Opening DVD Ad encodings - maddening and should be stopped. (1 Viewer)

[Malcolm R]

This is why I always pop the DVD in the player...then use the restroom, get my drink, pop the popcorn, turn on the answering machine, flip on the receiver, flop down in my chair, put my feet up...by then the movie is ready to begin.

 

[JediFonger]

kelly... or you can just watch the divx/xvid from your storage server@home . it's much zippier than DVD handling. plus 1.5GB recompression of hte MPEG2 is roughly the same quality as the original SD-DVD.

PS you coulda' just purchased a DVD-player that did that automatically. my pioneer does it for all DVD's. pop it in, straight to movie. no menus.

 

[John Watson]

Totally agree. Morons with 'computer' skills at work.

 

[Jeff_HR]

For me these "new" FOX DVDs that have the "forced" anti-piracy message have exhibited another problem. Newer releases of DVDs such "Patton", "Tora, Tora, Tora" & "The Longest Day", all of which have at least two English audio tracks have had a "freezing" problem. When I've tried to play the 5.x or 4.x track the DVD freezes. I've not had a chance to try these DVDs on another player. My player is a JVC XVSA-70 that is multi-regional & has PAL-to-NTSC conversion capabilities. Since the "forced" anti-piracy message is new to these DVD releases I'm wondering if perhaps their is any "secret" anti-piracy software on these DVDs like that which was used recently on Music CDs. I believe it was Sony that had those CDs with the secret software. :frowning:

 

[Kelly Grannell]

LOL! But the recompression will take more time and having tried that (to fit more movies on a single DVD-R for my in-car DVD player), even at 46" 16:9 at double screen-width viewing distance, the difference is (to me) night and day.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The kind of forced-viewing studios are putting on DVDs would be considered offensive if it was done for a similar type of packaged media. For pretty much any other kind of packaged media, the hardware ultimately has control over the software. With these DVD menus, it's the other way around, because they won't let you use standard DVD functions. I don't think my DVD purchase should be allowed to override all of my player's controls, and I don't think I should have to find some hack or buy some special player to get around this. My DVD player works just fine, it's the discs that are the problem. Has anyone done any research into the effectiveness of these forced warnings? Has illegal copying dropped?

Could you imagine if they put the equivilent of the warning at the beginning of all music CDs? A two minute reading of the FBI warning in track 1, with the first song starting afterwards in the same track?

On a recent Elvis Costello CD, above the (newly enlarged) FBI warning, it says the following: "The artist does not endorse the following warning. The FBI does not have his home phone number and he hopes they don't have yours."

 

[John Watson]

I've often thought about that. Thank goodness cds got established long ago. And they are Region-free.

I'm still buying cds (while they still make them) but I've pretty much stopped buying dvds.

 

[MarkHastings]

That's gotta be it. They were established before 'copying' and 'ripping' was really possible for most people. That's why the CD spec never even considered some sort of anti-theft measure.

 

[JediFonger]

don't they kinda' do that with DVD-AUdio?

 

[Stephanie B]

could we make a petition asking them to stop forcing us to sit through those ads and previews

 

[Thomas Newton]

Do you think some manager in China, running off some "surplus" (counterfeit) production at a real disc pressing plant, is going to give a rat's behind about these warnings? Other than to make sure they're copied properly?

If so, you might be interested in buying a certain bridge in New York ...

 

[Will_B]

I admit that when I read books I skip the copyright notice and start with the first page of the story.

Oftentimes when I eat cereal, I start by pouring the cereal into a bowl and eating it. Only later do I sometimes read the box.

All of this is anti-dvd behaviour, I know. But it feels right.

Why do the studios think anyone wants to read an offensive message from the FBI before seeing a movie?

 

[widescreenforever]

I recently bought a DVD from Ebay,, only to discover after it arrived that it was a possible counterfeit from Malaysia, ( didn't know initially) But it had impeccable artwork,, no Chinese characters at all on any of the covers or in the menus., ( except for subtitles amongst the 4 others)., This DVD had the authentic THX logo on cover and the DTS banner across the top., Silk Screened disc in color too.,,It was a Disney title, and when I popped that dvd in to my player.., (for my 4 year old again), the title had a brief FBI warning,then The Disney logo with Tinkerbell, the DVD then went straight to the Menu to choose from.. Play / Audio Options/ coming soon titles/ featurettes . Play was entered Then the THX logo thundered thru the room,.. Picture and sound was, and is.. Pretty good.
The price? Under $6.00 !!! new in shrink ...That's the way the Discs should be programmed in North America,, and if it takes buying counterfeits to get these companies off their high horse,, so be it.. In other words.. If I can't buy what I want to start with,, I'll go somewhere else...

Hollywood.. are You listening ???