Pearl Harbor DVD 2nd Disc "Smart Idea" (1 Viewer)

[Chris Juzenas]

Who thought of the smart idea to put a forced menu when you place the second disc in the player?? It is bad enough I have to swap discs but when you place the 2nd disc in, the MENU takes 15 seconds to complete the animation BEFORE you can select play to continue with the movie!!! What brainiac thought that one up? Even Das Boot had thought that one out better....
That is worse then the forced commercials in front of Di$ney movies. . .
That is all. I feel much better now.

 

[Scott Simonian]

I think you should talk to David Prior. He is producing the Vista Series of Pearl Harbor. Although I am not sure if he worked on the 60th Anniversary version.
I agree though, it is very annoying. I think it very much pulls you away from the movie. To make matters worse, the 3rd act of the film doesnt even feel like a part of the movie to begin with. Just feels like you are watching a different movie with the same menus.
I got an issue of Stereophile Guide to Home Theater yesterday and there is an article on the making of the disc. There is a review also, nothing about this little blunder.
I assume the menu pops up so people who just want to look at the extras dont have the movie start up on them. I think it should be the other way around. When I am watching the movie, I dont want to sit through the long, but beautiful menu.
I think the menu on the second disc should have been a shorter version of the first discs menu.
I just got the movie yesterday and I didnt have time to watch it. I did pop in the second disc to watch the trailers. *sigh* Same menu as the first disc. I was hoping that the movie would just start up.
Its unfortunate, yes, but all-in-all Pearl Harbor is a very well put together dvd. I cant wait for the Vista Series.
EDIT: Das Boot is how this should have been done. I also have the first edition of Star Gate. That was a flipper too. Flip, movies continues where we left off. No waiting.

 

[LarryH]

Did I do something wrong or was it not also the case that if you watch this with the DTS soundtrack, you also have to go through the menu to reset the sound to DTS? This was also distracting, but I don't know if this happens on all DD/DTS multiple disk sets. Is this a player-dependent thing?

 

[PeteD]

I had to re-enable the DTS Soundtrack.. Denon 1801 and Pioneer 414.

Sooooo stupid.. If they wanted that many soundtracks in the set, they should of put the full length film, on both discs. One DD disc and one DTS. I can't believe I have to swap discs in the first place!

I work for a big company, and If I wanted to do the equivelent in my industry on a project I was working on, my boss would have asked me if I was on glue, and then take me off the project.

 

[Phu Vo]

Damn. I haven't bought the disc, but that just seems really idiotic to me. I hope it is corrected by the time the Vista series edition comes out.

 

[Chris Juzenas]

Wow, thank goodness I don't have the option for DTS (no hardware for it, just DD) or that would have made me upset even more!
Yeah, I agree why wasn't the movie placed on one disc per sound format. That would have been convenient and user friendly. But I am only the user...
I do think it is really great to have David Prior among us. I do have high hopes for the DC release and would definately get it if this little issue was addressed.
Other then that I love the movie, although I agree with Scott that the second disc feels like Pearl Harbor II: The Revenge.
Must say I was blown away by the sound track in DD with my dual SVS' and I could not imagine DTS if people say it hits even harder then DD!! Love those subs!

 

[David Prior]

I've been working on the DC so much lately I haven't even had time to check the 60th, so I didn't know about the forced menu issue. I agree that's annoying, but I have the feeling it came about as a matter of business-as-usual rather than a deliberate attempt to piss people off. We'll definately make any Disc 2 intro skipable on the DC.

As far as the other issues, we can't author the disc to default to the DTS track. If we did, we could end up blowing out speakers and/or amps. This is why we didn't program Disc 2 to start automatically; not for supplements, but for set up options.

Any other gripes with the intermission should be directed at Michael Bay. I honestly don't understand the derision that many of you seem to show to the idea of a break in the movie. Throughout most of cinema history, long movies contained intermissions as a matter of course. But in any event, Michael decided that an intermission was in the film's best interest. Given that he's the director, I'll leave the last word on that to him.

Cheers,

David Prior

 

[Luis A]

IMO Pearl Harbor was very well done. Having to switch from disc 1 to disc 2, or resetting the DTS track, did not take me out of the movie at all. In fact my only gripe is that the movie should have been longer, still a very good movie though.
L

 

[Pete M]

Anyone renting from Netflix or RentMyDVD beware - they only send you 1 of 2 discs, and I found out the hard way that the movie spans over 2 discs. I am now awaiting the final hour until disc 2 ships.

 

[Chris Juzenas]

Did I mention I think it is great David Prior hangs out with us? Thanks for the info David! I will have to pick up a copy of the DC version when it becomes available.
As for Michael Bays decision... Well, he has the right, it is his movie after all. However, IMHO I could understand an intermission in the theater, but at home... Well, that is what pause is for... Oh well, like I said, still a great movie no matter the breaks or menus that occur during the presentation.
Of course, to have to skip through the menu, or to rent it and not get both discs I would rather have the menu issues. That is just mean to not send both discs!

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

What I still fail to understand is why the movie is split onto two discs at all. Secondly the forced menu sucks even further and having to setup audio once again just adds to the frustration.

This whole thing about not letting the disc default to DTS because it may blow up some systems is something I have never understood. Why can't they just let the selection of the audio track be left to the player rather than each individul DVD. At the least the prgrammers should allow for 'on the fly' switching of audio tracks. There are quite a few DVDs out there that allow you to do that and I have not heard of anyone blowing up their system yet.

Sanjay

Member since 1997

 

[Wes]

David great to have you here with us! Can you shed any light as to why some DVD's can switched through the audio tracks on the fly and others force you to go through the menu. If Pearl had this on the fly switching it would have made that second disc switch not as fustrating. And I agree that the movie on the second disc should have auto started even if just on the DD 5.1 track.

Wes

 

[Jim A. Banville]

I'm so sick of hearing about the "director's perogative". What if a director split a 1 hour film onto 5 discs? What if he placed the video upside down, forcing you to either turn over your TV or sit upside down? What if he placed a "test" before the film to make sure you were intelligent enough to be worthy to see the movie? They can KISS MY *SS!
There is a reason the OVERWHELMINGLY VAST majority of films NO LONGER use intermissions - people don't like them (at least no one I've ever spoken to about them). Here's a tip for the movie going public who "needs" an intermission for a pee break- don't drink anything 1 hour before seeing a movie, make yourself pee (if you feel the slightest need to pee)just before you go in the theater and don't buy a drink at the snack bar (or forget the above and just wear a diaper).
The handling of the break in this film on DVD is a bad as the movie itself

 

[Damin J Toell]

I'm so sick of hearing about the "director's perogative". What if a director split a 1 hour film onto 5 discs? What if he placed the video upside down, forcing you to either turn over your TV or sit upside down? What if he placed a "test" before the film to make sure you were intelligent enough to be worthy to see the movie? They can KISS MY *SS!

are directors ever allowed to do anything you don't like? or do you allow them to make films without calling you up first for advice?

DJ

 

[Jeff Whitford]

Whoa nelly, look out.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

What I still fail to understand is why the movie is split onto two discs at all.

Then check out this thread for the reasons why.
I think Jim needs to read it too since he sounds like he's about explode in a puff of smoke.

 

[LarryH]

I can't say I have any objections to two disks - after all, I'm a veteran of laserdisks. I also am not surprised that you can't carry the DTS setting over from disk to disk. I do think it would be a good idea to skip the long introduction to the second disk and go directly to a menue to select audio options or a menu of extras. Thanks to David Prior for your comments.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

Thank you Rob, I now do understand the reason chosen for splitting the movie to two discs. Although I do not agree that this was the best way to handle it and as someone else also suggested, a seperate DTS version would have been better than to have both DD & DTS on the same disc and thus have to split the movie.

Hello David thanks for your input to this forum and also for your dedicated work on DVD productions. I was hoping you might shed some light on something that has always perplexed me. This whole thing about not letting the disc default to DTS because it may blow up some systems is something I still don't understood and/or why can't the player select the default audio track rather than each individul DVD. Also, at the least the programmers should allow for 'on the fly' switching of audio tracks. There are quite a few DVDs out there that allow you to do that and I have not heard of anyone blowing up their system yet.

Sanjay

Member since 1997

 

[Rob Gillespie]

, a seperate DTS version would have been better than to have both DD & DTS on the same disc and thus have to split the movie.

I agree with that point. Alas there seems to be very few - if any - dedicated DTS releases being made anymore. Economics have a lot to answer for, sometimes.

 

[Chris Maynard]

I wanted to say that I think the DVD authoring of Pearl Harbor was excellent.
There was nothing really wrong, just some people have different preferences. I for one, have no issue raising my arm with the remote in it and straining those muscles to click a few buttons to move on or switch an audio track.
I know this is a tremendous task for some of you. Be strong..you will make it.
I am sure these are some of the same people who want me to design a report that tells them everything they ever wanted to know about the business including their shopping list. "Magic Button" people is what I call them.
See they would have me design 20 different reports, one for each person in their department rather than let me make it a tad more generic so I can write one report that works for everyone. They all want it their way.
As I say, this isn't Burger King.