Comments on: DVD Menus: A Desperate Plea

By: OnyxG7

OnyxG7 — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 14:26:10 +0000

Use a libdvdcss-enabled player on your computer: vlc is good.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 02:29:18 +0000

General hint: stop, stop, play. It’s like Konami Code of DVD playback, and it works on most DVD players, with most DVDs. Just hit it after you get past the obligatory warning junk, and be happy. Unfortunately, some DVDs want to play ads at you after you do this (Disney discs, iirc).

I can’t wait for the dual-layer DVD burners to get cheap enough to make nearly-perfect ripped copies of DVDs doable on my budget…

By: Tripp

Tripp — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 16:18:51 +0000

I bought some DVDs of some BBC shows I like, and the start goes something like this:

Reads disk, menu button disabled.

FBI warning, menu button disabled.

Interpol warning, menu button disabled.

General BBC video commercial (claymation Queen), menu button disabled – if you try to FF it will bounce back to the start, reading the disk.

Specific BBC video commercial (30 seconds of clips from a show I never heard of), menu button disabled – – if you try to FF it will bounce back to the start, reading the disk.

SECOND! BBC video commercial (30 seconds of clips from a show I never heard of), menu button disabled – – if you try to FF it will bounce back to the start, reading the disk.

Now I’m pissed. Maybe in England they have time to sit through this crap, but us Americans are TOO busy for it.

Finally I see the menu.

Episodes or special features? Pick ‘Episodes’.

Which of 6 Episodes do I want (based on title)? I think this one.

Watch obligatory 30-second show title segment. Obligatory and identical for each episode.

Argh!!

Wrong episode. Try to back out, and get sent back to step one, reading the disk!

By: Chris Colohan

Chris Colohan — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 23:58:05 +0000

What annoys me to no end is when the “play” button does nothing at all. What moron decided that in order to play the movie I had to move the cursor around until the word “play” is highlighted on the screen, then hit the “select” button? You would think that interface designers would be intelligent enough to make the “play” button be a nice shortcut for, uh, playing the movie.

By: Robert 'Groby' Blum

Robert 'Groby' Blum — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 15:00:27 +0000

There really is only one answer. Don’t buy DVDs. If you have to, and they have menu drek, return to shop.

Or, if you can stomach the extra work, go violate the DMCA. Rip content, burn to separate DVD, enjoy without garbage. For bonus points, get sued for that.

By: tmoertel

tmoertel — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 12:40:22 +0000

“Who are the poor slobs working at the media companies spending months developing this drek that is specifically designed to make it difficult and time consuming to actually play the content that I bought the disk to see?”

My theory: Design interns, trying to pad their nascent portfolios with something “cool.”

By: Eric Tilton

Eric Tilton — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 04:49:14 +0000

Amen. DVD menu programmability: dumbest. idea. EVER.