I am sure that some of you were online last night for the Live Community Screening hosted at Comic Con.

As with the Dark Knight screening, I captured most if not all of the comments and will create a picture gallery for you to browse if you didn’t see it.

For me it was a clearly different type of screening than Dark Knight,  since Zack was apparently with a live audience in San Diego and was being transcribed for the Blu-ray audience.

So I think we lost a lot of the context and likely some of the dialogue also.

Additionally, the presentation was R rated, including the language in the discussion, so be aware of that.

None the less a successful event I feel, and I certainly gained more of an appreciation for the movie and the characters in it.

Universal Studios has announced a plan to deliver iPhone / iPod Touch features on upcoming Blu-ray releases.

These features will be accessed via companion applications from the App Store.

The first app will launch on July 28, 2009, coinciding with the Blu-ray release of Fast & Furious.

iPhone and iPod touch users will have the ability to control interactive content on their BD Live connected Blu-ray players.

On select future Universal releases, users will also be able to access bonus content found on their Blu-ray disc and download it into their iPhone or iPod touch, use the devices as a virtual remote to control their Blu-ray disc features and access additional detailed information about the film while watching the movie.

Releases will also integrate with social network applications and sites like Facebook and Twitter to allow users to share their movie-related activities with friends.

The Blu-ray release of Fast & Furious will utilize this interactive technology tied to its “Virtual Car Garage” bonus feature.

Using the iPhone or iPod touch, viewers can control 360-degree views of the movie’s supercharged street-racers and instantly access exclusive technical specifications for the film’s high-tech cars.

The app will be free from Apple’s App Store on the devices and also at the iTunes.com App Store.

I figured that since it is Independence Day here in the USA I would take a break from the usual new releases and deals and share some behind the scenes and personal stories.

Back in the start of the year, Universal was promoting their BD Live features by running a contest to send down a video commentary on the Death Race Blu-ray disc.

The idea was to record a commentary as a Death Race announcer.

I thought that this was a pretty intriguing contest to run so one afternoon I recorded a commentary and with a little help from Universal’s support team I submitted it for the contest.

I didn’t really think too much more about it until I was notified that I won a Playstation 3 system in the contest!

The winners were supposed to be posted here though I am not sure that this is going to happen any time soon.

In any case, my Playstation 3 has arrived, adding a second PS3 and 4th Blu-ray player to my home (not counting the two PC drives I own, since they are not used as players!).

Much thanks to Universal for running such a cool contest – hopefully I will find the time to record more commentaries and the likes and share them over BD Live.

On a different note, some of you are aware that I have been toiling extensively behind the scenes to get the site running properly after moving to a new server.

The move was abrupt due to my previous server cutting off service due to a monthly traffic load of over 50GB!

So it was a bitter sweet experience – great that we are getting that kind of traffic but sad that it needed so much work to move.

In any case, for the most part the site should be working from the outside perspective, and I will continue to work on the tools that I need to keep things updated.

Time to head off and watch some good old 4th of July fireworks – my first as a citizen of the United States! Have fun and stay safe!

CBS has set BD Live to ‘stun’ this week and taken aim at Star Trek fans with new exclusive BD Live material.

The new content will hit the Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 1 portal on CBS-BDLive.com, kicking off from this week.

Using the Season One Blu-ray discs, fans will have access to new bonus video including roundtable discussions with special effects producers Mike and Denise Okuda, Dave Rossi and Neil Wray, also David Gerrold, Tribble inventor and writer of the fan-favorite Trouble with Tribbles episode.

Trekkies will find the experts’ views on the Season One Blu-ray bonus features, as well as what there is to look forward to in Season Two.

Additionally CBS and Paramount Home Entertainment are planning a Tribble extravaganza for the eagerly anticipated Season Two Blu-ray Disc release.

So watch out for the new content in the coming weeks.

Just a few days after the July 21st release of the Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray Disc, director Zack Snyder will host a BD Live community screening during Comic-Con in San Diego.

On July 25, people who can’t attend the event in person can still take part via BD Live.

Apparently Snyder is a fierce advocate of the Blu-ray format, believing that it has advantages over the first theatrical cut.

Personally I am excited to hear this – while Warner has not been particularly active in the BD Live space, they are seeming leading the way in organizing actual live BD Live events.

You can see screen shots from their previous Dark Knight BD Live event with Chris Nolan here.

Additionally, Amazon is currently discounting Watchmen on Blu-ray to $22.99 – a great price for this title, saving 36% off retail!

Via Video Business

In anticipation of the Transformers sequel June 24th, owners of the original Transformers Blu-ray release should expect to gain access to new BD Live content on June 16th.

The content will also be available on a special internet site, though will require an access code attached to more recent copies of the Tranformers DVDs and Blu-ray Discs.

The bonus materials that will be available via BD-Live and on the micro-site on June 16 include the following:

• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Sneak Peek — Footage from the new film
• From the set of Revenge of the Fallen: Day 1 — An exclusive inside look at the first day of shooting
• From the set of Revenge of the Fallen: A Day in the Shade —A comical look at the differences between Megan and Shia’s on-set treatment
• Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes from Transformers
• Fly on the Set: Pentagon — On the set filming of the Pentagon Military Command Center
• Music and Mayhem — Renowned special effects house ILM deconstructs the blockbuster action of Transformers
• Metal in Motion — Special effects tests and early robot animation
• Stunts 101 — An in-depth look at the amazing stunts in Transformers
• Choose Your Weapon —A fly on the wall glimpse into the selection of weapons and how they were used by the film’s soldiers
• The Man in the Ice — From design to production, watch the Arctic come to life on various sets in Los Angeles, California
• Voices — The voices behind the Autobots and Decepticons
• Audition Tapes: Megan Fox — Megan’s original Transformers audition

July this year will be Zack Snyder month on Blu-ray Disc, with Warner Home Video planning releases of his two of his movies.

Warner Home Video is going the Digibook route with the release of 300: The Complete Experience planned for July 21st 2009.

This release will add the green screen picture in picture that was included with the HD DVD but not the Blu-ray back when originally released, plus a new picture in picture feature including 3 unique perspectives to explore while you watch the film.

The new release will also add BD Live functionality.

The second Snyder movie to hit the shelves in July will of course be Watchmen, due a week later on July 28th.

Details are scarce though this one will be the Director’s Cut of the movie and will feature both BD Live functions and a Digital Copy of the theatrical cut.

Watch for pre-order links on these two soon.

Update: Video Business is saying that the Watchmen Blu-ray will feature new interactive modes including a Facebook connection for BD Live. They are also stating a July 21st release date, though the Warner press site says July 28th so it will be interesting to see who is right.

Sony has something special today for owners of The Da Vinci Code Blu-ray release.

You can use your Da Vinci Code disc to exclusively download footage from the world theatrical premiere of Angels & Demons via BD-Live.

This exclusive footage is available starting today.

Now in my opinion, this is the sort of thing BD Live should be used for!

I was somewhat surprised to read today that CBS is already planning special Blu-ray BD Live features for the Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 1 release.

Owners of the set who have a BD Live enabled player (or Playstation 3) will have access to videos of the highlights at FEDCON, Europe’s largest Star Trek convention.

CBS Home Entertainment will have teams at FEDCON shooting behind-the-scenes footage, talent interviews, etc. which will then be made available daily via BD Live portal.

CBS has also set up a website dedicated to BD Live where users can post pictures and comments.

I see this as excellent news – this is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to see out of BD Live back when it was announced!

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time playing around with BD Live technologies from Disney and Universal, and I must admit the experienced was mixed.

The first test was a community screening with chat – we ended up doing a Disney title since we didn’t have any Universal titles in common that allowed this.

So we decided on Wall-E and set about arranging a screening.

On the disc side, the PlayStation 3 felt that it needed to download an update for the disc for the BD Live functionality. Secondly, as noted on Format War Central, there is a huge End User License Agreement that naturally I ignored and agreed to without knowing what I agreed to.

On the website side, the first thing I noticed is that my screen name still has not been approved, so I am still known as Inmate 15946 – err I mean Guest 15946.

I first did an invite exchange with my friend so that we were both friends – however apparently this is not good enough for Disney to allow us to partake in a Movie Chat session – we had to become True Friends.

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