Re: DVD Menus and Players (Rant Warning)

"steve" <> wrote:

> DVD Players:
>
> 1. Regions: Region codes are usually nothing more than a numerical flag
> (there can be more to it), and all DVD players can read the content. But
> the players are instructed to honor only 1 region. Why arent more DVD
> players available that play all regions? I had to buy mine on line, because
> the local shops dont carry any all region players. And it looks as if I
> paid the premium for someone to modify or simply re-program a Player that is
> otherwise region restricted. My computer DVD drive reads and plays all
> region DVDs, BTW, with no special prodding. Are DVD players govt regulated
> in this regard?

Are you SURE your computer dvd player lets you do that? I guess it only
lets you change the region five or so times and then freezes permanently
to the last region you changed it to.

And it's not gov't regulated, yet, but it's licensing restrictions
(private law) that seems to forbid easy availability of decent dvd
players, that are not region restricted or doesn't have the ability to
force the user warnings, ads, etc.

> 2. Since menus are so annoying, Id like a player that gives me an option to
> see a coherent and informational menu despite the DVDs intended
> presentation...something like a tree control with program information at
> each node would be nice. That couldnt be so difficult to provide, I would
> think. Just read and process the menu selections into something more user
> friendly.

That sounds so incredibly useful, you can be sure the DVD Consortium
wants it to remain illegal.

> It seems to me there's a marketing opportunity for someone to sell players
> that avoid these frustrations. I'll pay a premium for control and
> convenience.

Me too. That means a dvd player, purchasable from a store, in person,
in the USA, all ready to go without hacking, copying, etc., in other
words, not against the law, even if it is just private law.

Walter Traprock

>5. DVD in control: Man, does it **** me off when I cant bypass a warning or
>something. It's my player and my DVD, so why cant I skip the ****ing FBI
>warning?

And don't forget that despite the fact that DVD's contain region codes
precisely to prevent them being played in more than one locale, you are
forced to sit through the same unskippable warning in English, French,
German, Swahili, Eskimo and Huttese every ****ing time the disk is inserted.

And of course, if you have the foresight to preload the disk and let it get
through its pre-menu spiel while you pat down the couch, turn out the
lights, empty the ****-tank, get the popcorn out of the microwave, take the
phone off the hook, put up the "no salesman" sign and activate the sunken
colony under your front doormat...

....you come back to find out the insidious DVD creators foresaw what you
would do and programmed the DVD so it would autostart the movie without you.

The legalistic bludgeoning aside, somebody needs to take the whole lot of
DVD menu designers, tie them up and hit them over the head until they learn
a simple principle: The purpose of a menu is to get to the feature I want.
Not to waste my time with flying text, silly animations, movie spoilers,
repetitive soundtracks.

SpammersDie

"SpammersDie" <> wrote:

>The legalistic bludgeoning aside, somebody needs to take the whole lot of
>DVD menu designers, tie them up and hit them over the head until they learn
>a simple principle: The purpose of a menu is to get to the feature I want.
>Not to waste my time with flying text, silly animations, movie spoilers,
>repetitive soundtracks.

Amen to that. Whoever invented the noisy animated menu should be shot.
Imagine if, when you wanted to use your computer, you had to put up with
stupid animations like paper clips waving about, or dogs looking through
books...

Kimba W. Lion

Kimba W Lion wrote on [Sat, 17 Dec 2005 15:20:53 -0500]:
> "SpammersDie" <> wrote:
>
>>The legalistic bludgeoning aside, somebody needs to take the whole lot of
>>DVD menu designers, tie them up and hit them over the head until they learn
>>a simple principle: The purpose of a menu is to get to the feature I want.
>>Not to waste my time with flying text, silly animations, movie spoilers,
>>repetitive soundtracks.
>
> Amen to that. Whoever invented the noisy animated menu should be shot.
> Imagine if, when you wanted to use your computer, you had to put up with
> stupid animations like paper clips waving about, or dogs looking through
> books...

A DVD menu should also NEVER give away spoilers unless you are looking
for spoilers.

Justin

SpammersDie wrote:
*snip*
> The legalistic bludgeoning aside, somebody needs to take the whole lot of
> DVD menu designers, tie them up and hit them over the head until they learn
> a simple principle: The purpose of a menu is to get to the feature I want.
> Not to waste my time with flying text, silly animations, movie spoilers,
> repetitive soundtracks.

yes. yes. yes.

I HATE animating menus. Why the hell do i want to have a 25sec
animation BEFORE the frickin' menu shows up, followed by a 25sec
animation AFTER I hit "PLAY FEATURE"/??!!?

Then there's the MI5 menu. Gwad. I know the menu designers must've
been oh-so-pleased with themselves for making such a "clever" menu but
gwad, it sucked. I love the show. Hate the dvds. S3 UK dvd had
normal menus...

I've been buying alot of Japanese R2 DVDs. THey do have a full menu,
BUT when you start the dvd, it plays the "No copy" Warning and then it
goes directly to the feature. You wnat to go to the menu? hit MENU.
How nice is that?!

The OPPO dvd player has a nice feature: when it's loading the dvd, as
soon as it changes from "Loading" to "DVD-Video", if you hit MENU, it
skips all the forced trailers, fbi warnings, etc, and jumps right to
the MENU.

And that brings me to PUOPs. Gwad, I would pay an extra $100 for a DVD
Player to ignore PUOPs...

-goro-

Goro

Kimba W. Lion wrote:
> "SpammersDie" <> wrote:
>
> >The legalistic bludgeoning aside, somebody needs to take the whole lot of
> >DVD menu designers, tie them up and hit them over the head until they learn
> >a simple principle: The purpose of a menu is to get to the feature I want.
> >Not to waste my time with flying text, silly animations, movie spoilers,
> >repetitive soundtracks.
>
> Amen to that. Whoever invented the noisy animated menu should be shot.
> Imagine if, when you wanted to use your computer, you had to put up with
> stupid animations like paper clips waving about, or dogs looking through
> books...

You mean like that stupid Office Help Assistant?

-goro-

Goro

Kimba W. Lion <> wrote:
>>The legalistic bludgeoning aside, somebody needs to take the whole lot of
>>DVD menu designers, tie them up and hit them over the head until they learn
>>a simple principle: The purpose of a menu is to get to the feature I want.
>>Not to waste my time with flying text, silly animations, movie spoilers,
>>repetitive soundtracks.
>
>Amen to that. Whoever invented the noisy animated menu should be shot.
>Imagine if, when you wanted to use your computer, you had to put up with
>stupid animations like paper clips waving about, or dogs looking through
>books...

Yup, same principle as web design - should be simple, obvious, easy to
navigate. And ideally it should be consistent from one DVD to the
next...


--

To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes
may be the biggest mistake of all.

....Peter McWilliams

Steve

Steve wrote:
> Kimba W. Lion <> wrote:
> >>The legalistic bludgeoning aside, somebody needs to take the whole lot of
> >>DVD menu designers, tie them up and hit them over the head until they learn
> >>a simple principle: The purpose of a menu is to get to the feature I want.
> >>Not to waste my time with flying text, silly animations, movie spoilers,
> >>repetitive soundtracks.
> >
> >Amen to that. Whoever invented the noisy animated menu should be shot.
> >Imagine if, when you wanted to use your computer, you had to put up with
> >stupid animations like paper clips waving about, or dogs looking through
> >books...
>
> Yup, same principle as web design - should be simple, obvious, easy to
> navigate. And ideally it should be consistent from one DVD to the
> next...

Yes. They need banner ads, pop ups ads, mouse trails, <BLINK>, ...

-goro-

Goro

Steve <> wrote:

>Yup, same principle as web design - should be simple, obvious, easy to
>navigate. And ideally it should be consistent from one DVD to the
>next...

THAT must be the problem--the video companies got their web designers to do
the DVD menus.

Kimba W. Lion

"Justin" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Kimba W Lion wrote on [Sat, 17 Dec 2005 15:20:53 -0500]:
>> "SpammersDie" <> wrote:
>>
>>>The legalistic bludgeoning aside, somebody needs to take the whole lot of
>>>DVD menu designers, tie them up and hit them over the head until they
>>>learn
>>>a simple principle: The purpose of a menu is to get to the feature I
>>>want.
>>>Not to waste my time with flying text, silly animations, movie spoilers,
>>>repetitive soundtracks.
>>
>> Amen to that. Whoever invented the noisy animated menu should be shot.
>> Imagine if, when you wanted to use your computer, you had to put up with
>> stupid animations like paper clips waving about, or dogs looking through
>> books...
>
> A DVD menu should also NEVER give away spoilers unless you are looking
> for spoilers.

And call me anal but I consider a trailer a spoiler for certain movies. I
avoided theaters for months before any of the SW movies specifically to
avoid seeing the trailers (and I'm damn glad too because each of them had
scenes that wouldn't have had anywhere near the same impact for me if I'd
seen the trailers.)

So the same comment goes for pre-menu trailers (in addition to the other
valid objections against them.)

SpammersDie