Pioneer Showcases 16-layer 400GB Optical Disc
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100GB, 200GB and even 400GB Blu-ray discs have been under development for some time now, but the problem in the past was that they required unique pick-up heads, thus would not be able to work with existing consumer Blu-ray players. Well Pioneer has apparently changed all that. By using a dielectric reflective layer instead of a metallic one, they were able to shrink the track pitch by half, thus resulting in a 16-layer 400GB BD-ROM disc format that still uses the standard 405nm PUH so that it will work with all existing Blu-ray players.
While this is impractical for games (imagine the load times) and the costs may be too expensive to reasonably sell any kind of current HD-gen movie I see this being handy for data storage and possibly selling entire TV seasons on one disc. Maybe a movie series, like The Matrix, The Lord of the Ring, or Star Wars, all on one disc.
The other huge news is the announcement by Warner Brothers' of their latest BD-Live feature;
"My WB Commentary"
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There have been several interesting new features developed to take advantage of BD-Live, but this may be the most impressive one to date. Basically it will allow anyone with a PS3 or Blu-ray player that supports both BD-Live & Bonus View, and who have a PS Eye or USB webcam w/mic to record their own personal video commentary and then share it with their friends who can then watch it via picture-in-picture.
I give 24 hours after every movie using this comes out to have an MST3K/Riff Trax done, only not funny. They will be horrible, and stupid, but some guy will do it. MST3K, a group of professionals, spent a minimum of three days just writing their lines.
That said, I really, really, really wish this would be on The Transformers. I would have a field day. In all honesty, if this became a popular thing I could quickly see myself becoming the Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) of movies.
What I could see being really cool is just renting movies from Netflix that use this and recording my commentary as I watch it for the first time. I know midway through August Rush my wife had to tell me to shut up about how it is just Pinocchio combined with Serendipity. <---tangent, sorry.
For less creative, but chatty types, there is also:
"My Community Screening"
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Which offers real-time multiple viewing of a film via BD-Live with friends online and will allow those participating to chat during playback. Basically it's like having a virtual "Movie Night" for times when you just can't get together with family or friends, but would like to watch a movie together and chat about it. To help facilitate these live screenings with friends, there will be options for sending out online invites to screen movies.
While on the surface this seems like movie night for the anti-social, a friend and I were talking about doing this for The Incredible Hulk, which already came with this. We live 40 miles apart, so it isn't being anti-social, it is saving gas money.
Then it does have a cool possibility that Hellboy II showed. The Saturday after the movie launched on BD the director, Guillermo Del Toro, had a BD-Live chat with fans, allowing them to ask questions. Screw bonus feature documentaries about making the film when you can ask the director in person.
And I 100% guarantee that Watchmen will not have this. I imagine Zack Snyder will be slammed by the flames regarding use of the term The Watchmen
and the "squid." Heck, if WB is smart they won't allow the video review feature either.
Anyway, speaking of Blu-Ray, I finally got my copy of Polar Express 3-D in. I was underwhelmed. In IMAX it was an overlay effect and used refracting, clear 3-D glasses to create the effect. The home version uses the old school blue and red overlay with cool 1980's red and blue glasses. I think this would have been fine for any other film, but Polar Express is overly blue, so the red lense feels as if you are having half your vision blocked. After about five minutes your eyes adjust and you notice it less.
Now, another compliant I have is that the home setting does not quite work well. First, you have to adjust your TV settings to be as bright as possible and then you have to dim the lighting around your TV. Any glare or light sources near the TV will mess it up. I had to unplug my Christmas tree. Then there is the fact that an IMAX screen has you feeling like you are in the movie but a TV is never that huge unless you get really close. This could have been helped if the ratio had been 16:9 and not 2.33:1 (?). Even on my 42" widescreen I had bars so a hand sticking out of the TV appears to disappear if it gets raised before it reaches the top of the TV. This is even more annoying on an LCD, or other format that requires backlighting, so the bars stand out even in a dark room.
Anyway, this is all just based on a 20 minute sampling and I will give a full review after I watch the whole movie. Fortunately, it does have the 2-D version of the movie on the disc as well, so even if I decide I don't like the 3-D I can still watch the movie in 1080p.
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