pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”dark knight joker.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/dark%20knight%20joker.jpg” width=”380″ height=”333″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //span We’ve seen how the cost of dedicated Blu-ray players is dipping regularly under the £200 mark and now it seems, certain movies are finally driving some serious Blu-ray sales./p pThe latest outing for our favourite gadget-equipped vigilante, The Dark Knight, has managed to sell a whopping 600,000 Blu-ray copies in its first day of release. According to Warner, that accounted for an unprecedented 25-30% of total Dark Knight sales – including DVDs. /pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/29925e8/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=The Dark Knight Shatters Blu-ray Sales Recordslink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/21/the_dark_knight_shatters_blura.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=The Dark Knight Shatters Blu-ray Sales Recordslink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/21/the_dark_knight_shatters_blura.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/div
Dark Knight’s Chris Nolan Event Shows BD-Live Is Not Quite Ready
Posted in: blu-ray, Features, Today's Chili, top
Chris Nolan just hosted the live, on-demand substitute for a Dark Knight commentary track last night. So why was I left unsatisfied after squinting at my TV for two and a half hours?
To refresh, BD-Live is the Blu-ray technology that allows for more interactive special features on your disc, like being able to arrange “screenings” with your friends or record commentary tracks yourself.
It all comes down to the technology. Instead of having director Chris Nolan talk into a mic and answer questions as they were asked via the website, Nolan had to do all his own typing. Or, we assume it was Nolan and not some designated typist, since the answers were slow going and contained a bunch of typos. The largest problem was that the text, displayed IRC-style with a white overlay behind it, was too small (on my PS3, at least), forcing me to sit closer than I normally would.
Smaller issues included Chris Nolan connecting and disconnecting every two minutes for the first 1/3 of the movie, which lead to the unfulfilling situation where questions were displayed but his answers were dropped. He also intentionally stayed silent or deftly evaded when certain questions on sensitive topics chosen by the moderator, such as piracy, making a third movie and any talk of money.
There were some enjoyable moments, such as when he took not one, but two pee breaks, explaining that he needed to make a shorter film next time. Fortunately, the BD-Live format let him pause everyone’s movie simultaneously. He also reused the same joke three times in different formats, thanking an actor or a contributor by name when someone asked how awesome it was working with said person.
Here’s how to fix the experience. Give Chris Nolan a microphone. Make whatever adjustments you have to make to the BD-Live technology to allow a low-bandwidth audio stream to reach however many players were signed on last night. Then, record the “podcast”, and let people who were still at work (it was on at 6PM PST) watch it after the fact whenever they like. I stare at chatrooms all day at work, don’t make me stare at another one when I’m watching Batman tearing around Gotham City.
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