New BD-Live Application Turns Blu-ray Players into VOD Boxes

Enteractive, a German Blu-ray production studio, demonstrated for the first time at the Media-Tech fair in Frankfurt its video-on-demand service 'Videociety' – a digital pay-per-view video delivery service that, through novel use of Java software, lets users rent movies via any Blu-ray player, provided it supports BD-Live. Official product launch is expected for later in the year.

Basically, the Enteractive VoD Blu-ray Disc runs a specialized Java software application acting as a Client (browser). The Java application in the disc synchronizes with the Java operating system inside the Blu-ray player and executes the delivery of movies from a dedicated content management system and video server.

Operation is similar to other streaming services already in existence, such as Netflix Watch Instantly, except that all BD-Live compatible players will support Videociety. The user must register and preselect the movies on a computer or iPhone. Then the BD-Live VoD-enabled disc is to be inserted in the Blu-ray player. Once a broadband connection and login are established, the title selected will begin streaming.

The video codec used is MPEG-4 (H.264), although no information on the video resolution was given. Audio is stereo or 5.1 Dolby Digital.

Videociety will be officially launched at Berlin's IFA in September. The company is currently in negotiations with all major and independent studios to secure content for the service in Germany, and already has access to over 400 titles from the catalog of sister companies Splendid Film, Polyband and WVG Media. There is no information about a launch in other countries, but if the application works, it will certainly become a very interesting product for all content providers worldwide.