set.
Porco
macrumors 68040
Good, makes it more of a farce that Apple still aren't providing Blu-ray support to those who want it, including me. I think Apple are looking increasingly silly to not even support it - the hardware does, and if licensing is a problem they could sell an enabler like they do for other things in such cases - MPEG-2, 802.11n enabler, iPod Touch 3.0 updates... those who don't want it don't have to stick their noses in and spoil it for those who do.
As for the gimmick itself, it sounds harmless enough but not really anything spectacular. To be honest I am not very enamoured with almost all the BD live stuff either, but DVD had just as many features that were touted as being the next big thing and were rarely ever used (multi-angles etc).
As for the gimmick itself, it sounds harmless enough but not really anything spectacular. To be honest I am not very enamoured with almost all the BD live stuff either, but DVD had just as many features that were touted as being the next big thing and were rarely ever used (multi-angles etc).
Cabbit
macrumors 68020
What is more interesting here is that the iphone/ipod touch is becoming somewhat of a industry standard. It is not hard to imagine a future where every person has a iphone like device that has all there personal data, links to there blood pressure and other vitals(already apps and addons in development for iphone), your camera, phone, email, movies, documents, car keys, and all manner of other things.
This is what the iPhone is quickly becoming in my opinion and things like tying it into more devices and content as is being done with blu ray here(somewhat badly).
This is what the iPhone is quickly becoming in my opinion and things like tying it into more devices and content as is being done with blu ray here(somewhat badly).
i guess your understanding of the cost of this infrastructure to support what your talking about isn't cheap, nor does any of the studios currently have in place now. Please leave the network engineering to those folks. No cost to digital distribute? Servers? server room, power, facilities, batteries, UPS? circuit costs? Are you kidding me? And lastly, please tell me where i can buy 1TB for $80 and be able to have it play through my stereo equipment and i am on board
AidenShaw
macrumors P6
Virtually all current BD releases are on 50 GB double-layer discs, so your 25 GB is probably on the low side - even for the main feature without extras.
You also didn't say that it would take you quite a bit of time to download that terabyte of movies:
- 56 Kbps dialup - 143,000,000 seconds - about 4.5 years
- 1 Mbps DSL - 8,000,000 seconds - about 95 days
- 10 Mbps cable - 800,000 seconds - about 10 days
- 100 Mbps fibre - 80,000 seconds - about 1 day
BD has a bright future for most of the population.
I don't have an XBOX 360 and don't care to get one. I have a Wii, and if I got any other game system I would consider the PS because of the Blu-ray, but I am not really a gamer. I also want to BUY movies not just rent and pay subscriptions.
I think I really just want 1080p on Apple TV, or rip Blu-rays to my Apple TV. But that tech isn't quite around yet is it, to rip Blu-ray?
deconstruct60
macrumors G5
There is litttle evidence that the blood pressure, cameras, etc. (stuff you can plug into USB and connect via TCP/IP ) is iPhone specific that the iPhone/Touch are required to run the device itself. More it is that the device communicates to the phone and the data is displayed by a program. For other platforms that program can be written for that platform too. Just like USB devices plug into Mac OS X and work ( when Windows is the dominate platform for computers. ).
That lots of eyeballs are looking at iPhone OS is a reason to use examples with it to generate buzz for the product. It is the device/combo that is illustrative of a new line of think.... not the iPhone by itself.
Once all phones have a standard connector and horsepower to run a app to display data... those kinds of combos is not going to be unique. Especially if the data display is rather straightforward to do with standard app building widgets provided. Dials/Numbers/Charts.
DELLsFan
macrumors 6502a
There's more utility for me to invest in HD/SSD storage than BD. The costs have lowered enough for my comfort and are continuing to lower. I would argue the rate at which flash/ssd/hd storage prices have dropped would rival BD media and equipment price rates.
I think your HO is wrong on every level.
Appreciate your candor, but in the final analysis, it's my money. I won't waste it on Sony or the allure of HD content.
I don't require or desire your support or approval, thanks - though, yes - I am out of my gord.
Look, I can understand why so many folks want Blu-Ray. More power to you. Go spend your cash, folks ... have fun with it. Me, maybe I'm still pissed at having had to go through the format war in the first place, peeps. Competition this and competition that. Innovation this and innovation that. Yeah, that worked out, didn't it?
To the victors go the spoils of war, right? Well, Sony - you're not getting mine. Standard definition is fine with me. I won't pay for your BD players, your BD movies, and I won't option my PC or future Mac with a BD player so long as I have anything to say about it.