TomOpus

One of the great things about laserdisc being such a niche market.... no previews or ads. Sounds odd to say, but too bad DVD got to be so big.

(yeah, I know laserdiscs were more expensive... but still...)

matome

...or copy-protection . Sure there were side breaks, but it was nice when the movie began playing as soon as you hit the Play button.

PixyJunket

I wasn't buying Hulk in the first place.. but this is my #1 pet peeve with the DVD format. None of the other pet peeves even come close to this abomination.

GuessWho

I'm boycotting movie theaters... they show previews before the movie! Bastards!

And TV? That's shit too, they actually STOP the program to show commercials. Boycott!!!

folgersnyourcup

Some posters that are glossing over these issues are missing the point here. These forced trailers are DIFFERENT from the ones that are present on some titles when you hit play. With those you can simply go into scene selections and select the first scene to bypass them. These do not work that way. My DVD player does not fast forward very quickly and on my Babe DVD it took me about a minute to fast forward through terrible looking, non-anamorphic trailers that I know that I will have to sit through fast-forwarding every time I watch the film no matter what. Just saying to get up and go to the bathroom while these trailers run is ridiculous.

How about the people that decided the first station bugs weren't a big deal? Now we have ridiculous ones such as with Spike TV.... This is a ridiculous decision by Universal. I already have zero respect for them due to their seemingly endless parade of defective discs but the forced trailers are absurd. I read a newspaper article recently about how movie studios were toying with the idea of having ads for products like toothpaste, etc. forced before films. Is everyone fine with this??? I personally find having to sit through non-anamorphic trailers for The Cat In The Hat and Johnny English among others just as bad.

This is crap. Plain and simple. I don't understand how any of you are just accepting this as the way dvd's are progressing and moving on. Call Universal! Send them e-mails! Anything! We should not have to put up with this.

Rypro 525

I remeber a report from imdb a few months ago that these forced trailers are there because studies have shown people like to watch these.

nrose101

well personally I wouldn't order this disc cause it was the worst movie of the year so who cares.

PixyJunket

See, I don't care about station bugs or commercials, because (well not counting cable) I'm not paying to watch the program. When I pay $15-$20 for a movie I do NOT want to sit through adverts.

Gyno Rhino

I'm with folgersnyourcup.

This is ridiculous.

If they want to put them at the beginning of the disk, okay... But let us hit the menu button and skip over it! Those that WANT to watch that crap can sit there and watch it.

sracer

The issue is, "should we allow disc producers to deliberately lock out functions for THEIR benefit?" and not, "what particular discomfort level do we find acceptable?"

nrose101

Well Universal seems to always do it that way. Disney has the right idea and lets you use your menu button. It has been that way for years I don't see why anyone would complain now.

Clemson656

And how my post disagrees with yours? Please read all of my post, don't simply quote only part of them.

Mr. Salty

1. The argument that there are "forced" previews when you see a movie in the theater is invalid. Every time you go to the theater the trailers are different. Every time you put a DVD in the player, the trailers will be the same. When you play "The Hulk" in 10 years, you'll still have to fast forward through the same 10 minutes of trailers, for movies that will probably be long forgotten.

2. Movie studios disabling a function on my DVD player is never a good thing. It's my equipment, my time and my choice. Let me hit the menu button. Paramount's latest releases have the right idea of how to present trailers.

3. If "The Hulk" works like other recent Universal releases, there is a work-around for this. During the copyright warning when you first insert the disc, press the stop button and then the menu button. You should be taken right to the menu. If you wait until the copyright warning is over though, you're screwed.

vice86

thats why backups are great...only the movie on the disc and nothing else.

Banky

Josh H

Forced previews are awful. No reason to make someone sit/fast forward through the SAME previews everytime you watch the movie.

I actually like having trailers for other movies on the disc, but put them in the special features section. Don't force us to watch them.

calhoun07

I don't understand why (most) everybody in this thread is on the side of the studio on this one. I remember when Sixth Sense came out and this place was alive with the sound of bitching at the "forced trailers" on that realease (tho you could hit the menu button on there). "Forced trailers" are a minor annoynace when you can hit the menu button, but when that action is even not an option, it's time to 1) not buy the DVD at all or 2) if you own a region free player, import you another region's copy that does not have the forced trailers. That's what I plan on doing with Hulk, now that I have found this out.

With each passing thing forced upon us by advertisers and studios, the less and less resistant people are to it. Granted, one person cancelling their order on the movie will not hurt Universal, I know, but hopefully enough will do this and Universal will know their forced trailer DVDs are not selling as well.

Now, does anybody here know if the forced trailers are also on the DVD in other regions?

bigdogkt2003

And the movie SUCKED!

Jericho

Hey if you guys want to boycott that's fine, but I don't really see how it would change anything. I'd rather just get what I want and deal with it. Obviously not everything that is made is made as I want it.

Alan Smithee

I haven't seen this movie but was thinking of getting it, but since it's got forced trailers I won't bother. This just shows contempt for your audience.
For those who keep saying "it's no big deal", I think it's ironic you'd take the time to complain about someone complaining.

Apone26

While I agree that its not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things but having a DVD player that only has a skip button makes this more troublesome than not. In order for me to fast forward I have to press and hold the skip button for a few seconds to get to 2X then again for 4x.. I think it goes up to 32x..
I'll buy the movie and watch it.. I'll just be annoyed that I don't get the menu screen right off the bat like I want it to and live with it. -I do watch trailiers that are on the disc to see whats coming out or remind myself why I wanted to bu a certain movie.

My 2 bits

TomOpus

I understand what you're saying (and I feel your annoyance) but the problem is you have to get ~100,000 people that would've bought it to not buy it and each person to write to Universal to tell them why. Hit 'em hard in the pocketbook.

Unless you can do this, it's not going to change anything. The next best thing would be to have a couple major consumer publications writing articles about the public becoming annoyed with the situation. Somehow you have to get the studio's attention.

But I dunno... any other ideas?

Alan Smithee

http://www.universalstudios.com/home...ml/contact_us/

jough

If you feel strongly about this, it's not enough that you don't buy it - you have to write to them and tell them that this is the REASON you're not buying it.

And I don't know what it is about my four year old Sony player, but nothing is ever forced on it - I can always skip anything. It may be a defect, but it's one to my advantage.

Anyway, I don't blame Universal for forced trailers - I blame the hardware manufacturers for taking away capabilities from their players - you should ALWAYS be able to skip trailers, skip right to the menu, etc.

JACOB

email:
universalstudios&[email protected]

JACOB