At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Sony Pictures and Sony Electronics jointly announced MovieIQ and CineChat, two features that, the companies say, will inspire consumers to buy up new BD-Live enabled players.

Blu-ray devices are now in 11 million U.S. homes, according to Mike Abary, senior vice president of information technology products and personal audio. The format's sales grow 400 percent during the first quarter, compared to the previous year. Sony also plans to ship a mammoth 400-disc Blu-ray changer later this year, as well as a Wi-Fi-enabled Blu-ray player next month.

That Wi-Fi connectivity is a key point, as BD-Live requires some form of an Internet connection. Think of MovieIQ as a Web-enabled extra, perhaps a form of the IMDB plus a little more, powered by Gracenote. According to Sony, the feature connects to an updated databases that can provide cast lists, but even set details specific to the scene.



CineChat, as the screenshot above indicates, is an instant-message session. Consumers can use a keyboard, or a mobile device like a BlackBerry. And, like the image implies, the idea is to have a running chat with someone who isn't in the room with you. The selling point? A "sync" feature, which can sync playback remotely so your buddy sees the same scenes at the same time. If you want to watch a different movie, that's fine, but the "sync" feature willl also go away. And if you want to watch the movie in a fullscreen mode? No problem; the chat window will automatically minimize.

MovieIQ will debut in September on Angels & Demons, Easy Rider, and other films. CineChat will be in the 25th anniversary release of Ghostbusters as well as The International.

A Sony executive referred to MovieIQ as BD-Live's first "killer app". I would disagree, but Web connectivity is a good first step. Personally, I would be interested to see Sony develop some sort of licensed "Facet" Tivo-like ripper box that uses the "Managed Copy" feature to legally allow consumers to rip movies to a hard drive, and uses the Internet for authentication.