Ridiculously Obnoxious Disc set-ups!

[iam1bearcat]

I'm a big fan of TV shows. especially on blu and DVD. and one of THE most annoying, irritating things that apparently has never been fixed (or will be) is the idea of "recaps" before episodes.

why in the hell do these still exist?

i guess it's okay if there's one recap every 5 or so episodes, but hell, most series have it on every episode!

first season of Supernatural has almost the exact same recap all season! at least 15 in a row were showing the exact same thing from the opening of the pilot episode! so how does that help 15 episodes later?!

every episode on (so far) both seasons of Prison Break have recaps. and of course, the recaps are between 1 - 2 minutes so it's not like you can just wait it out as if it'll pass in 20 seconds. aggravating. very aggravating.

the first season of Fringe was incredible in that it had an option - TO TURN RECAPS OFF! of course, seasons 2 and 3 did not

all seasons should be able to have this option turned off.

everyone else hates this "feature" too right????

to me, this is right up there with not having a "top menu" on opening previews of blu-rays (leaving you to constantly click "forward" 157352 times to reach the menu of the movie you WANT to see) and with all the technology we have available, this simple feature should be on everything.

sorry for the rant. and i hope this is the right forum (couldn't really decide on one)

[RodChester]

I agree. While I don't feel like they should get rid of the recaps entirely. They can be good to watch if it has been awhile since you watched the last episode. I do think that the recaps should always be there own chapter. That way you can easily hit the next chapter button and get right to the show without wasting time or missing anything.

As for having the top menu work during previews I agree that this should how all discs should be. However, the studios want us to see their previews in the hopes that we buy more. Just be glad that we can at least skip past them and are not forced to watch them.

[critterdvd]

Originally Posted by RodChester

I agree. While I don't feel like they should get rid of the recaps entirely. They can be good to watch if it has been awhile since you watched the last episode. I do think that the recaps should always be there own chapter. That way you can easily hit the next chapter button and get right to the show without wasting time or missing anything.

It's always been my argument that recaps and intros should be within the episodes as they originally aired on TV, but that they should each be there own chapter, to easily skip. There is nothing more annoying that watching episodes back-to-back-to-back and having to either watch the same 1-min segment 15 times or fastforward it...

[Clark Kent]

The best solution is to include recaps but make them a chapter you can easily skip using the remote. Studios are lazy and do not want to have to pay someone to go through an entire show and do that though, so it often gets left untouched.

[MercsOwnz]

I hate this too, but I am actually watching through Shameless Season 1 right now and they do it in a very clever way. They have William H. Macy in character saying stuff like: "In case you were too f***ing busy last week, heres what happened on Shameless." and then it shows what happened but with a twist. Its hard to explain but I don't mind watching it after every episode.

[Monterey Jack]

They should either add a chapter break immediately following the recap, or else offer a "play all" function that removes them for you. I can understand why they're neccesary for a heavilly-serialized show like Lost as it plays week-to-week on TV, but once it hits DVD/Blu, they should just be taken out entirely. Total waste of space.

[Tony208]

is this really an issue? one remote click fixes it

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by Tony208

is this really an issue? one remote click fixes it

Not on every release.

Some yes, which is great, but even then it could cause an issue because I usually rewind a bit to make sure. One TV season I had I would just go to the next chapter and it would go 5 minutes into the episode! So I always check even after hitting "forward" (if that's even an option).

Best fix would be to have it an option under "set up" which you can turn it off asap if you want.

[HD Goofnut]

I noticed this while my wife was watching Glee. Thankfully, I rarely watch any TV shows.

[Rudeboy2025]

I don't think there's a need for a turn off option, but making the recaps a chapter is what I would want.

They're good if you're casually watching a show, but if you're doing a marathon run it would get annoying. I watched Mad Men: Season 4 in two days (started yesterday) and I loved that there were no recaps whatsoever.

[DarknessBDJM]

I know Soul Eater does the chapter stops before and after the recap which is nice.

[dwesson]

Something to keep in mind, however, is that for some shows, the recap is part of the episode. I can think of at least one episode of LOST where the recap leads directly into the opening scene, shot for shot. I do agree that they should be their own chapter, though.

[Kristian Idol]

I rented Entourage (DVD) before buying, and if you hit the Chapter Forward button during the opening, it jumps 5-8 minutes into the episode. I didn't notice for the first couple episodes, I just thought, "Oh, that's clever writing, they jump right into the guys discussing something that happened (before the episode started)..." Then, when the references got confusing, I discovered it. Duh.

Yes, a chapter stop is the best solution. Listen up, studios!

[Nissen]

Originally Posted by dwesson

Something to keep in mind, however, is that for some shows, the recap is part of the episode. I can think of at least one episode of LOST where the recap leads directly into the opening scene, shot for shot. I do agree that they should be their own chapter, though.

Chapter stop solution gets my vote. Recaps and title sequences should ALWAYS be skippable with a chapter stop. It's TV-ON DVD/BD 101.

I noticed with Lost and Fringe, that the recaps are specific to what's going to happen in that particular episode. You could always tell from the recap that this was going to be a Jin-episode etc. This sometimes spoils too much of the ensuing episodes for med. Fringe are the worst in this case, you can immediately tell that they're

[Show spoiler]going to be ressurrecting William Bell in this episode, because the recap is all about him and soul-magnets

.

[Gold Ranger]

24 made them a separate Chapter, along with their "opening theme"

[retablo]

I don't mind, because in a huge show, say, like LOST, the recaps pertain to something that will be happening in the upcoming episode. And if you don't want it, just FF, it takes 5 seconds. I see a non-issue here.