What's with this trend of BD's with no main menu that just starts right away?

I have two like this so far and it's annoying.

BATMAN is like this and it's especially irritating because you must engage the commentary by Tim Burton while the movie is playing and then must go back to hear what you've missed, granted it's only a few seconds but I still freakin' hate it.

I also have the remake of Friday the 13th and in that case I couldn't tell which version I was watching because there was no menu to choose a version from, it took me a few minutes to realize that it defaults to the 'Killer Cut'. It couldn't even tell you on the back of the case.

I think Warners is the only company that does this and I don't really like it either. I guess years and years of DVD viewing has conditioned me to expect the menu to come up before the movie so it seems odd when it doesn't.

That being said, I'm pretty sure that there's been threads devoted to people saying how much they love that the movie starts right away. Can't please 'em all.

I just feel that menus on DVD's and BD's was invented because it was a good idea and still is.

Trend?
Warners has been doing that since way back in the days of dvd.

I prefer this to what many studios do and that's have a bunch of ads and fbi warnings and other junk that can't be ff through.

Fire up T2: Skynet Edition and you will see the extreme opposite. It takes almost 5 minutes to load on a fairly new player. I just want to watch the movie.
I'll take hitting menu, making a choice, and the pressing the back button over waiting for java to load for something as simple as a movie menu.
Keep it up Warner. You are saving me minutes I will never get back.

Yes but there was a menu that could accessed by pressing menu.

It's the absence of any kind of menu that I object to, not really that the film starts immediately.

And yes, trying to start the film on the T2: Skynet Edition is a tremendous pain in the ass.

Not to stray too OT, but I have to second this.  T2: Skynet is bizarre.  You either must sit through a cumbersome loading process before being ushered into the menu proper or, if you wish to skip this step and not get online, you're still presented with an warning message before being taken to the main menu.  For the life of me, I can't think of another BD in my collection that does this - softly chiding the user for simply wanting to eschew the bells and whistles for the film itself. 

The very first BD I ever popped into my player was Warner's "Batman Begins," and I recall being a little surprised by the movie immediately starting up.  Fortunately, most BD pop-up menus provide the user with an option to visit the 'full menu,' so aside from some inconvenience, this issue is easily sidestepped.  Some BDs also default to the non HD audio track, and in the event I have to switch is over to DTSMA or TrueHD, it's still just a few extra seconds of my time.  The whole notion of 'pop up menus' solves a lot of the plodding 'screen by screen' menu issues with DVDs anyway. 

I picked up a combo HD-DVD / DVD of Miami Vice recently in a bargain bin (obviously I can only play the DVD side) and it had a promo for the format, touting the immediate start-up as one of the advantages of the new format. The film and disc were released by Universal,  but the promo featured several studio's titles (especially Batman Begins) so maybe going straight to the film was something both HD-DVD and Blu-ray wanted to be available if studios wanted to take advantage of it.


Batman Begins was my first Blu-ray as well, as it came free as part of a package.

 This is a Warner thing but I love it.  I wish every studio did it.  

You can always select the top menu or pop-up menu.  It's still there. Or toggle through the audio selection on your remote & get the commentary.

I'm so sick of having to trudge through preview after preview, then a disclaimer about the commentary not being endorsed by the studio, then more previews, then more "loading" for the fancy menu, then more previews, then copyright warnings, then more disclaimers, and then finally everything repeated in Spanish.

Aagggh!  Just start the movie.

I like a menu to be pulled up first and the reason is I like to have the best sound activated when i watch a movie with WARNER releases I have to sit there and hurry up pause it hit the pop up menu and choose the best sound. I hate doing that esp when you are trying to impress someone else on how nice blu ray is and they wonder why you have just paused the film etc.

I love having the film start right away. It gives an alternative. I hate all these elaberate menus which take ages to load up. It's easy enough to go to the menu if you want that, as soon as the film starts.

almost every movie i have does this, my only gripe is those movies that default to dolby digital instead of a HD audio because then you do have to fiddle with audio settings and then restart the movie

Most Warner discs do have such a menu. You access it by hitting the "Top Menu" button on your remote -- at least that's what it's called on Panasonic remotes (Panasonic being the only BD players I've ever used). It's a fairly simple menu that usually just lists all the special features. Unfortunately, it usually doesn't contain the soundtrack options.


As a result of feedback from HTF (and other internet sites, but principally HTF), Warner has changed its approach. Recent Warner releases default to the Dolby TrueHD track. Examples include Fracture and Grumpy Old Men, both of which I reviewed for HTF. But the pipeline being what it is, we'll have to wait a while before all the discs mastered the old way finally work their way through the system.

the only title that I have.. from warner bros that does indeed include a main menu.. is the star wars: the clone wars animated movie. which was a big surprise because most or all of the warner bros just start up at the beginning with the movie.

Jacob

All of the Warner titles I have that start up at the beginning of the movie also have a menu, which can be accessed as I described above. I frequently do that as soon as the Warner logo appears, just to see what's listed on the disc.

I think that's Lucasfilm's doing since Warners is likely only distributing LFL's discs.

Wow, that's certainly something to be proud of!

When dealing with that annoying audio track issue I immediately hit the 'audio' button on the remote as soon as the film itself starts.

I can't watch the movie either way (have to set up the subtitles) but Warner's option of immediately starting the movie has advantages of it's own. It's at least better than Disney's option: multiple trailers, a slowly loading menu and a Blu-ray video before the movie can actually start. I'll take a movie that starts right away (except for a pause in the beginning) any day.

I completely agree. I wish Disney would get on board.

-R

It's a lot better than your friend saying "Blu-ray's so much better, eh. we've been waiting 2 min just for a freaking menu and it's not even previews", but that's just BD-Java. It's only just for show.
I think a resolution for the whole thing is a static startup menu with just audio and subtitle options and then straight into the movie. The only glitter on it would be a still pic in the background.

I don't mind not defaulting to a menu, but what I can't stand is when a BD automatically starts into the movie and doesn't default into the highest bit rate audio track!

Too often WB BDs start on Dolby Digital 448 or 640kbps rather than with the Dolby TrueHD track. 

The thing that drives me crazy is that it seems, to me at least, that some studios are using parts of the movie in the menus on a more frequent basis with blu-ray.  I cannot stress enough how much I hate seeing parts of a movie that I am just about to watch showing up in the main menu.  I would rather have a super-bit type menu if need be. 

Menus can be inventive and cool but it is just a cheap cop-out to use parts of the movie in the main menu.

Sorry for the rant but this has been driving me nuts lately.

Off the top of my head, Zodiac and Serenity are two blu-rays that do this pretty extensively.  In a few weeks, my wife and I are going to be premiering Serenity for some Firefly-loving friends, and I am going to cue up the film past the menu before they arrive, for this reason.  The menus spoil a few scenes. 

I don't mean to stray too off-topic from the original intent of this thread, which was to discuss BD menus that launch straight into the movie, but I cannot go without mentioning the absolutely jaw-dropping Sleeping Beauty main menu.  Each time I've loading up this film, the weather and time of day are different in the animated landscape (sometimes dark and stormy, sometimes a still quiet night, sometimes a beautiful spring day).

Warners should be applauded for starting the film directly without out all those menus getting in the way. I get the BD to see the film not menus and I hope other studios follow Warners example. You can always bring up the menu as set out above if you need it.

Personally, I like the discs that default to a menu...it allows you to pop in the disc and just let it start up while you go grab a chair or popcorn or whatever, rather than having to wait there (or worse, rush back) as the movie starts automatically and then pause it. But it is a personal choice, and I have no real huge beef with the movie starting automatically.

What I really miss are the inventive menu screens that some discs have. I realize it must cost more money/more time to program and create such menus, but they really make the experience something special. The Alien Legacy box set (before the Quadrilogy) is superior to the latter set only for the menus, which are really fun. On the flip side of that, of course, are the menus that try to be too showy and flashy and end up being annoying to navigate...

I'll applaud them if-and-when they've not only addressed the default soundtrack issue for future releases, but have also done it for already released titles so I don't keep having to wonder if I'm rewatching a Warner title that needs the audio changed.  That issue still peeves me a bit at times whenever I rewatch an older DVD (and don't want to have to look it up, etc. etc. first). :f  And yes, you read me right.  I do mean they should try to fix the default issue for old releases too considering the format has more capability to allow something like that now (than DVD ever did).  Either that or it'd be great if player makers can offer new players (and firmware updates for old ones) that allow us to override the authoring on those old titles so we don't need to continue to remember to do it manually for them (like I do w/ older DVDs).

Another related problem w/ BD autostart that's worse than DVD is all the non-standard ways menus, etc. are authored now.  This default-and-auto-start issue is just not limited to the soundtrack (and subtitles), but also to alternate versions of the film on the same disc, if/when that's offered.  I still remember not being sure which version of I Am Legend got autostarted when I watched it the first time partly because I hadn't gotten used to Warner's approach to BD menu design yet -- and I still can't say I'm all that used to them, especially for picking alternate versions of a film...

_Man_

They made the intelligent choice of having their BDs start with an audio track that they know the player can play back, and not risk people returning the movie because "the sound doesn't work". I can't help but feel that their new philosophy will bite them on the ass soon...

No it won't, because Warner is doing what they've always done and what is, in fact, required by the BD spec: including a DD "compatability track" with the TrueHD track (DD being a required format for Blu-ray, and TrueHD being an optional one). If the player does not have TrueHD capability or is set in such a way that TrueHD can't be played, the disc "falls back" to the DD track. This is how Sony has always mastered their Blu-rays, and I am not aware of Sony getting reports of sound not working, even though Sony's DD "compability track" generally isn't even listed as a menu option.

I don't like discs that just start playing the program, especially TV series where I want to be able to select which episode I'm going to watch. A quick loading menu is my choice.