DVD Menus: A Desperate Plea

Here is what happens to me on a regular basis when trying to access the various “extras” on a DVD release:

- Put DVD into player.

- Watch the FBI warning for 5 minutes while the controls on the player are locked out.

- Watch 5 minute cut scene from the movie or whatever.

- Watch for 5 minutes as the menu animates into the screen.

- Click around at random with the arrow keys on my DVD remote and squint at the screen to see if the state changed at all.

- Hit Play at the wrong time. Watch another little canned animation that means the track I picked is about to play.

- Hit Stop, then Menu, watch 10 more minutes of cut scenes as the menu comes back to the screen.

Rip DVD player out of the wall and throw it through a window. So, my question is, why do they do this to me? Who thinks this is a good idea? 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?

The most egregious example of this sort of “design” was the DVD for Daredevil. The menus on that disk were all done with the same visual effects used to simulate how Daredevil sees the world. Trouble is, Daredevil is blind. The effect of this is that it is completely impossible to read the menus at all. Brilliant!

My only conclusion is that the people who package this stuff are dumber than rocks.

My Plea: please free me from this awful world.