GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us about a proposal that might be coming our way. As usual though, everything seems to hinge on Hollywoods backing, so we can't depend on this being a done deal.
The idea
is if you have a large capacity disc like Blu-ray, why not reserve a writable portion on which different marketing gimmicks can be downloaded and saved. It does seem that entertaniment industry is aware that a broadband connected world is developing. After all, they are watching P2P networks like a hawk. Meanwhile, the Blu-ray folks are sharing plans to leverage some of this bandwidth, enabling content providers to add some direct marketing opportunities to your future high definition movie purchases.
|
The consumer would also be able to update those games and previews as new versions come out--and give studios the opportunity to make more direct pitches. That"s the vision for Blu-ray Discs and broadband-connected recorders that Blu-ray backers described in a recent press tour. Whether interactive features will have consumers swinging into retail stores to buy the recorders is something that only time will tell, but for the moment, such features are currently more a means to an end--attracting studio support to the Blu-ray Disc format. Hollywood"s backing could push Blu-ray to victory in the competition to be the high-definition DVD standard. Adding interactive features "is a major focus of the application development effort," said Richard Doherty, a spokesman for Blu-ray Disc and a director at Panasonic. "It"s something of great interest to all studios...The goal is to have them ready from the get-go in the first (Blu-ray Disc movie) titles."By appealing to entertainment studios, Blu-ray Disc supporters are trying to get a leg up on a competing format, HD DVD. Allying with partners who could bestow their libraries of commercial entertainment content on the Blue-ray format would also significantly aid backers" efforts to make next-generation recorders a mass market product. Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD are vying to take the home entertainment baton from DVD, which has been one of the fastest-growing categories in consumer electronics history. |
This is an interesting idea which should have Hollywood marketing gurus thinking of all sorts of applications for it's use. If they can accept technology this time and and use it to their advantage, instead of cowering in fear, or clogging the courtrooms, we might see an explosion of High Definition movies and products.
In addition, the article states that nearly 17 million high-definition TV sets should ship in 2004. But that's not all, it is predicted that 77 million HD displays could grace our living rooms and anchor our media centers by 2008! Of course, this HD content will be too large to fit on even a DL-DVD disc. So, this is the perfect segue for Blu-ray technology to step in and shoulder the load.
Thanks Gristy, this is an excellent story and gives us some things to think about and discuss. For those of you that would like to read the entire story over at C|Net, here is the link. In the meantime, what does everyone think of this direction for Blu-ray technology, we know it's coming, one way or another.
Source: C|Net
