Hi-
Just watched my first BD last night (No Country For Old Men) and could not believe what I had to go through to get to the movie. Trailers, Blu Ray promos, blah blah blah. Please tell me there is some simple way to bypass all this crap when I insert the disc; my player (Sony BDP-BDS580) would not let me skip any of it. I could FF, but that was it. Are all BD titles this way, or did I just happen onto one that was designed to annoy? TIA.

Some BD's are better than others. I have some that take me straight to the movie. As long as I can use SKIP to get past the crap, it's not a biggie to me.

The one thing I laugh at is when a blu-ray will advertise... blu-ray technology. Uh, I already HAVE it, you don't have to tell me about it.

Ah, for the days when a disc took you right to the menus. Sigh...

And yes, I sat there fuming while the dumb ass disc shouted at me about how blu-ray is the sweetest thing since sex. Really? If I wanted a sales pitch, I'd have gone to Best Buy...

It's only the obnoxious studios who force viewers to sit through an assault of loud and abrasive ads. Classy companies like Criterion, Masters of Cinema, Blue Underground, Synapse, BFI and Twilight Time treat their customers with respect - to the best of my knowledge all of their discs go straight to the menus.

Mmmm, good to know, thanks. I would expect outfits like Criterion to master their discs thusly. And yes, the studios suck. I know they think we can't live without them, but perhaps they can learn.

When haven't we had to sit through things? Back in my day we had VHS and before the movie started we always had to sit through...then we had to return the movie...3 feet of snow....uphill both ways...

I expect it to get worse before it gets better. Blu-ray isn't doing as well as studios hoped so the marketing will be pushing more. I would imagine not many people will write to a company to complain about the ads and such before a movie. Most of the time I'll throw in a movie and then go grab a drink or use the bathroom.

And there's the rare instance I'll actually look at the preview to see how the movie might look on blu or a "coming to theaters" trailer that I can see in HD rather than a YouTube clip. But, like I said, that's rare.

Yeah, VHS was the worse because you HAD no choice but FF. It's been awhile since I've had my laserdiscs but did they have ads? I can't remember...

But ain't it just like Hollywood to increase the annoyance factor when they know good and well that all we want to do is see the damn movie. I know, I know, I'm expecting logic to prevail where profit is the issue.

Agree with the OP. BD has taken a significant step backward from DVD in consumer convenience. Aside from the forced previews and commercials, I cannot stand that some discs (a lot of early ones) didn't have a resume feature. So you're watching a movie, your kid finishes their homework and sits down next to you. You need to stop the movie because it's rated R. Now the player has no idea where you left off and you need to search scene selections. On DVD, you turned the machine on and it went right to the spot where you stopped.

They need to update that for blu-ray to include movies not playing if you don't have the right firmware. I recently sold Superman to someone and it took 3 players before he could find one that would play it.

Hey, my name is in the Disney ad on this Blu-ray...so you need to watch it, dammit!

Hey, my name is in the Disney ad on this Blu-ray...as is the former owner of this website...so you need to watch it, dammit!

I pop in my Hugo 3D disc and am greeted with a preview for Titanic 3D, but not in 3D? What's the point?

I find most ads and trailers can be skipped with the chapter button or the menu button.

No, Laserdiscs didn't have ads before the movie, mainly because LD was very limited in the amount of video that could be fit on a disc side.

Thanks, Josh. I guess that's why I couldn't remember since there were none. It would suck if they turned a CAV disc into a CLV just to make room for ads.

There's a way, but it will take a little work. Get AnyDVD HD, a BD burner, and extract the movie only and burn it to a BDR. Now, sit back and enjoy the movie without any of that crap! Or, use that program to directly start the movie, bypassing all the crap (ie, it has a feature to 'skip' forced previews, ads, etc and just start the movie when you put the disc in your drive). Obviously, you can't do that in a standalone player, though.

No I don't work for them, just a very happy customer, probably the best software purchase I've ever made in 25+ years of computerdom.

And you get the bonus of having a backup in case anything happens to your original.

They should have different pressings for rental vs. sell through. Rentals with all the forced trailers and sell through discs with the trailers accessible via the menu. The consumer shouldn't be punished for supporting a company/movie with their wallet. Same for all the legal bs like FBI screens, "commentaries don't reflect the views, yada yada yada," piracy screens, etc. It should all be accessible via the menu not forced.

We know they already have different versions. Usually when I get a disc from Redbox it has a plain label and none of the special features are present.

Today I put in my blu-ray of "An American in Paris" and it went straight to the movie. No ads, no menu.

Here's the irony (for me, at least): I am planning (or wasl not so sure now) on spending thousands of dollars for gear and titles, for what-this? Really? This is how the entertainment industry thinks I'll keep coming back? I mean, we get it. Hollywood blockbusters are sooooo exciting; The FBI will track us down if we steal; George Lucas's sound system is orgasmic. Blu ray is better than sex. Is there a movie in here somewhere...?

OK, rant over. Point made. Methinks this is why so many *cough* legitimate owners of BD titles are now ripping just the main movie to their computer storage for streaming. Certainly sounds better to me.

Seems like a lot of trouble to stream a movie from their computer (never done it but I would imagine you would lose some quality) just to avoid the ads and such. Just put the movie in and then go get something to eat or drink. It's probably less time than it took to pick which movie to watch.

Most Warner releases go directly to the movie.

... which people have bitched about too.