If you are like me and have watched countless movies in your lifetime, you have definitely asked yourself these questions, "Where have I seen this actor before?", "What is this actors name?"; while watching a movie. Fortunately, Gracenote has come to our rescue and given us a solution that should satisfy all our curiosity and help us answer those troublesome questions. Powered by Gracenote's metadata service, a chip equipped within our Blu-ray Disc Players will provide us with endless amounts of information regarding actors and musicians. And we do not even have to pause our film.

Sony, who owns Gracenote, have equipped their recent players with this technology. And will continue to do so on their upcoming Blu-ray Players. The BDP-S380, BDP-S480, BDP-S580 and BDP-S780 Blu-ray models will have Video Explore, MusicID and VideoID browsing features. Gracenote will not be limited to Sony players, it is working with LG to include VideoID and MusicID in both the BD670 and BD690 Blu-ray models. The Sony and LG Blu-ray DVD Players should be released sometime early in 2011.

Video Explore

Gracenote's recognition technology is used with Video Explore. Some may be familiar with this because of MovieIQ, which is found on some Sony Blu-ray Discs and uses a similar technology. Gracenote, of course, was responsible for MovieIQ. Video Explore will have the unique ability to provide users with content not found on the Blu-ray disc. You can think of it as adding more extra features to your film. This is great since not all Blu-ray discs come packed with bonus material.

What Video Explore actual does is sort through over 40 unique content attributes of thousands of motion pictures. Everything from production crew notes, keywords, cast members, cover art, biographies, score, songs, art production, studios, genre and language. Once all the data is filtered and sorted, it can give you with all kinds of relevant data; including such things as the directors next project or still images from the film being viewed.

If this is not sufficient, you can explore even further. Find out the directors motivation for making the film, how he was influenced in his career or get movie trivia on the film and the actors involved. However you use Video Explore, it will expand your viewing experience. Giving you more information and media, beyond the scope of the content found on the Blu-ray disc.

VideoID and MusicID

The VideoID and MusicID features are like Video Explore, in that you can access information outside of a particular Blu-ray. You can get the entire discography of a musician or filmography of an actor. By just pressing a few remote buttons you can access an actors biography and all the motion pictures and Television shows he or she has appeared. There is even an option to purchase movies. VideoID, through Gracenote's Global Media Database, can give you information regarding these movies such as cast members, cover art, directors and synopsis.

MusicID will tell you the music playing in the film or TV show. And like VideoID, you get more information by just pressing a few remote buttons. You can access information about the musician such as their biography and discography, what album the song is from, and let you make a purchase.

Gracenote's Global Media Database is a welcome feature to Blu-ray Disc Players. Proving us with instant information on the movies we are viewing. Letting us search selected internet apps, including YouTube™ and Qriocity™, to find relevant and extra entertainment, beyond what is on the Blu-ray Disc.