Blu-ray producers question value of bonus features

Disney's upcoming Sleep Beauty Blu-ray will have an interactive video messaging feature.

(Credit: Walt Disney Company)

I recently wrote a column titled, "Is BD-Live Blu-ray's secret weapon--or a bust?" Most readers seemed to think all whiz-bang interactivity features were more busts than secret weapons. And now it appears that a selection of Blu-ray producers speaking at a panel at Comic-Con 2008 feel the same way.

Video Business reports that the panel drew dozens of consumers and that the Q&A discussion, moderated by The Digital Bits' Bill Hunt, was frank and lively.

A few choice quotes:

Producer Robert Meyer Burnett (Shoot 'Em Up) said: "It would be interesting if they wanted to do a Star Trek encyclopedia or a primer on the whole history of Warner Bros. I'm not sure if people really want games and trivia."

Hunt made the fairly obvious point that there were better alternatives to current Blu-ray extras elsewhere. "If you want a game, you can get a better game, and if you want a social experience, you can get a better social experience," he said.

The article also said that Blade Runner DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika was skeptical that bonus features would ever "prove a big selling point for Blu-ray," and he believed that the format's best advantages over DVD really are superior video and sound.

However, the panelists weren't completely down on Blu-ray bonus features. They did voice some optimism that "improvements will come as filmmakers themselves start using their creative expertise to advise studios on Blu-ray interactivity."

What do you guys think? Should they just make Blu-ray Discs cheaper and forget about expensive-to-produce extras?

Read the full Video Business article here.

[sommer182]

I picked up an HD-DVD player (yeah, I bought Beta) and I can honestly say I have not once looked at the extra features, beyond those you might normally find on a standard DVD. Only major selling point was better picture and audio. And even for those two rather high standards, the mass market consumer will NOT pay the premium producers are charging. Get the players to $100 bucks and the discs to under $20 and they will fly off the shelves. And put out a Blu-Ray TV recorder while you are at it!

[mmcgown]

Almost all of the DVD extras that I have ever seen were poorly done.........even such low-brow problems as keeping outtakes or gagreels in a same format were ignored......i would be quite happy if disc producers could figure out that I will NEVER pay extra money for extra features (because the movie industry has spent ten years demonstrating that they have no sense of how to produce DVD extras worth paying for).

But I don't think they're that smart.

[cummjejp2]

I have been wanting to voice this for ages: I don't care about extra content EXCEPT for maybe a "making of" documentary, and even then I don't care most of the time. I don't want to pay $30 or $25 for content I couldn't care less about. If I want to know more about the movie, I can get a lot more information of the internet...for free! I agree with the above poster: bring the price down to less than $20 and you're golden. Games?? Jeez, that's what my Xbox is for.

[Wes#1]

I agree with others here... skip the extras and give me the BEST film transfer possible. And who wants to look at some designer's fanzy-smanzy menu, which often runs like a preview trailer (and scene spoiler) for the movie we're about to watch? Save the bucks (and save our disc load time) and drop the price of these things!

As "cummjejp2" mentions here, you can get extras off the internet... so why load them on the disc? That's why I never saw the value of the "profile 2.0" machines. If I have the slightest curiousity, I'll go to my computer to check it out. And they can keep the cheesy games, too!

Are any of the studios listening???