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Consumer Friendly (or Disney Hostile) DVD Players?
solli asks: "After 13 years of relatively faithful service my Mitsubishi(!) VCR has finally kicked the bucket, and I am now thinking of moving on to DVDs. One of the only things preventing me from buying a DVD is the fact that some media companies like to make you watch FBI warnings, trailers, and ads before allowing you to view the actual movie (like Disney's Tarzan). Of course, there is such a large demand for region free players and other specialized needs that niche markets have developed to fill that demand. However, I have seen nothing about players that give you the freedom to navigate through the disk the way you want to, instead of how the content producer wants you to. What DVD players exist that let the viewer take full advantage of the nonlinear properties of the DVD media? Can any of the available players ignore the directives embedded on-disk to disable certain controls at particular times?"
You can always try picking up one of the old APex AD 600 Players. Macrovision disabled, Region free.
god i remember the good ol days of flipbooks.....all you had to do was open to the desired page, and start the movie from there.......no ads, no feds, no nothin......course, there was no sound either, but the movies didn't really need it then anyways.
I have heard people bitch about this all the time but the dvd player on my pc never makes me watch trailers and i just hit the skip ahead 5 seconds thingy for the fbi warning...
Some software players, particularly non-commerical ones like IFOEDIT, or some of the open-source players that have appeared, let you toggle ignoring the bits that prohibit user operations (like FF/skip) at places like the FBI warning. Yeah, it's a slight hassle having to hook your PC up to a TV, but I don't know of any standalone units that have this feature.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Just about all PC Based DVD players (such as WinDVD) let you navigate scene by scene.
Don't know about hardware stand alone versions tho.
Exactly how lazy are you that you cant wait an additional 12 seconds for the FBI warnings to scroll by? Use that valuable time to pick your nose I say.
I hate to say it, but a PC is a lot more flexible than a consumer DVD player... I'd go with the PC on this one... I doubt you will find too many DVD players that will allow you to skip the warnings... heck, even on the PC, you have to get hacked software to do it...
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
These guys supply premodded DVD players, I bought my Panasonic from here last Christmas. Apart from the long delivery time, they were perfect.
Mine has the fastforwarding through trailers/warnings, region free, and is demacrovisioned.
They also have the option that (if you're a bit scared of soldiering inside your new £400 gadget like me) you can send them your DVD player and they'll chip it for you, of course if they screw up they pay for it (when I bought mine at least, may have changed now).
those 10 seconds of fbi warnings are so costly aren't they. and as for Trailers the only one who does that is the disney companies and even then just hit the next button 2-3 times. besides there really isn't any "better" way to access content on a dvd.
While this may not be a standalone DVD player {though with the remote it's pretty close.
.. can also select different soundtracks and such.
But the ATI DVD player lets you go to a particular track without messing with the currently playing video.
Seems organized by track and index -- those two sets of numbers on most DVD players
For those times when the DVD authoring shop chose to lock soundtracks into those selected at the menu. -My Sony DVP-530A does this sometimes-
Dear Slashdot...I just turned 16 and I really need to find a road that does not have speed limit signs.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Some sony players can be flased with a modified firmware that disables region coding and the UOPs.
Here is a page with a patch for the firmware of the Sony DVP-S7000 DVD Player.
Jan
I'd tell you, but then the DMCA would require me to kill you.
Look, the "content producer" spent millions upon millions of dollars so that you can enjoy their content in your home for cheap. The least you could do is view their warnings and such.
Any player will let you fast forward and skip chapters as you want. Unfortunately it's the media company that forces you to watch trailers, warnings and other such drivel. THe warnings are on a lot of disks. The trailers and ads are only on a few discs. You can always use that time to go get a drink or something.
Right, 'cause people today have a real hard time getting over Pearl Harbor...
Let's face it, this is a generation that barely acknowledges that things like the Vietnam War or the rise of the Khmer Rouge took place. I don't think anyone under 55 is holding any grudges.
Of course, I have had my player about 2 years at least.
Here
The above post is an editorial, the poster cannot and will not be held responsible for all or in part for it's contents
they hate Disney.
Yes and that has been going on for as far as I can remember, not a DVD thing.
Analytic & algebraic topology of locally Euclidean meterization of infinitely differentiable Riemmanian manifold
Go here: Videolan Client.
:-) format videos, and is just, in general, a great moving-video playback device.
Works under MacOS X, Windows, and Linux. Does DeCSS automagically. Somehow always starts playing the movie immediately, skipping over the annoying FBI commercials and lame pre-movie commercials.
Does subtitling, plays flawlessly under Linux, is GPL, plays DivX
As another poster pointed out, hardware players are a crapshoot, but VLC is just about guaranteed.
fifth sigma, inc.
Don't forget joe lieberman leader in taking away your right to defend yourself with firearms as well as censoring the video game industry to "save the children".
He takes all that's bad about democrats and mixes it with all that's bad about religious conservatives and viola you get this rabid attack dog on the pro-israel lobbies leash.
Chuck Schumer is also under zionist control.
The DVDCCA license states that for region-coded disks, there must be one track that cannot be skipped. Most DVD publishers use that track for "required" legal verbage. Some place this chapter at the end of a movie, and use it to display the DVD authoring houses information. Some, like Disney, used it for advertising, and got quite a PR backlash for it. Newer Disney DVD's still have the ads, but have it as a seperate chapter so that you can skip them.
That information about which track is which is stored as a script file on the DVD. The players simply read and execute that script.
While it would be possible to do something like that (code something to skip required tracks), that same hack would break several of the fancier menu systems (Harry Potter extended DVD, etc.)
Just remember that changes always have consequences you may not be aware of. (The tester's motto)
RomSteady - I came, I saw, I tested. GamerTag: RomSteady / http://www.romsteady.net
OT: Yeah, most movies make you watch the FBI/Interpol warnings (why Interpol when the movies are region encoded?) But I LOVE the Simpsons DVD's, not only for great viewing material, but they also let you skip the warnings. Thank you Homer, er... Matt.
The way I avoid viewing trailers and warnings is by putting the disc in, hitting Play, and then unwrapped some microwave popcorn.
But, the Apex DVD players are cheap, available (Circuit City, Best Buy, WalMart, Sears, etc) and are modifiable to be consumer-friendly.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Pure rubbish. Clearly the product of a diseased mind.
Try the Apex AD-3201 which you can get for around 100. It has the hidden menu which will allow you to disable Region encoding and Macrovision settings, instructions Here. It is also a fairly good player and one of the few low-end DVD players that can truly handle all types of CDR media.
I bought one of the APEX DVD players, and I wouldn't recommend this as an option since they are problematic.
I have a PlayStation2 and purchased some software for it at www.codejunkies.com, which allows me to view movies from any region (and cheat on games if I wish to). I assume they still sell it.
Before this DVDs where away thirteen years strongly think up to now. That is many years for one vcr! I am suprised that it broke rather not completely as my!
Many disks can easily betrogen to become to play in order to jump over the whole intro FBI, which bad man does not copy this or held, by hitting the NEXT TITLE key fast, as DVD begin. I did this many times.
"Core overlay!" - Vic
....is a site that has lots of players
----- One piece short of Legoland
As my friend says: Even thought it takes less time to watch the FBI warnings on DVD's than it does to fastforward throught all the crap you get at the start of videos, its still somehow more annoying ...
You are seriously complaining about like, what, 30 seconds of time that the dvd spends on the fbi warning and a logo screen? I mean I would understand if you were complaining about 15 minutes of trailers that couldn't be skipped like in a movie theater, but less than a minute? The beginning trailers in a dvd can always be skipped (hint: try hitting the main menu button if next chapter doesn't work) so it's just those few seconds you lose.
It's like complaining about how long a microwave takes to heat up your poptarts in the morning... "Damnable microwave that's 10 seconds I will never get back!"
The Warning message isn't that long. Just pick up your copy of Reader's Digest or something and browse through it while you're waiting. Actually, you probably won't have time for even that. Use the time to microwave popcorn. Or even just spend the time in reflective silence.
:)
It won't hurt you to have to wait 30 seconds. If you have your schedule so tight that you can't even spend an extra 30 seconds, then you should force yourself to sit down and waste some time. You need it
-Brent
I would consider it fair use to rip out just the movie for any dvd I own so I do not have to mess with dvd spam. Pioneer dvr104s are getting nicely priced and there are many guides to help us out if you are having a problem ripping.
/. because I am still reading um-kay?
www.cdrom-guide.com has a section on dvds that contains a lot of information on making customer menus for your dvds and ripping out previews and other goodies.
Please do not kill them with too much of a
I remember when DVD's were first coming out and they kept talking about how you could program the order of chapters and include outtakes within the movie(among other things).
The only movie I have that was even close to this was T2... (giving you the choice of two versions of the movie).
Meanwhile, I would love to be able to program out the parts of movies that I don't like or edit together scenes that I want to see over and over again...
While were on the subject WHY DON'T THEY TURN UP THE VOLUME DURING COMMENTARIES????
Or better yet put the commentary on the left and the movie sound in mono on the right so that we can decide the right mix for ourselves...
sheesh
Jews? Arabs? Natvan? Are you a Palestinian or some prozac-deficient white trash?
Most of the low end DVD players are based on Zoran's chipset. WHile they have a few variations they seem to be pretty much the same.
Some can easily be changed to ignore region codes, or set to specific regions. Most support playing MP3s and atleast mine, always lets me skip a chapter.
While I can't fast forward past the FBI warnings I can hit the end of chapter button and skip it that way. Generally this gets me right the the credits...
Just go to the chapter menu and start watching from Chapter 1. The FBI warning's usually fixed between the main menu's play option and the first chapter. Skipping direct to the chapter usually skips the warning.
Try using a region free player and ordering your disks from the UK.
:-)
We have no FBI over here
At the main menu of most DVD there is a scene election. Just go there and select the first scene. You skip the ads,FBI warning...
I think that xine works with all locations, but I cna't get it to play more than the FBI warning on a dvd. It works great for mpegs.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Oh boy! The National Allience is here to voice their well-informed opinions. Next, the Klan will be leading a round table discussion on chhoosing the right Linux Distro.
to modify your player to bypass the FBI warning.
As assinine as is it that is the way it is...
Our government, looking out for their corporate controller's interests at our expense for 10 years now. With a track record like that how can you go wrong...
I have one, my sister has one, my neighbors bought one after I told them about it (they were also looking for one).
There is firmware available to make it Macrovision Free, Region Free, and RCE Immune(sp).
I did it to all three players, no problem.
Best part? They all work very well, and are dirt cheap ($60-80).
http://www.angryburrito.com/ The best, completely unfinished software review site ever.
A Disney executive, who asked to remain anonymous, acknowledged that the film didn't include a menu option for the ads and that the company has received complaints about it. However, the executive defended the ads as a benefit for consumers.
In business school these days, is it a prereq to take Corporate Lying and Spin doctoring 101 or something?
I mean the guy went so far as to insist on anonymity, but then almost as if it was reflex, had to throw that last bit in.
While I didn't think it was possible, but my opinion of Disney has just gone down yet another notch.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
The funny part is that you can't pause it; a lot of my friends have tried to read it to no avail (they're not computer-smart, btw), even though the message is a warning for those who would sit and read those warnings.
It's been discontinued for a bit, but Philips' DVD825/DVD825AT gladly allow you to fire up fast forward to skip through "remote lockout" content.
On the plus side, many of their other DVD players offer the same functionality. If there's a major company out there that's friendlier than most to consumers, it's Philips.
Wow. I feel spoiled. I haven't seen an FBI warning for so long because the only movies I watch are on DVD using ogle. Come to think of it, I don't really miss those warnings ...
I am getting ready to go overseas; and probably make a career transitioning between places, and some of the links to multisystem equipment and suggestions for the Apex DVD players are coming very much in handy right now.
I think with the interesting people, their lives can't possibly be wrapped up into a nice little package.
You can get a cheap HTPC (home theater PC) setup if you have a vid card with TV out and a software DVD player that can disable Macrovision and region encoding, but the quality is not up there. Personally, I'd recommend getting a Realmagic Xcard with remote from (www.sigmadesigns.com). It's a hardware MPEG-1/-2/-4 decoder, and it has S-video and digital coaxial sound output, and it comes with a S-video to component cable to free up an S-video input on your TV. I'd couple this with a nifty tool called Remote Selector (www.remoteselector.com) which makes the Xcard and other hardware DVD decoders region free, macrovision free, and disables user prohibition (I.E. skipping FBI warnings and studio intros).
...and I regularly piss with great force on your DMCA!
You're using her as bait, Master!
you've got it wrong, they cemented their monetary control of the US and THEN moved to Israel to begin taking over there...
Oh please, piss off and die. If your life is controlled by such a miniscule part of the world and US population, you deserved to get used.
I see a need for someone (how about GNU?) to write a nice DVD player on top of DeCSS, that runs on GNU/Linux, writing to the framebuffer, and talking to remote controls. Then, it would it relatively easy to build a DVD player out of an old PC, or one of those set-top PCs. All it would need is a DVD-ROM drive and a nice video card. And also some flash memory and solid-state cooling.
Whoohoo.
It's the fact that hardware I *bought* and the DVD I *bought* artificially limits my ability to use the media as designed. And against my will.
Okay, maybe some warnings are 12 seconds, but how long do you think it will be before there are more trailers and even must-watch commercials on DVDs? I've seen commercials on VHS, why not DVD? (Trailers ARE commercials, anyway.)
I like DVD's ability to pause, skip and jump in a random-access fashion (or I should say on-demand fashion).
Two things I HATE and am getting more and more irritated by daily:
1: Services that I pay for are forcing advertising upon me and/or harvesting my "consumer information" and using it against my desires (email spam, junk mail, telemarketing, etc..). Services include telephone service, internet service, cable TV, my grocery store and my credit cards. (For years I refused to get a store card, but now I moved and the only two close grocery stores have store cards; it's pay up, drive far or give in, and I gave in, put I'm pissed off about it and will switch in a second if something better comes by.) I understand some products and services (such as low cost ISP's , adware and broadcast TV) use these tactics to offer a lower-priced option to the consumer. If there's another reasonably-priced option and the terms are disclosed I'm okay with that. I've always paid more than the minimum for my ISP.
2: Products I legitimately buy intrusively warn me, nag me or inconvenience me with things like legal warnings and anti-piracy measures such as CD keys and copy protection. Frankly it's easier to install free (legitimately) or pirated software than it is to find *my* CD key whenever I reinstall.
Books don't have legal warnings beyond the copyright date. Print art has no warnings on it. My furniture and appliances don't warn me that I'll be sued if I use their design to build copies and sell them. Vinyl records didn't have warnings. Cassette tape (prerecorded or blank) didn't have warnings. My CD-R, CD-RW, VHS, VHS-C, 8mm, Betamax, DAT, TR-1, QIC-80, SanDisk, floppy disk and hard disk media didn't come with warnings. The movies in the theater have no warnings. By video and system BIOS don't have warnings. Why do VHS, DVD and software require intrusive and inconvenient warnings?
All of these work on some discs, but not all discs. Your results may vary, but they've all worked for me on various DVDs.
1. Hit stop twice and then hit play. This may bring you to the beginning of the movie.
2. Some "protected" sequences only protect against "fast forward" or "skip forward" but not both. Try both, and both menu buttons.
3. Some DVD players allow you to skip directly to the title and chapter of your choice. My Toshiba does.
4. Some DVD players allow you to disable the menus entirely (PBC off.) Again, my Toshiba does, and many HK players do too. Look in the config menu.
Hope these help.
I purchased an Apex AD-703 a little over a year ago and it was the best (and most lucky) purchase I've ever made.
What puts Apex above the rest is the ability to flash update the BIOS of the player. There are
many,
many resources for hacking the Apex BIOS. This includes a great utility that's been developed called
EZ Patch which allows users to create custom BIOS images for their APEX players. Among the many modules for EX Patch is the ability to make the player region free and the ability to bypass the "locks" on DVDs that keep a user from skipping over the previews and other such items.
The Sampo 631CF is easily made region-free and macrovision/GCMS-free. The problem you mention about navigating past or skipping the warnings etc. is generally called UOP for User OPerations. The Sampo can be easily patched to allow full user navigation control even when the dvd requests a UOP lock.
Plus, the Sampo has many other great features such as the ability to play PAL and NTSC discs to EITHER a PAL or NTSC TV. It can play CDs full of MP3 or jpegs. In fact you can even easily hook up a spare hard disk to store and play your entire CD collection (as MP3s or WAVs). Or just put your jpeg pr0n collection on it. And it even has a compact flash slot on the front so you can pop in your latest photos or MP3s without having to burn a CD. You can also easily replace the default background screens as well.
If you can burn a CDR, then you can hack the Sampo. The Sampo has a small but growing and enthusiastic user group. Everything you need can be found at, or linked from, area450.
Begin sarcasm;
Replace the FBI warning and the neverending trailers by a simple EULA screen giving you the right to screw us, our relatives, and our children's children's down to the fish pet for the next 10 generation to come, everybody will agree without reading and enjoy your movies.
Everybody wins. The consumer is happy with your product, and you guys can have a powerblast with your new rights over the american population and pursue your desecration of Disney's name and humble goals.
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
Everyone I know who's owned one has had it fall apart on them after a year or so. Stay far away from Apex players, if you know what's good for you.
They're cheap, cheap pieces of crap.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
I see it as a reminder that, sometimes, anonymous cowards are just that cowards. This guy can't summon up the courage to post his poisonous views under his own name.
those 10 seconds of fbi warnings are so costly aren't they.
...And just as necessary. Do we *really* need
a reminder, every time we watch a movie, about
all the rights we lack with respect to it?
I think we all understand the idea fairly
well...
How many audio CDs do you have that start each track with "Federal law provides severe penalties..." and won't let you FF through it? Zero? That about sums up *my* count, and yet, I *still* understand that copying CDs to give to all my friends breaks the law. Freaky, eh?
Honestly, though, the FBI warnings don't bother me so much as the damned ads. If I *buy* a movie, why do I have ads on it? Presumeably ads justify our "free" TV reception, so how do they belong on a DVD I purchase? *That* really pisses me off, and I would not even *consider* owning a player that honors a button lockout, forcing me to watch them.
besides there really isn't any "better" way to access content on a dvd.
Yes, actually, better ways *do* exist, which seems to me like exactly what the original poster here requested. I've seen a few comments on players that ignore software button lockouts, ways to rip-and-reburn DVDs to get right to the point, ways to just do it all in software with a DVI-out video card, and a host of other ideas. So yes, "better" ways *do* exist.
Personally, I back-up all my DVDs to MPEG4 (WITHOUT including the FBI warning and ads), then lose them in a drawer somewhere (the same drawer as my obsolete-physical-audio-CD collection, incidentally). They look better on my monitor than my TV anyway, and I have a million choices of players with more features than I could ever use. And, if I want to just watch one scene of a movie, I don't have to actually figure out where I left the disc, if I've loaned it to a friend, if the dog ate it, whatever. I have it on my file server, just waiting for me to watch it at the touch of a button. I pop it open, move the slider to the scene I want, and I've found and finished watching the scene I want in less time than I could have gotten the actual movie playing in a physical player.
hmm, wonder if this guy lost a job or academic place to some one who was far cleverer, and happened to be Jewish. Either that, or he has some shit job, so he's got plenty of time to be bitter at the civility of the rest of the world.
Ok This is off topic. but here is my feeling on the whole Israely\Palestine thing. Build One BIG HONKIN wall around the whole place and let the crazy bastards blow each other to smitherines. When you stop seeing smoke coming over the top we can think about tearing the wall down.
Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels.
You sound like a 16 year old who doesn't know what he (she?) is talking about.
I have an APEX-600 for a couple of years. I have the modded ROM in it, and it works great. No Macrovision, and it plays PAL VCD on an NTSC TV.
No problems at all.
And even if its junk after 5 years, who cares? That fancy SONY you bought is obsolete in 5 years and you'll dump it anyway.
I paid $150, you paid $450.
I have region free. You are locked in region 1.
You can't play VCD's. I can.
You can't play MP3 CD's. I can.
I win, you lose.
Nanny Nanny boo boo.
You Lose.
God, thats why I miss laserdiscs.... Same quality and ya skip right thru all that mess...... Smooth scannin forwards and backwards.... ahh those were the days....
I know America dropped LDs like hotcakes. Japan didn't. Japan still make LDs?
http://www.buymeahooker.com/
How do you hook your computer to your PC? That seems like it would be cool in many ways. Any help would be appreciated.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
Personally, I follow the following simple steps. 1. Insert DVD into player. Press "PLAY" if disc does not start automatically. 2. Go for a walk. Fetch drink and nibbles from kitchen. Close any windows/curtains to create the correct atmosphere. 3. Retrun to living room. 4. Press "MENU" button, then select "Play Movie". Voila - problem solved. Ad/Warning has been missed, and movie is ready to play. And you've probably got some much needed exercise in the process.
You mean like the cowardly industry exec in this article? Too bad that Slashdot AC's can't get Cnet to push their drivel on the public.
I have found that I really dont like the way DVD's play. I much prefer playing DiVX/MPEG from disk. I've ripped all of my DVD's (quite a lot) to DIVX, and just use a box hookup up to my TV to play them. I cant even tell the difference in quality (if you rip at the right quality level). I usually eat up between 1-2GB per movie, but its really worth it. I can seek in the file how I want, pause easily, and its great for quickly switching between movies, queue'ing them up for long-term viewing, etc. Its great for multi-disc movies, and it allows me to save a bunch of physical space. overall, very cheap. my only gripe is that it takes a bit of time to rip a disc, but you can easily queue 4 discs to rip overnight and ittl happen w/o a hitch. storage space is so cheap now, i just keep everything on my home nat/samba box with a bunch of disks.
For me, its the only way.
If you can stand the sight of a computer in your living room, ripping DVDs to Divx is an easy solution to avoiding region coding, Macrovision and ads/previews/copyright notices.
In my living room I've got an Athlon 1GHz with 256MB of ram, a 5GB hard drive (removed from an AOLTV box that was discontinued at Sears for $20), SB16 ($7 on eBay), a 10/100 RealTek NIC ($15), a wireless IR keyboard ($70) and a Radeon 7000 ($59 retail). While the Radeon 7000 has all the the 3D rendering capabilities of a block of asphalt, I chose it becase it has excellent video playback and TV-out quality. I'm sure if I wanted to spend more I could have gotten a Radeon with VIVO and put in a larger hard drive for Tivo-type functionality, but I digress.
The computer serves the purpose of playing back Divx files stored on a Samba server with gobs of storage. Whenever I get a new DVD, I rip it, compress it to Divx and upload it to the server. Yes, my entertainment center still includes a standard DVD player so I can watch DVDs right away if need be, but it's nice to know the originals are stored safely away and that I can watch the movies whenever I want without sitting through copyright notices or previews.
---
Siggy, siggy, siggy, can't you see? Sometimes your puns just irritate me.
That would be reasonable if the author was asking for it to IGNORE the segments marked as "MUST PLAY," but in this case it's a matter of ignore the ignore FF button and chapter skip code.
:)
In that case, you have an end human sitting there making the final decision. Want to watch the FBI intro? All works as normal. Doesn't want to watch it? Skip it. Chances are they'll leave the Harry Potter intro alone, as it's what they paid to watch. I don't pay the FBI anything, as a Canadian citizen, so I don't really care to see their warnings
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Weta were looking for geeks and artists alike a couple of months back....
and nobody gives a shit chess buttfucker
learn how to reply properly. idiot.
I purchased a Daewoo 5800 from Sam's Club for a whopping $89! Then I went to Nerd-out.com to get the iso file necessary to make it both Region Free and turn off Macrovision. It does indeed turn off Macrovision, but I haven't tested the Region Free. For what it's worth, some DVDs reject Region Free players, but this one doesn't allow that. Some other benefits: -A very nice mp3 player screen -Component and composit outputs -Coaxial digital out -Nice silver finish despite its cheap price Now, some people sell them on Ebay, after doubling the price, but really it is easy. The only negative on this player is the remote doesn't work unless it is aimed directly at the player. A simple fix is a good learning remote.
The best defense is a good offense. It is no wonder that Hitler saw fit to exterminate the Jew. I'm sure Hitler bore no animosity against any single individual Jew, but he realized that like a hive of dangerous insects, Jews as a whole should be exterminated. It is fair to say, Hitler was right on this score. No it's not politically correct, and you won't hear the pointy heads at the New York Times mentioning this fact anytime soon. However, the average Joe instinctively knows there is a problem with the Jew, and that someday this problem must be solved.
commie - bet you'd love to suck on Osama's balls...
Tarzan caused a minor PR backlash against Disney for forcing people to watch ads. I'm not so sure content providers will try that again. And if so, vote with your dollars and don't buy movies which force ads upon you.
That's what I do, anyway...
--Bradley
The firmware page has firmware for various DVD-ROMs to remove region encoding. Check out inmatrix for more information about firmware patches.
I've had my Apex for about three years now, still works just fine. It (model 600) uses a standard computer DVD drive, so if that ever breaks I'll just swap it out. I did open it up and put heat sink grease between the sinks and the two chips that run hot, and added a small CPU fan in there to help keep things cooler. Nothing your average slashdotter couldn't do.
-- Alastair
- 11 CFR 100.7(b)(2)
- 11 CFR 100.8(b)(2)
- 2 USC 431(9)(B)(i)
Wouldn't it be great if your favorite media company encoded the "required" track of a DVD with political propaganda? That way, we could pay for a strict 2 party system all the while being exempt from campaign finance laws!You can try some of the pro level DVD players. ... blah)
Pioneer makes an industrial DVD-player DVD-V7400 that sells for about $800-900.
It's badass in all the ways that it's almost wrong to have that much control and robustness.
It plays back both NTSC and PAL disks (region 1 only
Has PS/2 port so you can used keyboard/ mouse for player control.
RS-232C terminal connection for deck control. (yeah hook it up to your computer, write a control program, forget just skipping the fbi warnings. Watch movies in a totally different way.)
Video black board support, with mouse connected, so you can draw on your movies.
It has S video, YC component, coaxial Digital and Composit BNC or RCA out.
Touch screen support.
Hell, it even tracks and stores user selections!
We have a few of them at work, I've never used any player that badass before, I'm thinking about buying one soon for an video installation project, where I am hoping to write a program that will do some fun random access video playback through deck control.
But then again all that just to skip 12 seconds of FBI warning is a little bit on the over kill side, but you asked, and here's an option.
I have no idea what UOP stands for (User Operation Permittance? ). In any case, I think the latest hacked Sampo DVD Player firmware (also useable in most of the Apex models) includes a UOP hack. I'm running it on my Apex 660 and can skip directly to the main menu while the FBI warning (or all those friggin ads on the Disney discs) is up. It's WONDERFUL.
And of course, you can disable macrovision, play MP3s (with a much better menu than the original Apex firmware), display JPG images, hook up a hard drive or compact flash unit, play discs from any region, etc. Check out the Nerd-Out forums HERE!
Aside from the rebuttals already presented, with which I agree, also consinder that movie trailers don't exactly grow on you. So let's say I buy a movie.
....Two years later...
Tow hours after buying DVD...
Hey, look at all the new movie trailers! How interesting! No problem.
Dammit, every time I go to watch a movie, I have to watch movies that are being played on the Lifetime channel by now. *snore*...
Seriously, it's not like you only watch a movie once. If people are interested in the trailers (and many are), they'll watch. If not (or if you've seen it 1000000 times already), you won't. What's wrong with that?
I just picked up a Malata DVP-520. Great player. It is region free and you can set a region for the new discs that check. It does the best PAL to NTSC conversion of any player even close to its price ($250ish). A major feature of the PAL conversion is that it keeps the correct aspect ratio. It lets you zoom, stretch, pan, etc everything. It also plays MP3s, VCDs, and SVCDs.
I love it. Oh yeah, it's progressive scan too.
... what the deal is with region coding? I have never understood why the MPAA thinks it is so important to prevent me from viewing japanese or european DVD's. Why do they give a rat's ass?
I suppose it must, somehow, be a way of protecting their profits. But how? It's not like they make more money if I go buy a second, japanese DVD player so I can play japanese DVDs -- Sony or someone makes the extra dough, not hollywood.
All it means is that if I'm travelling overseas I can't pick up discs of local films and have any expectation of watching them when I get home. And I can't buy and watch discs of foreign-local films over the internet; if there's no US release I'm screwed and can't watch the movie. This means.... wait for it.... fewer discs sold. Sooo... how does this make sense?
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
According to the codejunkies web site: "This product is PAL compatible ONLY."
and "The DVD Region X (ps2) for United Kingdom is the only version currently available."
For PS2 in USA, the only DVD Region mod I've heard about is the Neo mod chips.
I've not used it myself, but read it here:
http://ps2modchips.com/charts/
--
jason
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Right, 'cause people today have a real hard time getting over Pearl Harbor...
Really now? I'm 26 and I absolutely hate the Japanese. If I see one on the street I will spit on their shoes. Thankfully I have enough restraint to stop myself from spitting in their face or cutting their throat. Never trust the Japanese as they are as shifty and dangerous as the Muslims. When your guard is down they will attack. We need to keep them under our thumb.
"Services that I pay for are forcing advertising upon me and/or harvesting my "consumer information" and using it against my desires (email spam, junk mail, telemarketing, etc..). Services include telephone service,"
/.ers will jump down my throat for saying it but I'm satisfied with EarthLink so far.
Get a cell phone and either ditch the land line entirely or put a fax machine on it to piss off any telemarketers that do call.
"internet service,"
A little research goes a long way when it comes to picking an ISP. I know about two dozen
"cable TV,"
The problem here is that you still have cable insteed of digital satellite. I don't know about where you live but here DirecTV is cheaper than Cox Cable. And I'm not even talking about digital cable here, just the basics. More channels, less money. Up-front costs? Sure, but nothing that won't pay for itself in a few months with that kind of cost savings...
Plus, you have two added benefits:
1.) You get to tell a state-mandated monopoly to shove their coaxial where the sun don't shine
2.) Gets rid of all those fucking annoying "Please don't switch to satellite!" commercials. The satellite folks don't have an inferiority complex when it comes to their competition...
"my grocery store and my credit cards. (For years I refused to get a store card, but now I moved and the only two close grocery stores have store cards; it's pay up, drive far or give in, and I gave in, put I'm pissed off about it and will switch in a second if something better comes by.)"
If you're talking about store credit cards, cash is always accepted.
If you're talking about "savings" cards, tell the cashier you left yours in your other pants and would they please scan their card for you thankyouvermuch.
*Ill get modded to -10000 for this one.*
I am not buying a DVD until its legal to play DVDs in GNU/Linux. I dont support the 'piracy' listed above.
Open Source, Open Platform, Open Eyes!
Pixels keep you awake!
Get Redhat because they are based in good ol dixie.
Don't get that ripoff cowardly frog distro Mandrake.
Or that commie Debian.
Also I would most definetly avoid that chink Red Flag. Or the Jap Vine distro.
Last but not least avoid the hippy products like Gentoo and BSD.
Faithfully yours,
GrandMaster Flash.
1.Make sure you have a reasonable computer with tv-out (the price difference between a Geforce 2 MX with tv-out and one with it is negligible)
2. Buy DVD drive. (I have a pioneer DVD-116, although anything will do)
3.Patch the firmware to make it region-free. http://firmware.inmatrix.com/
4.Install xine, mplayer, ogle, vlc, etc
5.Play!
Totally legal (at least here in New Zealand) and ethical. I don't think that I've read an fbi warning while using xine.
BTW, does anyone know how to get the old xine gui skin? Will grabbing an old xine-ui tarball and taking the skin from that do?
-gunkaaa
I have a Sampo DVE611 - it's cheap and a fairly decent player. It's region-free (you can set the region). You can't fast-forward over the legal boilerplate, but you can hit 'next' to advance straight to the 'root' menu. Also handles MP3, VCD, and SVCD. It's got video, S-Video, and three plug (component?) output. It also has a screen saver (bouncing logo). Got it mail-order from 'Barrel of Monkeys'.
[Insert pithy quote here]
As long as I Hit the FF button before the FBI warning comes up. It FF through the warning, actually it wont let me use any button to stop FF during the warning.
It does also crash, and need a cold boot occasionally.
(no model number, because I don't know it, and you might as well try this one in the store anyway.)
It might sound surprising, but my Onkyo DV-S353 lets me skip right past the warnings and all. I just pop the disc in and hit the menu button as soon as the warning / trailers / other annoying things come on.
Okay, so it is region locked, but you don't have to wait and you get a nice picture and sound without buying too expensive of a player.
(Oh, the bad news is that it doesn't appear to play anything on CDRs, unlike my old Apex.)
Don't forget that BSD is written by homosexuals, but at least they aren't Jews.
The story specifically mentioned Tarzan. I haven't timed it, but it's loaded with several trailers for other Disney movies and for Disney World. I don't mind my kid watching Tarzan, it's a good story. But for them to be bombarded with 5 minutes of advertising every time they want to watch the movie?
We generally consider "trailers" to be sneak peaks to upcoming movies. But the Disney Trailers on the DVD are blatant sales pitches aimed at getting kids to say "Daddy, buy me that movie!" "Buy me this movie!" "I want to go to Disney World and meet Mickey!"
It's taking marketing way too far when you're forced to watch them every time you want to see the movie. What's the point of buying a movie if you're going to be forced to watch advertisements? Might as well tape it off broadcast TV and save $25.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
One trick I try when I get bombarded with commercials/trailers for crap I don't want to see is hit STOP, then hit the menu button. Some DVDs will just jump right to the main menu in this instance. Some will just start the same sequence, but it's worth a try.
I've always just made up some crap to write on the card (not my real name or address--are you kidding?) and they've given me the card no problem. I told them flat out that the info I was giving them was false and they didn't care. They're store clerks who work for a living and they don't like the corporate idiots trying to collect this personal info any more than you or I do.
Actually, forcing you to watch trailers is an abuse of the must watch bit, which was supposed to be limited to the FBI notice. However, you put the ability in there, and the next thing ya know, some marketdroid exec decides that it should be set on ALL of the promo material before the movie...
The JVC XV-S500BK and XV-S502SL (they're the same player, but the 500BK is black and the 502SL is silver) will let you skip non-skippable areas. As a bonus, it also plays VCD, SVCD and MP3. It will display JPEG's on a CD, but very slowly. It will supposedly play PAL discs on NTSC televisions, but I haven't gotten around to testing this yet. There isn't yet a regionless hack for it. But my fingers are crossed. You can pick it up for ~$180 at any retail shop. Sometimes online for less.
Thats a bout 5000 man years of wasted human thought/time.
SLASHDOT BUG #1341234324
"Reason: Too much repetition."
What a load of crap! god the algo is useless.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I own an Apex 600A and an Electrohome EH8181 and both these players provide the features you are looking for. Both are hackable via a few presses of the remote (newer Apex players may need a firmware "downgrade")
The 8181 has better menus than the Apex but both have svhs and composite out. The 8181 even has rgb output if you have a scart connector.
Both these play mp3s and VCD/SVCD and and $200CDN
Have a look here for DVD hacks
http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayershack.php
PS: both players work better than a relatives $600 Sony player
<sarcasm>No one's forcing you to watch the ads and FBI warnings. If you're offended by them, just close your eyes or turn your TV off. There are plenty of Americans who believe in advertisements -- why should they be deprived of them just because you're "offended?"</sarcasm>
Linux, Ogle/Xine/Mplayer, DVD rom
:)
Region Free
I can navigate the way I want
The common fixes available for DVD player brain damage are deactivation of Macrovision and region codes. Neither fixes the "unskippable track" crap. Your best bet is probably to hack a DVD player as above and then dub to VCR/VCD or other unfubar'd technology. Personally, I own no DVDs nor will until the DeCSS case is resolved properly. Which probably means never. The current state of DVD players is a insult to the consumer, and buying into it just helps it stay that way. Not that most people care.
Ha, well, history played itself out, and hitler failed his "Final Solution". Jews live on, and "neo-Nazis" are considered socially challenged morons.
Lose your job to a Jew? That basically proves you cant get off your own worthless ass to keep a job. Practically 99.999% of the USA's population would tell you this if they heard your racist garbage:
"Go back to your trailer, white trash."
Well, AFAIK, lot of the DVD players sold in stores in the Chinese community are not region-locked and many of them don't honor the various restriction controls. This is because they want to be able to watch imported videos. And, if you like Karaoke, these stores have plenty of Karaoke-enabled models, too!
I don't mind waiting the 12 seconds... ooh, I'm just burning with anticipation by the seventh or eight second. And when the movie finally arrives, it makes it seem just a little more special.
Unless you're watching Battlefield Earth, and you curse the damned 12 seconds on top of the past 117 minutes which robbed you of meaningful existence. I want those 117 minutes and 12 seconds back!!! ARRRGHHH!
Oh, um, sorry.
You know for every one of those grocery/gas/retail discount cards, of which it seems all the major stores are going to, that I have 'had' to get can track me all they want. They have a file about Jack Ripper, Scotland Yard, UK...
Be creative, give them a file on John F Kennedy, or Mickey/Minnie Mouse. Give them a fake addy for everything. Pay with cash, thats what I do. They can get all the demographic info they want. That just helps get stuff I want put on shelves. Hell if Smiths Grocery had deli turkey, 6 kinds of bagels, chai, cream cheese, havarti cheese, coffee beans and beer on every isle then I could say it worked!
But with my Sony, I can get around most of the FBI warnings, "mandatory previews", and other annoying features. Even though you may not be able to hit "next" all of the time, between trying the "title", "next", "menu", and as a last resort, the fast-forward buttons, most of them can be passed up.
Now if they just weren't there at all, now THAT would be nice.
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
Hahaa! You lose! MY Mitsubishi is 13 years old and *still* works! My dad's stronger than yours too!
Maybe its the part of the world I live in, but NONE of the 11 DVD's I own, have any compulsary trailers or FBI warnings. Probably because in New Zealand (Zone 4) an FBI warning is absolutely meaningless. So if you can play PAL discs try getting Zone 4 ones!
This is actually what I want to do. I want to hook up a spare box to the TV and use it to play DVDs, DivX, etc., as well as used it as a PVR. I know TV capture cards are supported on Linux, but what about TV out?
BTW, are hardware MPEG encoders supported under Linux? Some TV capture cards have them built in. It would be more efficient to encode the stream on the card since it uses up less PCI bandwidth.
This would be a perfect media box for the living room: DVDs, CDs, mp3s, PRV, etc. all in one.
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
Well I don't know how to skip the FBI warning... but since y'all are talking up Apex I'd like to say the Sampo players are IMO da bomb. I got a 631CF, which is the first DVD player to also include a CF slot for viewing digital pictures and playing MP3s. There are hacked firmware versions available which enable region-free use. Even with stock firmware, it can convert NTSC to PAL or vice-versa. It's one of the few that can play SVCD format. The power supply works on any typical powerline voltage/frequency. So basically you can play any form of 5" disc video anywhere in the world. And probably the build quality of these players is better than Apex.
I wonder how this hacked firmware is made though. Maybe it'd be possible to modify it so that "mandatory viewing" parts are no longer mandatory.
(I don't work for Sampo BTW)
There's still fast forward, which should work the same regardless :) Another good one is jumping to chapter 1 (movie start) if a person enters that.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
But I still think it should be the end-user's choice.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
You could try a TYT based player. I use a Scan SC2000. They're pretty good, and (with hacked firmware blown to it) I can press "menu" and skip FBI / Ad / Coming attractions bollocks and go straight to the main menu. Also handy if the menus are swooshy! (like LotR)
Try asking at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Scan2000/
Hope that helps
bowdie
yes, www.dotcomforwardslash.com is my real URL.
So it handles the skip to the "important scene," but does it also handle the multi-angle aspect in case you want to see her from a different one? ;)
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I've also been meaning to replace my DVD player with a code-free player, but in doing the research I found out that they're planning to release future DVDs with some kind of protection scheme that prevents them from being played on code-free players. The new protection scheme is called REA
Does anyone know about this? Why would anyone buy a code-free player knowing that it won't be able to play future DVDs?
region coding was a bad idea... should a person be kept from watching a foreign movie that may never come to their country because of this damned region-coding?
c'mon studios would actually make MORE money without the region coding. I buy Korean DVDs and have to hack my laptop just to view it! And they're movies that are not coming to the US!!! So the studios would clearly make more money by making it easier for me to obtain and watch their movies!
Just swap cards with your friends once in a while. That happens at cypherpunk meetings. Everyone throws their card in a hat, then the cards get stirred around in the hat, then everyone takes out a card.
Scanning/seeking to the end of the offending video chapter would, indeed, work if such functionality were not being locked out. Selecting Chapter 1 would have mixed results. Ideally, most of the time you'd want Title 1, Chapter 1. There are exceptions, of course. I can think of a handful of DVDs featuring branched video (Matrix, Beauty & the Beast Special Edition, and a couple of others) where Title 1 isn't necessarily the feature, or if it is, it would be uncertain which flavour of the feature.
My day gig is QCing DVDs for THX, so I've seen all sorts of odd authoring (and not all of it intentional...)
This sig intentionally left justified.
Our DVD player gets a decent amount of adult use with NetFlix rentals. But, the real big-time users of our DVD player are our kids. For those that say "solli" is being impatient and should just pick his nose for 12 seconds instead of fretting over unskippable chapters on a disc...you don't have kids. You don't know how annoying it is, when you have zero interest in watching the movie yourself...but need to wait (not 12 seconds, but 2 minutes) before the menu comes up just so you can finally press the enter button. Then, your one kid can see his movie while you put have a chance to put your younger kid in bed for a nap. Then, finally get back to some house work. Here's an idea I'd love to see in a PC-based DVD player...something kind of like ID tags in MP3 songs and the whole CDDB thing. You pop in a DVD and some CDDB-like-thing is queried for a hint for where to find the *real* start of the thing. If not in the DB then you can choose to contribute the info. Then, you can choose to use this info or not.
I just yesterday finished with the same problem.
Here is a post I made about this
I have bought a new DVD-Player which
has all the features I need. The Grundig GDV130 (a TYT / Scan2000 Clone).
Read about it here:
German
English
My personal experience with flashing that player: (only in german) here
There is a forum on Yahoo-Groups for the Scan2000/TYT Clones here. You need the latest Firmware and a tool called GSK2 from the files Section.
With that tool you can make the Firmware Macrovision free AND Turn of User Prohibition.
So now you can switch off subtitles which you sometimes aren't allowed, you can go directly to the Title-Menu. It's really neat.
My new Grundig GDV130 DVD Player now has these cool features:
- Regionfree (Remote-Control Code)
- Macrovision Free (thru the new Firmware)
- No User Prohibitions (I can now switch of those subtitles, or go directly
to the title-menu without watching those nasty copyright notices)
- Good SVCD/VCD Playback
- CVD (China VCD Subtitles) with SVCD
Cheers
-- MicAttAck
Religon is an insult to human dignity.
question.. info everyone should know if they are going to buy a player.
I know that many region hacks also modify the fbi warning and other stuff... so effectively the disc can't keep you from skipping chapters.
THis is the most rediculous flamebait I've seen recently, but I'll bite.
First of all, if you don't like slashdot, don't read it. Much as the world will miss this sort of insightful commentary i'm sure we'll survive.
Secondly, education in journalism means jack. We don't read slashdot for cutting edge journalism for like minded information from like minded people. Slashdot isn't about writing articles, but showing us where they are.
Thirdly, not everyone has a DVD player. Some people live in a place where they're hard to get. Some people simply can't afford one. Some people don't need one, ie, doesn't watch movies often, or doesn't care that much about image quality. You're picking on this person for not being a tech snob. And you're doing it by telling us how great you are for having a lot of DVDs. Wow. I'm sure the world is impressed.
In regard to the actual topic, personally I don't know of or couldn't find any information regarding the actual track. My advice is to live with it. Where there are a lot of players avoid the annoyances of DVDs, such as regioncoding and Macrovision, I've yet to see one that allowed bypassing of the unskippable track on the DVD. I could be wrong but I think it might be software (the disk itself) rather than the player that does that.
Matt
How hard would it be to compare your credit card info (which is supposedly much harder to fake) to your store card info, note that its different, and "fix" the store card info?
Can store get your address from your credit card?
I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson
They have a nice selection, and lots of information online, but if something goes wrong with your order you will be in a world of pain.
I bought a Panasonic 625 DVD player (chipped) - delivered promptly, worked great (does pause a little too long on the layer-transistion though)
Then I bought a 36" Panasonic widescreen
I only got my money back (3 months after they charged me) by writing to my credit card issuer and getting them to do a charge back. Now, I realise I never actually parted with any cash (credit only), but since I didn't get what I ordered and refused to pay my credit card bill (the TV was the only thing on it) this fiasco has f*sked my credit rating (even though mastercard knew why I wasn't paying).
Incidentally this episode happened between Nov 01 and Feb 02, so it was recent. And I did get my TV (it wasn't really for me anyway) from Besy Buy Home Entertainment, who have IMHO have excellent service.
...do as I do: start the DVD, the go to the bathroom, go fetch chips and beer in the basement, make some tea for mom who is going to watch the movie with you. Arrange everything around you so you can take it without moving (except mom and the tea), sit down. This takes 10 minutes and when you sit down you're at the main menu ready to rock 'n roll.
Graf
Thirdly, not everyone has a DVD player. Some people live in a place where they're hard to get.
and where pray tell is that? If they have the internet access to ask the question about purchasing a DVD player, they have the internet access to order a DVD player.
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
They have been online for several years to my knowledge, and the site seems regularly updated.
They do their own mods, which instead of changing regions on the fly, allows you to select the region with a single keypress. This means that they tend to be slightly more pricey than a vanilla system.
They also do macrovision disabled (a technology which prohibits use in home projection systems) and they do FBI warning disabled (the point of the original question).
Codefreedvd is the site, using Google gets you exactly what you want, for example this 300 dvd sony (for UK power supply). They do ship around the world, you'll have to search for your own specs.
Murky
A wannabe geek with no money to geek with.
Take a trip to Germany, rent a Porche, and head out on the autobahn for speedlimit free fun!
REA can be bypassed by using a "selectable region" player.
Basically, both the disc and the DVD player are set to a specific region code.
The "region free" players set their region code to 0 (all regions). REA-protected discs that have a region code other than region 0 will refuse to play on such a player.
The solution? Choose a DVD player that allows you to select the region. You pick the region for the player, and then play the disc.
It sounds like most of the hacks that were discussed here are for "selectable region".
--
jason
Unfortunately, I have a player which obeys the commands of my discs without fail. Pop in a Disney movie (the worst of the lot) and you can't even press "stop." The only way to stop a Disney ad is to "eject" the disc from the player.
Although I don't like the FBI warnings (why not put them at the end, like VHS?) the ads are awful. You _can_ get 10+ minues worth on Disney discs. Luckily, the movies are short and I do intend on re-burning them before my daughter is old enough to watch. No sense in making her sit through the extra ads.
Copyright IP was explained to me when I was a freshman in college, many years ago, like a book. You buy your original. You can make as many backups as you like. You can have them anywhere you like. You can loan them out. BUT - like your physical book, it may only be used in one place at a time.
If I had a book with 50 pages of ads in the front, I'm allowed to rip them out and throw them away. I can rip out the title page, or blacken the copyright notice. It doesn't change what I'm allowed to do, but I don't have to look at it.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Ok so it's not the cheapest DVD player around but you get what you pay for (component video out, the best deinterlacer on the market and superb sound). On 99% of my discs I'm able to skip the trailers, FBI warnings etc. Some (I can't recollect which) don't work but there the stop-stop-play trick works. I have no problems with the Disney titles I have (both the Toy Stories). Now I'm not sure if it does that by default or if it is the region patch that makes it work. Regionfree is better tho.
However, I have seen nothing about players that give you the freedom to navigate through the disk the way you want to, instead of how the content producer wants you to
Are you the same person that will then complain that the "bonus content" sucks because it doesn't make sense?
Jeeezus, you don't go out and watch movie scenes in a different order because THAT's the way the director wants you to. Unless you are watching Memento, that is.
-nd
I haven't bought a DVD player yet. I know that this will probably be modded as a troll, or flamebait, but by the time DVD was released, the quality of Laserdisc had improved a lot over early 80s discs.
:-)
There are artifacts and imperfections with both formats - suprise! There are artifacts and imperfections with BetaSP(tm), D-1(tm) recorders, and even 35mm film, live with it.
Analogue laserdisc is a pretty good match for DVD in terms of picture quality. Side changes are annoying, but so were 'flipper' DVDs. Now that we have 80+ minute CDs, I am sure that Laserdisc playing times could be extended. Nowadays, CAV has little advantage over CLV, so playing times can go up and up.
12 inch media is cooler than 12 cm media. No argument there
The artwork on the disc jackets is better.
The sound is better.
Just stop buying DVDs, and spend your money on second hand Laserdiscs.
Ha! That's not a good vcr. My Betamax is still up and running ;)
I am Lord Snowbeam. Heed my call!
I thought this worked on all DVD players....maybe it's just on Sony's. Hit the chapter advance button to skip over the FBI warnings and other annoying tracks -- works every time.
The warning reads as follows:
If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think everything you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told you should want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned____Tyler.
But why is the rum gone?
Whatever, this is off topic, but people like you make me sick. Stereotyping a single group of people because YOU don't like them. I was raised of mixed faith Protestant AND Jewish...and you know what? NOT A BIG DEAL! Yeah, certain Jews are assholes, but so are certain EVERYTHINGS...can you honestly tell me that theres one group of people that are **perfect**? NO. Also, you say the internet made the jew "irrelevant"...if you honestly belive this you should be banned from a damned internet connection...that entirely goes against the purpose of the internet, and especially the /. community...the internet was created as a place where there were supposed to be no barriers, where everyone could communicate and share information freely...and this community...is for people who share a common interest...technology as a major part of life...and now we have people posting incredibly racist inflamatory comments...not only am i offended as a Jew but I'm offended as common, decent, person.
Just think about it.
Look at the parallels in political alignment and the DVD region map, and ask yourself if limiting what people can watch wasn't also part of someone's marketing-meets-political-posturing plan, too.
I'm sure its my own paranoia, but given that a big chunk of the world still actively tries to censor and limit people's access to information why wouldn't this allow Hollywood to try to please politicians? Release a movie; popular in America, unpopular in a given region of the world; edit the movie to make it acceptable in the non-US region; release the region x version of the movie using this edit. You make money, dictators stay fat and happy, "everybody" wins.
The trouble is, I'd wager that most of the places you'd be likely to find censorship are also the places most likely to be selling bootleg region 1 DVDs and modded players that can play them, or totally bootleg players with region selection menus.
I'm sure that distribution structure argument is the "most" correct, but you can't tell me this hasn't crossed someone's mind in Hollywood before.
WTF is a matress tag?
What I really like are the DVDs that don't even force you to deal with those godawful menus. When I rented the Godfather from my local, the movie started playing as soon as the disc was put in the player. All DVDs should work like that!
For the record, I own an Apex-1500, and I was very happy to discover region-coding could be removed-- I had actually ordered some Region 2 DVDs (Spaced, anyone?) and had no idea how I was going to watch them.
"Google is your friend."
how long before Google is sued for providing, (giving results on a 'howto hack dvd regions'-query), ways to circumvent copyrights...
The Awful Truth
during the FBI warning I just press the Next button on my sony 6 disc and it skips it.
Its sick that people havnt voted with their feet already. Now DRM systems are already in our homes.
I think there are lots of 'alternative' players from asia, that the MPAA is trying to stamp out (get one before they do). And what about building one yourself? all you need is an old computer that can handle it, i'm pretty sure the DRM is in the software not on the drive itself, so find a software player warez/open-source etc. that gives you the freedom.
I've been going on about this for years and no-one has listend, be careful when you buy a dvd-player, always check that it can play all regions, and that it can ignore DRM commands. If not, makesure it can be modded to do so.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
The skip button on the remote is your friend. You might have to see a second of an ad, but it's better than watching the whole preview. The thing I would really love is the DVDs with a whole animation in front of the menu that you have to sit through some lame CGI sequence just to watch the movie.
All those commericals on the VHS tapes (and the DVDs) you've seen? They're all on the rental copies only, generally. Which makes sense - you're not supposed to own it, so they're throwing some advertising at you in return for the cheap viewing. Tapes/discs bought new generally don't have any ads (except for disney ads for their other movies), because they'd fall horribly out of date quite quickly, and make them look dumb.
So buy new. When you buy something used the original producer gets no money from the transaction, so they're hitting you with ads. And you're sure no one's scratched up the ending, I missed two critical minutes of a movie I rented last weekend, because the DVD player ground to a halt on one section. Blech.
I bought a GE dvd player a few years ago, and the movie "Scary Movie" takes 30 minutes to get past the FBI warning. So how lazy does that make me when I can't forward, skip, move, scene select, or ANYTHING around that stupid damn FBI Warning?
And no, the store wouldn't take it back either (because it was opened).
You're most likely buying your DVDs used, hombre. The purchased new ones don't generally have ads on them, only the rental copies do.
Why do rental stores buy their copies like this? Because they come out in that format first. Why doesn't everyone buy them early, then? Because they're more expensive.
This is how they make the most money possible. Gouging the rental stores for the privilege to rent it to you before you can buy it - which some people will - because they're so desparate to see it.
Don't complain about seeing ads on something you never paid the original producer for. It's like buying a magazine from your friend and complaining about the ads, because you paid your subscription fee.
I am baffled by the DVD complaints on slashdot.
/dev/kids. . . get the point?. It really is that simple - and that difficult.
(Before you claim I'm a studio exec - you should know that I'm a [Li|U]nix SA in a different industry)
Do people really think that if you pay a measly 18 bucks for a DVD that you own the unlimited usage rights to a $50million movie? You don't, you only own the right to look at it in a really limited way (hence the discount).
Do you know why they include all the forced-usage and adverts on the DVD? BECAUSE YOU STILL BUY IT. Do you remember how much movies used to cost before DVD? A LOT MORE THAN THEY DO NOW. Why? The advertisements you say you don't want but buy anyway. When you buy a DVD folks, you enter into a bad, limited deal. Enter into a deal, live with the deal. (remember Micro$oft?)
Let me recap:
1) The ads serve to make buying the movies cheap enough that you can rewatch them over and over to save from reading books or spending time with your kids.
2) You oppose the ads and the format but lack any real willpower to NOT make this complete leisure purchase.
3) Because of #1 and #2 you are in a really tough spot because you are too cheap and/or lazy to really do anything but whine.
4) The MPAA execs can't hear your whining over the din of your living-room TV and the constant clanging of the Blockbuster cash-registers.
Translation: Until you make the tough decisions to live without constant video-entertainment the MPAA is a 10t more l33t than you and 0wns your fr33 t1me, d011ars, and your
[This space intentionally left burning]
Long term, the best players will be PCs running a Free player of some kind. Short term, these players still have the occasional incompatability or lack features.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Hold on a second... doesn't the doctrine of first sale make those sorts of restrictions from publishers illegal? As in, once you've bought it, if you want to ship it to your friend Down Under, the man can't do anything to stop you?
Or is first sale seriously so dead that even for books and stuff, where there is no "region encoding," you still can't export the stuff?!
DVD players manufactured by the Shinco Co. are software ugradeable with firmware on CD. Most of the models, branded to various companies, have had their firmware hacked to disable regions, macrovision, menu-disabling, etc. You can even change the startup wallpaper and the screen savers. You can get info on Shinco players at shincodvd.emuunlim.com/.
The closer you are to the code, the happier you are. - Ancient Geek Proverb
and I've also found it to be very unforgiving in letting you skip the warnings etc. Hopefully someday it may be worked around...
I have an Apex, and 2 DVD drives in my desktops, and one on my laptop. I find it frustrating to watch all of the previews and see that silly warning on the Apex, but on the computers, I just right click and select the chapter to start playing. Beautiful. Now all I have to do is to figure a way to make all of my M*A*S*H eposides play one after another.
The 631CF also reads MP3s/MPGs from compact flash cards (hence the CF in the model number.) The CF adapter is an IDE DEVICE, which means you can hook up a 20 Gig drive full of music or movies, and access it at will.
All this for less than US$150.
We all want to make money but yet when someone else tries to make some we start complaining. What do you want next my King? Theaters that do not show previews or allow you to fast forward through them. And I also see that you said "I have seen nothing about players that give you the freedom to navigate through". That word freedom is overused and missused just like the word hero nowadays. We are the biggest nation of complainers ever!!!!
Try pressing the menu or top menu button. Very often that will get you past these things to the main menu.
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
No. Granted, the executive could have been braver. But his view was solicitied by Greg Santoval, the journalist who wrote the article you linked to.
Also worth noting is that his view is not directly attacking an ethnic group.
And, note that Santoval's article has no clues as to the executive's ethnic group.
Something that requires so many ringmaroles to use it as we want to use it, can't be good.
So many here complain about the evils of these companies buying politicians.
So many complain about unwanted copy protection.
So many whine about region coding.
And what is the logical answer? Keep buying DVDs and DVD players and hack them.
Vote with your pockets, not with your hackings....
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
When I moved here, I wanted to get a Safeway store card. No problem, they said - here's the card, return this form after you fill it out, here's your groceries, have a nice day.
I took the form home, and it got lost. No, not deliberately, though I have no incentive to look for it now. I have found the form a few times, and have thought about returning it so I can start to get air miles, but they aren't for the 3 airline programs I am already in, so there's not much point. Even though my receipts all say "new customer" on them, I still get the discounts, and the system still racks up special discounts for me when I buy over a certain amount in a month.
They can still use my purchasing data in aggregate form, you see - they know that somewhere there's a person, probably a single white geeky male, who buys low fat and health foods, but then also binges on chips and dingdongs every other month. They can offer me coupons based upon the brands they know I buy, without having to verify my demographics. It's all pretty cool. I don't mind being "targeted" in this fashion, either; if I already use the stuff, why not?
And yes, I always pay cash.
Get off my launchpad!
I don't mind the FBI thing and publisher logo that you can't skip through. I mean it lasts for a couple of seconds and then on to the content. It would take comparibly long to fast forward past it on a VCR. However I would mind if they made me watch an entire preview... I think I'd probably bring the thing back.
Blender And Linux Fan
...just like to put a DVD in the player and watch it. Some of you are making me tired just reading the lengths you will go to (or spend time concocting (or spend time just blathering on about)) to avoid a commercial. As much as I don't like billboard adverts on the highway or tall buildings with corporate logos blocking the skyline, I dont drive out of my way to avoid them when they are the shortest route to my goal.
...deep breath...and...re-laaaax...
...and go mix a nice drink while the commercials are playing.
:)
I think if you don't like the way the media is packaged, don't buy it and send the manufacturer a nice hand written letter telling them why. But in the meantime...
- AC (I registerd once, but I've long forgotten my usernick/password and dont want to draw attention to myself by asking for another
The old, broken APEX player I sold for $70 or whatever on ebay allowed direct seek to title and chapter points IF you turned off the designer's play. It had tons of great features for really watching dvds, and not just allowing one's self to be led around.
But I would never, ever buy another one. APEX's quality is so terrible that I hated watching movies on it. VCDs looked worse than usual. I cursed the appearance of a bright red in a film, because it was destined to bleed all over the damn screen. It was, in general, worth even less than the paltry $100 I spent on it, and far less than the $70 I sold it for.
I'm now running a Pioneer DV-37. Doesn't have your fancy disk functions, but greens don't decompose, reds don't bleed and sound channels stay right where they're supposed to. Sometimes I do pine for the feature set of that hunk of crap APEX player, but within the first five minutes of Sanjuro I'm over it.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Do you know why they include all the forced-usage and adverts on the DVD? BECAUSE YOU STILL BUY IT.
The forced ads on DVDs are on a small, small minority of DVDs out there. Disney got a lot of PR backlash when they did it on the "Tarzan" DVD, and they stopped doing it. I haven't seen another DVD yet in the years I've owned my machine that employed similar tactics.
The companies included them because their marketing department thought it was a good idea, and they were wrong. It's since been changed. Quit blaming the user, Republican.
The one thing I miss about VCRs is that you just push the cartridge in and the movie starts. On DVD the content vendors seem to be in a race to build the deepest, most tangled, most annoying menu tree imaginable. I'd pay $10 extra for a DVD player that can be set to just go directly to the movie (after the FBI boilerplate) without *any* interaction. I should never see a menu until I press "menu".
(But then, I also scour the stores for "unspecial editions" that aren't brimful of silly games, studio floor sweepings, and other not-the-movie stuff, so what do I know?)
Thanks for info everyone
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
My Apex lets me fast forward through anything that I want. And lets me jump to the title screen at any time.
What about using a PS2. We use it all the time and it let's us skip directly to menu.
When you add the crap at the start of the DVD player, it takes well over a minute to get the DVD going. I agree that it's not always a hassle, but doing 'play, play, play, play' to get a 17 minute Barney DVD to go is ridiculous. 'Dad, change the disk' etc. On the VCR, swapping takes maybe 3 seconds, max. The DVD player wants me to wait for the main menu, watch the intro leading up to the main menu, watch the FBI warning (which is a lot longer than 12 second son some, trust me). And _still_ won't remember that I've already hit play 17,000 times & just continue at the 'start'.
Get a Sigma Designs RealMagic Hollywood+ Decoder card or a Creative DVR-3
Get remote selector (www.remoteselector.com)and set the options for user control and macrovision disable
problem solved
Yup vcdhelp is *great*. On my Sharp 740u on the example mentioned in the story I simply hit skip on the trailers and it goes right through them. Not a big problem.
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
Here is what I do -- DO NOT TURN THE MONITOR ON but put the DVD in the tray, close the tray - it autostarts.
... whatever takes a couple minutes to do.
... just menu!
Then go to the bathroom, get a drink, let the dog out, turn on the lawn sprinkler
Come back, turn on the monitor and SHAZAAM - main menu. No trailers, No FBI warning, nothing
It's all good.
Grip
Failure is not an option. It comes automatically enabled in every Microsoft product.
echo "Linux, Ogle/Xine/Mplayer, DVD rom" | wc
1 4 34
I don't do this for karma, I do it for cash. It's much better.
Here's one you can buy for $200. The brand name is "International".
Code Free
Macrovision disabled
One year warranty
Pal and/or NTSC
I used to wonder what was so holy about a silent night, now I have a child.
It's not so much the FBI warning as the ads. As for getting around it, some discs let you skip, some don't. All this talk of players that can skip it are just people skipping discs that allow you to. I have yet to see a player aside from high end ones ($800) that will add the disabled features. However I'm not really being specific when I say "disabled". When a DVD is authored, said features arent' disabled, they're actually enabled. The team encoding the dvd decides what capabilities to enable per track. It's not like there's some sort of lock enabled on the FBI warning, and the dvd commercials, preventing skipping. It's simply NOT THERE. If the commands aren't available, it's difficult to do something with it ^.~ Your best bet is some sort of free software DVD player software for a PC. I say free because commercial software actually pays the rights to decode the dvd and so they adhere to other copyright laws and such. And what did we used to do with VHS movies when we watched them? We fast forwarded the trailers. 9 times out of 10 this works fine on dvd players. Who are we to think that since the technology makes it possible, we should have access to all it's features? If movie companies didn't care if we skipped their ads, THEY WOULDN'T INCLUDE THEM. The beauty of fast forwarding is that you still have to watch a small portion of the ad/trailer, which is fine for the company ^.~
I can only show you the door, you must be the one to walk through it.
The concept of software, be it computer program or video or whatever, being fundamentally different from any other property is pure fiction created by the Disneys and Microsofts of the world to rationalize their quest for ever-increasing revenue in exchange for ever-decreasing value. "Why?" Because they quickly discovered that nobody would buy movies at $90 a pop, which is what they cost in the early days of home video, and that lots of people would buy them when the price fell to that of a few overnight rentals. As for ads "keeping the cost down", I strongly doubt you will find any significant difference in the price of an ad-saturated/forced disc vs. one with no or isolated trailers. Speak for yourself, please. I buy, or do not buy, as pleases me...and the quantity and/or obnoxiousness of advertising frequently enters into that decision, as the manager - and about two dozen customers within earshot - of the local Lowes theater found out a couple weeks ago. I got passes for another show, and coincidentally, or perhaps not, that movie didn't have 15 minutes of soft drink and minivan ads preceding it. (I don't mind trailers, in moderation, as they're usually at least nominally entertaining. But that tolerance is also my decision.)
All that being said, I do agree with you that this crap persists and expands solely because people continue to pay for it, and I often have a hard time understanding why they continue to pay for it. Eventually Disneysoft-Warner will go too far even for Joe Average Consumer, and perhaps that'll bring some kind of sane balance to the whole mess. In the meantime I'll keep my own counsel, buy DVDs now and then, and reserve the absolute right to deploy countermeasures as necessary to deal with the more obnoxious & invasive crap the would-be media gods try to lay on me. Blues.
DDB
Life is like surrealism: if you have to have it explained to you, you can't afford it.
Actually, my current best DVD player is Mplayer and Linux running on my Toshiba Satellite DVD laptop.
;-) I actually get DVD playback as good as anything else I've tried (I have a PS2 and used to own a dedicated DVD player). I was even shocked to discover that with all this set up, DVD playing under Linux actually /can/ outperform Win32 on the same box (don't flame me, it's really true.. and I was as surprised as you are ;-)
I use Gentoo Linux with all the performance patches in the kernel (low-latency, pre-empt). Combine this with the fact that all of my libraries/apps/tools are built specifically for my hardware, and I have a blazing system. I use the latest XFree86 to support my laptop's video hw accel. Then, I use Mplayer from the CLI (tho, there are some fancy GUIs for those who prefer the stuff). Since the laptop has a TV out, I can plug it into my home entertainment system.
The end result is a DVD player that allows me to skip all ads/warnings/etc, and watch what I want when I want. Plus, since everything is so optimized for my hardware (it helps that everything on the laptop is 100% supported
> not only am i offended as a Jew but
> I'm offended as common, decent, person.
By this troll? Surely not--you'd have to take him seriously for that. If there is someone devoid of any original thought, it's this guy. He's regurgitating rhetoric that's been around for as long as bigotry, while probably under the impression of being on the cutting edge of social awareness.
Still have the card, threw out the form.
It's actually very easy to get away with not filling in information. Just hand in the form with the bare minimum information filled in (name, incomplete address (no street given, missing the street number, etc), skip over the phone entries). As long as there is some writing on the form, the clerk will usually just accept it because they really don't care and really don't feel like confronting someone who's being difficult.
The other fun technique to use is to just scrawl completely illegibly. The person will usually glance at the form, decide you filled it out, and put it in the stack to be sent to the data-entry clerks. Dunno if they'll cancel your card if the data backing it is missing or invalid, but I've had no problems with getting advertising crap or with the card yet... (although one of the stupid key tag things broke).
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Thanks for a teriffic reply! Saved me a lot of trouble writing pretty much the same things.
Just for the record though, I've purchased several DVD players in the last few years, and maybe 15 or so DVD movies. I usually just borrow or rent them.
While it's very disturbing and unfortunate that the motion picture industry has decided to make all these efforts to restrict what we can/can't legally do with a DVD, I don't think that means I'm being a hypocrite for continuing to buy the products while complaining.
I think the technology itself is sound, and stands on its own merits. Simply saying "I don't like the FBI warnings or the trailers, so I'm going to refuse to ever buy a DVD player or disc!" only helps kill off a perfectly good technology. (Does Hollywood really know that people aren't buying DVD because they're upset about those restrictions and trailers/warnings? I suspect, instead, they'd simply conclude that DVD technology wasn't offering enough value for consumers to keep purchasing the format. That would leave us with less ability to buy/rent/view movies at home in higher-resolutions.)
It seems better to me to continue to buy the products we like and want to use. Then, pinpoint the issues we have with them and complain, complain, complain! It may or may not fall on deaf ears, but at least they can't say they never understood the problem.
The Pioneer Elite DV-37 can remember a bookmark on a handful of discs. So you play the disc up to the menu, set the bookmark, and then the next time you play the disc you skip forward to the bookmark.
Doesn't violate the DVD spec, but it does solve the problem of having to watch 15 minutes of Disney previews.
However, I can't get it to read or display any VCDs or CD-i disks. Do I need to flash it and update it to get it to work with CD-i and VCD and SVCD formats?
The manual that comes with it claims Photo-CD, DVD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3, and JPEG compatibility. I've gotten it to do all of that except Kodak Photo-CD because I don't have one. But the manual makes no claim about VCD or CD-i. ???
This is part of the reason I don't watch most Hollywood stuff. EVERY DVD I own to this day has the following:
;-)
FBI Warning.
A short Studio animation.
The Menu.
Now, nearly EVERY DVD I own is an Anime DVD... why don't they put ads on them? Because if you are an anime fan you already KNOW you're gonna buy the rest of the series
I just bought an AD 1100-W this week.
However, I can't get it to read or display any VCDs or CD-i disks. Do I need to flash it and update it to get it to work with CD-i and VCD and SVCD formats?
The manual that comes with it claims Photo-CD, DVD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3, and JPEG compatibility. I've gotten it to do all of that except Kodak Photo-CD because I don't have one. But the manual makes no claim about VCD or CD-i. ???
When I go to the theater to see a movie, the must watch bit is set. No matter what buttons I press, I see dancing popcorn and ads for cars, and other movies I have no interest in. I stubled across the workaround by spending too much time flirting with the ticket taker and entering the theater a few minutes after the scheduled start time, and all the ads were gone.
I wonder if the industry knows the ads before movies are this easily hackable.
I've played vcds and svcds on mine before and after flashing the bios. Mine even says vcd on the front of the actually player, maybe they've changed the newer models?
I live in Mexico and have a multiregion Sony DVD, It plays CDR/CDRW, decodes MP3 and VCD's. In Mexico Multiregion is a must, I needed something capable of handling local BlockBuster movies (region 4), and the movies I bought online or when I go to US (region 1). Almost all DVD players sold here are multiregion. By the way I'm an Anime Fan too.
16,777,216 comments ought to be enough for any forum!
Speaking of Apex...zdnet just announced the're being sued !
nohup rm -rf ~/. >& zen &
Yeah, people, be reasonable. If we stop watching the annoying crap, they'll stop making it. Then what the hell am I going to do with my dvd player?!
Recent models have dropped support for Video CDs, and this is rumored to have been because of pressure from Sony. (Why Sony would pressure this, I do not know.) However, Super Video CDs play fine.
Hmmm....
My AD 1100-W does not say VCD on the front, it just has logos for Photo-CD, JPEG, Dolby, and DVD. So I guess I must have gotten one of the new ones. That's a shame. I may have to return it, because the key reason I got it was to give it to my parents so I could send them CDs with photos of the kids and so that my sister could send CDs with videos on them of her kids. Why should Sony care?
Are they worried that the presence of a large base of VCD compatible players may crimp the size of their market for recordable DVD or mini-disks?
Actually what happened is that Apex didn't pay the royalties to whoever owns the VCD standard, so their newer players had to have VCD capability removed.
Check the serial number of your player... if it ends in xx08 then it hasn't been hacked either way yet; it's one of the strange new models that among other things doesn't play VCDs, unfortunately. Check out the Nerd-Out forums, go to the AD-1100W section, and look at one of the pinned topics; it's the model/serial number guide.
Personally, I don't see what the big deal is all about. I have Tarzan on DVD for my kids, and usually, they watch through the ads because they know what new movies will be able to come out. If they can't wait, I simply press the MENU key, and the ads are gone. All my DVDs are like this, including all the Disney DVDs. Ads have come on video tapes for years, why would it stop on DVDs?
There are only two versions listed on the DVD, but there is an easter egg that lets you chose a third vesion of the film. This third version is also the longest version of the film. Try dvdeastereggs.com for complete instructions on how to find it.
Do people really think that if you pay a measly 18 bucks for a DVD that you own the unlimited usage rights to a $50million movie? You don't, you only own the right to look at it in a really limited way (hence the discount).
Do you know why they include all the forced-usage and adverts on the DVD? BECAUSE YOU STILL BUY IT. Do you remember how much movies used to cost before DVD? A LOT MORE THAN THEY DO NOW. Why? The advertisements you say you don't want but buy anyway. When you buy a DVD folks, you enter into a bad, limited deal. Enter into a deal, live with the deal. (remember Micro$oft?)
Let me recap:
1) The ads serve to make buying the movies cheap enough that you can rewatch them over and over to save from reading books or spending time with your kids.
I can't believe this got modded up to 5. This is one of the most stupid comments that I have ever read on slashdot and that is really saying something. Your reasoning is completely wrong. You say that DVDs are cheap because of the ads, but the vast majority of DVDs DON'T HAVE ANY ADS! These DVDs cost the same as DVDs that do have ads. So obviously the ads have nothing to do with the price of DVDs. God, how did this ever get modded as a 5????????
I've also heard that the Apex units can produce grainy video. I've had good luck with two hackable DVDs: The Lenoxx (was on sale at CompUSA for about $79, minus $20 rebate for total of only $59) and a Daewoo for $100 or so on eBay. Easy to defeat the region controls... remotes are laid out well, and reproduction is superb. I originally had bought an expensive Technics DVD, complete with optical digital outputs, DTS, etc. But the sucker won't play VCDs. The cheapie units overcome that limitation. On the other hand, the original message asked about being able to speed thru the copyright and FBI screens. I don't think any unit does that.