Since their debut, both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have opened the doors for some interesting new enhancements to the home viewing experience of a movie. The U-Control feature of HD-DVD is one such enhancement, which allows for picture-in-picture viewing of various supplementary media files while the movie is playing. Now Warner Brothers are about to introduce another new feature with the upcoming release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, something they are calling “Live Community Screening”. The basic idea is that a group of friends can set up a simultaneous online screening of the movie that will be controlled by one person’s machine, with a live text messaging environment available for discussion during the flick. Of course, in order to take advantage of this functionality, it requires a web-enabled HD-DVD player and all parties involved in the screening will need their own copy of the movie (the Blu-ray version of the movie will be lacking this particular gimmick).

I’m a bit undecided as to whether or not this is a worthwhile addition to the HD-DVD arsenal. I like the fact that studios are thinking outside of the box and trying to come up with new ways for people to watch movies, but on the other hand, if they want to stop people from downloading movies they might have to think just a little bit harder! I can’t see many people taking advantage of this, at least not initially, although it is somewhat similar to the concept for the streaming TV service Joost. Maybe if only one person was required to have a copy of the movie there might be a good reason for people to try it (although streaming high-def quality content is not yet feasible with today’s bandwidth). It’s easy to be cynical and wonder why people wouldn’t just get together with their friends in person, although if there happens to be significant distance between them, maybe this is something they would consider. At the moment though, it feels like this is just another random bullet point for the back of the HD-DVD release, since they haven’t been promoting it all that much. What do you think, is the Live Community Screening option something you would use, or is it just more high-definition smoke and mirrors? Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix hits stores on December 11th.