Well, I share a certain sympathy with the OP. Yes, I AM ready for Fox DVD, which is why I bought the damned thing in the first place and I really don’t want the same goddamn commercial too run in front of the goddman movie when I turn it on.
Morevoer, I really hate Universal for enginneeering their DVDs so that you cannot change the audio by clicking on the AUDIO button; you have to go back to the main menu, select, Languages, select the track you want, and then go back tot he movie. That’s just a constant aggravation.
In additon, I really dislike it when a DVD includes the French or Spanish subtitles but omits English (MGM’s Midnight Movies line is guilty of this). Some of us want to read what a character said instead of replaying a scene and trying to figure out an unclear word. That’s especially important if you want read the lyrics of a musical performance.
There are two things I don’t like about DVD menus. Only two. Most of the other stuff I think is dandy and kind of fun.
The first is when the menu selector is a colour only. Especially a tonally similar colour to the button graphic. For someone who is partially colourblind, such as, for example, myself, it makes it really hard to see what is being selected. It needs an arrow or marker additional to the button graphic.
That would also eliminate the stupid situation where the page has only two options on it, and you cannot tell if the button you want is using the selected colour, or the non-selected colour. Your choice is yellow or white - which is the selection colour? Can’t tell.
The second thing I don’t like about DVD menus is when the movie starts before you get to the menu. It just plays straight away, so you have to press stop, go to the menu, find the ‘commentary’ option (sometimes in Special features, sometimes in Audio Options, sometimes it takes three button pushes for it to begin) restart the movie, which begins where you left off, so you miss the first 20 seconds of the Commentary. But I also hate it when the movie begins if you haven’t chosen an option after 30 seconds. Hey! I was getting myself a snack, can you just sit and wait a while please???
I guess that’s more than two. Or maybe not, whatever.
See, I’m not paying $20.00+ to see your art and play a video game trying to get to the content. I’m paying to see a movie. How 'bout a “I want to see the useless frippery” button and “Just show the goddamned movie” button. That way, everyone’s happy.
And while you’re at it, please suggest to your clients, that only assholes ask that you, the DVD designer, hide content as part of “Easter Eggs”. Case in Point: the Disney “Silly Symphonies” DVD which has something like 5 cartoons buried in stupid “Easter Eggs”. The “joy” of this is that there’s now no way to watch the the fucking thing in order without having to stop, hunt around for the hidden cartoons, restart, play, stop, go back to the non-hidden cartooons, etc.
People who hide content should be severely beaten.
Who pays $20.00+ for a DVD? Go to DeepDiscount DVD or shop at Best Buy to save some dinero. There’s just no excuse for paying full freight for a DVD these days.
I recently bought a new DVD player, a super-cheap CyberHome model that will play my (legal, homemade) svcd’s as well as dvd’s. One of the things I like best about it is that my DVD’s start playing right after the FBI/Interpol thingy. If I want the menu, i just hit the “Menu” button. Wow, now that’s some progressive thinking. These same DVD’s in my older “Major Brand” player forced me into the menu every time…
I would suggest taking some of your DVD’s to the store and trying some of the ~$60 players and see if any start right away.
Best Buy has a shitty selection. It’s great if you want brand new, just out of the theater movies, but if you want something more than 15 minutes old it’s selection sucks.
I’ve never heard of DeepDiscount DVD, but checking, their prices seem right in line with other places in town, and I don’t have to wait. And they’re over $20.00 for stuff I want too. (Rear Window and Psycho to name 2)
GODDAMN! Earnest goes to Camp for only $6.98!Gobear, thats a mighty fine DVD store you pointed out…prices are better then Amazon’s on the several movies I checked.
I don’t mind if a transition is fancy, but I do mind if it is long. So if I click on bonus features and the screen does something cool that only takes 1/2 a second, I think that’s fine.
Folks, I introduced dvddesigner to these boards, and I can tell you from knowing him IRL, that he hates this shit as much as you do. As for convincing his clients that there’s better ways of doing the menus, lots of luck there. Most of them are halfwits who have no idea of what they’re asking poor schmucks like dvddesigner to do. He’s nearly been in tears over some of the crap that he’s had to try to do. (“They want the logo to fly around, do a 360 degree spin, land on the bottom of the screen and then spray out the menu options! Do you know how fucking hard that’s going to do get it to look right, muchless work?”) I’ve also heard him bitch about many of the same things that you’re bitching about.
It’s like those fancy dancy webpages that are great if you’ve got a cable modem, but for those of us still stuck with a dial-up, absolute hell.
Honestly I’d say the best “animated” menu is on Saturday Night Fever, which is fast, flashy (which for this movie is good), features video clips of the dance scenes (damn fun but don’t give away plot points), and the transitions are just as simple.
Disney’s Hunchback Of Notre Dame has a menu that mirrors the movie’s opening, which is confusing at first but kinda snazzy once you think about it. And the transitions are simple.
What confused the hell out of me was the pre-menu video for Requiem For A Dream. I hadn’t seen the movie before buying it, and so the pre-menu clips made no sense whatsoever.
You need to upgrade your theater sound. DTS is markedly superior to Dolby 5.1 Surround.
I agree with your OP. I just want a list of options to select, then GO. Language, subtitles, commentary, audio options, aspect ratio choices, ad infinitum all seem to be in separate little modules, each of which take several seconds to open AND to close, and you can’t even move from one to the next, you have to move back through the main menu, thus doubling your setup time. Rrrrrr!
Give me one big checkoff list on one screen and a play button on the bottom and I’m good to go.
YES. I don’t want to wait 3 seconds for a little animated bullshit to happen just so I can progress to the next menu. Especially if it is something I have to do over and over.
And the hidden content stuff… AAAHHHH!!! The Harry Potter DVD is the worst example of this that I know of. You have to go through this whole series of tests, memorize patterns, etc… oh it’s just horrid.
Wow! I can get free inferiority complexes in The Pit!
I know, I know. But I am planning on opening up the wallet and doing it right (like, buy a house, so I can have a proper theater room), so a few more months of saving…
Opal’s right on that Harry Potter thing. Those hidden scenes were a pain in the butt. And the juice wasn’t worth the squeezing. Here’s hoping they learn for CoS.
I think the web site analogy is a good one. It takes time for a format to get used to what users want. Remember when every damn website had 20 seconds worth of flash animation and some soundtrack that took forever to stream? Ugh. But the desingers and their patrons learned that what actually sells in content…not FX.
Give them time and bitch to them when possible. That’s the way commercial art evolves.
