Some thoughts about how the restrictions on DVDs hurt legitimate customers
Last week I bought a DVD. Or more specifically, 6 DVDs. It was the boxed set of 24, Series 3. And this week I finally got around to watching some of it.
This evening, I finished the 4th episode, and changed the discs, putting disc 2 into the drive. Skipping through the 20th Century Fox logo, I was happy to see it let me. It always irritates me how some DVD titles force you to sit and watch advertising, when you've already paid for the product. I don't know about anyone else, but when I buy a DVD, I generally buy it to watch the film. And when I want to watch something, I choose the DVD I want to watch, and I expect to watch the film. I consider my time to be something valuable, and I hate it when I have to sit through significant minutes of advertising, when I'd rather be watching the film. It's my DVD, it's my time. Why is it that the production company that made the DVD feels they have the right to dictate how I spend my leisure time?
Anyway, back to the second disc. On reaching the Main menu, I selected the "Play All" option. Again, I'd rather the episodes play back to back. I know I can stop or pause it where I like, and I don't like having to navigate through menus just to watch the next item.
Navigating through DVD menus would be a lot less painful if the authors of the DVDs didn't feel the need to put fancy transition clips between menu options. Sure, it looks nice the first time you play it. But as I'm sure you can appreciate, when you've seen the same transition 20 times (which for a series like 24 is _highly_ likely), it gets very very irritating. So I make a general rule of selecting "Play All" whenever I can.
When I selected the "Play All" option, for the second time today, I was presented with one of these "Warning, this DVD is for home use only" screens. Now, I appreciate the need for those. I agree that video piracy does exist, and that it's reasonable that movie companies take steps to reduce piracy. That warning sends a clear message that it's illegal to publicly screen the movie without a licence. Now, I have no intention of ever publicly screening my DVDs of 24. So it irritates me that I'm forced to sit through 20 seconds of the static notice on my screen. Trying to skip brings up a message saying "Not Permitted".
It irritated me when I couldn't skip that notice on the first disc of 24. It really irritated me when I couldn't skip it on the second disc. Surely 24 isn't one of those programs you just watch the odd episode here, and the odd episode there. It's a sequential thing. So surely it's fairly obvious that you've already had to sit through one lot of 20 seconds of the same notice. Why is it necessary that you sit through it again. Or at least make it so you can skip it on all discs but disc 1? I really don't get how those notices help reduce piracy.
The thing that has really got to me tonight is that my disc 2 is scratched. Now when I bought the set, it was boxed, and wrapped. And it got unwrapped today. The first time disc 2 had been removed from the box was to put it into the drive, to watch the episodes. Incidentally, checking the other discs also revealed that discs 3 and 4 were also scuffed and scratched. So the whole set is obviously defective.
Disc 2 played the 20th Century Fox trailer fine, and it played the DVD menu fine. It even started playing the warning about not publicly screening the DVD. But that's where it dies. And because of this stupid restriction, an insistence that I must sit through another 20 seconds of a notice I've already seen, about something I have no intention of ever doing, because of that, I can't skip past the scratched part of the disc, and actually watch some of the "movie" that I'd bought the DVD to watch.
So it could be said that as a direct result of the restrictions imposed on the DVD, I have been unable to actually watch the DVD. Or at least until I go back to the shop where I bought it, and get a replacement. But still the fact remains, that even when I get a working copy of the DVD, I will still have to sit through notices about not being allowed to do things I never had any intention of doing, just to salve some movie company's piracy policy. And of course, if the notices are typical of their piracy policy, surely that policy would do far more to inconvenience legitimate customers, than to discourage pirates?
I must admit, most of the time I'm watching DVDs that have these parts you cannot skip, I leave the room for a glass of water or a snack, while the notice is displayed. And if I'm typical of your average DVD buyer, then surely that's not encouraging in a world where we're meant to be aiming to be more energy efficient? How does deliberately adding things to DVDs that people avoid watching, or watch under sufferance actually sent out a message that we should be turning TVs off when we're not watching them.
Just some food for thought. Incidentally, this is about the digital protections on current generation DVDs. From what I've read, the next generation of High Definition DVDs will be even more restrictive, including locking themselves to a single DVD player when first played. Surely pirates would be happy for the DVD to be locked to the player they use to copy the film. Surely legitimate customers like me that have different DVD players in different rooms (plus a laptop) will be inconvenienced? So how is it targeting piracy?
I'm starting to think that in the future, I won't buy DVDs. I'll wait until films come onto the TV, and record them there, including the adverts, so that the revenue from the film has been clearly earned.
This evening, I finished the 4th episode, and changed the discs, putting disc 2 into the drive. Skipping through the 20th Century Fox logo, I was happy to see it let me. It always irritates me how some DVD titles force you to sit and watch advertising, when you've already paid for the product. I don't know about anyone else, but when I buy a DVD, I generally buy it to watch the film. And when I want to watch something, I choose the DVD I want to watch, and I expect to watch the film. I consider my time to be something valuable, and I hate it when I have to sit through significant minutes of advertising, when I'd rather be watching the film. It's my DVD, it's my time. Why is it that the production company that made the DVD feels they have the right to dictate how I spend my leisure time?
Anyway, back to the second disc. On reaching the Main menu, I selected the "Play All" option. Again, I'd rather the episodes play back to back. I know I can stop or pause it where I like, and I don't like having to navigate through menus just to watch the next item.
Navigating through DVD menus would be a lot less painful if the authors of the DVDs didn't feel the need to put fancy transition clips between menu options. Sure, it looks nice the first time you play it. But as I'm sure you can appreciate, when you've seen the same transition 20 times (which for a series like 24 is _highly_ likely), it gets very very irritating. So I make a general rule of selecting "Play All" whenever I can.
When I selected the "Play All" option, for the second time today, I was presented with one of these "Warning, this DVD is for home use only" screens. Now, I appreciate the need for those. I agree that video piracy does exist, and that it's reasonable that movie companies take steps to reduce piracy. That warning sends a clear message that it's illegal to publicly screen the movie without a licence. Now, I have no intention of ever publicly screening my DVDs of 24. So it irritates me that I'm forced to sit through 20 seconds of the static notice on my screen. Trying to skip brings up a message saying "Not Permitted".
It irritated me when I couldn't skip that notice on the first disc of 24. It really irritated me when I couldn't skip it on the second disc. Surely 24 isn't one of those programs you just watch the odd episode here, and the odd episode there. It's a sequential thing. So surely it's fairly obvious that you've already had to sit through one lot of 20 seconds of the same notice. Why is it necessary that you sit through it again. Or at least make it so you can skip it on all discs but disc 1? I really don't get how those notices help reduce piracy.
The thing that has really got to me tonight is that my disc 2 is scratched. Now when I bought the set, it was boxed, and wrapped. And it got unwrapped today. The first time disc 2 had been removed from the box was to put it into the drive, to watch the episodes. Incidentally, checking the other discs also revealed that discs 3 and 4 were also scuffed and scratched. So the whole set is obviously defective.
Disc 2 played the 20th Century Fox trailer fine, and it played the DVD menu fine. It even started playing the warning about not publicly screening the DVD. But that's where it dies. And because of this stupid restriction, an insistence that I must sit through another 20 seconds of a notice I've already seen, about something I have no intention of ever doing, because of that, I can't skip past the scratched part of the disc, and actually watch some of the "movie" that I'd bought the DVD to watch.
So it could be said that as a direct result of the restrictions imposed on the DVD, I have been unable to actually watch the DVD. Or at least until I go back to the shop where I bought it, and get a replacement. But still the fact remains, that even when I get a working copy of the DVD, I will still have to sit through notices about not being allowed to do things I never had any intention of doing, just to salve some movie company's piracy policy. And of course, if the notices are typical of their piracy policy, surely that policy would do far more to inconvenience legitimate customers, than to discourage pirates?
I must admit, most of the time I'm watching DVDs that have these parts you cannot skip, I leave the room for a glass of water or a snack, while the notice is displayed. And if I'm typical of your average DVD buyer, then surely that's not encouraging in a world where we're meant to be aiming to be more energy efficient? How does deliberately adding things to DVDs that people avoid watching, or watch under sufferance actually sent out a message that we should be turning TVs off when we're not watching them.
Just some food for thought. Incidentally, this is about the digital protections on current generation DVDs. From what I've read, the next generation of High Definition DVDs will be even more restrictive, including locking themselves to a single DVD player when first played. Surely pirates would be happy for the DVD to be locked to the player they use to copy the film. Surely legitimate customers like me that have different DVD players in different rooms (plus a laptop) will be inconvenienced? So how is it targeting piracy?
I'm starting to think that in the future, I won't buy DVDs. I'll wait until films come onto the TV, and record them there, including the adverts, so that the revenue from the film has been clearly earned.