BD-Live is a joke? OK, but what about the guy spending 20 minutes trying to grab the trailer for MIB? Are the masses really clamoring to buy a $400 player, pull an ethernet cable to it, and then sit and download a trailer for a ten year old movie?
I've said for a long time most people will not give a crap about interactivity on a player. Extras are a niche product and most people pay no attention to them.
The average person will buy a dedicated player.
The average person will NOT go through the hassle of pulling or having an ethernet cable pulled to their movie player.
Most of the country still has relatively slow internet access, many still on dial up. Just because most of the people on these forums have a 5mbps+ connection, you can't use that as the rule. So for the majority of people that will buy a BD player, unusably slow internet connections will toss BD-Live out the window right off the bat.
What are the benefits?
1. Download a trailer? People skip trailers that are already included on DVD, they have done so since VHS. If you have broadband & care about trailers, you will check them out on your computer.
2. To play cheesy and crappy games? Kids may like that, but kids will also probably have a game system and/or computer too & will rather play a "real" game. Are people going to toss out their 360 or PS3 to play a Java game with a BD player remote? Not likely.
3. To chat with a friend while watching a movie using the player's remote? There are already much better methods to achieve this, like a telephone, text messaging, or a computer. And come to think of it, I've never thought about or known anyone who has ever felt the need to do this. It's annoying enough when people talk during a film, now we want IM's popping up on the screen?
4. OK, I almost forgot the most important benefit of the online experience..... TO SEND A GODZILLA RINGTONE TO YOUR PHONE!!!
Without going into how horrible that movie was, how Devlin & Emmerich almost killed a 50 year old icon, and the fact that nobody bought it on DVD or wants it in HD, is there one person on the face of the planet that will go through all the hassle of wiring up a player to get a ringtone?
I just can't see any example at all where I'd ever want or use BD-Live.
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