What Happened To DVD Main Menus?

Cam McFly

Active Member
I have noticed recently the quality drop in DVD main menus. I first noticed it with my Blu-ray/dvd of Godzilla(2014), then again with Edge of Tomorrow, then Transformers 4, and finally with We Are the Millers. Has anyone else noticed this very generic menu screen. I whipped up this picture as an example
Screen Shot 2015-01-09 at 6.28.06 PM.png
 
I hate DVD menus,.....it takes them so long to load.....I'd prefer the film just started first and if you needed a menu you called it up......I buy DVD's & BD's for the film, not for some long winded menu to play out before you can access the selections

J
 
Yeah i've noticed that many discs have more and more title screens.

Sometimes you get the distributions studio's logo multiple times.
 
Some menus can be really awesome. Take the ALIEN BluRay menu for example.


The original ALIEN 20th anniversary collection DVD release of ALIENS is still one of my favorite DVD menus of all time. They actually recreated portions of Hadley's Hope colony and you're seeing it all through the marine's helmet cams. Each section of the menu would represent a different part of the colony. The Main Menu took place in the general corridors, the scene selection was in med-lab (with the tubes representing the scenes), the language selection was the stairwell in the processing station and the Bonus Features were in the nest itself.
 
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come on guys! part of the fun is seeing if there are easter eggs and "secrets" hidden in the menu. I like the 'interactive" type screens like the "aliens" one. music and video adds to the anticipation of the movie. I agree the "have to watch" trailers is b.s. I remember buying "THE RING" and watching it. then for some reason scrolling left to right on the main menu the cursor disappeared...I pressed left and right counting each time before it disappeared........ then I pressed play when the cursor "disappeared"....... then my phone rang........:D
 
Some menus can be really awesome. Take the ALIEN BluRay menu for example.

http://youtu.be/n5o_ZusgO_M

The original ALIEN 20th anniversary collection DVD release of ALIENS is still one of my favorite DVD menus of all time. They actually recreated portions of Hadley's Hope colony and you're seeing it all through the marine's helmet cams. Each section of the menu would represent a different part of the colony. The Main Menu took place in the general corridors, the scene selection was in med-lab (with the tubes representing the scenes), the language selection was the stairwell in the processing station and the Bonus Features were in the nest itself.


Let me rephrase, I freaking love DVD menus! I think they are a cool way to show clips and get you in the mood for the movie. Im just asking what the heck happened! They are soooo generic now!
 
The effort isn't going into most of them anymore because more and more people are using services like Netflix. Won't be long until the concept of using optical media for your movie collection will seem like using VHS now... Completely outdated save for a small niche of collectors.
 
I'm fine with not animated, but the generic iconography recently, particularly with Warner Bros. releases, makes them look like they were made with shareware burning software or something.
 
I like DVD menus that have easter eggs. In particular, I love the menus on Star Trek DVDs as they have lots of behind the scenes stuff on them. I only buy DVDs with extra features on it. I will not buy DVDs that only contain the movie and/or trailer... there always has to be something extra for me.

The only DVDs I own are Star Trek DVDs (TNG, Voyager & Enterprise), 2-disc Forrest Gump, Labyrinth, Princess Bride, Sound of Music, Lord of the Rings (extended), Back to the Future set and Indiana Jones (set & 2-disc KOTCS). All of them were bought for their extra features.
 
At one time, I'd have said I prefer the animated, interactive menus like the old X-Men or Aliens menus. But now? I just wanna watch the damn movie. Those things end up just being annoyances.

It's actually the same reason that I find myself not bothering with special features on hardly any films anymore. I just don't care. Director's commentary or actor commentary is about all I find interesting. Unless they have, like, a trivia subtitle track, like on the Back to the Future discs. Those are great. Otherwise? Don't care. HBO First Look? Inventing the World of [film], with a bunch of fans? Don't care. Appearance by half the cast on The View? Don't care.

The handful of exceptions to this are old Doctor Who discs, and films here and there that I find really interesting. The rest....yeah, I just don't care that much. Play the movie. I'm here to watch the movie.
 
At one time, I'd have said I prefer the animated, interactive menus like the old X-Men or Aliens menus. But now? I just wanna watch the damn movie. Those things end up just being annoyances.

It's actually the same reason that I find myself not bothering with special features on hardly any films anymore. I just don't care. Director's commentary or actor commentary is about all I find interesting. Unless they have, like, a trivia subtitle track, like on the Back to the Future discs. Those are great. Otherwise? Don't care. HBO First Look? Inventing the World of [film], with a bunch of fans? Don't care. Appearance by half the cast on The View? Don't care.

The handful of exceptions to this are old Doctor Who discs, and films here and there that I find really interesting. The rest....yeah, I just don't care that much. Play the movie. I'm here to watch the movie.

....just press play?
 
At one time, I'd have said I prefer the animated, interactive menus like the old X-Men or Aliens menus. But now? I just wanna watch the damn movie...The rest....yeah, I just don't care that much. Play the movie. I'm here to watch the movie.
And this is the reason more and more companies are putting less effort into the menus and bonus features on the DVDs and Blu-Rays they produce. Most people don't care about bonus features, they just want to watch the movie. The studios know this, and they feel like they're wasting money if they spend a fortune to produce detailed menus and bonus features that few people will actually use or see.

I get disappointed if a DVD or Blu-Ray has minimal or no extras; I enjoy seeing the work that went into making the movies I like. But if the menu is such a pain-in-the-ass that it's almost impossible to access those bonus features, it's almost as disappointing as not having them in the first place.
 
....just press play?

Would that it were so easy.

You have to get to a point where the pressing of "play" is (A) registered by the player, and (B) will take you to the film itself. The problem is that the disc forces me to watch all the trailers, then the animations for the menu, just to get to a point where I can actually hit "play" so it'll play the movie.

Like I said, when I was younger, I liked the bonus features. There's still a few I dig. But there's plenty that I just don't give a crap about because they aren't that interesting. And while I like the menu to look clean and professional, I don't want it to sing and dance for me, particularly if I can't skip the song and dance routine to actually get to the movie, and have to sit and wait while it "Loads operating system" or whatever.

Don't be cute. Just play the damn movie already.
 
My desire for extras totally depends on the movie. I own some movies that I've never watched any extras. Others have entire bonus discs and I would still go for more.



What has always pissed me off is disc menus that eventually go into a short loop. If something must loop then I want no sound (that means none) and not too flashy on the visuals.

Sometimes I fall asleep watching something. I hate ending up with a really disruptive & annoying menu looping after the show ends. There are times it might continue on for an hour or more before I muster the energy (read: get annoyed enough) to get up and turn it off.
 
The effort isn't going into most of them anymore because more and more people are using services like Netflix. Won't be long until the concept of using optical media for your movie collection will seem like using VHS now... Completely outdated save for a small niche of collectors.

uh oh... I like my optical media - wont use netflix. I'm either that small niche or becoming more crotchety in my old age! ;)
 
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