Phillip Swann, who runs TVPredictions.com, managed to get a few minutes with Microsoft’s HD DVD evangelist, Kevin Collins, and he put out a few videos on YouTube of the whole thing. This is a doubly challenging presentation for Kevin because Phillip is an HD DVD skeptic, and he’s also doubtful whether anybody really cares about interactive features.

In my opinion, interactivity is not the main reason to get HD DVD, but it sure adds some additional value to the discs and movies. Menus and options on HD DVD discs are amazingly more powerful than what you’re accustomed to on regular DVDs. For example, you can go to the menu and select your next chapter or feature while the movie is still playing.

In this video, Kevin demonstrates an HD DVD exclusive on the movie 300 where you can turn on a picture-in-picture mode and see the same scene before the special effects were added:

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Here, Kevin demonstrates more interactivity features such as saving bookmarks into your favorite movie scenes instead of relying solely on the preset chapter marks, and also how you can view some of the bonus materials while a movie is playing:

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I also found this video on YouTube that demonstrates a little more of the interactivity on Tokyo Drift as demonstrated on the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on:

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Some of the interactive features may be gimmicky, but if you really enjoyed a particular movie, these are all completely legitimate ways to enjoy your disc. Some of these features get even better when you’re connected to the internet. You may not need or use all of these extras, but it goes to show you that there’s much more to HD DVD than just better picture quality. If you’re really into watching DVDs, then you’ll definitely love what HD DVD can do for you.