Bruce Almighty, Universal, and WHY I'M ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!!

[Peter]

I know Online Petitions generally don't work, but what if one was
started for this. I know Willy Wonka had like 20,000 signatures or
something which woke the studio up to the fact that people prefer a
choice of widescreen.

I'm not very good at writing those petitions, just thought I'd suggest
it. I'll sign it if someone else writes it up.


Dick Sidbury wrote:
> Rutgar wrote:
>
> ...snip snip...
>
>>
>> I wrote them. Everyone else here should too. It might also help to
>> contact DVD websites, such The Digital Bits, to get them to put
>> pressure on Universal as well.
>>
> Even better would be to convince the review sites to list as part of the
> review when this happens. It might effect sales although it might also
> result in review sites not getting free copies of disks.
>
> dick
>

--
At the source of every error which is blamed on the
computer you will find at least two human errors,
including the error of blaming it on the computer.
--
Thats not funny!
---
Signature generated by SillySigz!
http://www.sturec.com/sillysigz.shtml

[Peter]

Stan Brown wrote:
> After all, it's not like anybody doesn't know copying DVDs is wrong.
> I doubt mightily that ever, in the history of the world, a single
> person has been deterred from plans to copy a VHS or DVD by seeing
> that warning on screen.
>

Reminds me of the "Video Pirates" from Amazon Women on the moon
(as they see the FBI warning)
"Ooooooh, I'm sooooo scared!!!"

--
At the source of every error which is blamed on the
computer you will find at least two human errors,
including the error of blaming it on the computer.
--
Thats not funny!
---
Signature generated by SillySigz!
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[Peter]

Scot Gardner wrote:
> "Dick Sidbury" <DrJamesSidbury@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:bqtgqv$24kdd9$1@ID-109339.news.uni-berlin.de...
>
> RE: Mandatory commercials.
>
>
>>Those of you who aren't buying it for that reason should consider
>>going to Universal's site and telling them why. It can't hurt and may
>>help.
>>
>>dick
>
>
>
> Disney gave in to customer complaints after about 6 months of doing
> mandatory commercials in late 1999 through early 2000.
>
> Today, Disney posts a message saying that the commercials can be skipped
> by pressing the menu button.
>

Which I still think sucks, but I can live with it.. I'd much prefer it
to stay as a seperate menu item, and leave it at that.


--
At the source of every error which is blamed on the
computer you will find at least two human errors,
including the error of blaming it on the computer.
--
Thats not funny!
---
Signature generated by SillySigz!
http://www.sturec.com/sillysigz.shtml

[Oldus Fartus]

Peter wrote:

> I know Online Petitions generally don't work, but what if one was
> started for this. I know Willy Wonka had like 20,000 signatures or
> something which woke the studio up to the fact that people prefer a
> choice of widescreen.
>
> I'm not very good at writing those petitions, just thought I'd suggest
> it. I'll sign it if someone else writes it up.
>

Petitions mean nothing unfortunately, because the people who sign them
may or may not be potential buyers.

Better results are gained by voting with your wallet. Return the
offending DVDs making it clear why, and distributors will get the
message very quickly. They want to shift product, and will only keep
on putting advertising as long as they believe it does not
significantally affect sales.

--
Cheers
Oldus Fartus

[Stan Brown]

In article <bqtu7u$26e20t$1@ID-191356.news.uni-berlin.de> in
alt.video.dvd, Rodney James <rodneyjames42@hotmail.com> wrote:
>"Stan Brown" <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> wrote in message
>news:MPG.1a3bd802531787f398b8d8@news.odyssey.net.. .
>> In article <IPhAb.2376131$Id.360080@news.easynews.com> in
>> alt.video.dvd, luminos <x@x.net> wrote:
>> [snip]
>> As for your other point, what useful response _is_ there when
>> somebody posts an often-discussed topic and says he is surprised he
>> hasn't seen it discussed?
>
>It allows many other newsgroup readers who may have also missed the previous
>discussion to read about the topic. If you don't like reading a topic that
>is being repeated, then DON'T. This is Usenet. Anyone can post or reply on
>any topic they desire at any time. There are no rules preventing multiple
>discussions on a topic.

Well, obviously -- including this one.

But do you really not see the point? The original doofus said he
had not seen any complaints about unskippable commercials. Since
there had already been considerable discussion of exactly that, it
was stupid to say he hadn't seen it.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cortland County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
DVD FAQ: http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
other FAQs: http://oakroadsystems.com/tech/faqget.htm

[Rutgar]

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 11:56:33 +0800, Oldus Fartus
<denisand@netNOSPAMspace.net.au> wrote:

>Peter wrote:
>
>> I know Online Petitions generally don't work, but what if one was
>> started for this. I know Willy Wonka had like 20,000 signatures or
>> something which woke the studio up to the fact that people prefer a
>> choice of widescreen.
>>
>> I'm not very good at writing those petitions, just thought I'd suggest
>> it. I'll sign it if someone else writes it up.
>>
>
>Petitions mean nothing unfortunately, because the people who sign them
>may or may not be potential buyers.
>
>Better results are gained by voting with your wallet. Return the
>offending DVDs making it clear why, and distributors will get the
>message very quickly. They want to shift product, and will only keep
>on putting advertising as long as they believe it does not
>significantally affect sales.

Petitions can work. The previous poster already acknowledged that it
worked for an anamorphic version of Willy Wonka.

- Rutgar

[Michael]

It hasn't been discussed in here before, at least not for many months. Did
you just mistakenly assume it was posted to one group? I don't know why
you're whinging anyway, even if you were ignorant, as you seem quite happy
to discuss the topic: the topic that's been done to death...apparently.

"Stan Brown" <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> wrote in message
news:MPG.1a3c7226c5ad69e898b8e9@news.odyssey.net.. .
> But do you really not see the point? The original doofus said he
> had not seen any complaints about unskippable commercials. Since
> there had already been considerable discussion of exactly that, it
> was stupid to say he hadn't seen it.

[Rutgar]

On Sun, 7 Dec 2003 14:52:42 +1000, "Michael"
<quadhammerNO@HAMhotmail.com> wrote:

>It hasn't been discussed in here before, at least not for many months. Did
>you just mistakenly assume it was posted to one group? I don't know why
>you're whinging anyway, even if you were ignorant, as you seem quite happy
>to discuss the topic: the topic that's been done to death...apparently.
>
>"Stan Brown" <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> wrote in message
>news:MPG.1a3c7226c5ad69e898b8e9@news.odyssey.net.. .
>> But do you really not see the point? The original doofus said he
>> had not seen any complaints about unskippable commercials. Since
>> there had already been considerable discussion of exactly that, it
>> was stupid to say he hadn't seen it.
>

It was discussed extensively in this group when "The Hulk" DVD came
out, which did the same thing. However, as long as Universal is
doing this, it should be brought up, so people can elect NOT to buy
these disks, and at the same time lodge a complaint with Universal.
Hopefully, the correlation of the lack of sales on these DVD's along
with complaints, will get them to stop doing such a lame-ass thing.

- Rutgar

[Oldus Fartus]

Rutgar wrote:

> On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 11:56:33 +0800, Oldus Fartus
> <denisand@netNOSPAMspace.net.au> wrote:
>
>
>>Peter wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I know Online Petitions generally don't work, but what if one was
>>>started for this. I know Willy Wonka had like 20,000 signatures or
>>>something which woke the studio up to the fact that people prefer a
>>>choice of widescreen.
>>>
>>>I'm not very good at writing those petitions, just thought I'd suggest
>>>it. I'll sign it if someone else writes it up.
>>>
>>
>>Petitions mean nothing unfortunately, because the people who sign them
>>may or may not be potential buyers.
>>
>>Better results are gained by voting with your wallet. Return the
>>offending DVDs making it clear why, and distributors will get the
>>message very quickly. They want to shift product, and will only keep
>>on putting advertising as long as they believe it does not
>>significantally affect sales.
>
>
> Petitions can work. The previous poster already acknowledged that it
> worked for an anamorphic version of Willy Wonka.
>
> - Rutgar

"CAN" is the action word. That particular petition did not get 20,000
signatures, it got 11,500 and whether or not it was actually the cause
of Warner including that format could be debatable.

--
Cheers
Oldus Fartus

[Michael Rogers]

I skip them by pressing "stop" during the FBI warning and then pressing
"play" and the movie starts right up. I'm sure that will work for you.
Yes, it sucks that they put ads on the DVD's even though I know how to
defeat it, it should not be there in the first place.

Mike

NightStalker wrote:
>
> <Start rant>
>
> Please excuse the exclamation marks in the subject, but I am furious!
> (oops - there's another one)
>
> Just received Bruce Almighty (from DVDBoxOffice in Canada) and although
> I enjoyed the movie, I had to sit through several minutes of bloody
> promos/trailers at the start, and every button on the remote was locked
> out. Geez - even a VCR will fast forward past those. Now, every time I
> want to watch that movie, I have to wait about 8 minutes before the
> movie starts, and will have to sit through the same tired old trailers
> for movies I don't want.
>
> Surely, some reviewer somewhere, or somebody with some clout, can raise
> this point? Fer Chrissakes, I bought the DVD to watch Bruce Almighty -
> NOT a load of crap trailers and intrusive advertising.
>
> What next - "A few messages from our trading partners folks" then a
> series of ads for eveything from condoms to tampons, with washing powder
> somewhere in the middle?
>
> This is a nasty trend starting here, and I'm surprised that I haven't
> seen or heard any howls of discontent from people about it yet... or is
> Bruce Almighty the first one? It's certainly the first one I've seen.
>
> On the PC, I can use DVD IdlePro to ignore all that lockout stuff,
> including the FBI warnings etc, as well as making the DVD-ROM region-
> free. But in the home cinema I can't, dammit.
>
> Did I say I was furious, annoyed, angry, pissed off? Huh?
>
> And for good measure:- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> </End of rant>
> --
>
> NightStalker

[NightStalker]

In article <3FD2D20A.813A68A7@rochester.rr.com>, miker@rochester.rr.com
says...
> I skip them by pressing "stop" during the FBI warning and then pressing
> "play" and the movie starts right up. I'm sure that will work for you.
> Yes, it sucks that they put ads on the DVD's even though I know how to
> defeat it, it should not be there in the first place.
>
> Mike

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to work with my Toshiba SD-5300.
Bummer. But you can be sure that my next DVD player will have the
option to go straight to the movie.

I'm actually going to contact the people who modded my Toshiba to
region-free and RCE-free, to see if the chip can be re-modded to disable
the UOP "feature". I'll let y'all know if this is a goer :)

--

NightStalker

[NightStalker]

In article <MPG.1a3c7226c5ad69e898b8e9@news.odyssey.net>,
the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm says...

> But do you really not see the point? The original doofus said he
> had not seen any complaints about unskippable commercials. Since
> there had already been considerable discussion of exactly that, it
> was stupid to say he hadn't seen it.
>
>

As the presumed original doofus (!!), I can say categorically that I had
NOT seen any discussion in here about this subject. Whether or not it
has been posted is irrelevant - I hadn't seen it. It depends on what
the subject line is as to which of the couple of hundred daily posts I
read.

So there!! Gee - I love those exclamation marks when I'm in this mood!!

:-P pffzztt <G>

--

NightStalker

[Me]

Who gives a shit? You should be able to post whatever relevant questions you
want.


"NightStalker" <Nightstalker@somewhere.or.other> wrote in message
news:MPG.1a3d71b0d2dc3e9698972c@news-50.giganews.com...
> In article <MPG.1a3c7226c5ad69e898b8e9@news.odyssey.net>,
> the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm says...
>
> > But do you really not see the point? The original doofus said he
> > had not seen any complaints about unskippable commercials. Since
> > there had already been considerable discussion of exactly that, it
> > was stupid to say he hadn't seen it.
> >
> >
>
> As the presumed original doofus (!!), I can say categorically that I had
> NOT seen any discussion in here about this subject. Whether or not it
> has been posted is irrelevant - I hadn't seen it. It depends on what
> the subject line is as to which of the couple of hundred daily posts I
> read.
>
> So there!! Gee - I love those exclamation marks when I'm in this mood!!
>
> :-P pffzztt <G>
>
> --
>
> NightStalker

[Rutgar]

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 13:21:15 +0800, Oldus Fartus
<denisand@netNOSPAMspace.net.au> wrote:


>> Petitions can work. The previous poster already acknowledged that it
>> worked for an anamorphic version of Willy Wonka.
>>
>> - Rutgar
>
>"CAN" is the action word. That particular petition did not get 20,000
>signatures, it got 11,500 and whether or not it was actually the cause
>of Warner including that format could be debatable.

Hey, every little bit helps.

As far as the "Willy Wonka" petition is concerned, it DID work.
Warner released an anamorphic widescreen version of the film. So, I
hardly see any debate.

- Rutgar

[Peter]

Rutgar wrote:
> On Sun, 7 Dec 2003 14:52:42 +1000, "Michael"
> <quadhammerNO@HAMhotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>It hasn't been discussed in here before, at least not for many months. Did
>>you just mistakenly assume it was posted to one group? I don't know why
>>you're whinging anyway, even if you were ignorant, as you seem quite happy
>>to discuss the topic: the topic that's been done to death...apparently.
>>
>>"Stan Brown" <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> wrote in message
>>news:MPG.1a3c7226c5ad69e898b8e9@news.odyssey.net.. .
>>
>>>But do you really not see the point? The original doofus said he
>>>had not seen any complaints about unskippable commercials. Since
>>>there had already been considerable discussion of exactly that, it
>>>was stupid to say he hadn't seen it.
>>
>
> It was discussed extensively in this group when "The Hulk" DVD came
> out, which did the same thing. However, as long as Universal is
> doing this, it should be brought up, so people can elect NOT to buy
> these disks, and at the same time lodge a complaint with Universal.
> Hopefully, the correlation of the lack of sales on these DVD's along
> with complaints, will get them to stop doing such a lame-ass thing.
>
> - Rutgar

Unfortunately, there is still a greater number of Joe Nobody's out there
who buy the big blockbuster for little bobby Jr, and Curly Sue and just
accept the commercials, because thats how things are.

So a few thousand DVD enthusiasts refusing to buy the DVD's on that
purpose, vs. a million average people not caring, may not make Universal
bat an eye.


--
At the source of every error which is blamed on the
computer you will find at least two human errors,
including the error of blaming it on the computer.
--
Thats not funny!
---
Signature generated by SillySigz!
http://www.sturec.com/sillysigz.shtml

[tony_h]

"GDS" <sickof@spam.com.au> wrote in message
news:3fd1aac1_1@news.chariot.net.au...
> Cods wrote...
> >With my player, you can often hit STOP repeatedly as soon as you start
> >loading the disc. When it stops, hit MENU and you can often skip that
> >crap.
>
> I used to be able to do the stop thing with my old maggy.
>
You don't have to do the stop thing with the Maggy, I have done a UOP patch
for it (amongst others).
Here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/magnavox

Cheers
Tony
http://www.tonyspage.dynodns.net

[Michael S Cox]

Peter wrote:

>
> Unfortunately, there is still a greater number of Joe Nobody's out
> there who buy the big blockbuster for little bobby Jr, and Curly Sue
> and just accept the commercials, because thats how things are.
>
> So a few thousand DVD enthusiasts refusing to buy the DVD's on that
> purpose, vs. a million average people not caring, may not make
> Universal bat an eye.
>
>
There is a golden rule of retail selling, for each unsatisifed customer
that complains, there are least 10 others who are also unsatisfied but
have not complained. There is also another golden rule, "A satisfied
customer tells three people within the first month after the sale, while
a dissatisfied customer tells seven people about you during the first
week". If Universal are smart, then they will realise that a few 1000
complaining customers, represents roughly a few 10,000 unhappy
customers, each of which will tell up to seven others that they are
unhappy. That's a few 100,000 customers who are starting to develop bad
will towards the studio. These are not the sort of numbers I would like
to see if I were in their business.

MichaelC

[Stan Brown]

In article <3fd39eb1$0$20482$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au> in
alt.video.dvd, Michael S Cox <xocsm@optushome.com.au> wrote:
>If Universal are smart, then they will realise that a few 1000
>complaining customers, represents roughly a few 10,000 unhappy
>customers, each of which will tell up to seven others that they are
>unhappy. That's a few 100,000 customers who are starting to develop bad
>will towards the studio.

I don't think they're that smart. If they were, they'd have learned
from Disney's experience and not done this at all.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cortland County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
DVD FAQ: http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
other FAQs: http://oakroadsystems.com/tech/faqget.htm

[Invid Fan]

In article <3fd39eb1$0$20482$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>, Michael S
Cox <xocsm@optushome.com.au> wrote:

> There is a golden rule of retail selling, for each unsatisifed customer
> that complains, there are least 10 others who are also unsatisfied but
> have not complained.

I think there's another more modern rule as well, "an email isn't worth
the paper it's printed on". Bitching via the internet is too easy, and
many companies feel people will sign any online petition without really
caring about what it says. Type out and mail a letter. It'll get more
of a reaction.

--
Chris Mack "Refugee, total shit. That's how I've always seen us.
'Invid Fan' Not a help, you'll admit, to agreement between us."
-'Deal/No Deal', CHESS

[N/A]

"NightStalker" <Nightstalker@somewhere.or.other> wrote in message
news:MPG.1a3c721165cf1f6798972a@news-50.giganews.com...
> In article <bqsfb1$2vc7$1@otis.netspace.net.au>,
> lionshattrick@hotmail.com says...
> > My solution is to rip the movie (only) with DVDShrink, then burn a
DVD-R.
> >
> >
> >
>
> Good idea Geoff. If I don't get my money back on those two movies, I'll
> do just that.
>
> --

It is a solution, but you lose the 5.1 sound and video quality drops
slightly.