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The user experience associated with using DVDs, while having improved ever-so-slightly with Blu-Ray, is still comically bad. It's slow, and there's all kinds o

The user experience associated with using DVDs, while having improved ever-so-slightly with Blu-Ray, is still comically bad. It's slow, and there's all kinds of shit that has to be skipped, if it can be skipped. And then there's the high likelihood of scratches given enough time. That the manufacturers of DVDs have not made it possible to play the main content immediately, as it is (usually) with streaming, is a signal to me that they are not taking the future of the medium seriously. Yes, it's possible to work around with VLC player, etc. but that is not helpful for most commercial hardware and for most people. Ironically, we see some streaming platforms, like Amazon Fire for example, adding shit at the beginning that's un-skippable. That and commercials are dealbreakers for me. Makes it easy to choose my streaming platforms.

esaym 8y ago
I came to say just this. Back in 1999 I was so excited when tech magazines were giving out the specs of the up and coming new video format. I never got a true DVD player back then, but used a Playstation 2. The first time I rented a DVD from the store (blockbuster?) wasn't a grand experience either. You had to pay extra for the DVD vs the VCR. Yea the picture was slightly better on the fuzzy CRT, but what was immediately apparent was the screwy dynamic audio range. Every time we watched a DVD someone had to always have the TV remote in hand, constantly turning up the volume in the quite spots and quickly turning it down before some super loud stuff happened. That's still an issue today for me. I've been told that using a true 5.1 surround system will fix that, but I've never been a fan of the extra speakers. Plus most of the people I know that actually have a surround receiver have all 5 speakers just sitting right next to the TV anyway. Then there's the screwy menu navigation and forced commercials. My mom struggles to get through those, slowly hen pecking buttons or staring at the remote wondering if you hit the "Ok/Enter" button or the play button. My grandparents never have figured it out, I have to do it for them every time. I'm not a movie buff at all. I only recently started buying movies now that I have kids but the DVD format natively is just too painful. I tried initially to rip DVDs to an mp4 but that just takes too long. What I do now just so I can be somewhat "legit" is buy some $3 "as is" used DVD off of ebay. Right when I get it in the mail, I throw it into a junk drawer and then grab a torrent of it. 10 minutes later I've got it on my hard drive and if I'm feeling fancy I'll ffmpeg it to wav format and normalize the audio then copy it back. From there I shoot it over to my media box in the living room for the kids to enjoy their new "freshly ripped" DVD. I don't even tell my wife the truth.
koala_man 8y ago
Ain't that the truth. I used to buy DVDs to support creators, and just leave them on the shelf while I torrented the contents. It was so much more convenient than sticking plastic discs into slots and fudging through menus and copyright warnings.

esaym 8y ago

I came to say just this. Back in 1999 I was so excited when tech magazines were giving out the specs of the up and coming new video format. I never got a true DVD player back then, but used a Playstation 2. The first time I rented a DVD from the store (blockbuster?) wasn't a grand experience either. You had to pay extra for the DVD vs the VCR. Yea the picture was slightly better on the fuzzy CRT, but what was immediately apparent was the screwy dynamic audio range. Every time we watched a DVD someone had to always have the TV remote in hand, constantly turning up the volume in the quite spots and quickly turning it down before some super loud stuff happened. That's still an issue today for me. I've been told that using a true 5.1 surround system will fix that, but I've never been a fan of the extra speakers. Plus most of the people I know that actually have a surround receiver have all 5 speakers just sitting right next to the TV anyway. Then there's the screwy menu navigation and forced commercials. My mom struggles to get through those, slowly hen pecking buttons or staring at the remote wondering if you hit the "Ok/Enter" button or the play button. My grandparents never have figured it out, I have to do it for them every time. I'm not a movie buff at all. I only recently started buying movies now that I have kids but the DVD format natively is just too painful. I tried initially to rip DVDs to an mp4 but that just takes too long. What I do now just so I can be somewhat "legit" is buy some $3 "as is" used DVD off of ebay. Right when I get it in the mail, I throw it into a junk drawer and then grab a torrent of it. 10 minutes later I've got it on my hard drive and if I'm feeling fancy I'll ffmpeg it to wav format and normalize the audio then copy it back. From there I shoot it over to my media box in the living room for the kids to enjoy their new "freshly ripped" DVD. I don't even tell my wife the truth.

koala_man 8y ago

Ain't that the truth. I used to buy DVDs to support creators, and just leave them on the shelf while I torrented the contents. It was so much more convenient than sticking plastic discs into slots and fudging through menus and copyright warnings.