WB Home Video, I'm angry.

[sebasd5]

If anyone from WB Home Video is reading this, please take note. We movie watchers absolutely HATE these new rental versions of movies. I can't remember how many I've come across so far, but there have been a few, and it's extremely annoying.

I'm sure many people who rent Blu-Rays have already seen them: the discs have a lame design that only has the name of the movie, and it says "rental" on the bottom. When you put in the disc, you have to keep pressing fast forward to go through tons of movies trailers and other advertisements, and then put up with the stupid BD-J spinning disc or whatever other design the authoring house decided to put in there, and when the main menu finally loads, you get a simple "Play Movie" and "Languages". Any extras are taken away from the movie.

Examples of this that I can remember so far are Inception, Red and more recently today, Clash of the Titans. The latter was especially aggravating, because at one point I accidentally hit the stop button instead of pause, and like we all know, thanks to some idiot who convinced all the studios that BD-J is better than BDMV, if we stop playback we can't resume the movie where we stopped like we've been doing since the time of VHS tapes and DVDs. Someone should tell these idiots that people do not want to wait for the stupid Java menu to load when menus authored in BDMV load in a snap.

But besides that, since I hit stop and I had to go through all the ads again, I decided to take note of how much crap the person who rents Clash of the Titans has to go through before they actually get to see the movie.

1) The piracy warning
2) WB Home Video logo

So far no problem. But then:

3) Advertisement for the digital copy, something that most people don't use, and the ones who do are computer savvy enough to use it without having to see an ad for it.

4) Advertisement on how cool Blu-Ray is. Hey, studio suits, I'm renting a Blu-Ray, you don't need to sell Blu-Ray to me, I'm already sold on it!!

5) A trailer for the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans.

6) Advertisement for Clash of the Titans video game.

7) Trailer for "Me & Orson Welles"

8) Trailer for some Batman animated feature

9) Spinning disc to load the pointless Java made menu

10) Finally, the lame menu with only two choices: Play movie, and Languages. This one doesn't even have a standard scenes popup menu like 99% of movies.

This is extremely aggravating. During all this crap, you can't even press the skip button, or the top menu button. You have to wait for each of these things to load, and then frantically press ►►► to get to the end of the ad or trailer, then the next one loads, then press ►►► again to get to the end, then repeat the same thing 9 or 10 times until you reach the menu. Are you freaking kidding me? Are the studios looking to piss people off?? Because if that's their goal, they have achieved it greatly.

Part of me wonders if this is not done on purpose to kill the format and force people to move to a downloadable or streaming format instead of movies on a physical format. Because why on Earth, if they have two technologies to author Blu-Rays, BDMV, which loads menus in a snap, and BD-J, which takes forever to load menus and makes everything unnecessarily slow, they would use the slower one? And, are you going to tell me that there is really a technical barrier that makes it impossible for discs authored in BD-J to resume the movie at the same point it was stopped? Are you going to tell me that the blu-ray player can't save a simple timecode number such as 1:23:52;23 in its RAM and then resume play once the disc loaded the stupid BD-J menu?

And BD-J is annoying enough, but even more annoying is to have to go through endless ads and trailers just to get to the main menu, and also that we used to get the real thing when we rented movies and now we get these stripped down discs without any extras. That, to me, is pissing on the customer.

[gregmasciola]

I haven't rented any Blu-rays recently, but I agree that not being able to resume your movie is very annoying. I have a few that will (don't remember which ones), but it would be nice if we didn't have to go through all the stuff at the beginning to get back to the movie. I have a DVD player that remembers where I left off even if the disc is removed (as long as I don't watch something else). While it annoys me, I've kind of just gotten used to it.

[Rudeboy2025]

I don't rent movies at all, but I absolutely HATE stuff before the menu that you can't skip!

I completely understand your frustration after reading your post. Maybe try contacting them? Although I doubt they would change this ridiculous practice.

[captveg]

That's kind of the point: they want you to hate the rental discs and buy the retail version.

[sebasd5]

Originally Posted by captveg

That's kind of the point: they want you to hate the rental discs and buy the retail version.

Well, by making me angry they won't force me to buy the retail version. Besides, if I spend money on a movie it's because I really like it, not because the idiots at the studio didn't let me see the extras. Most extras are usually just the director and the main actors sucking up to each other. The only extras I care to see are the FX design and the gag reel.

I'm not going to die if I don't see any extras, but it pisses me off that we get stripped down versions of the retail movie.

[bigshot]

Disney movies are worse for that sort of thing than WHV. Even the regular release version has all sorts of menu and preview and logo crap.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by sebasd5

Well, by making me angry they won't force me to buy the retail version. Besides, if I spend money on a movie it's because I really like it, not because the idiots at the studio didn't let me see the extras. Most extras are usually just the director and the main actors sucking up to each other. The only extras I care to see are the FX design and the gag reel.

I'm not going to die if I don't see any extras, but it pisses me off that we get stripped down versions of the retail movie.

You don't watch the extras, but you're mad that they aren't there?

[Josh]

Originally Posted by captveg

That's kind of the point: they want you to hate the rental discs and buy the retail version.

Exactly. They got burned (literally) when people would rent a movie from Netflix and then copy it on their computer. They bascially got the same movie as retail at a fraction of the cost. While it may suck not to have the extras, if you rent it, and like it, then just go buy the thing to get it all.

What I do take issue with is the disabled skip button. I hate having to fast forward through endless promos just to get to the movie. I understand why they do this, but it really is annoying.

[Variable_Star]

Originally Posted by Josh

What I do take issue with is the disabled skip button. I hate having to fast forward through endless promos just to get to the movie. I understand why they do this, but it really is annoying.

Agreed, they shouldn't be able to even do this.

Also, I wish the MPAA rating screen could have a simple black background. In a darkened room, this bright blue background assaults the eyes.

[Beast]

Originally Posted by captveg

That's kind of the point: they want you to hate the rental discs and buy the retail version.

Exactly. And I can't say I blame them. I'm expecting more studios to follow suit.

I rent the movie to see if I like it. If I do, then I'll add it to my shopping list. Then I can enjoy the extras.

I don't see the problem with these barebones rental discs, or the delay between retail and rental for netflix and redbox.

[Dwayne]

Originally Posted by sebasd5

If anyone from WB Home Video is reading this, please take note. We movie watchers absolutely HATE these new rental versions of movies. I can't remember how many I've come across so far, but there have been a few, and it's extremely annoying.

I'm sure many people who rent Blu-Rays have already seen them: the discs have a lame design that only has the name of the movie, and it says "rental" on the bottom. When you put in the disc, you have to keep pressing fast forward to go through tons of movies trailers and other advertisements, and then put up with the stupid BD-J spinning disc or whatever other design the authoring house decided to put in there, and when the main menu finally loads, you get a simple "Play Movie" and "Languages". Any extras are taken away from the movie.

Examples of this that I can remember so far are Inception, Red and more recently today, Clash of the Titans. The latter was especially aggravating, because at one point I accidentally hit the stop button instead of pause, and like we all know, thanks to some idiot who convinced all the studios that BD-J is better than BDMV, if we stop playback we can't resume the movie where we stopped like we've been doing since the time of VHS tapes and DVDs. Someone should tell these idiots that people do not want to wait for the stupid Java menu to load when menus authored in BDMV load in a snap.

But besides that, since I hit stop and I had to go through all the ads again, I decided to take note of how much crap the person who rents Clash of the Titans has to go through before they actually get to see the movie.

1) The piracy warning
2) WB Home Video logo

So far no problem. But then:

3) Advertisement for the digital copy, something that most people don't use, and the ones who do are computer savvy enough to use it without having to see an ad for it.

4) Advertisement on how cool Blu-Ray is. Hey, studio suits, I'm renting a Blu-Ray, you don't need to sell Blu-Ray to me, I'm already sold on it!!

5) A trailer for the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans.

6) Advertisement for Clash of the Titans video game.

7) Trailer for "Me & Orson Welles"

8) Trailer for some Batman animated feature

9) Spinning disc to load the pointless Java made menu

10) Finally, the lame menu with only two choices: Play movie, and Languages. This one doesn't even have a standard scenes popup menu like 99% of movies.

This is extremely aggravating. During all this crap, you can't even press the skip button, or the top menu button. You have to wait for each of these things to load, and then frantically press ►►► to get to the end of the ad or trailer, then the next one loads, then press ►►► again to get to the end, then repeat the same thing 9 or 10 times until you reach the menu. Are you freaking kidding me? Are the studios looking to piss people off?? Because if that's their goal, they have achieved it greatly.

Part of me wonders if this is not done on purpose to kill the format and force people to move to a downloadable or streaming format instead of movies on a physical format. Because why on Earth, if they have two technologies to author Blu-Rays, BDMV, which loads menus in a snap, and BD-J, which takes forever to load menus and makes everything unnecessarily slow, they would use the slower one? And, are you going to tell me that there is really a technical barrier that makes it impossible for discs authored in BD-J to resume the movie at the same point it was stopped? Are you going to tell me that the blu-ray player can't save a simple timecode number such as 1:23:52;23 in its RAM and then resume play once the disc loaded the stupid BD-J menu?

And BD-J is annoying enough, but even more annoying is to have to go through endless ads and trailers just to get to the main menu, and also that we used to get the real thing when we rented movies and now we get these stripped down discs without any extras. That, to me, is pissing on the customer.

I rent alot myself and it pisses me off as well. I have told my wife serveral times how I cannot stand how the beginings of Warner Bros. BD rental titles are formatted. They are the worst in BD movies in my opinion being the last to get on board using lossless audio on their movies in the early days. Anyway I hear ya and cant stand it either. Other companies piss me off on the rental formats also but will not go into why.

[Dwayne]

Its bull-crap and I cannot stand it either. All of these damn rental versions "and some store bought versions" have alot of this crap on them. Yeah they want you to go buy the real title but anyone that does that is usually going to buy it before renting anyway. All BD companies need to put a little more thought in the formatting of the rental versions but something tells me they will not. Its all about the root of all evil which is MONEY. Still though if you pay to rent you should get a decent BD copy formatted well.

[FlipperWasIrish]

Originally Posted by Dwayne

Its bull-crap and I cannot stand it either. All of these damn rental versions "and some store bought versions" have alot of this crap on them. Yeah they want you to go buy the real title but anyone that does that is usually going to buy it before renting anyway. All BD companies need to put a little more thought in the formatting of the rental versions but something tells me they will not. Its all about the root of all evil which is MONEY. Still though if you pay to rent you should get a decent BD copy formatted well.

If you rent you will get a copy of the movie on the disc.

If you buy you will (usually) get a better disc layout.

And you're correct, MONEY is the driving force behind this and always will be.

[OrlandoEastwood]

Originally Posted by sebasd5

Examples of this that I can remember so far are Inception, Red and more recently today, Clash of the Titans. The latter was especially aggravating, because at one point I accidentally hit the stop button instead of pause, and like we all know, thanks to some idiot who convinced all the studios that BD-J is better than BDMV, if we stop playback we can't resume the movie where we stopped like we've been doing since the time of VHS tapes and DVDs. Someone should tell these idiots that people do not want to wait for the stupid Java menu to load when menus authored in BDMV load in a snap.

Not a Warner Bros title.

[WJWS Channel 13:Amity]

Originally Posted by sebasd5

If anyone from WB Home Video is reading this, please take note. We movie watchers absolutely HATE these new rental versions of movies. I can't remember how many I've come across so far, but there have been a few, and it's extremely annoying.

I'm sure many people who rent Blu-Rays have already seen them: the discs have a lame design that only has the name of the movie, and it says "rental" on the bottom. When you put in the disc, you have to keep pressing fast forward to go through tons of movies trailers and other advertisements, and then put up with the stupid BD-J spinning disc or whatever other design the authoring house decided to put in there, and when the main menu finally loads, you get a simple "Play Movie" and "Languages". Any extras are taken away from the movie.

Examples of this that I can remember so far are Inception, Red and more recently today, Clash of the Titans. The latter was especially aggravating, because at one point I accidentally hit the stop button instead of pause, and like we all know, thanks to some idiot who convinced all the studios that BD-J is better than BDMV, if we stop playback we can't resume the movie where we stopped like we've been doing since the time of VHS tapes and DVDs. Someone should tell these idiots that people do not want to wait for the stupid Java menu to load when menus authored in BDMV load in a snap.

But besides that, since I hit stop and I had to go through all the ads again, I decided to take note of how much crap the person who rents Clash of the Titans has to go through before they actually get to see the movie.

1) The piracy warning
2) WB Home Video logo

So far no problem. But then:

3) Advertisement for the digital copy, something that most people don't use, and the ones who do are computer savvy enough to use it without having to see an ad for it.

4) Advertisement on how cool Blu-Ray is. Hey, studio suits, I'm renting a Blu-Ray, you don't need to sell Blu-Ray to me, I'm already sold on it!!

5) A trailer for the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans.

6) Advertisement for Clash of the Titans video game.

7) Trailer for "Me & Orson Welles"

8) Trailer for some Batman animated feature

9) Spinning disc to load the pointless Java made menu

10) Finally, the lame menu with only two choices: Play movie, and Languages. This one doesn't even have a standard scenes popup menu like 99% of movies.

This is extremely aggravating. During all this crap, you can't even press the skip button, or the top menu button. You have to wait for each of these things to load, and then frantically press ►►► to get to the end of the ad or trailer, then the next one loads, then press ►►► again to get to the end, then repeat the same thing 9 or 10 times until you reach the menu. Are you freaking kidding me? Are the studios looking to piss people off?? Because if that's their goal, they have achieved it greatly.

Part of me wonders if this is not done on purpose to kill the format and force people to move to a downloadable or streaming format instead of movies on a physical format. Because why on Earth, if they have two technologies to author Blu-Rays, BDMV, which loads menus in a snap, and BD-J, which takes forever to load menus and makes everything unnecessarily slow, they would use the slower one? And, are you going to tell me that there is really a technical barrier that makes it impossible for discs authored in BD-J to resume the movie at the same point it was stopped? Are you going to tell me that the blu-ray player can't save a simple timecode number such as 1:23:52;23 in its RAM and then resume play once the disc loaded the stupid BD-J menu?

And BD-J is annoying enough, but even more annoying is to have to go through endless ads and trailers just to get to the main menu, and also that we used to get the real thing when we rented movies and now we get these stripped down discs without any extras. That, to me, is pissing on the customer.

never a issue with me but then again I BUY and DONT RENT!

[SpaceDog]

Agreed that it's annoying - but I understand why WB would want to differentiate the rental experience from the ownership experience.
MOSTLY if I rent I'm renting to "just watch the movie". I typically don't get into a lot of bonus material unless I enjoy a film enough to own it anyway.