Poorly programmed menus. When you hit "stop" and it doesn't go back to that spot, but starts over at beginning. Sub-menus that revert back to main menu instead of the sub-menu. Some DVDs that have an interview section in the Special Features, don't have a "Play All" option, but go back to the menu after each interview. Ugh!
Chapter stops from hell. Give me a break with these already. Some DVDs have a chapter stop pretty much every minute. Also, chapter breaks that make no sense. Who doesn't have a stop right at the money shot these days? Some don't.
Scene Selection menu. I hate it when they show a thumbnail with no explanatory information other than "Scene 1". Really? That's helpful. And usually the thumbnail is too small to tell who is in the scene.
Useless covers. Some idiotic companies don't let you know which girls are in the movie. (Extreme Associates was notorious for this. I know you're shocked. :-) Elegant Angel has done this at times as well). Also, it's often impossible to tell if it's a compilation or not.
Poor picture quality on DVDs!!! Big surprise that Vivid is one of the culprits. They usually use inferior film stock and it transfers to their DVDs.
Poorly mastered discs. Some are so bad that the slighest smudge or nick causes the disc to freeze up or jump back to another area of the disc. Hate to say it because I like a lot of their releases, but I have this problem with a lot of Evil Angel discs.
I wish they would all just have chapter stops for each scene. Then, you can hit display and know how long to the end of the scene--does anything else matter? You can then skip a scene by hitting one button. How many people do they think really pull up the menus and go straight to 'reverse cowgirl-anal'?
You don't go to the menu to use the chapter stops. I assume that a lot of people want to be able to skip parts of a scene that don't interest them. I know I do, so when they're well done they are very handy.
That being said, I do agree that some people put too many in and others put them right in the middle of a segment. God alone knows why.
Two of mine: no time coding and mandatory compliance notices. I hate it when you can't jump around on a disc, and I really, really despise having to wait 30 secs to 1 min to even play *PORN*. Cough, Hustler, cough.
Yes! Actually, the mandatory compliance notice was the impetus for my thread, but then I forgot to mention it. It is so stupid to force people to sit through sometimes over a minute of these notices. Surely there isn't a law that says the releaser has to force the viewer to watch these. They are there for anyone who wants to read them, but it shouldn't be something that you can't FF through.
All of the above is why I've taken to converting my favorite scenes/titles to compressed AVI. Most of the players (e.g., VideoLAN) have a "slide" toggle that lets you go exactly where you want as often as you want. Is there a slight decrease in picture quality? Yep, but for me it's worth it.
#1: Forced compliance and copyright notices, and animated company logos, before being allowed to go to the menu.
Fortunately, on my Pioneer HDD/DVD machine, I just have to press three buttons in succession on the remote ("HDD" + "DVD" + "Menu") and all DVDs I've tried, skip all that crap and go straight to the menu.
#2: No time code!
#3: Colour halo/chroma shift problem. (Been a while since I came across one of those.)
one thing that chafes my ass about most Vivids is the excessive "mosquito noise" distortion in the background,for example if someone is in front of a wall of a solid color,the wall appears to be swirling with movement,it's very distracting.
The reason for so many chapter stops has to do with the encoding and the layer breaks for the DVD process. The more chapter stops you have, the smoother the transition between layers. And, I think that if the menus are done correctly, it give the user a quicker option to find what they are looing for. Unfortunatly, we all have to deal with the compliance issues.
Without a doubt Vivid is the worst offender sometimes it can upwards of 10 mins. I sometimes put the dvd in a then watch tv for awhile then go back to it. Just another reason there is so much Vivid bashing.
One man's trash can be the next man's treasure. 1187 Posts 1/04
Posted - Jun 5 2006 : 5:12PM
I have a DVD/VHS player. The machine normally defers to the DVD section and some DVD's start out with the FBI warning, the disclaimers, and the commercials. Say I want to watch the VHS so turn on the machine and I click on the VHS button and the machine won't switch if I have an offending DVD in there. I can't even stop the DVD from playing. No matter which buttom I press, the DVD disc controls the machine and it's going to play those commercials whether I like it or not. It won't pause, it won't stop, and it won't switch. Nice waste of a few minutes. Whoever thought up this idea should be tied naked to a stake in the hot sun, preferably near a fire ant hill, and then covered in honey.
When you click on a scene it would be great to list male/female performers in that scene.. I've seen this in a couple of DVDs, and since I only watch certain people it would make it a lot easier.
1. Bad or too few chapter stops. Like a lot of porn viewers, I want to zero in on the part I really like (ahem) and stay with it--maybe set it to loop. If I'm spending my time with the remote running it forward and backward, I'm distracted.
2. Bad extras. I'd rather have no extras than bad ones. Example, the photo gallery with dumb photos nobody would like, and they're branded like internet porn circa 1996.
3. No credits or bad credits. Sometimes I want to know who a particular actress is, but I can't really figure it out from the box or the credits. Let me know who people are. Let me know who directed, because maybe--just maybe--I'll like it and want to buy another from the same people.
In a dual layer DVD, there is only one layer break, even if the damn thing is 4 hours long. That has nothing to do with why one scene has to be twelve chapters. Surely I am not the only one who would like to be able to skip to the next scene by hitting the button once, or would like to be able to hit display and see how long to the pop. Well, am I??
**If you are annoyed by the mandatory footage, burn backups of your DVD's. Most burning/backup software will give you the option of 'Remove UPO's' (user prohibited operations). You will have the ability to view your backup copy however you like.
Innocent Girlfriend Rewards Him With Pussy - review by Captain Jack
Posted - May 31 2006 : 10:06PM
