Satya's blog - Movie DVD rants

Nothing like starting off the new year with a rant, eh? Ya know what "grinds my gears"? You buy/rent a DVD, you spend money on it, and then you're faced with ads that you can't skip or fast-forward. I really don't need to see 10 seconds of FBI warnings (I bought/legally rented the damn thing, didn't I!? and criminals aren't going to be put off by a warning!), 20 seconds of ::BOOM::THX!::CHORD:: and studio animations. EVERY SINGLE TIME I play the DVD! And if it's a rental that skips and stops, I have to go through that stuff AGAIN when I stop it, pull it out, clean it, and put it back!

(Sidebar: To the people who make the menus on DVDs, do you realise that the transitions and the menu sound bites are nice and cute the first time, but start getting in the way the second time around and are FREAKING ANNOYING the 20th time!)

And you know what else? Suppose you buy a movie and bring it home and play it and it has all this stuff on it. So you try to return it. Guess what? You can't return it if it's been opened! Even if it can't be played! Suppose you buy a computer game and don't like it. (Mall Tycoon, I'm looking at you here!) Well, guess what, you're SOL! Suck it up! That'll teach me to do the right thing and actually *buy* my stuff *legally*!

Update: And that's assuming your new DVD or CS didn't bring with it some spyware or rootkit masquerading as copy-protection.

Last updated: Jan 02 2006 12:14