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High-Def Disc Interactivity Debuts on HD DVD

Posted by Zonk on Fri Sep 29, 2006 06:19 PM
from the movies-remixed dept.
Media Movies Toys
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."
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High-Def Disc Interactivity Debuts on HD DVD 50 Comments More /

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  • wth (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RinkyDinks_RJ (995306) on Friday September 29 2006, @06:23PM (#16253681)
    And I care about movie interactivity why? It's a friggin movie for crying out loud.

    • Re:wth (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Neil Hodges (960909) on Friday September 29 2006, @06:35PM (#16253815)
      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?
    • "And I care about movie interactivity why? It's a friggin movie for crying out loud."

      Depends on what features are added. I've had DVDs that had some interesting commentaries, for example. The Muppets in Space movie had a neat little gag where it had MST3K'ish chars in the front making comments. The Star Trek DVDs had little blippy 'facts' about the art direction in the shows byh Michael Okuda. (Although why that was some flashy thing with graphics instead of simple text is beyond me...)

      Interactive does

  • Why is this cool? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by crazyjeremy (857410) * on Friday September 29 2006, @06:38PM (#16253859) Homepage Journal
    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.
  • Yes, that's whats going to sell it!

  • Movie vs. Features (Score:5, Insightful)

    by corychristison (951993) on Friday September 29 2006, @06:42PM (#16253907)
    <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.
    • Some features are a huge draw to DVDs.

      But yeah, when I put it in, just start.

      Some childrens movies will start automatically if they sit at the main menu for a little while. Still ahve to go through the FBI warning, then the MPAA psuedo warning.

      • Still ahve to go through the FBI warning, then the MPAA psuedo warning.

        I don't like the fact that you can't click past the copyright warnings but I think it is much worse that the same feature is used to force you to watch the studio splash.

    • I actually want the menus, but I don't want a menu sequence. That is, when the menu comes up, I want to be able, at that very moment, to click on the options (usually sound and subtitle information). Forget the previews, forget the copyright notice. Just a responsive menu without some "oooh, sit back and look at what we whipped up" menu sequence.
    • The DVD "feature" that prevents you from skipping the FBI warning and the trailers at the beginning of your DVD is called User Operationg Prohibition [wikipedia.org] When you rip your dvd's and reburn them, the software removes the flag so your palyer will let you skip those sections.

      But back when I was looking for an all-region dvd player, i found that some players have hacks to remove recognition of UOP flags. I'm glad I did - I find UOP Flag more annoying than the region locking, since I have to deal with UOP with

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Firehed (942385)
      You must be my long-lost brother (or switched with the current one that I'm trying to lose). Almost my entire movie collection - at least, that which isn't ripped to Xvid on my hard drive - is a burned copy of the original with the movie and, that's it. Put it in, it plays. No "you can't skip this", no waiting for six minutes of pre-menu animation, no dozen FBI warnings in three languages, and no previews (the one REAL improvement the first DVDs had over VHS).

      Of course, not all players seem to like my DV

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by MrSteveSD (801820)
      I only recently discovered how annoyed my parents were with DVDs, compared to their old Video Recorder. They are very frustrated that they can't whizz through all the crap at the beginning.

      I've noticed that on some DVD's you can just skip to the root menu, but others make you watch every single company logo and FBI warning. Do we really care that the DVD can't be watched on Oil Rigs? Given the minuscule number of people living on Oil Rigs, is it at all fair to take up our time with that crap?

  • Interactivity: perfect for porn (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2006, @06:53PM (#16254011)
    Once again, the porn industry drives technology forward. It will be very "interesting" to see what they come up with for this feature!
  • Why not just shove a bunch of shots onto the disk and let the user play them in whatever order they like. Save money because you can fire the editors. And you can label it 'truly interactive' to sell it for more money. Guaranteed profit.

  • One area they'll never be interactive in (Score:4, Insightful)

    by noidentity (188756) on Friday September 29 2006, @06:56PM (#16254043)
    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.
  • Isn't this what was promised with DVDs?
    Why yes, yes it was.

    I have yet to see a DVD player that contains all the features of Laser Disk.
    • I have yet to see a DVD player that contains all the features of Laser Disk.

      And I haven't seen a Laser Disc player since I was in 7th grade and it's not like it's because they're had to see because of their size ;)

  • Pr0n (Score:2, Insightful)

    by not-admin (943926)
    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?

  • Obligatory Futurama (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dachannien (617929) on Friday September 29 2006, @07:15PM (#16254227)
    Announcer: If you want Calculon to race to the laser gun battle in his hover-Ferarri, press 1! If you want Calculon to double-check his paperwork, press 2! Enter now!
    Fry presses 1.
    Chair: You have pressed 2!
    Fry: No, I didn't!
    Chair: I'm almost positive you did!
    Time passes.
    Calculon: Add in the carryover from form 16A, then deduct line 2B...
  • If the studios keep pumping out crap like Fast and the Furious, they'll continue to see box office decline, slumping interest, skyrocketing piracy, and marginal adoption of new technology. Generally bad things for the forseeable future.
  • They have tried this over and over again about 10-odd years ago with "Interactive Movies", basically 'games' that you could pick cutscenes in, little more than that. They failed miserably and terribly, except for the odd corner case.

    Apparently, history does repeat itself (and they still haven't learned from the previous mistake).

    When people put a movie in, they want to be *passively entertained*. Having the brain in between two states (passive and active) doesn't really work.
    • Bob Gale of Back to the Future fame experiemented with interactive movies after BTTF ran its course.

      The only interactive people want in media is video games, and not everyone is a gamer. Most people want to be entertained.

  • Pr0n (Score:3, Funny)

    by king-manic (409855) on Friday September 29 2006, @07:36PM (#16254423)
    It'll be huge for porn. They already do choose your own camera angle. They can now do it with higher definition. See that $5 whore and her meth teeth in 1080p with 5.1 surround to truly capture what it's like to be seedy and cheap all from the comforts of home. See every pimple, needle mark, ruise, and wrinkle.
  • There were some pretty interesting things that could be done with the programming language that DVDs use, but to my knowledge it wasn't to the point of being able to write meaningful games. I wonder if the "interactivity" means including things like a pseudorandom number generator so one could throw in, for example, a video poker game as an easter egg (or is there a way to do this on regular DVDs that didn't occur to me?)

  • 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 i

  • It should be easy (as far as movies and games go in general) to write, say, an XBOX 360 game that is just streaming VC1/MPEG4/H.264 video most of the time and occasionally drops into mini-action sequences so that you have to kill an enemy, win a car race or otherwise influence movie's branching storyline. Interactive features on players without a decent CPU/GPU are doomed to be amatuerish in comparison, so why even bother?

  • BluRay (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SQLz (564901) on Friday September 29 2006, @08:16PM (#16254723) Homepage Journal
    Ok, in the past I've bashed BlueRay,and HD DVD. Today I went to the Sony Global Marketing Conference on Sony Pictures lot. BlueRay is damn impressive. I was more impressed with BluRay and the new Bravia line of TVs than I was with the PS3. The picture quality is unbelievable compared to DVD, and on 52 inch 1080p bravias, it was awesome. PS3 wise, they had the offical hardware. There was 4 playable PS3 machines. You could just walk up and play. They were also using PS3s to play BluRay movies on a few TVs, incluing an 82 inch LCD that was playing PS3 trailers. There was a dirt bike game which had some sweet physics, GT HD, an anime looking golf game with litte girls in short skirts, and a WWII era FPS where the nazi's look like zombies. The graphics we decent (not PC quality for sure), the sound quality was amazing.
    • ok.. a few things i caught in that rant:

      -52in 1080p bravia
      -82in LCD

      can you say... rich people's toys.. and no i don't mean middle class and up i mean RICH people's toys!

      my family is arguably upper middle class and cannot afford that crap, as is about 80% of the american population, and at a projected 1800 bucks a BD player youre looking at the requirement for even more obscene amounts of cash..

      I don't think joe sixpack is willing to sell half his organs, his arms, his legs, and farm out his brain to a super
  • They might address their sagging sales to the fact that instead of releasing good movies, they release titles like "fast and the furious, tokyo drift".

    let's see.. direct the platform toward the 27-55 demographic.. market movies for the platform to the 12-22 demographic.. I think i'm seeing their problem here!
  • "Next to picture quality, interactivity has been touted as one of the key selling points of the next-gen disc formats ... This past Tuesday, Universal Studios released 'Fast and the Furious: Toyko Drift' on HD DVD..."

    Maybe, instead of adding fancy user controlled content, they should use that money hire more competent writers, directors and actors, so that we are being sold media based on the quality of the IP contained inside, not how many different angles you can look at Vin Diesel's Orc crushing arms [ugo.com].

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by evolseven (941210)
      on top of that.. I have this button called angle on my dvd remote.. I believe it was supposed to allow you to watch a scene from different angles, every dvd player I have seen has it on it.. But amazingly.. i have never seen it used.. so its great that hd-dvd can do it.. but the question is.. will it get used?
      • DVD was capable of doing all of those things; however, most studios did not utilize them. Angles require more storage. Besides, most movies are made from one angle at a time, but a few music DVD's have multiple angles. Languages and Captions are also possible. Region 1 DVD's most often have English, Spanish, and French (primary languages for Canada & US). The lack of subtitles in more than one or two languages is extremely stupid. If you make the subtitles for whatever language so you can sell it the

      • Re:DVD didn't deliver (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Tim Browse (9263) on Friday September 29 2006, @06:46PM (#16253945)

        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).

      • I believe it was supposed to allow you to watch a scene from different angles, every dvd player I have seen has it on it.. But amazingly.. i have never seen it used

        I've read that most multi-angle DVDs are of erotic films.

      • The Matrix is the only movie I know of that used it and it was only when the white rabbit popped up in the corner of the screen and all the `feature` was was the special effects shot without all the effects.
    • Why would you need to? This is America and Canada, everyone speaks English (or Spanish, or French) here. W-wait a minute, you wouldn't want to play your region 1 DVD in a different region, would you? Sacriledge!

      I have the sinking feeling that's one of the reasons why DVDs come with so few language tracks. Another notion is that possibly the same movie in different regions might be a different cut of the film (some countries have different editing needs..) It might be possible that a different language track
    • Hell, dude, it's even worse. Interactivity means being able to turn features on which do prerecorded things, on demand. Wow.

      On-demand multiple streams of recorded content took only 35 years after videos first made it to optical discs?
      • Reminds me of those VCD arcade games of the 80's - wouldn't that be defined as "interactive video"?
        You know, those old 'western' type ones. Damned if I can remember the name of it now.

    • Some of them are cut for time.
      One of the best scenes in Galaxy Quest was cut for time, and I'd like to see it in context.

      Same thing with unbreakable. There are two VERY powerfull scenes that were cut at the last minute which I'd like to see in context as well.

      Yeah, most of them wouldn't look to good since they probably didn't get to the final stages of editing.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by MikeBabcock (65886)
        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 soundtra
      • Actually, they are often cut for stupid reasons. For example, ask a Hollywood director how easy it is to get a studio to accept a comedy movie that lasts longer than 90 minutes.
    • - Like a music only (matrix came close), or without drama music.

      Amadeus comes with an excellent music-only track. Mozart wrote some fantastic stuff, and it's nice to just pop in the dvd and listen. Or even watch the movie only with the music to see how each piece was chosen to convey mood and suppliment emotion.

    • Like Legend with the Jerry Goldsmith track or the Tangerine Dream track. Instead you get 2 DVDs.
    • The only time I've ever sat through an audio commentary was with 'Goldeneye' and the only reason was that the producers and directors that were doing the commentary, sounded like they had had about 6 beers beforehands, and were genuinely having a good time about it. Poked fun at some girl who won a 'bond girl' contest about 10 years before that movie that gave her a bit part, and was now looking a bit worse for wear now, etc.

      But saying all that, I'd accidentally hit the button for the audio commentary track

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