KMPlayer on my laptop will let you play a DVD (or any movie file) at speeds other than 100% (nominal), in 5% increments. I’ve seldom used the feature, but it does seem to be useful – I may start using it more.
(Do present-day DVD players have this feature? I need a new one and want to know what brand to buy.)
My son insisted we watch Dr. Who (episode 1), but I couldn’t understand it. British accents were a big problem, though not the only one. By playing it at 85%, I could understand the dialog, and make more sense of the action. On the other hand, watching easy-to-follow Sopranos I may play at 115% if I’m rewatching, or if the scene is tedious.
Surprisingly, from 85% to 115% I hardly notice the speed is incorrect! :smack: (Changed voice pitches may be the most obvious difference.)
Watching something I really like, I keep the speed at 100%. (But maybe I should slow to 90% to savor it 10% longer! )
I find the TV series 24 to be extremely tedious but having invested in the DVD’s I had to watch it. :smack: I find it to be tolerable at 140%+. (Even at 135% speed, 24 drags for me!)
Do others do this? If not, are you going to emulate me? Or just call me a perverse weirdo? :o
In defense let me comment on my two main examples:
I slow down Dr. Who because otherwise I would not understand what the characters say.
As for my speeding up 24 to reduce its tedium, no offense to any who like that show, but its “director’s vision” is not a vision I would want to tolerate at normal speed. At high speed I find it a mediocre but tolerable thriller.
It reminds me of when JJ Abrams was on Howard Stern, and Howard was asking if it drove JJ crazy when people watch movies on an iPad or iPad mini, Howard loves watching movies on his mini, which led to the discussion.
I think they were talking about Star Trek, but whatever movie they were talking about JJ had filmed an iMax version. JJ said that while he understood the impulse, and had himself watched the occasional something or other on his iPad, it did drive him a little nuts that people might watch his film on a screen that’s actually smaller than the film itself.
That cracked me up. Shrink the film to fit it on the screen. Ha!
Not directly related to the OP, but the “director’s vision” discussion reminded me of it.
I had a DVD player that would play at 1.5x and I used that speed to watch the battle scenes in “Return of the King”.
Screw the directors vision. Me watching in a way other than what was intended doesn’t affect his vision - it is still there. It would be wrong for me to watch this way and then complain about how ithe pace, etc.
Yes. I get bored easy, so I mostly watch movies at either 8 or 16 times normal speed. Sometimes I miss an important plot point and have to rewind and watch a scene at 2 or 4 times normal, but mostly I can follow the story ok.
The downside is that if it’s a comedy, I miss most the jokes.
I often watch the title sequence of TV series at an increased speed (PS3, I think it plays at 1.5x). It takes a shorter time and often it makes the title song better/catchier - especially for “The Wire”.
Way back in the dark ages, a theatre had a 70mm print of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now the theatre owners, being a greedy lot, scheduled extra showings, reducing the time between shows to clean the theatre. Now think of the mess 877 people leave behind. Multiply by 7 shows a day, and order the earthmovers. The good news was they had Norelco projectors that had a transmission on them to convert to TODD-AO, a dead format at 30 frames per second, from the standard 24fps. When the credits hit, the projectionist hit a lever, and the music sped up. Funny, the people exiting did too…
I’m collaborating with him, to create a new “fusion” vision. A synthesis of enhanced creativity! Just as the user interprets the drama in his own terms, now he can re-frame it as well. It is a triumph of individuality over 18th century cookie-cutter publishing traditions.
(Or…I’m just getting the misery over with the quicker!)
My DVD player plays at a fast speed (not sure how much) without distorting the pitch of voices, but it’s no good with music, so I only use that feature to watch talk type shows.
I do skip most of the first half of Hollywood product by hopping through a minute or two or a scene at a time, though.
Playstation 3 (that’s 3, not 4, I dunno what 4 does) lets you play stuff back, with sound, at 1.5x. DVD, Bluray, porn you downloaded (legally) off the interwebs, you name it.
I generally only use it when I hit the end credits. They’re often quite boring and long, but those people worked hard and deserve to have their names fly past my field of vision.
Over the weekend I showed some friends The Star Wars Holiday Special, about which they had heard, but never seen. Even I, Bad Film Aficianado that I am, have never been able to watch this amazing oddity in its entirety in one sitting. It’s like trying to read The Eye of Argon out loud in a group without laughing.
Anyway, we started watching it at 2X speed, which actually made parts of it watchable (there’s no dialogue in big chunks of the thing, especially at the beginning).
Eventually, though, even at twice the normal speed, we were forced to turn it off for the sake of our respective sanities.
I’ve heard some TV shows are broadcast at a higher speed so their run time is reduced by a minute or so and the station can sell extra commercial time.
I usually play everything 5% faster to save a little time. I find that an increase of 10% is noticeable, however, and rarely use it. An exception would be one of the long talky bits in The Walking Dead where everyone acknowledges each other’s boring feelings. Then I zap it up to 200%.
)