High-Def Disc Interactivity Debuts on HD DVD

An anonymous reader writes "Next to picture quality, interactivity has been touted as one of the key selling points of the next-gen disc formats — unlike standard def DVD, both HD DVD and Blu-ray are capable of delivering truly interactive experiences. This past Tuesday, Universal Studios released 'Fast and the Furious: Toyko Drift' on HD DVD with an interactive feature they've dubbed 'U-Control,' delivering the first true on-the-fly, user-controlled supplements to a pre-recorded video format."

wth

[RinkyDinks_RJ]

And I care about movie interactivity why? It's a friggin movie for crying out loud.

Re:wth

[Neil Hodges]

I would think that people who want interactivity would play the video game based on the movie. Why would they want to have influence over the movie that they only want to watch, rather than have full control of a simulation in a video game?

Why is this cool?

[crazyjeremy]

How do these features differ from the simplest video games? So there's some more space available on an HD DVD or Blueray... they just cram the space full with this?

Unless I don't understand something... what does this add to the movie itself? If it doesn't, then it's just an added feature that has no inherent quality and doesn't aid in my decision to purchase a movie in the first place.

Movie vs. Features

[corychristison]

<rant>
I don't know about anyone else, but when I watcha movie, I like to watch the movie. Not Flashy, buzz-wordy bull crap.

Whenever I purchase a new DVD, before I even watch it, I rip it, strip everything but the main movie, and burn it.

Whoever invented the retarted "feature" to stop you from going directly to the meny during previews is a fucktard. I've only seen it once or twice, but still a complete pain in the ass.

Then we have the people who enjoy placing a tonne of DRM/copy proctection on the discs and just like to piss people like me off who actually buy movies, and want to just have the main movie start playing when the disc in inserted. Not sit through a bunch of warnings, movie previews, and then sit at the goddamn menu until you have to press the play button. I can see sometimes this can be of use, but in more cases than not, I just want to watch TFM[ovie]!

In conclusion, I want better content, not features. Stop waisting your time and money on crap nobody cares about.
</rant>
Sorry. I just had to get that off my chest.

Re:DVD didn't deliver

[Tim Browse]

Yes, I have seen the angle feature used twice in all of the DVDs I have:

• In a music concert - you get to choose between 4 streams (3 raw cameras and one directed stream). Quite cool.
• On the Ghostbusters DVD 'extra bits' - they had some animatics of SFX sequences, and you could flick between the animatics and the final footage

I've noticed some DVDs don't have the angle feature on the remote now (and, for example, Windows Media Center doesn't seem to support it).

Interactivity: perfect for porn

[Anonymous Coward]

Once again, the porn industry drives technology forward. It will be very "interesting" to see what they come up with for this feature!

One area they'll never be interactive in

[noidentity]

I can guarantee you DVDs and successors will never give interactivity where it's most wanted: being able to put the disc in the player and press ONE button ONCE and have it immediately start playing the ACTUAL MOVIE. No way. To get that feature, you have to break the law and copy the DVD.

Pr0n

[not-admin]

I have a feeling this might actually end up being a main selling point for the disk format...

After all, doesn't everyone want more intereactivity in their pornography?

Re:Movies

[MikeBabcock]

This is the case in the Bourne Identity which allows you to play the original theatrical version or the new beginning and ending tacked on as well. Several movies I've seen do this already (and the additional footage is of course lower quality).

The one I'd love to see though is say the Lord of the Rings trilogy done so you can watch the theatrical version (for the shorter-movie-loving wife) or the DVD versions turning on or off the extra scenes live (and switching to the appropriate version of the soundtrack).

That I see as a valuable way to be able to author a DVD ... not adding overlays.

Here we go again!

[WWWWolf]

delivering the first true on-the-fly, user-controlled supplements to a pre-recorded video format.

Great! The people who missed 1995 in videogames have finally a chance to relive the legendary golden era of Full Motion Video Multimedia CD-ROM Games! A little bit less compression artifacts, but the same two-penny production values, the same horrible acting, the same cheesy special effects and especially the same level of interactivity!

::runs in fear as the memories of the Philips CD-i commercials flood in mind...::

Re:Why is this cool?

[HAKdragon]

No, no, no. Don't you get it? This is HD-DVD! It's new and exciting! We're finally able to do things we've never had the space to do before? No, this is nothing like Dragonslayer or other laser disc games, nor is it like a FMV game. It's new! Buy it! Please?

Re:wth

[Anonymous Coward]

Again the dumbass mods fail it. Valid question for a stupid technology.

Regular DVDs have enough storage, enough resolution, enough interactivity (minimal), and are freaking everywhere. No one with half a brain will want to buy their entire movie collection all over again on a format that offers so goddamn little.

Give it up, corporate fat bastards. We don't want your shitty newer harder to crack technology. FOAD/DIAF.

Yes, I'm angry. Thanks to greedy fucks that take advantage of people by dangling marginally better technology in front of them to get even richer than they already are. Fuck them.