I have watched Ben Hur on a 20" TV which is 2:35 to one. They did a very nice transfer and did well on the sound. I sit 11 feet from the TV. Imagine the size of it? Pretty small. And yet I was totally engrossed in the movie BECAUSE it showed the WHOLE movie, no P&S.

It wouldn't have been the same on a 36" TV in P&S. I would not have enjoyed it anywhere near as much.

Letterboxing is like we Canadians getting used to the metric system. Some got used to it very quickly. Some it takes a generation before they are used to it.

GregoriusM, do you have a cat? Take the ring off the milk bottle and throw it to the cat. They love those things. It's weird, actually, but they'll chase it around and attack it all day long.

ab

There are several factors at work here, and I think it's important
not to mix them up. I hope I don't make this message board explode.

DVD Format Problems

The DVD format itself has some problems. The biggest one is that
I think it's short-sighted. Standards used to aim a lot higher
than current technology. The DVD standard aims for the present,
and it's going to cause trouble sooner than later.

My biggest gripe with the format itself is that it doesn't scale
up for a number of reasons. Multiple disc sets or two-sided discs
don't have any automatic way to move from one disc to another if
the machine will do it. Double-sided players are apparently against
the rules. (If not, why won't my 909 do it?)

Similarly, there's not much that can be automated because the
content of the disc can change its behavior so much. Multi-disc
players (especially the very large ones) could do a lot more if
they could rely on consistency disc-to-disc.

My second gripe is really with HDTV, but I'll spread the blame
around. We need one TV standard, and DVD was a missed opportunity
to bootstrap that. With the addition of region codes (I know, I
know, my player is region-selectable too), they don't need the
artificial boundary to maintain distribution control. Audio CDs
work worldwide, and DVDs should be closer than they are to universal.

Third would be the idea of flexing and changing the standard.
Sorry, kids, once the gate's open, it's too late. DVD Audio is a
dumb idea. The DVD Video standard does audio just fine. If discs
were standardized better, you wouldn't need to have a monitor
attached to play them at least as well as CDs.

DVD Authoring Problems

Many DVDs are poorly authored, which can hurt in a lot of ways
(more on that when we get to players). It is not only crucial that
care be taken when doing this, it's not that hard, guys.

What do I mean? For starters, make sure the subtitles and audio
tracks are labeled with the proper languages. I've got a lot of
discs that do this wrong, and it makes it impossible to build the
Ultimate Disc Player.

Ditto weird menus and "hidden" things. That might've been cute
the first dozen times, but grow up already.

Bad layer changes are a disease, and just laziness on the part of
the disc makers. They need to have more pride in their work.

I could rant about this all day, but I already do that on my own
DVD web pages. Let's just say I'd like to see people make sure
their discs are as good as they can be.

Content Problems

Don't buy DVDs without extra features. Just don't. If I'm not
going to get more out of a disc than I'd get watching the movie on
HBO, I'm not interested. Of course I want a lot of stuff that
never comes on HBO, so I buy more, poorer discs than I should.

No freaking ads! If I meet the guy who greenlighted the Sixth
Sense disc, I'll make him eat it. I'm serious. Put all the
trailers you want on a disc, but don't force me to watch them.
Ever.

No multiple versions. Period. I don't want to see a separate
widescreen and pan and cram version. Make one disc. I don't care
how many versions are on that disc, but only make one disc. The
market is too small to fragment. Believe me, it's been done on
LD. Don't do it again.

Don't make your computer content OS-specific. Do all you can with
a web browser. Better yet, put it in the video part of the disc
so I don't need a computer at all. My oldest (and it's almost the
oldest) LD is over twenty years old. If I still have my DVDs in
twenty years, I don't want to have to go to a museum to use their
"high tech" content.

Marketing Problems

The end-user price of DVDs bought online has risen over the last
year. Just comparing what I paid for the three "X-Files" boxes
convinces me of that. Their MSRP was identical, but the price went
up ten bucks each time- and I shopped around pretty hard.

The good news is that the prices at retail stores have been dropping.
(In fact, I bought the third "X-Files" box at Best Buy.) Some places
like Suncoast will still ream you, but the larger chain stores are
taking a bite out of them.

I don't know where else to put it, so I'll stick it here: all DVDs
need to be sold in replaceable plastic boxes. If a box breaks, I
can transfer the disc and liner to a new box and it's good as new
(maybe better if it has a lousy disc nipple thing). All those
cardboard things bite big time. Have we forgotten that the jewel
case was as instrumental to the success of CD as the disc itself?
Putting a tough disc in a weak box is dumb, bad, and wrong.

(And here's a good use for computer files: stick a PDF of the liner
art on the disc so I can print a new one if I mess mine up. That'd
rock.)

Player Problems

There is so much players could do that they don't. It's mostly
because we can't trust the discs.

One poster said that that subtitles should default to off. Wrong.
You should be able to set the language you want to use and whether
you prefer subtitles or a dub (or always want subtitles regardless)
and it should figure it out from the languages the disc says it
can do. Won't work because so many discs are done wrong, but it's
the Right Thing to do.

Ditto my earlier comments about multi-volume and double-sided
packages. My Exorcist disc keeps telling me to flip the
disc over. Do it your damm self, double-sided combo player. My
Abyss disc tells me to go to the other disc. Do it your
damn self, changer!

Menus confuse Granny or the kids? You should be able to tell your
player to just start playing the movie when you put a disc. Too
bad you can't because there's no guarantee it's where you'd expect
it (uh, Title 1, maybe? Not always). It'd be nice if the "Play"
button on the remote always started the movie playing too.

Personal Problems

People whining about not being able to tape DVDs are really missing
the bus. I don't like Macrovision, and I do make tapes of trailers
and things, but, this is a restriction I could live with if I had
to. I buy things on disc explicitly because I don't want
to watch them from tape.

(And this from a big proponent of the Home Recording Act. They'll
come and take my studio away and revoke my artistic license any
day now, I'm sure.)

Overall, I like DVD, but after two years, I don't love it as much
as I'd hoped. Having used LDs for years, I know what needed to be
improved from them, and DVD only does about half of it- and a lot
of it only half way.

ab

Yeah, ditch those crappy cardboard boxes. Don't save the environment from plastic on my behalf. What did George Carlin say? God put man on Earth to make landfills full of non-biodegradables and plastic? Hey, Sting, you can keep your biodegradable CD boxes as well. I guess you figure a lot of people will eventually throw away your CDs and then the boxes won't hurt the environment, only the CDs will.

A Braunsdorf,
Right on! I couldn't of said it better myself! Too bad when they do make a DVD advancement, like double-sided automatic play or support for multi-DVD drives, your DVD player won't be able to do it because it will most likely rely on new hardware and your movies won't do it, because they'll need new encoding.
How hard is it for them to think of all that is required in the future, and make a player and DVD that can do it now. I mean, didn't they think when they made the very first DVD that multi-DVD players would ever be made? Or double-sided players? But instead they act like, Uh Oh, a movie on 2 dvds...what do we do now! We never thought of that! Come on...
As proof of how they screwed up the DVD format, just try to find any player that can reliably read the TITLE info off a DVD. It can't, because it was never standardized!!! So some display the title, others display crap. Now how dumb was that!! A 9 year old could of come up with a better standard. DVD format sucks!!

I've never really bought the environmental argument against jewel cases. I've got hundreds of CDs, and I think I've thrown away zero discs (that'll probably change now that I'm burning more), and only about two jewel cases.

Compared to the other plastic I've thrown away, it's down in the noise. I'm way more worried about two liter Mountain Dew bottles. (The city allegedly recycles those here. I hope so, I dutifully sort them out.)

Also, the plastic they make CD cases out of has gotten softer (the hinges certainly break more easily) and apparently more photodegradeable (I've seen more of them discolor), so I don't know how bad it really is.

ab

FBI WARNING tip: Press Stop on the DVD player before the movie starts to play. I created a button with a macro on my Pronto that jumps to title 1, chapter 1. This will work with most movies.

My DVD player automatically starts playing when it is powered up, so I added a Stop command to my macro that turns on the DVD player. It's worked great so far.

Seems like I've also had luck pressing the chapter skip button on some warnings that disable the menu button.

Really, this discussion isn't that difficult. EVERYTHING has flaws. Right now DVD is the best format. There is nothing better. So quit your whinning and enjoy what you've got.

Has anyone mentioned "VIDEO 2000"?

Aaron's comment is a good one. A play command and followed by a stop command is also a great "discrete on" for (so far in my experience) ALL DVD players. I've only seen Panasonic and Sony with actual discrete power commands (and I don't sell either). Follow that "DVD on" command with a "power" command (after a short delay) and you have a universal recipe for "DVD off". The only glitch is that when you run an "all off" your player will come on, say "hello" and the "bye" and shut off.

Chris, you're missing the point. There are things that can be done to make DVD work better, and we need to encourage manufacturers to do them- and to discourage them from doing things contrary to them. I'm not complaining (much) that DVD is flawed, I'm complaining that DVDs are- that the people who are making them are making mistakes that they shouldn't.

There are also probably people here (I'm here, so that's one) who are working on DVDs of their own. I've got my own checklist of pitfalls to avoid, and I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who isn't eating up whatever crap they serve.

I think the problem is that most people are overwhelmed coming to DVD from VHS rental or whatever that they're willing to overlook a few things because they've got low standards. I'll cut some slack to the DVD producers, but not a heck of a lot.

I'm not asking for an overhaul of DVD Video (though I'm sure it's coming because of HDTV and content control issues), I'm mostly asking for people to just use it properly.

When you make a master that's going to be reproduced hundreds of thousands of times, you should make damn sure there aren't any easily correctable errors on it. Many vendors aren't being that careful, and they shouldn't be rewarded for being careless. On the contrary, they should be held up to ridicule and scorn. Consumers deserve better. Don't we?

ab

I would have to agree with Chris

I would definitly agree with Mr. Braunsdorf. Without pushing for better, we'd all still be riding horses.. And yeah, I can skip some warnings too... I still smile when I can!!

Just be glad you horse runs....and stop all your whinning. Nah, I'll whine thank you.

That has been educational reading and as a new DVD exponent it reminds me of the lesson I have learnt in life - everything needs to evolve. And a great way to become noted is to write a STANDARDS protocol.
So, some of you out there are producing DVDs. GREAT! Also write a document that captures the DOs and DONTs. The industry and the public - like me - will be grateful, and Hollywood will even do a movie about you.
And for the record, I agree with the complaints on in-consistency, content that is a waste of space or to summarise, poor usage of the Video/Audio experience. But, I think the production of a DVD is a big project and some people just can't manage big projects.
Keep whipping up a storm. DVD can only get better.