Rypro 525

I read Holly E. Ordway's DVD review of The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=11104 and...
is there a play all feature like for season 3?

NaturalMystic79

I'm happy they've improved the PQ even more this time. I thought Season 3 looked fantastic. I also hope the DD 5.1 actually employs the surround speakers this time. Will definately pick the set up this week.

Hokeyboy

monorail...monorail...monorail...

MasterCXtreme

Sounds like they went crazy on the menus again! I'll have to see them. They're fun at first... but so is heroin; bad after-effects.

Holly E. Ordway

Unless I managed to totally overlook it, there's no play all feature for the episodes on Season 4.

I cringe every time I read a review or comment that complains about non-animated menus... because then we actually get menus like those for The Simpsons. Be careful what you wish for! They're kind of cute for about 30 seconds, but after that I wanted to tattoo "Unskippable menu animations are a BAD IDEA" on the forehead of the menu designer. Give me boring and quick-to-navigate menus any day... I buy a DVD for the content, not the menus! (soapbox mode =off)

Rypro 525

just found this on htf
"I am also pleased to see that they kept the “Play All” feature on each disc. "

tf50515

The Play All feature is at the bottom of the main menu for each disc. It says:

"Play All Episodes with Commentary On/Off


Also, you can skip the animation on the menus, it just depends on your dvd player. And I just checked and Matt Groening is on the commentary for "Homer's Triple Bypass" also.

MasterCXtreme

Well now that i've looked through the set, the menus are better than previous seasons. It's much easier to get to the episodes. The animations aren't bad, at least they change.

Holly E. Ordway

Huh. I must be blind - I always look for that feature on sets, but I didn't see it in this case. I'll pop in a disc again later and see if this time I actually *see* the play all feature!

Holly E. Ordway

OK, I'm neither blind nor crazy. There's no "play all" feature. What *looks* like it is a misleadingly-titled option at the bottom of the menu that says "Play all with commentary on/off." But all that does is toggle the commentary on or off for all the episodes at once - it's not a "play all" feature for the episodes themselves.

Adam Tyner

I just used it on disc 1 to watch four episodes in succession without having to return to the main menu. Works as a "Play All" for me.

drmoze

I'm confused: how could *anyone* NOT have seen the Simpsons on broadcast tv, ever? $^)

Holly E. Ordway

Heh. I don't watch *any* broadcast TV any more (I don't have cable), and haven't for years - I just watch programs on DVD. And back when the first few seasons of The Simpsons were playing, I was in college, where I a) did not even own a TV, and b) was studying way too hard to watch TV anyway. (This is 100% true. I didn't even see the season finale of Star Trek Next Generation, and I'm a real Trekkie!)

Adam - when you got the "play all" to work, what *exactly* did you do? Normally I expect a "play all" option to start playing the episodes as soon as you select that option - in the "Play all with commentary on/off" option, the only selectable things are the on and the off - I'd have expected the "play all" to be selectable if in fact it's a real play all feature.

tonyc3742

I'm currently watching S3, and there are different menu animations on this one. At least when you select an option, not the idle animations.

Adam Tyner

Selected "Off". Trigged an animation of Homer with the plunger, then all of the episodes on the disc played one after another. I tried this on both my set-top player and my DVD-ROM with the same results.

Perhaps the menu text could have been phrased better, but I think having "play all" and "on" as options would have been potentially confusing for some viewers. "On" and "off" is clearer, IMO.

CrepnDeth8

Here's the most important question - does Conan O'Brien show up on any of the commentaries? He was the head writer on a few episodes this season and it was rumored that he was going to take part in a few of the commentaries (like Marge vs. the Monorail).

NaturalMystic79

Bought this set last weekend... great stuff! I'm throughoutly enjoying it so far. Video seems to be on par with S3, but this DD 5.1 mix is better this season. About to watch "New Kid On The Block."

fumanstan

He's in Marge vs. The Monorail and New Kid on the Block. Both hilarious.

Trout

Did they change a line in the episode "Marge gets a job"? When Barts teacher makes bart take his test out in the hall, she says "Bart, to avoid this test, you've had smallpox, the bends,
and that unfortunate bout of rabies." I thought she said "Tourette's syndrome" not rabies (which would explain Barts cursing).

Rypro 525

i listened to marge and the monorail, and he was no where to be found, they talked about him through the majority about the epsiode, but not with him

Adam Tyner

Press the 'Audio' button on your remote and sift through the various tracks a couple times.

MasterCXtreme

Nope, he still says rabies.

Julie Walker

Which season had the hilarious boy scout-canoe trip episode with Ernest Borgine as a guest star?

I would rather own the 'golden' seasons,ie-the ones that were jaw dropping hilarious...since somewhere either by or in the mid-90's the seasons went downhill abit and had many not so funny episodes and a few hilarious ones.

So since I forgot what seasons had the best episodes & I want to own all my favorite episodes. Should I just buy each season,until I run into the more 'dud' seasons?

But then I really want the last great Treehouse of Horrors episodes,the one where they spoof Omega Man & The Fly. Man that was absolutely hilarious(the third story was a dud though). Since the last few Treehouse episodes have been absolutely terrible and not funny at all.


Oh yeah,the 5.1 mixes on these are absolutely worthless. So far,they all sound really terrible,that the original stereo audio is far superior.

Attempting to get Barnies trademark burp into surround to make it 'funnier' was terrible in its bad rerecorded effect,that was not even as funny as the original stereo effect of his burp.

dito

Hi I just read the review, and just wanted to point out that the menu animations can be skipped. It says in the booklet which comes with the set

"To skip animated menu transitions press next button on remote"

I agree, the animations on the menus can be tedious, and I'm always hitting the next button to skip them.

Great review Holly

The Wizard

Bout time Conan did a commentary!!!!!