I Miss VHS
Jan 29th, 2009 by Alex
For all of its flaws and with all of the advances of DVD, I think VHS had a few notable benefits. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss futzing around with the tracking on an old tape. Or fishing the magnetic tape out of the VCR once it got frayed and ruined. What I miss is being able to skip the previews.
I remember the first DVDs out didn’t have any previews. Certainly not previews for television shows or other non-movie products; in time, they would come to be. Yet, I’ve been spoiled by DVD technology. I’m accustomed to hitting the track buttons and being able to push to Top Menu button whenever I want to start the movie. Most DVD encoding doesn’t allow you to do so during the display of the FBI warning, but earlier this week I found that the menu buttons were disabled during one of many previews for other movies.
Ugh.
It seems you can still fast forward through the previews, for now. Because advertiser are anything and everything except unpredictable, I envision a day when that choice isn’t left up to us either. We’ll have to revert to the days of VHS where you put the tape in, pressed fast forward (or let it play) and then went off to make popcorn, fix drinks, go to the bathroom, dim the lights, and get situated for the upcoming movie. The only solution I can see is a DVD player that doesn’t observe the required encoding, but fat chance of such a player making it onto the market.
It is for this very reason that I love my modded XBox (not 360) running XBox Media Center. It allows you to skip anything and will always allow you to return to the root menu.
My XBox is getting a little aged, though, so I’m thinking in the short-term future I’m going to build a separate box with a video card with HDMI-out running XBMC on an install of Mythbuntu, since that already has a 10-foot UI. As soon as netflix support hits Ubuntu I’ll be set.
I find that the “Skip track” or “Next Trck/hapter” button will usually take me past the previews on a DVD
I usually just rip… err… backup…. these ‘defective’ DVDs and re-author them to remove these limitations/defects.
Paul: That’s usually what I attempt right after the menu buttons. I tried, but this was one the first time it didn’t work out.
Disney movies are the worst for endless previews. I hate them.
Ha - You miss VHS, I miss BETA - Matter of fact, right near Lou’s Barber Shop (on Ft. Smallwood Road) Used to be Mr. Video, where my love affair with Beta began! Bring back Nintendo - Legend of Zelda and Tetris, or how about Atari - Pitfall or maybe a Commodore 64? DVD’s and CD’s are a step BACKWARDS in technology, especially when it comes to kids!