What DVD trends are ticking you off lately? (1 Viewer)

[Dan Rudolph]

I hate digipaks. The damn things are always coming unglued.

 

[Jeff D Han]

Here's my little list of annoyances-

Forced trailers

Inserts with chapter descriptions not included
(every DVD with chapter markers should have a
list, and possibly a detailed list of the extras)

Hard to navigate menues (the original Spider-Man
deluxe edition)

Being forced to buy a movie you won't watch (the
trilogy packages of Back To The Future, Robocop,
Indiana Jones)

MAR only releases

 

[Chris Cheese]

My biggest complaint lately is that so many DVDs, especially TV sets take so long to get to the menu after putting the DVD in. You get page after page of copyright warnings in a few different languages and then you get a few different animated studio logos... It's just ridiculous. We don't read those warnings and we see the same damned one on every single DVD we own. They should at the very least be skippable or at least shortened a lot.

 

[Shane S.]

1. DVD's being labeled as the "Special Collectors Edition" or something close even though its the ONLY version available.

2. Stickers...I understand the security reasoning but that doesn't mean I have to like it. How may times have you put a tear in the protective plastic while trying to get your fingernail under the sticker.

3. I also hate 20 minute menus and forced trailers.

 

[MarcusUdeh]

I’m in sole agreement with you there. The most anticipated special feature on the new Wild at Heart DVD for me is the featurette with David Lynch about the new HD transfer, newly color timed and all.

 

[David Coleman]

Forced trailers that can't be skipped (ANIMAL HOUSE)
Trailers at the beginning (pick any Disney movie)
Now we got rid of the snapper to only have this strange box with tabs on it??? What kind of sense does this make?? (THE UNTOUCHABLES)
Filtered picture quality ( any Columbia/Tristar) film! It's just a shame when you KNOW they can produce a better looking picture but refuse to!!
No Inserts ( I mean how cheap is that)!
Lack of utilizing DVD features (brancing, seamless brancing for multiple versions, sub picture information for trivia and pop up tracks)
Lack of PCM on releases that are only 2 channel!

 

[Joe Karlosi]

My biggest annoyance lately is having to wait forever to get to the main menu, and I can't stand when it finally arrives and it's a very long and elaborate "showy" display. I just want to hit PLAY, for cryin' out loud.

 

[MarcWi]

I am getting irritated at these exclusive bonus discs--getting the F13th one yesterday was not sop easy, and now
I see that plan to do it agin with Dwan of the Dead 04....

 

[Gabriela Mendez]

I'm fed up with regions having better releases than in the US. Fortunately I live in the border with Mexico and can get dvd's with better stuff such as Terminator 3 (Region 4 with DTS), Hulk (Region 1&4 with DTS), League Extraordinary Gentlemen (Region 4 with DTS), Independence Day (Special Edition with DTS), True Lies (Region 4, anamorphic), Flash Gordon (Region 4, 5.1, anamorphic), lilo & stitch (2 disc special edition). Shall I go on? And of course, prices are low.

Forgot to mention The Day After Tomorrow 2 disc Special Edition DTS due October 8.

 

[Pete T C]

Very simply, no inlays and pan&scan/full frame transfers of 80s classics

 

[Jonathan Carter]

I hate double sided discs, I'd much rather have 2 discs rather than 1 double sided one. Less to smudge and less chance of scratching. Besides, I happen to enjoy some of the disc art from 2 disc sets. If it was a flip disc, I'd be out of luck.

Starting to hate inserts also, since movies have started showing up without them it dawned on me how very little I ever used it.

Garbage DVD packaging like the Buffy and Angel season sets use. I like to be able to just pull out the disc I need, like with Family Guy or even the book style packaging Smallville uses. I don't want to have to lay the whole set down on a table and unfold 4 flaps just to get to a disc.

 

[Andy Anderson]

Most of my gripes are listed above:
Forced trailers
Long-winded overactive menus (Van Ling, anyone?)
Menus which spoil plot points

Some others:

I'm actually not a fan of player generated subtitles (for subtitles that appear in the original movie). There's something to be said about the font, punctuation, spacing, and timing of subtitles as they appear on prints. The player generated ones always bug me.

Extras not 16:9 enhanced. This gripe is not as big as the others, but it still bugs me.

Default audio track not 5.1. This is essentially a non-issue these days, but there are still some older releases that still default to a 2.0 track.

Easter Eggs for significant extras. Some folks think these are fun, and I tend to agree--if they are insignificant little jokes or clips. However when an entire feature, gag reel, etc. is hidden by a cryptic series of button pushes, it's an annoyance.

The term "Fullscreen". It'd never happen, but the term needs to be changed to "Cropped" or "Pan and Scan", or at the very least, "Standard Screen".

 

[dan fritzen]

Very Good Point!

 

[Chris Lockwood]

Forced trailers (especially if they play when the movie starts, rather than when the disc is inserted)

Overly long FBI warnings that can't be skipped (stick these at the end of the movie)

Menus where it is hard to tell what is selected until you hit Play and find out you guessed wrong

Buttons for audio, subtitle, etc. disabled for no reason

Menus that take forever to load or switch between pages- recently saw one (Men of Honor) where to get to the deleted scenes MENU, you had to watch a 2-3 min interview with the director. That interview should have been another option on the menu.

Lack of a "play all" option for deleted scenes, trailers, etc., when there are several short items on one menu page- can't believe I'm the first to mention this one!

Special Features menus when there is only one extra on the disc. If the only extra is a trailer, or featurette, just put that on the main menu!

 

[Tim_Stack]

Repeating sound on the opening menu - sometimes I like to put on a commentary track as I go to sleep - but can't use the ones that have repeating soundtracks on the menu screen cuz when the movie ends, it usually returns to the main menu and the recurring sound wakes me up at 2AM. I know I'm wierd, but hey.

 

[Harminder]

Some things that have been ticking me off:

1) Horrid coverart. I swear there seems to be no thought or effort put into coverart lately.
Examples: The Matrix Revolutions, Red Heat: SE, I, Robot, Collateral, The Last Samurai, Open Range, etc.

2) What's the point of a slip cover if the slip cover art and the coverart of the DVD case are the same?
Ex. The Running Man: SE, Field of Dreams: AE, The Rundown, etc. If you're gonna use slip covers, put a different coverart, it actually makes the consumer appriciate the effort. Examples: Bad Boys II, Terminator 2: Judgment Day Ultimate & Extreme Edition, Rain Man: SE, etc.

3)Don't release 3 - 4 different special editions and call them that? Changing the coverart, menu and adding an extra 2 minutes of footage with 1 new extra is not gonna make me buy the damn movie over and over again. I don't have tons of money, like most DVD buyers, so therefore, I'm starting to wait until the right edition comes out. Ex. The Bourne Identity: CE --> Explosive Edition.

4) FORCED TRAILERS!

Thank you for reading.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Incorrect. The new Star Wars DVDs were most certainly restored -- they showed us the source elements at the LA meet, and they were in incredibly bad shape. God only knows how they ended up that way, but it explains why they took so long to release.

They also took out some of the crap from the '97 SEs. On the other hand, they also added some new crap. (They're an improvement over the '97 versions for sure, at any rate.)

As for pet peeves that haven't been mentioned yet. . .along with the non-anamorphic extras are extras that don't have subtitles/captions or time coding. I guess I can see if they don't want to put in the effort to add subtitles, but how friggin' hard is it to time code a feature (or at least put the running time on the menu or packaging)? Is this program I'm clicking on 5 minutes or 45 minutes?!?!?!

 

[MatthewA]

I hate:

—MAR only releases (Take your pick)
—Fluff editions that are called "special". The word used to mean something.
—Edited TV episodes when complete versions are available *cough*ALF*cough*
—Cramming TV show episodes onto as few discs as possible (there should be no more than eight for a half-hour show, four for an hour show, and that's sans extras).
—Logo replacement. If you were doing a book on early 20th Century America, would you replace the logos for companies that they had then with their current counterparts (Wells Fargo, for instance)?

 

[Bradley-E]

FULL FRAME RE-ISSUES BY $ONY. EXAMPLES: BLUE THUNDER, BODY DOUBLE, ABOUT LAST NIGHT, MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON, BITE THE BULLET, THE DEEP ETC. WERE RELEASED 2 SIDED / DUAL FORMAT EDITIONS. NOW THEY ARE SIMPLY FULL FRAME!

THE DISTURBING TREND OF RELEASING CATALOGUE TITLES OF 2:35 MOVIES FULL FRAME! UNIVER$AL REALLY SUCKS BY RELEASING ICEMAN AND COLOSSUS, THE FORBIN PROJECT FULL FRAME!!!

$ONY HAS BEEN DOING THIS FOR A WHILE. THE SE: OF ANNIE FF IS A JOKE! NOW THEY ARE RE-ISSUING CASTLE KEEP WIDESCREEN. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!

 

[Brian Kidd]

Actually, the STAR WARS movies were not restored for the recent release as the final result was never meant to be put back on film. Plus, as has been said before, restoration implies returning a film to its original state. The new STAR WARS release is most definitely not what was released in 1977.

As for player generated subs, the reason this is done is so that one transfer can be used in multiple territories. Burned-in subs would require a different transfer for every language; a large expense. Folks are just going to have to learn to live with them.

Pet Peeves:

Forced trailers
Non-substantive "special features"
Trailers for completely non-related releases that take up space that could be used for higher picture bitrate.
Making the original version of a film unavailable.
MAR releases. There's no call for them anymore. Widescreen sets are becoming more and more common. Let the riff-raff adapt. Species have been doing it for millennia.