Bluray menus vs dvd

[jeffm2016]

I know this may be unrealistically possible but I hate how the dvds had great menus and now they are boring on bluray. Is there anyway to rip the dvd menu and place the hd movie in them to a digital file?

Or other solution.

I really liked having the menus and tons of extras (that didn’t make it to bluray in many cases) and would love anyway to merge them into one file to have or burn back to a recordable disk.

[Morsoth]

I don't think it's possible, unless you create your own Blu-ray with a new menu system...

The DVD era was really the best for movie enthusiasts! Many releases were collector items with lots of bonus material. The only downside was when a movie was released in Fullscreen only...

[Sage00]

Originally Posted by Morsoth

I don't think it's possible, unless you create your own Blu-ray with a new menu system...

The DVD era was really the best for movie enthusiasts! Many releases were collector items with lots of bonus material. The only downside was when a movie was released in Fullscreen only...

Ugh, I hated having separate releases for full screen and widescreen.
Sometimes I’d accidentally buy the full screen. Those were the dark times.

[drush9999]

The DVD age did move the mainstream over to OAR.

Anyway I prefer a simple menu, which is intuitive. I don't need to "think" how to get to a particular option. Blu-ray menus on the whole are better IMO

[rdodolak]

Blu-ray had much more elaborate menus in the early days, but most have reverted to plain menus since most consumers didn't care. It's a cost cutting feature.

[Akibiyori]

Nothing beats the menus on Warner DVDs for their classic film holdings - nice vintage, screen filling artwork. Warner Archive has sort of returned to that with their Blu-rays versus some of WHV’s old horrors (Meet Me in St. Louis) but the plain black bar with options kind of hurts the presentation.

For utility, though, fast and straightforward Blu-ray menus.

Nothing was worse than obnoxious, far too long animated menus in the early DVD era. Most you could skip but when you couldn’t...

[ElectricPeterTork]

Originally Posted by drush9999

The DVD age did move the mainstream over to OAR.

Just for films.

Over on the TV side, we inherited all the "NO BLACK BARS ON MY SCREEN! THEY STEAL MY SOUL" people who demand pre-2000s shows be cropped and zoomed to fit their screens, no matter how horrible it looks.

[SpartanJGE]

Originally Posted by Morsoth

I don't think it's possible, unless you create your own Blu-ray with a new menu system...

The DVD era was really the best for movie enthusiasts! Many releases were collector items with lots of bonus material. The only downside was when a movie was released in Fullscreen only...

Couldn't agree more... DVD was really the best era for collectors and what really made collecting popular. It seemed like there was a lot care put into the overall presentation for a lot of releases. I started with VHS when movie collecting really became a thing. And although, Blu has in many cases cheapened the overall package, you can't argue with the HD picture quality, and the growing popularity of the boutique labels that are doing great things with remasters for poor transfers and in many cases cooler packaging/menus...

[Hatter]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Blu-ray had much more elaborate menus in the early days, but most have reverted to plain menus since most consumers didn't care. It's a cost cutting feature.

I disagree about it being a cost cutting feature. The first time you see them its a feeling of this is so cool. After the novelty wears off, the plodding nature of getting through elaborate animated menus just becomes annoying. I look at the Buffy DVDs for exjample. Season 1 you wait forever as it moves through all these cg transitions. By season 5 you're relieved they simplified the menus to get around to watching the content quicker.

[CrazyBlu-RayFan]

1. DVD menus were getting boring before Blu-ray even hit big. Studios were clearly cutting costs regardless

2. I don't need unique menus that just delay me from the movie and bonus features. Don't need characters to talk to me, don't need clips of the movies, or any other stuff like this. Just give me a plain, easy to use menu without pointless interruptions.

3. I rather efforts for unique menus instead go to good transfers or bonus features.

[GeoffOliver]

Studios spent a lot of money on DVDs back in the day because they were simply a bigger deal. I prefer the more simple menus anyway. The elaborate animated menus are just too convoluted sometimes, and the animation sometimes took too long. The big releases like MCU movies still sometimes have those elaborate menus though.

[SeanJoyce]

I miss being able to hit a menu button and being taken right the page, as opposed to having to skip through 6+ previews.

[Professor Echo]

Just put a still or even better the poster artwork on the menu and stop with the clips which give away the whole damn movie before you even start watching it. Shame on Criterion for even sinking to this level (THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, et al.) and bravo to the Warner Archive who know how to keep it simple and eminently utilitarian. I don't need to see scenes and spoilers from the movie I am about to watch in order to want to watch it, dammit!

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by jeffm2016

I know this may be unrealistically possible but I hate how the dvds had great menus and now they are boring on bluray. Is there anyway to rip the dvd menu and place the hd movie in them to a digital file?

Or other solution.

I really liked having the menus and tons of extras (that didn’t make it to bluray in many cases) and would love anyway to merge them into one file to have or burn back to a recordable disk.

You'll be creating a lot of work for yourself for nothing, and I don't think what you want to do is possible anyway. Of coarse the DVD and Blu-ray menus are different because it's a different format. It will be a lot easier for you to just have the DVD and Blu-ray of the movie.

[SpartanJGE]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

I miss being able to hit a menu button and being taken right the page, as opposed to having to skip through 6+ previews.

Yes.

[edwoodjr]

While a lot of Blu-ray menus are less flashy than those of older DVDs, the programming of them can ofttimes be more complex, leading to a higher chance of failure (and that's not even taking into account compatibility issues that can occur from player to player.) So I can understand wanting to stick to a simple, tried-and-true template that withstands the typical QC process, as opposed to something more elaborate that creates issues. Aesthetics aside (and I respect that they matter for some), it's better to have a utilitarian menu that consistently works than a complicated disaster.

[rexcrk]

I would honestly have a much simpler menu than something overly complicated.

[voltz]

I've always hated trading out my DVD's for Blu-ray's when the Blu version became available. A few years into it we were getting the type of menus where they became a real part of the showcase media and did so much to compliment the films. Shrek for one had Donkey hopping around yelling "Pick me!" and others like Final Fantasy brought so much cgi to the interactive table, it was just crazy.

These days the studios would rather play a running loop while you go over your list of options. At least we're not back on looking at a static screen, but it's obvious the producers just don't care as much anymore and make a good effort to show it.

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by rexcrk

I would honestly have a much simpler menu than something overly complicated.

Blu-ray menus are not that complicated to navigate at all if you know the basics. They're very easy. The 4K UHD menus are easier.

[vortexx]

Originally Posted by jeffm2016

I know this may be unrealistically possible but I hate how the dvds had great menus and now they are boring on bluray. Is there anyway to rip the dvd menu and place the hd movie in them to a digital file?

Or other solution.

I really liked having the menus and tons of extras (that didn’t make it to bluray in many cases) and would love anyway to merge them into one file to have or burn back to a recordable disk.

It can be done but you would need to separate all the elements from the bluray and DVD onto your computer. Then you're pretty much going to be authoring a bluray almost from scratch. I've authored dvds with menus and submenus etc for movies that were getting released. It's quite time consuming and not fun. I would just keep both versions if I were you as it can take days to do and then you have to be your own beta tester and play everything to see if it all works. Not fun.