My amazon shipment of Night of the Comet DVD just arrived loose and scratched all to hell, and I got to say, that sucks too. Why is it always the DVDs you want the most that get damaged in shipment?
I agree with everything listed here but I'd like to add something that might not be as important for other posters... NO SUBTITLES. A lot of my movies will never be screened in front of my girlfriend so I have two options: Watch them in bed or watch them on my days off while she's at work. If I'm watching them in the bedroom, I usually turn the sound down (especially on action movies) and switch subtitles on. If the DVD is from Blue Underground or Anchor Bay, as a lot of my DVDs are, no can do. It gets frustrating sometimes, especially when I really want to watch a particular film I just bought (for example, Vigilante).
I hate that after I purchase a movie and get it home when I start to watch it I am greeted with an advertisement telling me that copying movies is stealing, yadda yadda yadda....and I can't fast forward thu it or skip it. thats REALLY pisses me off.
#1: Loose DVD's in cases. DVD keepcases are a step-back in technology if you ask me. At least with good 'ol ancient CD jewelcases, if the spindle breaks then the disc almost never has far to go to actually get scratched or scuffed up inside. With DVD's on the other hand... if the disc gets jarred loose in the case, it goes everywhere. #2: Cover art misaligned so that the security seals rip the covers. I've devised a way to minimize this recently... leave the security seals intact on the (bottom or top) wherever they are misaligned and appear as though they might rip the covers upon removal. Next, lay the case down spread-eagle and pull the cover ever so gently "up" and out of the case, whichever way (bottom or top) is unaffected by the misalignment. This seems to gently pry it loose from the security stickers with minimal damage. Of course, this depends on the security sticker used too, as some seem to be made with "sticker glue" than others. :eek1: Hmmm...I could probably just shoot a video of how to do this in an easier way to understand! :eek1: I dislike practically every other complaint as well... but those two piss me off the most! If you have a Walmart nearby that stocks the DVD, try to return it and they'll probably just switch it for you. I've done it before without a receipt and had no problems. A lady that I know working there informed me that she'd do that anytime, as long as it's an exchange for the same title. The defective disc goes back to the studio one way or the other anyhow. :evil:
#1: No Insert! I really hate that all the studios seemed to have dropped printing nice (or even crappy) inserts with a chapter listing or essays or whatever. This especially annoys me when I buy something like older Dr. Who episodes ... 20+ dollars and all you get is the disc. Grrrrrrr. #2: Security Seals Honestly! Is it really necessary to have !three! stickers to keep the case closed when it's already shrink wrapped? This especially annoys me on any older dvd where the sticky of the sticker is old and sticks to the case. Also annoying with any of those cardboard snapper cases. Good luck not peeling some of the art off as well. :fire:
You can basically thank shoplifters for that. And do they even use security stickers much outside of North America? I don't recall ever having any included on the cases of import discs that I order.
The first UK DVD I ordered wasn't even shrink-wrapped. When I asked a British chap on another board about it, he said they keep all the discs behind the counter, and all the cases on store shelves are empty.
Hate everything involving security seals. I've never had much problem with loose discs. As far as what's on the disc....too many stupid disclaimers [especially if you can't skip them] and menus that give away parts of the movie are big ones. And I think captions should be mandatory. There is no reason to not have them.
Security seals. It's so idiotic, you can zip through those things in a second with a razor blade - the time consuming thing is trying to neatly remove them. If you wanted to steal a disk, it would take longer to get through the shrink-wrap than those f'ing seals. Also, spindles that hold the disk so tight that you practically have to break the thing in half to remove it. The Farscape DVD's are ludicrous. And why are half the slots along the disk blocked off so you can't get your fingers under there to pry it out? I hate all those stupid notices you have to watch before the movie as well. Like, gee, I was going to run off 1,000 copies of this disk and sell them on Ebay, but now that I see there's an FBI notice on there, I guess I won't. Trailers and all that other crap before the movie piss me off as well. Put the trailers under the "Trailers" option on the menu, thank you very much. And put the menu options in a damned column - I hate trying to figure out if I should use the up or down button to choose the option to the left or the right. Loose disks are a problem too, but I guess I've been lucky. Some disks I've gotten brand new off the net have been all scratched to hell, but they still played perfectly.
Audition is a good example of this. Too much artwork of Eihi Shiina with rubber gloves and bib and either a syringe or garrote, so you know where this movie is heading. Also, as a bit of a recycling nazi, I hate slipcovers in general but more specifically slipcovers that merely reproduce the front and back artwork of the DVD cover. Why bother? It's just more wasted packaging.
I hate everything listed here but have gotten around them one way or another. Residue from stickers - Goo-Gone. Also works for the shrinkwrap on the spine. Off-placed inlays - go through every disc in the store (while shaking them to make sure none are loose) to find one set right. Un-skipable trailers, warnings, etc. - I must've bought a great player as I can get around the trailers on every disc I own but one porn (first try FF, then skip, then menu, then title menu). Some FBI warnings stick, but the "steal a car" or trailers never do. I don't mind the slipcases except when they are the exact same as the cover. Ones that are embossed or have shiny shit don't count as exactly the same IMO. I keep all of them. I'll add one more that slightly annoys me - When the title strip on top won't come off in one piece. Ever since getting a disc off ebay that had the title strip removed and stuck inside behind the chapter card, I got in the habit of doing that myself. On lots of new titles this strip will break into pieces when I try to take it off.
damn, that is a pretty good list.. every time i read an option i thought "yep, definitely this one, but let me read the rest to see if there are any that are more annoying.. so in summation, they're all fucking annoying.
For me, it's opening a brand new dvd to find it scratched or cluttered with fingerprints leading me to believe it has been resealed. This has happened to me a few times with Anchor Bay dvds. The unskippable trailers and disclaimers are a big pain in the ass too. The never ending ones on the WWE dvd series are the worst-'Bodies have been bruised, no matter what you do, don't try this at home'. Hitting the menu or stop button does nothing at all.
The Shriek Show disc menus are annoying how they have the warning, plus the outer space Media Blasters logo, then the Shriek Show teeth and "scream," plus that red curtain and rareflix.com (?) By the time the menu comes, I've half forgotten which movie I was about to watch!
sometimes if you completely stop the dvd from playing during those non-skippable ads, then hit play, it'll start the main program. i've had success with that on quite a few dvds. my pet peeve is the residue stickers leave. fortunately i have some liquid remover (can't think of the name off hand) that works extremely well.
Oh, good one!!! I feel the same way: what's the fucking point?! Just make the cover art shiny if it's that important.
