I'd like a dvd player that can connect to the internet and download 1)censoring info 2)commentary tracks.
1) Suppose there's a good movie on dvd, your young kids want to watch it, but it's rated R. A clever dvd player would be able to download info that would: bleep out the bad language; cut out an offensive scene; or put a mosaic censor over part of the screen (to cover gore, nudity).
The info could be put on the internet by anyone. I suppose Pat Robertson would set up squeaky-clean versions of most movies. Me, I'd set things up so dvds with 'new footage' would have the new material cut out to restore the dvd to its original theatrical version.
2) The same technology could be used to DL a commentary track. So you could hear a film buff comment on a classic movie. Or maybe a gossipy commentary telling who was drunk during filming.
(Note: this idea is separate and independent of the issue of downloading movies themselves).
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The censoring DVD player was tried, and the studios didn't like it, as it ook away from the product, and could even be seen as modifying a copyrighted work.
For a comentary or audio track, it included whatever track the producers want.
In either case, they would require storage, and some sort of authentication/DRM (at least for audio, as it would likely be copyrighted.
I think this would need to be part of a TIVO/dvd combo, so the extra content could be easily stored. The concept is, as I see it, the ability to augment the content of the read-only DVD. Once you pay for it, being able to choose voice-over or view-over options is not in the artists/vendors rights. To supply standard "swap scenes" from an internet host is a great idea.
You could get pretty artsy, too. For example, as long as viewers have paid for the godfather trilogy, I could splice up scenes, re-sequence, re-dub, and repackage a whole new trip. But I could not make a profit, not without permissions. But I might be able to make a name for myself & launch a career.
To delete scenes for a profit... probably need courts to say it is okay, but I think they would.
Thanks for the comments. I was wondering about the legal aspects. About a year ago, some guy actually altered DVDs (bleeped the swear words) and rented them out, along with the original dvd. Last I heard, that was ruled illegal.
But if I'm playing the dvd at home, I can hit mute to eliminate the bad language. So why not have some downloaded info to duplicate that?