BD-J
BD-J, or Blu-ray Disc Java, is the interactive platform supporting advanced content for Blu-ray Disc. BD-J allows bonus content on Blu-ray Disc titles to be far more sophisticated than bonus content provided by standard DVD, including network access (such as for downloading updated trailers or accessing live studio events), picture-in-picture and access to local storage. BD-J was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association. All Blu-ray Disc players supporting video content are required to support BD-J.
Technology
BD-J is based on a packaged media profile of Globally Executable MHP, or GEM. GEM, in turn, forms the basis of most global digital television application standards, including Multimedia Home Platform ("DVB-MHP") for broadcast, satellite, and cable worldwide, OpenCable Application Platform ("OCAP") for North American cable, and Advanced Common Application Platform ("ACAP") for US broadcast. GEM is an ETSI standard; DVB-MHP is a DVB standard. All GEM-based standards are built on top of Java technology, invented by Sun Microsystems. Because BD-J, MHP, OCAP, and ACAP are all based on the Java platform, there is a high degree of content interoperability between these standards, making it easier, for example, for Blu-ray Disc content features to be made available on cable Video on Demand, or for interactive television content originally aired on broadcast television to be repackaged and made available on Blu-ray Disc.
Content Development
Content authors have a variety of development strategies available, including the use of traditional Integrated Development Environments (IDE's) like NetBeans or Eclipse, non-programming graphical environments similar to Macromedia Director, or via rendering engines which consume standard data formats such as HTML, XML, or SVG. The flexibility of having a full programming environment available on every Blu-ray Disc player provides developers with an extremely flexible platform for creating innovative new content types not bound by the restrictions of content platforms based on rigid mark-up based specifications. Eventually, some people might develop some games for BD-J discs so that people can play games on BD players. Unlike game consoles with proprietary machine code, Java on Blu-Ray may initiate ubiquity of program code on Blu-ray players and other game consoles (if they adopt the blu-ray java and hardware standards).
BD-J Enhanced Movie Titles
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- Dragon's Lair (Game, Authored entirely in BD-J, PiP Video Commentary)
- Behind Enemy Lines (enhanced menu)
- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (enhanced menu, game)
- Speed (enhanced menu, game)
- The Descent (As of now only working on Sony PlayStation 3, Samsung with firmware update, the Panasonic player, and PowerDVD 6.0 BD Edition; other players need firmware update)
- Guardian (Filmmaker Q & A)
- Chicken Little (Game, filmmaker Q&A)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (Interactive in-movie feature)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Game)
- Crank (BD-J enhanced menu, 50GB BD, Interactive PiP video commentary)
- Weeds: Season One (BD-J enhanced menu, two discs)
- Ultimate Avengers (BD-J enhanced menu, 50GB BD)
BD-J Upcoming Titles
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- National Lampoon's Van Wilder (Lionsgate)
- Release date:
- Tuesday, August 21th, 2007
- Featuring:
- Complete BD-J enhanced interactive menu
- Commentary
- Interactive Game: "Testicles of the Animal Kingdom"
- "Write That Down" Quotes from and Inspired by the Film
- Blu-Book Exam: Interactive Game
- Ultimate College Party Guide Gallery
- Release date:
- Weeds: Season Two (Lionsgate)
- Release date:
- Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
- Featuring:
- Complete BD-J enhanced interactive menu
- Two BD (1xBD50, 1xBD25)
- Trivia Tracks on all episodes with out commentaries
- “Test Your Short-Term Memory” game
- Release date:
- Waiting... Unrated & Raw (Lionsgate)
- Release date:
- Tuesday, July 17th, 2007
- Featuring:
- Complete BD-J enhanced interactive menu
- The Works: All Access Interactive Video Commentary
- Alternate Takes
- Release date:
- Doctor Strange (Lionsgate)
- Release date:
- Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
- Featuring:
- Complete BD-J enhanced interactive menu
- Release date:
Note: Special features and release dates are subject to change.
Players Supporting BD-J
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- InterVideo WinDVD 8.0 (Windows, Software-based)
- CyberLink PowerDVD 6.6 (or newer) BD Edition (Windows, software-based)
- Sony BDP-S1 (hardware)
- Sony BDP-S300
- Samsung BDP-1000
- Samsung BDP-1200
- Samsung BDP-1400
- Panasonic DMP-BD10
- Pioneer BDP-HD1
- LG BH100 combo Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD player
- Philips BDP-9000
- Sony Playstation 3
See also
- Blu-ray Disc
- HDi, BD-J's counterpart on HD DVD
External links
- Blu-ray Disc Association - Official BDA web site.
- The Authoritative Blu-ray Disc (BD) FAQ by Hugh Bennett
- GEM specification
- Official MHP website maintained by the DVB Project Office.
- MHP tutorials
- MHP Knowledge Database
- OpenMHP - MHP-Open Source Project
- Sun Microsystems' Java Micro Edition
- xleTView - xleTView, MHP-Open Source Emulator at Sourceforge
- Interactive-TV-Web - MHP/OCAP Website from Steven Morris
- BD-J Authoring Tool - dvd1One.net provides an authoring tool called DoStudio from NetBlender