This is about the single most assinine thing I have seen in quite awhile and yes it involves DVD's.

http://www.thewmurchannel.com/technology/3933372/detail.html

Christ almighty! Will it never end? I get pissed enough having to sit through ads just waiting to see a movie at the theater. I miss the days when ads were only seen on tv. Going to the movies was a welcome respite from commercials. And now they want to ruin home movie viewing. I'd love to see some politicians not tempted by lobbyist favours and tell them to ef themselves.

As idiotic as this "no skipping" idea (and the logic behind it) is, it's still not fool proof.

What's to stop people from hitting "Play", THEN getting up to make popcorn, put their PJ's on, chase the kids to bed, and so on and so on until the film actually starts?

There's a difference between not being able to skip past the ads and not being able to walk away from the TV.

"Their concern is, if it becomes easy for people to skip ads, then their whole business model goes down the drain," said Gigi Sohn, of Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C. advocacy group

Then maybe their business model is WRONG!

I get a kick out of the fact that this is an issue at all, and to get a bill before Congress about it shows just what kind of brain farts people can have.
I would think that Congress should have more important things to worry about then something this lame.
Next thing you know they will have a bill to pass that doesnt tlet you use your new Gillette razor more then twice before buying a new one, since using it more then that cuts in to Gillette's profits.

I have seen dvds with promos/trailers that play automatically before the movie AFTER you chose play. Until the promos are over all functions are locked out(FF,MENU,STOP,OPEN/CLOSE) you cannot even turn off the power. Only way to stop the player is pull the plug.

They forget that TV is 'free' but we buy DVDs. The DVD owners get paid by us directly, so why have ads?!

They forget that TV is 'free' but we buy DVDs. The DVD owners get paid by us directly, so why have ads?!
You also buy magazines, and they're FULL of ads. And free TV isn't really free - companies buy their ads, and can ya figure out who that cost gets shouldered by? And your personal TV cost is your time...

TiVo's solution when you FF ads will be to throw a pop-up at you during the FF...

Ah I can see Blipverts coming soon...:p

I rented a DVD a week or so ago that made me watch all the FBI Interpol warnings AND then all the promos for other movies. I was so pissed off I almost whipped the disc out of the player and brought it back to the store. That is totally inappropriate.

Huzz

It's just like watching a video from your personal library with all those previews for movies that were released years ago.

Talk about a giant step backwards.

Jim

Ah I can see Blipverts coming soon...:p

Great, the last straw before my head explodes !! ;)

I get a kick out of the fact that this is an issue at all, and to get a bill before Congress about it shows just what kind of brain farts people can have.
I would think that Congress should have more important things to worry about then something this lame.
Next thing you know they will have a bill to pass that doesnt tlet you use your new Gillette razor more then twice before buying a new one, since using it more then that cuts in to Gillette's profits.

It has been more than apparent to me for some time that the central government's ability to interfere with, manipulate, and otherwise damage businesses in this country is virtually unlimited.

I think this is what you get from fascist governments. This idiocy is just one example of politicians who are constantly voting themselves more money, more job security, and more power and profits from pork and other deals with lobbyists.

It'd be nice to have a Constitutional amendment to prevent the central government from treating one business differently from another. We'd be paying about 80 cents for a gallon of gas if that were the case.

Yeah I was about to say, this whole thing is VERY fascist. I know I'll probably get flamed for this, but this kind of stuff always happens when the Republicans are in power. They are huge proponents of big business at the expense of the everyday citizen. The Democrats (other faults notwithstanding) would bounce this kind of corporate opportunist crap right off Capitol Hill before it ever got a chance to threaten our civil liberties.

I swear there is going to be civil war in this country of this keeps up. :(

^^I really am non-partisan on this one: I don't see a dime's worth of difference between the two major parties.

The Republicans are fascist/socialist and the Democrats are socialist/fascist. Whoever wins, we lose.

My goodness, looks like we have a couple of real drama queens very inflamed about this rather insignificant subject. Fortunately, it's that kind of gross over reaction that keeps the looney left out of power.

This is a minor issue and, quite honestly, I'm not sure if there isn't some self-promotion among people trying to make a name for themselves while claiming to protect our civil liberties.

For one thing, this whole story makes suspiciously little sense. DVD makers already have the capacity to control what we can and cannot skip or fast forward through. I'm surprised by Huzz's post because MOST of my DVDs already make it impossible to fast forward through the FBI and Interpol warnings. "Forced" trailers have been annoying me for years. I find this story stange because, since the studios already have the technological ability to disable skip and fast forward functions, why would any of this NOW require congressional approval? This story is as fishy as the old "tax on your email" hoax. But even if it is true...so what? There is already DVD content that we can't edit or skip. I'm trying to find the issue here and I'm not seeing it.

right on perfessor. 2 sides of the same rotten coin.

i just got potter 3. ok ive got to suffer thru 2 previews before i get to the menu screen, which when clicked on goes directly to the movie itself. thats better than red dragon, here the menu comes first, and the trailer for the hulk is tagged to the opening of the movie (and blocks fast forwarding).

i think it'll eventually backlash on them. i have noticed that the 2nd or 3rd runs of dvd's arent plagued with these as much (or so it seems). maybe if we stopped buying them the minute they came out the studios would back down on it.

Can anyone tell me exactly when Congress stopped working for us, the people of the United States, and started working strictly for special interest groups? I know it was many years ago, but I'm wondering if anyone can pinpoint exactly when it happened.

^^Sometime in the early 1800s--at least by 1832.

Somehow 'Assanine' just doesn't say it all

"Forced" trailers have been annoying me for years. . . . . There is already DVD content that we can't edit or skip. I'm trying to find the issue here and I'm not seeing it.
I agree that the legislation story seems a like a scary story (but that's what you'd expect from the current administration but don't get me started) that probably isn't true.

The issue that's really under discussion is whether or not we really have to sit through previews before we're allowed to watch the movie we purchased (or rented).

Ziz's comment about being able to walk away during these previews and get popcorn doesn't really cut it. Why should we be forced to accommodate the DVD manufacturer?

I think the thing that really galls me is that if I pull out a DVD from my library, the last thing I want to be required to watch is previews for movies that were "coming soon" four years ago. If I wanted to do that, I'd have stuck with VHS tapes.

Jim

Yes, I'm sure this was the president's idea. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I second the comment that I don't want to be forced to watch years-old "coming soons" and "also availables." And I get impatient just waiting for elaborate menu animations to load - I'll go bonkers if I have a five or ten minute wait before I can even get to them!

FWIW: I've heard on the news on the radio (reliable :confused: ) that this is indeed something that the movie industry is lobbying for. There was no indication in the radio story that there was any legislation being considered as of yet but the Hollywood types have a lot of influence on Capitol Hill and the other story indicates that there is a bill so it seems legit.

^^I really am non-partisan on this one: I don't see a dime's worth of difference between the two major parties.

The Republicans are fascist/socialist and the Democrats are socialist/fascist. Whoever wins, we lose.

You hit the nail on the head!!!

Why is it cinema goers like COMMERCIALS on the screen....NOT movie ads, commercials? Do many of you still go to a multiplex? One of the factors that caused multiplexes to lose my business.

I bet if someone could FF through commercials and the blessed trivia stuff at a theater, the audience would kill the guy!

Os

Why is it cinema goers like COMMERCIALS on the screen....NOT movie ads, commercials? Do many of you still go to a multiplex? One of the factors that caused multiplexes to lose my business.
A) Speaking for the majority of movie goers (feel free to exclude yourself from this group), I don't like commercials before the movie, I merely tolerate them. Occasionally, they have longer than usual commercials made especially for the movie theater which are actually quite entertaining.

B) A few minutes of commercials isn't going to stop me going to the movie theater. I mean, if I really detested commercials that much, I'd have to only watch PBS (and, then, only if I avoid pledge weeks)!

It'll take a lot to stop me going to see new movies on a big screen the way they were meant to be seen.

Jim

^^I pretty much agree with Arronax. I mainly like the fact that there are commercials and previews just so that I can arrive late and not miss the beginning of the movie.

Well the thing is in my case, there's no such thing as going there late. I tried, hoping to miss most of the commercials and trivia stuff BUT find it did'nt start yet when I sit down! The movie ads follow that.

Another thing is in 4 years, nothing was the least bit entertaining save the ONE short I saw. No cartoons to boot.

Os

No cartoons to boot.

Speaking of which, I saw The Incredibles Sunday and was surprised to see that they had a short feature before the movie. It was blast of nostalgia to see it. :cool: