Sorry it's been so quiet around here lately, but I've been doing a lot of big projects for Macworld. Last week, I wrote a series of articles on the new Intel Core Duo mini. I even wrote about why I'm sometimes SO DIMM, concerning a small (or not so small) mistake I made when purchasing RAM for the new mini.
This week, I took that same mini and turned it into a dual-booting OS X / Windows XP box, and detailed my experiences during the project. So that's why things have been a bit slow around here lately; after finishing up my daily duties, the fingers and brain have been too worn out to blog about some of the things on my mind. But this particular item was too good to ignore, so I worked on it last night and I'm posting it now for your enjoyment...there's even a bit of a tip in here, though not an OS X tip.
A couple weeks ago, we bought Disney's Lady and the Tramp DVD for our daughter. When I put it in for the first time, it was hard to miss Disney's new feature--Fast Play:
While you're looking at this pretty screen, whose buttons don't show up for several seconds, you're listening to the announcer say:
This Disney DVD is enhanced with Disney's Fast Play. Your movie and a selection of bonus features will begin automatically. To bypass Fast Play, select the Main Menu button at any time. Fast Play will begin in a moment...
My first thought was, wow, cool, a way to skip all that cruft they load our DVDs with nowadays?! Too cool! A not-so-quick experiment, however, proved my initial thought wrong...very, very wrong! Select Fast Play on Lady and the Tramp, and here's what you'll get:
- Little Mermaid Special Edition DVD preview
- Shaggy Dog movie preview
- Chicken Little DVD preview
- Brother Bear 2 movie preview (there was a Brother Bear 1?)
- Airbuddies DVD preview
- The Disney DVD "oooooh" splash screen and sound effects.
- The Disney DVD Enhanced Home Theater Mix splash screen and sound effects.
- Piracy warning #1 - general 'you are a thief and we don't trust you' message.
- Piracy warning #2 - 'The FBI doesn't trust you either. We know you're stealing stuff.'
- The movie!
Add it all up, and it takes roughly seven minutes and 10 seconds!! to go from the first time I saw anything onscreen to actually seeing the movie. Fast Play? They call that Fast Play? How long does the Slow Play alternative take to start the movie, three days?
I restarted the disc, and clicked the Main Menu button as soon as I could. From there, I chose Play Movie, then Widescreen. Next I got to see the two Disney splash screens and the two piracy screens, then the movie started. Total time required, only one minute and twenty seconds. But you can actually do better, much better, than that. And this tip works with pretty much every DVD I've tried it with.
After inserting a DVD, press the Menu button on your remote, or an onscreen button, whatever you can, to get to the Main Menu as quickly as possible. From there, click the Scene (or Chapter or whatever they choose to call it) Selection button. Then choose the first scene in the movie, which is almost always the opening credits. Then select your screen format (if necessary), and you're done. The movie will simply start playing. No Disney splash screens. No FBI warnings. Nothing but movie, the way things were meant to be.
For Lady and the Tramp, this process takes only 28 seconds, from initial screen activity to viewing the actual movie. Now that's what I call Fast Play!
Welcome to the future!
The "Fast Play" feature takes more time than not using "Fast Play".
Also, war is peace, and slavery is freedom. Thank you, that will be all...
For now.
We have a ton of kid's DVDs and the FBI warnings and previews that you cannot skip are my personal axe to grind.
If I didn't know better, I just plain wouldn't believe it...unfortunately, I do. How sad is that?
How unbelievably sad is it that a company can actually put that on their product and drag their own name through the mud? And why in the world do we put up with it?! (Which, by the way, will also answer the question of why a company does it.)
I have to add that I rarely buy DVDs, and whenever I do things like this end up making it less likely I'll buy the next DVD I'm interested in. I can't wait to see the current content industry finish destroying it's own business. In the meantime, I'd rather go without than put up with DRM and other silly nonsense like this. (Which, by the way, I do - go without, that is).
I have the Lady and the Tramp DVD. If you hit Disc Menu, it jumps right to the menu, which is what the directions seemed like to me. I never tried hitting the fast play button, I never waited long enough to see it, but maybe it doesn't work. But hitting Disc Menu does.
No, both buttons work fine, but that's not what I was writing about. I was more struck by how the marketing phrase "Fast Play" is anything but. The announcer states "...movie and a selection of bonus features," not "six minutes worth of ads followed by your movie." :)
-rob.
This DVD Player UOP (User Operation Prohibition) Patch helped me a lot, I may recommend it to everyone, no problems at all after applying.
Unfortunately, it won't do a thing for the DVD player in the family room, where we usually watch TV :).
But I will patch a copy of the player on the Mac; thanks for the tip!
-rob.
I think that the idea behind quick play is that parents can put it in the machine and it'll start without them navigating through any menus. I know that we put our daughters DVD in and let it play knowing that eventually it will start without our help. Of course, the day that Katrina asks for the videos of which she's seeing the previews, is the day I'll start taking the time to navigate to chapter one. For the time being she thinks the previews are really short movies.
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I just remaster the DVD and have it play the movie directly when its inserted. Problem solved! :)
There's always the double-click play upon insertion trick to get movies to start immediately. Dunno if it works for Lady and the Tramp, but it seems to work for most.
I believe Mike was right in terms of "Fast Play" referring to the "Set It & Forget It" sort of a feature which allows parents to have the movie played without waiting for menu's or interruptions to occur. Although its rather silly to call it "Fast Play", instead it should've been referred to as "Quick Start" or something. Perhaps I am wrong.
I usually use a regular DVD player to watch DVDs. Other than the forced copyright titles I can skip through most of everything.
Thanks for the info. iTech
Apparently, Karl Rove now is in charge of writing the DVD menus at Disney.
My DVD player is a home theater PC. I use VLC as my DVD playback software, and with it I can navigate exactly where I want to be faster than any other software I've used.
People.. Get a Clue:
FastPlay was NOT intended to jump to the begining of the film!
It is intended for kids.. or lazy parents... to put a CD in and things start playing... no blinking menu waiting for input. Play and walkaway... that is what it should be called.
You are all lame if you think anything else.
Although its rather silly to call it “Fast Playâ€, instead it should’ve been referred to as “Quick Start†or something. Perhaps I am wrong.
"Quick Start" also implies speed. Why not call it "Auto Start", which accurately reflects the fact that it automatically starts?
Lovely article. I enjoyed reading it a lot! Thanks
I'm definately going to play around with the Fast Play options.
- RamD
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http://www.wirah.com
A friend of mine, who also has kids, had a problem with his kids scratching up the DVDs. I taught him how to make a basic backup of the disc and then how to re-author the disc, to drop all of the garbage out of it. The process kills two birds with one stone; keeps the original discs in good shape and allows his kids to actually just watch the movie.
well before they had fast play they used to make you force those movie previews. so it is faster than before.
Videolan allows you to skip anything they try to force you to watch.
A user on Digg reported that if you actually select the "Fast Play" button instead of letting it sit there, then the DVD will go directly to the movie. Is that the case?
I've found this trick to work on quite a number of movies:
1. Insert movie.
2. As soon as any crap comes on the screen, press the stop button on the remote.
3. Press the Play button on the remote.
Although it may be player specific, more often than not, the movie starts up. Don't ask me why, I haven't worked that out yet. But it works a surprising amount of the time, and even bypasses the bits you can't skip through to get to the main menu.
No, clicking on Fast Play still takes you through the 7 minute sequence.
One drawback with all movies for kids is the previews. Quite often the kids will be about to watch an older movie and will see a preview for a newer movie that we own and decide that they want to watch that movie instead. If you are not a seasoned pro this process can take upwards of a half dozen DVDs so I never let the previews be seen by the kids.
The only previews that are watched is on a brand new DVD that we are wathcing together so that I can get ideas for other family moves coming in DVD or theaters
The previews are useless. When I am driving I do not want to sift through DVD JUNK to access a movie for my 2 y/o daughter. If you have a DVD burner, save yourself the headache and download DVD FAB DECRYPTOR from dvdidlepro.com It is a free tool that allows perfect backup copies of your DVDs. Once the DVD has been copied to your PC hard-drive, you can cut out the useless advertisements, FBI warnings, menus, etc. That way when the DVD is burned, just pop it in the DVD player & it begins playing automatically.
Now that is what I call fast play & FAIR USE!
Sometimes hitting the menu button twice get's you to the main movie even without the "you're a thief" warning screens. This may also be player specific, but it seems to work a majority of the time on my Panasonic.
No amount of attention to this sort of torture is too little!! Those rat bastards have been holding my remote control skip features hostage for too long. If those marketing F_ups gums were on fire, I wouldn't spit in their mouth!!!
1) buy a dvd
2) copy it to your hd
3) reauthor it without the "can't skip" flags on everything
4) burn
5) enjoy!
thank crikey DVD's were cracked otherwise this situation would be even worse than it already is!
Go to scene 2, not 1, and hit back scene. Some DVDs start with the FBI etc warnings and even preview tracks when you jump to scene 1.
Also, sometimes you can't get out of the preview tracks with the Menu button or Scene Next. Here is a workaround (but it does not always work): Hit Stop once, as if going away to the bathroom -- it is not a true stop, which you get by hitting Stop a second time. Now hit Menu instead of Play, and you will bypass all that crufty track 1 nonsense.
Usually I just put the DVD in without turning on the TV, let it do its thing for a few minutes while I do other things. Then make sure it is on the Menu ... if it is playing, hit Menu to get there. Then turn the TV and stereo on.
What I hate are the DVDs that don't let you STOP the crud that it plays.
It autostarts, plays through previews, and it ignores ANY input -- menu, forward, back, even STOP.
So if you've loaded up your DVD and are waiting for popcorn or your significant other, the only way to pause the DVD is to turn the player off.
That's nice.
Hydra got it right. I rip all of my kid's DVD's so that I can:
1. Remove the cruft altogether -- kids just want the movie.
2. Preserve the original. Their grubby little fingers only touch the copies.
Then you really do have a fast start!
I always rip (e.g. make a backup copy) of any DVD I purchase for my son -- I started this after he destroyed a few. I don't trade, I don't distributed, and I keep the original in a safe place. And when I rip, I just take the movie section and leave out all the other stuff, such as the warnings, etc. that you can't even fast-forward from. Just insert the disk and it plays the movie -- so simple my 6 year-old can do it :-)
However, there is a trick on some players, when the DVD first starts to play hit "STOP" and then "PLAY" on my two DVD's it goes directly to the main menu on most movies, bypassing the junk as well.
Agreed. I have reauthored about 50% of my daughter's DVD's for this very reason. DVDDecrypter comes in very handy for this.
If they think putting loads of crap at the beginning of the kid's movie is going to make me want to buy more movies, they have another thing coming. all it does is infuriate me. Call it bad parenting or not, but when I'm plunking my kid down in front of the TV, it's because i have other things to do.
Waiting many minutes for previews right then is about as pleasing as if the pacifier company were to require that each pacifier be enclosed inside a set of chinese boxes that would take 10 minutes to open while you listened to your child wail uncrontrollably. It's just idiocy.
the ironic thing is that when other parents see my reauthored DVD's in action, they always ask for copies... So, basically, having all that crap on the DVD (including the piracy warnings) is actually ENCOURAGING people to become pirates.
As A DVD author, I can tell you that pressing 'stop' and then 'play' to quickly play the feature is not player-specific. It gets authored depending on what the client specifies. This does mean that on discs by some studios, it will work, and others it will play all the logos and copyrights and other assorted garbage.
Do use the 'menu' and 'title' buttons on your remote to see if you can skip stuff - also 'stop' then 'menu' or 'play' works some of the time.
Unless it's a Disney disc. Then you just have to live with it. :(
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Marketing is so slick now-a-days with their promotional techniques. It's such a manipulative field.
Actually I started pirating DVD's because I was annoyed by all the crap I had to put up with all my original DVD's.. kinda funny isn't it?
next time i buy a dvd and i cant hit main menu button to go to the menu because it tells me the option is not permissable at this time i'm taking the damn thing back and getting refund
This is why backups are great. Buy the DVD, use dvdshrink to remove all the cruft from the movie except the actual movie and burn that to disc, you can also remove the PUPS (seriously, why can they prevent me from hitting menu?!). If your kids are "old enough to use the dvd player" this is great because you wont worry about them destroying the actual dvd on accident.
or just press stop asap then press 1 on your remote (to start title 1)
and a pirate version will have all the crap removed!
i buy bootleg dvds off ppl on the subway to avoid this problem. Ha
Like others have already said, I also rip and burn all of my daughters DVDs so that she can just insert the disk and start watching. I have recently began doing this for my wife's grandmother as well. There is absolutely no chance that this wonderful woman, who has all of her mental faculties with her, to be able to navigate a menu screen on some of these discs.
The main thing that kills me on ALL Di$$ney videos is that after paying $25 (which is $5-$10 more than most movies) for the latest release, they want you to sit through 5 to 10 minutes of preview crap before getting to the main movie. This is especially painful with VHS where you have to fast forward and find the beginning of the movie. I agree with most of you out there, the movie industry's main instigator of movie piracy is... the movie industry. (same goes for the frigging music industry)
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Haha. Yes, this is why I support buying and ripping a DVD, and just using a divx encode to watch the movie. No previews, no menues. Nothing. It's adorable.
Jamie "As a DVD author, I can tell you that pressing ’stop’ and then ‘play’....." your not cool....your try to make yourself sound like you are cool with dvd knowledge and software, but you sound like an ass..........ASS!!!!!!!!!
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