Lionsgate to bow first BD-Live titles in January

Web-enabled Blu-ray players still not confirmed

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 12/5/2007

DEC. 5 | LOS ANGELES—Lionsgate will bring out the first Web-enabled Blu-ray Disc titles in January, even though hardware that can fully playback BD-Live interactivity has not yet been confirmed.

War and Saw IV, streeting from Lionsgate on Blu-ray and standard-definition DVD on Jan. 1 and Jan. 22, respectively, will carry networking features, confirmed the studio’s senior VP of DVD production, Miguel Casillas, during a panel discussion at Tuesday’s High-Def 2.0 conference here.

Casillas noted that with Saw IV, users will be able to share content through their Blu-ray players’ Web connections, but he did not elaborate further. He did not describe War’s interactivity in detail.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment executive VP of advanced technologies Don Eklund declined to specify titles but said Web-enabled features will represent a major theme in the studio’s 2008 Blu-ray slate.

“We have an aggressive program underway to use network capabilities on our titles next year,” said Eklund.

War and Saw IV will likely become the first networked titles released for Blu-ray. Earlier this year, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment announced Sleeping Beauty and National Treasure would boast this interactivity, but they are not expected until later in 2008.

An onslaught of Web-enabled Blu-ray titles could prove an important weapon in the format war, as the HD DVD camp has touted its own networking abilities as a key advantage over Blu-ray. As Web connection comes standard in all HD DVD players, a number of titles on that format already offer networking interactivity, including the industry’s first e-commerce feature on Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s HD DVD release of Evan Almighty.

Studio executive panelists as well as manufacturers speaking at the conference acknowledged the current absence of BD-Live players. Yet, Eklund said Sony and other studios anticipate that the PlayStation 3 will soon become one such player, likely through firmware updates, as the console already allows users to download game-related content.

Eklund added that firmware should be released for the PS3 this month that would upgrade the console to fully playback picture-in-picture interactivity, another type of high-def bonus feature that is popular in HD DVD titles but not yet available with Blu-ray titles due to few compatible players.

“It’s the studio’s assumption” that PS3 will be a BD-Live player, said Eklund.

Overall, Blu-ray will remain an important part of the studio’s product pipeline in 2008.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Disney will increase the number of releases in the format next year.

“We’re going to be extending our day-and-date releases and finding appropriate catalog titles,” said Simon Swart, executive VP and general manager North America at Fox. He added that the studio wants “to see what this format can do that really blows DVD away.”

Disney general manager North America Lori MacPherson added, “We want to keep offering a step beyond what people have seen.”