Is there any particular reason why discs from some studios have restrictions on the DVD functionality available? I've noticed that some studios have warnings, adverts or trailers that cannot be skipped.
There's also some seemingly bizarre restrictions on some titles, where you can't use A-B repeat, or zoom or time-seek functions on the DVD player, apparently because the disc tells the player not to allow them. But WHY??? I can't see any reason why some companies make their discs this way, as it gives them no benefits at all and just annoys their customers. I'll dig out a few examples.
Fortunately Evil Angel have the good sense to allow all functionality on their discs.
Some of the companies that participated in this practice in the past have realized the errors of their ways. For instance, LFP (Hustler) used to have adverts in the beginning of their discs that couldn't be skipped or forwarded over. According to an e-mail that I received a while ago from the company, they have realized their mistake and will no longer be doing that practice.
As for being unable to skip over the warnings and company logos, I can understand that part and that isn't just limited to adult companies. I've found that many mainstream releases won't let you skip over the FBI warning or the company logo screen.
I wish there was list of companies who are using these forced ads crap so we know which companies to avoid. I once had to wait like 4 minutes before the movie started. 4 minutes is a long time to wait when you're horny ;-)
The not allowing the time-seek function normally goes along with the authoring not including a time stamp on the DVD, which is something I'm told takes next to zero effort to include. This has always annoyed me and so I point it out in all of my reviews where I find it. I was recently told that some authoring programs (and I think there's very few of them) do not allow you to time stamp the DVD. There are also some authoring companies out there that claim that the DVD is better without it, as I was told by one company who contacted me about my complaining about the lack of a time stamp. On the plus side, the company didn't buy this argument and told the firm that the end users want the time stamp and that the next DVD they do it to will be the last one they author for them.
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
Posted - Jan 29 2003 : 1:44PM
Even we at Evil Angel have had a few titles where we don't allow you to skip through the FBI warning or Custodian of Records statement (this is about 15 seconds total).
For the time stamp thing, for some companies, I think sometimes there has been an authoring mistake where the time stamp accidentally gets disabled. But for the life of me, I can't imagine why ANYONE would think that a DVD would be better without timecode.
I've noticed a lot of DVDs lately that seem to disable the rewind/fast-forward capabilites on certain players. Red Light District DVDs have had this problem ever since they added that "jump to your favorite action" menu on their movies, and VCA's Double O Blonde seemed to have this problem during some (but not all) sex scenes in the film.
It seems that restricting functionality is down to ignorant authoring rather than some malicious attempt by studios to be a control freak.
I can understand why some forced showing of warnings might be required in some circumstances, due to regulations, but it's the functionality trimming that really annoys me.
Of course, playing DVDs on the PC using a DVDROM drive doesn't suffer from any of this
EXACTLY!!!! Sadly, this almost seems worse to me. The DVD I'm currently reviewing in addition to not having a time stamp, restarts the photo gallery if you decide to watch it at over 4X the normal speed. If that's not bad enough, the gallery automatically restarts and I don't see any link on the screen to get out of it. There isn't a title menu on the DVD that you can jump to, which limits you to randomly jumping to a chapter using the "GOTO" feature on the DVD player. Skipping forward and back don't even do anything. Gee, I wonder if the overall rating is going to be penalized with authoring that juvenile????Huh? I see it just as much if not more on my DVD-ROM than my standalone player.
I had a similar situation with a Hustler disc, where the bonus scene didn't seem to show the title and chapter or time on the player, and if I used FFwd then reverted to normal playing speed, it would return to the menu. Unbelievable.
In my opinion, bad or annoying authoring is sufficient justification for losing a point or two on a rating. And so is schizophrenic editing (frequent cutting between 2 scenes) but that's another rant
Ahh, maybe because I use Linux on my PC not Windows? The DVD playing software for that simply ignores any of the crap restrictions - it just plays whatever you ask it to.
God, most Hong Kong DVDs from Universe Video make you sit though scrolling copyright warnings in both Chinese and English that you have absolutely no way of skipping or fast forwarding through. I hate that!
And another authoring problem that I've only had happen with a Japanese adult DVD: when you chose to view a chapter via the scene selection menu, after that scene was over, it went back to the menu. WTF?? I never saw that happen with any other DVD before, but it was very annoying.
I don't know about that. Way back when, one of the guys from the company doing DVD's for Adam & Eve told me that they were disabling the remotes for the FBI warning and legal statements at the request of Adam & Eve.
I've found that hitting the "Main Menu" button skips everything.
Boat Drinks!!!
RoccoFan
[Link]
Digger Deactivated User
9 Posts 2/03
Posted - Feb 7 2003 : 11:26PM
You have to watch out with the main menu option. Some discs have a bunch of ads or some other useless, annoying crap as part of the intro to the menu and that is one of the areas you can't normally fast forward.
On most DVD's that's true. But some DVD's are authored so that the remote buttons are disabled (sometimes including the STOP button) during the FBI warning, Compliance notice and commercials. After that, the remote commands are active again.
If your DVD player is never affected by this problem, then either you have never bought a disc from one of these companies or your DVD player is not 100% compliant with the DVD standards, which is not necessarily a bad thing (especially in this case).
Today I received a copy of 110% natural 4 only to discover the interactive menu, this really does hinder the viewing of the disc. However I've been messing around on the remote control of my DVD player and if I press the repeat a to b button and then cancel it this deactivates the menu and I can then use the ff, fr, slow motion , zoom etc. The interactive menu does come back once in a while but its no hassle to get rid of it again. My DVD player is a Philips DVD 634, hope this helps anyone else with their discs with the menu’s.
its bull, does anybody EVER call those sex phone lines because they saw an ad before a porno? Or read the warnings? gimme a break, its a waste of time.
I recently watched Rosebud's "DNA Vol.1 and 2" where they have at the start of the dvd a 3 minutes long 1-800 ad that you just can't do anything to get out of it ! THAT REALLY BUGS ME !!
What i do in those cases is make a backup copy of the dvd that I already own where I disable all the restrictions, so i don't have to go through the 1-800 pain everytime i wanna watch them !
Introducing Lady LorReign
Posted - Jan 29 2003 : 12:37PM