A Couple of B|tches

[Paden]

For the new year...

#1 - Yesterday I opened a new copy of "Secret Window" to watch with the wife as we waited for Dick Clark to come on. It had the triple security tape on the case. What is the DEAL!?!?! Even worse, it was that security tape that leaves sticky crap all over the outside of the case and if you're unlucky and a little of it got on the paper part of the jacket, it will tear it. This is completely unacceptable. I purchased a product they've designed to aggravate me and force me to damage on use. This disk, as with most of mine, came from Amazon. 90% of them don't have this issue but some do.

#2 - Advertising. I don't feel I should have to sit through 10 minutes of ads just to get to the movie. Disney seems to be most guilty of this. I realize I can use fast forward / skip forward but why is this crap even there! I'd gladly pay extra just to make sure I get a disk that boots to the damn MOVIE when I put it into the drive. They could create a different set of disks for rentals if they want. I don't have an issue with rentals having ads on them.

I understand this isn't limited to Blu (I had the same problem with DVD) but it's time we start demanding our money's worth. Do these manufacturers think they're bringing more people to our format by creating issues that piss people off?

Lastly, this may not be the time to mount a campaign against this stuff since we're in a war and want to bring more companies in. But this forum and others like it should be used in the future to push for more consumer-friendly packaging. I've seen others suggest we hold Warner to higher standards as to uncompressed audio when they go exclusive. I think we have a loud enough voice here (and through other internet forums) to expand our demands to include more companies and more matters.