What's new

Is this the most useless feature of a DVD? (1 Viewer)

Jean-Michel

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 28, 2002
Messages
769
I can kind of go either way on auto-start -- if you want the movie to start you can just hit play at the menu, but then by the same token if you want to go the menu you can just hit menu during the movie.

I think "audio descriptions for the visually impaired" are kind of silly. Although they can come up with some pretty poetic ways of saying "a guy walks down the street."
 

MichaelAW

Second Unit
Joined
Apr 14, 2002
Messages
422
Auto-start has started annoying me of late, the last two discs I put in my player (Training Day and Fallen) both auto-started well before I was settled on my couch.

Anyway, I wanted to say that Reel Recommendations is the most useless DVD feature.
 

Thomas Newton

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 16, 1999
Messages
2,303
Real Name
Thomas Newton
Auto-start may be annoying, but it is not the most useless feature of DVDs.



That title would have to belong to one of
  1. MAR-only releases
  2. Forced displays (of trailers, ads, "FBI warnings")
  3. Region coding
  4. CSS and DVD player applications that don't allow capture of still images or short, Siskel-and-Ebert-style clips
  5. MacroVision
  6. Forced downconversion of 96/24 PCM audio tracks to 48/24 (or 48/16) PCM audio (as seen in some players). What's the use of having high resolution on the disc if you don't pass it along to the receiver?[/list=1]



    Moving on from intentionally user-hostile features to the merely useless and annoying, the candidates are
    1. Animated menus that have soundtracks apparently intended to prepare you for life at Arkham Asylum
    2. Discs that don't let you change audio options or subtitle options in the middle of the presentation
    3. Timed autostart / inconsistent autostart (some discs are set up to start right away, others aren't)
    4. Multiple angles. Nobody uses this feature.
    5. On-the-fly Pan-and-Scan. Nobody uses this feature.
    6. Discs that have poorly-designed navigation systems. It's quite interesting trying to get around with the Menu button and the arrow button on some discs once the movie has started. Can you get back to what you thought was the main menu without ejecting and re-inserting the disc?
    7. The Title button. Sometimes multiple "titles" on a DVD really reflect multiple titles (or volumes). Often they are just an artifact of the disc authoring process, or a mixture of real "titles" and things that you can get to via menus.
    8. Easter Eggs that are hidden behind Titles (if they exist; I'm not sure that any do). The eggs that are in plain sight in the regular DVD menus aren't particularly annoying.
    9. Pauses during layer transitions
    10. Discs that feature DVD-ROM content for Windows PCs -- but not for Macintoshes
    11. Trailers for other movies/discs that are all run together and that run for what seems like forever. (I came across this on a nature disc; apparently the person who authored it had never quite grasped the concept of a menu.)[/list=1]
 

Eugene Esterly

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
822
DVD's from Warner start playing the movie as soon as the disc loads up (I own a good amount of DVD's from Warner & it stinks that the movie loads up everytime I put in the DVD disc)
 

Matt Pelham

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 13, 2002
Messages
1,711
I always hated the "automatic play" feature on DVDs for the same reason you guys do, but I got burned by it not being there a few weeks back.

A while ago my dad was nice enough to get my car A/C fixed for me while I was in town. Since I didn't have a car he droppped my off at his new apartment (which he was still in the process of unpacking) to wait for a few hours. I had rented The Stand to keep my busy for 6 hrs. or so. Well turns out the DVD remote was still packed way somewhere, so I put in the disc hoping it would auto-start. No suck luck. No cable either, so I had to sit there for 5 hours with absolutely nothing to do.
 

James Bergeron

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 9, 2001
Messages
831
Personally I like the older discs that just start playing the movie.

I think all discs should be set for DD 5.1 and just start. It would be more theatre like. When I go to the theatre the movie starts (After some previews) I don't see a stupid menu.

What really annoys me is the menus that take like 5 minutes of animation to start GRRRR
 

streeter

Screenwriter
Joined
May 24, 2001
Messages
1,419
Real Name
Michael
no, the most useless feature is found on the Pulp Fiction DVD: record your own commentary.

I don't really care for the auto-start function but it's not annoying enough for me to care either way.
 

Colin-H

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
391
Let's not be so narrow-minded. Multiple angles, while it be useless on pre-composed movies, is not completely useless. I've seen some great discs of live performances that use the multiple angle feature amazingly.

For example, there's this activity called drum and bugle corps, which is sort of like marching band on steroids. The past two seasons they've released the finals performances on DVD. They're packed with both audio and video features:

On the video side there are multiple angles including mixed camera (i.e. composed more traditionally moving between close ups, wide angle, high cam, etc.), high camera (shot from up high in the stadium; this is intended to show the drill/formations), percussion-only view, and color guard-only view. This satisfies almost all fans. When the finals were released on VHS, people were screaming for high cam videos instead of the more TV show-like presentation. Now, with DVD, they can have both on one disc.

On the audio side there's 5.1 and 2.0 audio, a commentary track from the specific drum corps' staff, and two of the judges tapes so you can listen to the judges' comments along with the video.

I think these DVDs show what can be done with DVD recordings of live performances. I'd like to see more DVDs with features like this to attempt to give the home audience the ability to view the live performance in many ways and not miss anything.

So, no, I don't think multiple camera angles is a useless feature.
 

Glenn Overholt

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 24, 1999
Messages
4,201
Annoying if you are not ready for it. I have an Excel spreadsheet of all of my DVD's with one small spot for that.
'A' for auto-start disks
'D' for DTS change
'5' for 5.1 (when it defaults to 2.0)
'S' to remove subtitles that automatically come on.
'C' I just have to start it up, with no changes.
This way I'm prepared. Maybe you could put a very small sticy note in the case to let you know what you have to do.
If you aren't anal about the cases, putting a small 'code' in one corner will let you know. Besides, isn't everybody required to watch that FBI warning? :)
Glenn
 

Jay_Leonard

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jul 3, 2002
Messages
74
I have kids and therefore a lot of Disney DVDs. My least favorite features are

1, Forced ads, (although my daughter kills me if I skip them by jumping tracks)

2, Disks that are not formatted to the correct geometry. In other words whatever aspect ratio is listed on the package should be what is presented on the screen in "full mode" I should not have to change the aspect ratio of my television from full to watch a movie. I have two or three. [a fish called wanda /Mary Poppins come to mind] that I cannot show in "full format" on my widescreen.

J
 

Ted Lee

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 8, 2001
Messages
8,390
i just pop in the dvd, then hit stop. i'm so used to it i don't even think about it now.
remember vcr's? :) some of them had a similar feature...pop in the tape and it instantly goes into play mode. drove me crazy.
 

Rob Gardiner

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Messages
2,950
Discs that feature DVD-ROM content for Windows PCs -- but not for Macintoshes
For the record, the blame for this lies solely with the geniuses at APPLE. Interactual would like nothing more than to provide their software for the Mac. The folks at APPLE refuse to publish the "hooks" for their DVD-ROM drives that would make this possible. Steve Jobs said at the last Mac expo in January that there were no plans to integrate any further TV functionality into the Macintosh. Real smart. :rolleyes
-- Rob
 

Jesse Skeen

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 24, 1999
Messages
5,033
Geez, more 'complaining' about discs that actually start PLAYING when you put them in??? What did you guys think about laserdiscs?
 

Norm

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 1, 1998
Messages
2,017
Real Name
Norm
I would have to agree. I go away until those darn FBI And Spoiler filled Pre- Motion Motion Menu's stop, you know the ones that play only when the disc is put on the first time. It suck having a Five disc changer, everytime you change one disc and close it, it starts playing and you have to turn the player off to stop it.
 

Thomas T

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2001
Messages
10,288
Wouldn't the obvious solution to the automatic play be to get your drinks, munchies, favorite pillow, light dimming etc. all before you put the movie in? When I'm ready to watch a film, the very last thing I do after my ritual is put the DVD in the player. If the phone rings, I hit pause and if I think I'm going to be on the phone any length of time I hit "last memory" and stop and comfortably return to the film when ready.

Still I suppose to those of you insist on putting the movie in and then doing everything else, no real solution is possible.
 

paul watkins

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Feb 22, 2002
Messages
84
queen of the damned got me last night with auto start,after the movie was over i wished i had stayed in the kitchen.terrible movie B quality.
 

Carlo_M

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 31, 1997
Messages
13,385
It's done to prevent possible burn-in. A "screen saver" of sorts.
I absolutely wish this was on all DVDs! Unfortunately my Panny RP91 doesn't have a screensaver, and I've fallen asleep watching movies only to wake up a few hours later and to my horror see it stuck on the menu! :eek:
Luckily no burn-in yet. I think from now on if I'm starting a movie and think I'm going to fall asleep I'm going to set the sleep timer on the TV set.
 

Charlie Essmeier

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Mar 7, 1999
Messages
139
I'm a laserdisc guy. Put the disc in, press "play" and get the movie. No menu. No commercials. No FBI warning that I can't fast forward through.

I pressed the "play" button because I'm ready to see the movie.

The fact that I cannot do that with DVD is one of the many reasons I'm still not a DVD-er.

Why on Earth would anyone want it any other way?

Charlie
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,808
Messages
5,123,519
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top