Disney pushes Blu-ray limits with 360 degree Circlevision

Disney is putting everything behind Blu-Ray with the 2-disc Wall-E Blu-Ray release and Finding Nemo arriving on 18 November, while The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian will arrive on Blu-ray on 2 December with an exclusive new feature called Circlevision.

We’ve just got back from a visit to the House of Mouse in California and the buzz at both the Pixar and Disney studios is all about Blu-ray. The Wall-E 2-disc Blu-ray discs will break new ground in terms of picture quality, while Prince Caspian’s BD release will push the extras and interactivity including a clever new feature called Circlevision.

In the demo we saw, Circlevision let us use the remote to spin around a scene in 360 degrees. It’s done by using footage from an array of cameras positioned around a 360 degree set.

Circlevision was originally developed in the 60s, but it has been revived by Disney with the latest Blu-Ray technology. When you highlight specific points in the panorama, you can call up text, video and sound that relate to it. We spent ages wading through all the extras and barely scratched the surface of what’s on there. Prince Caspian looks set to be the most advanced Blu-ray release so far.

Out December 2 | $25 | Disney Pictures

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