# Fucking DVDs that FORCE you to sit through the previews **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 1, 2003, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520 "2003-07-01T06:21:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MrSarcasticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@MrSarcasticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSarcasticus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/1 "2003-07-01T06:21:24Z")
What is this horseshit? I’ve been noticing it’s much more frequent lately. It’s almost as annoying as telemarketing. I’m writing my congressman. Here I was, trying to watch THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN, minding my own business, and I now I have to sit through the ad for SWITCHBLADE SISTERS? That piece of crap? I want my 3 minutes of life back, you fucktards! Oh sweet merciful Christ. A trailer for FROM DUSK TIL DAWN 3? Like I’ll ever buy that in my life. Are you exec fucks on CRACK? I paid for this, and I still am FORCED to sit through this fucking song and dance? Eat me, you fucking shit-eating whores of Oops, gotta go, the movie’s finally starting. ---
**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/2 "2003-07-01T06:31:18Z")
God, I know, that pisses me off. I can’t believe the DVD spec includes the ability to disable buttons on the remote, that’s fucktarded. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/3 "2003-07-01T06:41:11Z")
Hmmm. Would it be legal for me to hack my copy of WinDVD to make it ignore the “disable button” abilities? (Ignoring the fact that the WinDVD license agreement might prohibit modifying the software – I’m thinking of the more general legal issues). ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/4 "2003-07-01T06:46:21Z")
Room for a [vanity link](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=161174) in here? I wonder how they will fuck D-VHS? ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/5 "2003-07-01T07:47:48Z")
Another thread I have been meaning to post for months. GOd but I hate this. It really is immoral to fucking _force_ you to watch the previews. VHS tapes don’t have these damned previews. If you really do not like it, handwrite a letter to the studio telling them so and that you will return any DVD that has this stupid feature. ---
**Author:** ![Keith\_Berry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/22d042/32.png) [@Keith\_Berry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keith_Berry)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/6 "2003-07-01T07:55:24Z")
I just rented a DVD last night that actually featured a choice option after the opening company logos…you could click on either “Main Menu” to get to the film or “Previews” to watch the preview for “How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days”. This dvd was either “The Hours” or “Punch-Drunk Love”. I watched both the same night, but can’t remember which one had this rather odd opening. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/7 "2003-07-01T09:57:30Z")
I’ve seen them where you couldn’t fast-forward through the previews, but I was always able to skip to the next chapter without any problem. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/8 "2003-07-01T10:08:55Z")
Can you skip to the first chapter of the movie, **Purd**? The ones I’ve seen completely disable the remote; a “no” icon shows up no mater what’s pressed. Of course, I could test the player itself and get up from the couch… **Muad’Dib** , the VHS tapes certainly have those previews. But you can fast forward them… ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/9 "2003-07-01T11:17:35Z")
There’s one in particular–_Cradle Will Rock_, I think, that won’t let you fast forward **or** skip the preview chapter. You will watch them and there will be no problems with that, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/10 "2003-07-01T13:02:06Z")
A lot of DVDs don’t let you skip or ff through the copyright warning. Even if it lets you ff, it’ll be there for a full minute, so even att high speed, the image is on the screen for quite a long time. If anyone knows of a way to bypass all of this crap, which is still legal, I’d be very happy. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/11 "2003-07-01T13:25:01Z")
I’ve run into this too. If I purchase a DVD, I want it to be part of my permanent movie library. If I pull out the movie ten years from now to watch, I don’t want to sit through a trailer for some forgotten movie from ten years before. Poopy-poop-poop. That’s what I say. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/12 "2003-07-01T13:29:04Z")
Are these previews when you hit play to start the movie or after you first put the disk into the player? If it is when you put the disk into the player, can’t you just stop the disk and then restart it and go to the main menu? ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/13 "2003-07-01T13:42:56Z")
The ones I’ve noticed occur after you’ve hit play to start the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/14 "2003-07-01T14:25:32Z")
[Another vanity link.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178348) ---
**Author:** ![Anaximenes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e99b99/32.png) [@Anaximenes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaximenes)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/15 "2003-07-01T16:08:28Z")
I own some DVDs that do this… Sucks my balls 'til they turn purple. :eek: I guess the bastards figure that people will sit through half an hour of ads and previews at the theater so they will sit through a couple of previews at home. I wish the movie execs would just go back to anally raping small woodland creatures and stop fucking up my DVDs. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Maneb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Maneb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maneb)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/16 "2003-07-01T18:37:13Z")
One way around this idiotic “feature”: on some PC DVD viewers, if you start watching a movie, then close the program halfway through, when you restart it later, it will automatically jump to wherever you stopped at. My copy of PowerDVD that came free with my new video card seems to be able to remember dozens of different titles for months at a time. This won’t get you out of watching all the ads the first time, but everytime you watch the same disk later, you shouldn’t have to sit through them. ---
**Author:** ![Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreaming_of_Maria_Callas)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/17 "2003-07-01T20:24:36Z")
On Linux many media players allow you to skip through the so-called “unskippable” annoucements. If you watch a DVD on a corporate OS like Windows, expect to be force to watch corporate material. UnuMondo ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/18 "2003-07-01T20:58:58Z")
Anyone want to compile a list of these DVDs? Ought to make for a popular web site, as people go to see what discs to avoid. And if it gets enough attention, maybe the studios will get a clue and realize they should knock it off… ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/19 "2003-07-01T23:55:47Z")
I recently bought a new DVD player, and one of the features is “Quick Start”, whatever the hell that is. It seems to just start the movie everytime. ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520/20 "2003-07-02T00:50:33Z")
Are these rental or purchased DVDs? I’m sure it’s not too difficult for companies to make two different copies. That being said, my friend’s store-bought copy of the Bourne Identity had a couple previews. And I’m told that Greek Wedding has a Windex ad, but it somehow connects to the film. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-dvds-that-force-you-to-sit-through-the-previews/185520.md?page=2)