Budget Universal discs: No Menus? (1 Viewer)

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Again, I think we were talking about "low-end" DVDs where a menu would hardly have any function. I certainly don't think we're talking about the "end of DVD menus" here... The reactions of some people seem to be way out of proportion. :rolleyes

 

[Kain_C]

Wow. You do realize they pay people to do those menus? Maybe not. I guess you expect all the functions and features of a higher priced disc at a much lower cost?

Anyway, I saw this title at a store today and it was $6.99! And guess what, it is an ANAMORPHIC DISC! But who cares about that, right, because it doesn't have a menu so you will have to wait until the EXACT right time to power on your DVD player! No more looking at a still image until your popcorn finishes! It's the end of DVD as we know it!

You should be so lucky a BO and critical flop like this is even seeing the light of day on DVD. And it's 16x9 on top of that!

 

[Jesse Skeen]

So a good disc with no menu is still worse than a bad disc WITH a menu (like some Madacy titles?) I still prefer the movie to start right away, and here's a clue to one reason why:

What are you doing in my swamp?
Oh, pick me, pick me!
Play tha movie, ja, play!

 

[Yumbo]

I like SIMPLE fast menus, but I don't like the burn-in, but if player power-off function works, then fine (it doesn't if not static or most of the time).

Worst are Warner and Universal menus which loop to special features which are static, and cause burn-in.

Anyone know of a sleep function on a projector? Guess I'll just sleep the amp to disrupt signal.

here's a stupid menu - Ocean's Twelve special FEATURE - trailer. just put the trailer on main menu!

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Eric, I did not in any way twist your words. Here they are:


That was before you even mentioned Universal.

 

[Eric Peterson]

I suppose you've got me there, but I still think it's taken a bit out of context. I have said that I would consider buying a menuless disc, but only if it's a mandatory title, and not being released by Universal.

 

[Eric Peterson]

One more point, while it's in my mind.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I frequently put in favorite movies to watch favorite scenes or to show off highlights of my favorite films to friends & family. I was angry when it started becoming commonplace to drop the chapter listing inserts that allowed me to quickly find the section I was looking for. Now that is nearly standard except in SEs, and they're now threatening my only remaining way of finding locations in a film and that is via the menu. Personally, if I absolutely had to have only one, I would rather have the insert because the menus are often slow and tedious, but I do demand to have one or the other. With neither, it is nearly impossible for me to find a favorite scene without scanning the entire movie in high speed for it.

Apparently, many of you never do this or if you do, you have your movies memorized better than I. Personally, I watch far too many movies to remember where a particular scene is in more than a handful of them.

I'm just very tired of seeing the little things go missing from my favorite hobby, and it frustrates me when others seem to not care. There is such a thing as precedence in this world, and if nobody takes a stand (like with inserts), the next thing you know we won't have menus anymore. That would be a catstrophic blow to the hobby in my book.

 

[Allen Hirsch]

An excellent point. There should be one or the other on ALL DVDs, so that locating a chapter to re-watch is still practical.

Why have chapter listing inserts become rarer? Is it really a cost issue?

 

[FrancisP]

I've dealt with budget videos from other companies and they
seem to be able to provide menus. Universal seems to be pinching every penny possible. It would be easier to use the scene selection to go to the chapter that you want to go to.

 

[Eric Peterson]

At least a couple people seem to agree with my points. I was starting to question my own sanity.



Supposedly that's the argument, but I'd rather pay the extra $0.25 for the insert. This did spur an idea in my head though. Studios could start including a printable chapter listing insert in the DVD-ROM portion of the disc. Although, it's definitely not the ideal solution, it would make happier than having nothing.

 

[Kain_C]

I get tired of people constantly finding something to complain about. You'll find people don't care because it has absolutely no effect on the film itself which is the most important part of a DVD. I would think the fact that a POS like DC Cab has an anamorphic transfer would cancel out the oh-so-horrifying fact that no menu is present.

Some of you take all of this technology for granted, like the millions of things we can do with DVD compared with the last format.

And again, for the hundreth time, this is a BUDGET title. And it IS AN EXCUSE. You get what you pay for. If we were talking about a regular edition, by all means, I would be complaining!

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Put it this way- given the choice, would you buy a low-priced disc with a menu but only a pan & scan transfer, or one with a 16x9 transfer but no menu?
I still say compared to how annoying most menus are, menu-free could be considered a Special Feature

 

[Eric Peterson]

Kain,

If it means so little to you, then why do you keep posting in this thread? I certainly don't have the time to waste by posting in other people's pools.

I've made some legitimate arguments in each one of my posts, and you continually repeat the same argument over and over and absolutely nothing else. If you want to debate the issue, then debate, but you're sounding like an echo.

 

[Kain_C]

Means so little? If you are referring to the menu issue, it isn't the issue at all really; the issue is the constant whining about any and all things. You people need to realize that with budget titles, you should NOT expect to get the same features as a regular title. That's what makes it a BUDGET TITLE! It isn't rocket science!

And I get sick of the complaining. If the topic creator is that distraught over the lack of a menu, there are several avenues he can take regarding the issue. Coming here and knitpicking over a stupid $7 DVD is not one of them.


Sounds like someone else IS doing some repeating as well. Anyway, I am done with this topic as I probably should have been long ago. People that get all frustrated about something as trivial as menus on a budget DVD don't appeal to me.

 

[Lyle_JP]

What's the matter, Kain? Got tired of pissing all over Eric so you decided to spread a little my way? Perhaps you'd like to read my opening post again. As far as I can tell, I wasn't distraught. I was confused, however. There are thousands of sub-$10 budget titles out there. Walmart stacks 'em DEEP. But from big studios to no-name-slap-a-VHS-dub-onto-a-DVD atrocities, no one ever cheaped out so extremely that they simply left the menu off... until Universal. This would be the same Universal that dropped printed inserts before any other studio. The same Universal that gave us forced-trailers that even the skip button wouldn't work on (not even Buena Vista pulled that).

Frankly speaking, I don't expect a lot of bells and whistles on a budget title. If they have so much as a trailer I'm pretty happy. But the format has been around for 7 years now, and has been pretty "mature" for the last four, and menus aren't a bloody extra feature, [rant]THEY'RE STANDARD now![/rant] (and always were, really)

Leave it to Universal to lower that standard.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Well said Lyle.

This is one company attempting to lower the standards of a product and some people just don't care. Every other company manages to include menus on even the cheapest of titles including many of the PD companies. If menus cost so damn much money, then why aren't they dropping them? I don't think anybody would be saying jack if that were the case, but Universal is a large studio with more than enough resources to throw a lousy menu on a DVD, no matter how much the MSRP.

Kain,
I don't appreciate being called a whiner. You don't know me from Adam. I do very little complaining, but when I do 9 times out of 10 it's about a Universal release (Go Figure!). ..and no I wasn't repeating myself, I was reminding you to discuss the issues that you keep skipping over. (There is a difference)

In the end, I don't have any interest in any of these titles anyway, but I'm trying to stand up for what I think is right. If Universal finds that nobody complains, then the next think you know this happens on their $14 titles, then their $20 titles, etc...

 

[Kelly Grannell]

GOOD! My husband and I will be the first in line.

Imagine... you put in the movie... and you got... THE MOVIE!

What a fabulous and ingenious concept!

 

[TravisR]

"the issue is the constant whining about any and all things."

I'm glad someone finally said that.

 

[TonyDale]

I just watched YANKS. I had no problem with the lack of a menu. If I really wanted to, I could use the "Home Menu" on my dvd player's remote, and "Navigate" to a selected chapter. . .for $5.50 at Walmart, though, YANKS is as lovely as ever, and Richard Rodney Bennett's score shines through. I didn't miss the menu at all.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

If I had my choice between no menus and the forced warnings and previews on many other DVDs...I'd take no menus!