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Blu-ray Titles Missing Main Menus

post #1 of 17
1/6/10 at 5:31pm
Thread Starter 

One thing I always loved about DVD's compared to VHS were the main menus and how cool some of them were/are. I loved that the movie wouldn't just start upon inserting the disk, somewhat of a grace period and I could go through the options, setup, features, etc without the movie starting.
 

Well, I still love them and being new to blu-ray, I thought not only would the "main/top menu" feature still exists, I thought they'd be cooler than ever....BUT, its seems with blu-ray, we've or should I say Warner has taken a step back. Now, I'm sure some could care less about it, but to me its a big deal and I refuse to buy any Warner Blu-ray until they start adding those menus back. I know I am not alone on this too.
 

Now, before I go all blu-ray buying happy, is Warner currently the only lazy ones leaving menus out of their releases or are there more of them out there? I hope this  doesnt become a permanent thing for Blu-ray.

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post #2 of 17
1/6/10 at 6:29pm
Warner's releases still include menus; they just don't automatically go to them, instead starting the content right away. If you want the menu, hit the Menu button.
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post #3 of 17
1/6/10 at 6:50pm
^ I watched something from them very recently that didn't appear to have a main menu, just a pop-up minimalist one. The movie automatically started. It wasn't lossless audio. Might it have been Contact?? Sorry if I'm pointing to the wrong culprit, but it did take a bit of finagling to get the right audio, my fault, I was looking for a regular main menu and got confused when I couldn't find it. It was WB for sure though. I should have just used the Audio button on the remote...by the time I figured it out I had to restart the movie with the proper audio (edit: now I remember, it was Contact, with the great audio start).
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post #4 of 17
1/6/10 at 7:10pm
WB almost never has its films start with a main menu on BD. The only exception I can think of is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
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post #5 of 17
1/6/10 at 7:25pm
^ The two Star Wars: The Clone Wars releases both go to their menus too. I'd guess that's a call made by LFL though.
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post #6 of 17
1/6/10 at 8:03pm
I have no preference of either a regular DVD-style menu or a "pop-up" one.  But I definitely prefer it when the movie starts playing without going to the menu first, since it's generally safe to assume that when I put a disc in my player, I want to watch the movie that's on that disc.  If I want to see the menu, that's what the "menu" key is for.
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post #7 of 17
1/6/10 at 8:05pm
This is old news and there are other topics discussing this.
Also this has been going on since the beginning of dvd with Warner movies.

Just searching "Warner menu" I found 4 quickly.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/273954/goodfellas-is-there-a-top-menu
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/292374/what-s-with-this-trend-of-bd-s-with-no-main-menu-that-just-starts-right-away
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/250306/warner-menus
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/282640/what-can-we-do-about-warner-bros

The last one is a long topic that includes this as a discusion and other Warner issues.
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post #8 of 17
1/6/10 at 8:11pm
^ You may be right. I wouldn't have a problem with it, and thus even notice it (is it really that common for WB DVD ?...I have hundreds of them and it doesn't stick in my mind [which doesn't mean much]), except when the lowest quality audio is chosen by default with the BD.
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post #9 of 17
1/6/10 at 8:44pm
I don't know how common it was on dvd but it happened sometimes.

My opinion is that this is a good thing, I compare it to Disney and Fox discs that have many clips and trailers that come on before even being able to get to the menu.
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post #10 of 17
1/6/10 at 11:58pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for those links.

Has anything changed on Warners standard DVDs? I was gonna get the blu-ray of Wizard of Oz, but refuse with no top main menu, cant stand it. Des that 2-disc standard DVD still have a menu though? If so, is it the same as the wicked witch boxed set on form a few years ago?
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post #11 of 17
1/7/10 at 8:09am

Warner blu-rays generally do have a main menu, but its not what you would call a title menu. When the feature ends the discs normally revert to a menu that has all the options available on the disc. You can also access that menu by selecting the special features from the pop up menu.

Personally I MUCH prefer the movie start right off, than have to hit the next button 25 times like on the Disney blu-rays. Fancy animated menus that add sometimes up to a min of boot time to a disc are just annoying. 

Doug

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post #12 of 17
1/7/10 at 8:21am
Good riddance to stupid animated menus that waste time and spoil scenes!

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post #13 of 17
1/7/10 at 1:52pm


Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD View Post

My opinion is that this is a good thing, I compare it to Disney and Fox discs that have many clips and trailers that come on before even being able to get to the menu.

Agreed.  Except I would go even stronger and say:

"......discs that have many, many, many, many, many clips, trailers, disclaimers, advertisements, don't copy this warnings, the commentaries might not reflect our opinion nonsense, dozens of nifty film company logos, more commercials, FBI warnings, and then all of this repeated in Spanish....before even being able to get to the menu"

Agreed.  Just start the movie, and let me select the menu button if I want to access additional content.  That's very practical & I like the Warner approach best. 

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post #14 of 17
1/7/10 at 2:01pm
It did throw me off the first time I put in The Wizard of Oz on Blu-ray. The Menu button on my remote didn't take me to the menu, so I skipped my way through the movie and the warning screens in literally over 20 languages. The next time, I discovered I had a Title/Pop-up button, which brings up the menu with no fuss at all.

Now that I'm past the learning curve, I actually prefer this WB approach. A lot of discs do have spoilerific menus, so I'd rather get to the menu by my own choice. Of course, for it to work best, the user should have the option to restart the movie after changing the settings or turning the commentary on.
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post #15 of 17
1/7/10 at 3:48pm
I like that the Warners discs start the movie right away, but I wish it would go to a proper DVD style menu when you hit top/pop up menu though since I think this is the reason for my major complaint with the Wizard Of Oz blu, and that's the authoring of the special features.   You'll be watching one of those documentaries, and hit stop, then hit play and resume watching it.  When you hit stop, it takes you out of the documentary and you have to restart it when you hit play.  It's a real pain in the ass.  I watch the extra features in chunks usually, and I just gave up on this one.  On the previous ultimate edition that came out on SD, you could actually stop the documentaries, the screen would go blank (which is why I don't want to pause them) and then hitting play would restart where you left off.  to lose this aspect on Blu is really retarded, and I don't care that it is possible for me to fast forward back to roughlythe spot where I left off, it's still annoying and movie watching shouldn't be annoying, it should be a pleasure.

I'm sure it's because of the java pop up menu's that we've lost this functionality.
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post #16 of 17
1/8/10 at 10:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon.B View Post

Thanks for those links.

Has anything changed on Warners standard DVDs? I was gonna get the blu-ray of Wizard of Oz, but refuse with no top main menu, cant stand it. Des that 2-disc standard DVD still have a menu though? If so, is it the same as the wicked witch boxed set on form a few years ago?

Really? You can get the finest picture and sound quality (outside of the maybe 20 or 30 perfectly calibrated single-screen theaters in the entire world) of one of the all-time classic films--and by the look of your first post, any film made by Warner--and you're throwing it away because you don't get a menu automatically? Notwithstanding the fact that, as others have pointed out contrary to your claims, all Warner Blu-rays have main menus available via the "Title" or "Root" buttons on every Blu-ray player, that is one of the most ridiculous reasons I've ever heard for actually downgrading the quality of their films.  Honestly, you may not be alone, but there's not a lot of people with you on this.
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post #17 of 17
1/9/10 at 7:44pm
OK, yesterday I played WB's True Romance. All the initial stuff, the warnings and promos, were skippable. No startup menu. Movie started with Dolby TrueHD engaged. Yeah, this way is good. But it's the first time "everything" has been exactly right for me. The quite basic main menu was perfectly functional, no fluff. And no Java. Perfect.
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