This is a review of the GUESS WHO DVD. Not so much the movie, as of the DVD itself.
This GUESS WHO DVD opens with the usual time-stealers.
First, the DVD steals our time by forcing us to sit through two promos before we can get to the main menu. Then when we think we can finally see GUESS WHO, we're forced to sit through two WARNINGS not to infringe copyright, then two DISCLAIMERS about the audio commentary.
Finally, I think I'm going to see GUESS WHO. Only, DVD manufacturing is so poor, the film skips and stalls fifty minutes into the film. And I can't get to the main menu, because the DVD has disabled that feature. You see the little stop sign in the corner of your TV as you attempt to return to the menu while watching the film.
So I can't go to the menu to try and return to the scene again, to see if the DVD won't skip a second time. I must remove the DVD and sit through the promos and warnings and disclaimers once again.
I was unable to see GUESS WHO beyond fifty minutes. Too bad, because it seemed an okay film. But the quesion remains, why do SO MANY DVDs skip and stall?
If DVDs are so fragile, why don't CDs and CD-ROMs have this problem?
There was a theory in VIDEO magazine in the 1980s that the studios were releasing poor quality VHS tapes because they didn't want consumers to build longterm libraries. That makes sense.
Remember, the studios never wanted to sell their movies, they only wanted to rent tapes to video stores. It was a series of court cases in the 1970s/80s concerning antitrust, restraint of trade, and fair use in copyright, (such as the Sony Betamax case) that barred the studios from restricting the trade of independent video stores.
Yet the studios made a bundle when people built tape libraries. Another bundle now that people are replacing their fragile tapes with fragile DVDs.
I can see why the studios don't want to manufacture decent quality DVDs, lest consumers have permanent movies floating around for decades. Studios earn nothing on the sale of used DVDs. Better for them to manufacture fragile DVDs that won't last, so consumers will more easily replace their scratchy DVDs when the next format comes along.
I'm really tired of SO MANY rental DVDs skipping and stalling, and SO MANY DVDs having promos I can't bypass. If you rent enough DVDs, you know lousy manufacturing quality is by no means unique to GUESS WHO.
I wish there was more consumer outrage against these crappy studio practices.
Article comments
1 - Matt Paprocki
That sounds like your DVD player. I've brought home discs that look like they've been sandpapered and they work.
I completely agree about the warnings and such though. I've been meaning to do a piece on it for a while. You nailed it pretty well though.
2 - Aaman
So who does it ruin - I'm still guessing?
3 - Nigel Pond
Sounds like a problem with the layer change on the DVD. If a disc is badly authored the layer change can cause some players to pause noticeably while the laser refocusses, or to skip, stop etc. Some players handle poor layer changes better than others.
4 - Thomas M. Sipos
The disc actually looked pristine. No marks.
OTOH, my DVD player often has no problem playing scratchy DVDs (though sometimes it does have problmes).
I remembers when laser discs and CDs were first coming out. Marketers said, "You can rub sandpaper over it, scratch it up with a knife, and it'll still play great!"
That was the promise, one of the reasons CDs were supposed to be better than vinyl. Whatever happened to that promise?
Another problem: has anyone noticed that there seems to be no standardization as to what the label "widescreen" and "full screen" mean? Sometimes, the side that says sidescreen is widescreen, but sometimes the widscreen version is on the opposite side of its label.
5 - Ponyboy
The disc is copy protected using the latest ARccOS techniques from Sony, and I suspect your DVD Player is not compatible. Nice, huh?
6 - Pissed of Movie Fan
Yeah, its the fricken Arccos, it always stalls out my dvd player someplace when the plot in the movie starts to thicken. I think it is disgusting that they will sell you a movie that claims to be a dvd that will not play in your dvd player. The MPAA needs to be stopped because it is simply wrong to sell a product as a DVD when it really isn't one because many players have difficulties playing.
7 - Mojo
I couldn't agree more with Mr. Sipos' assessment of DVD's. I have a sony player and couldn't get thru a rental of "Hitch". Tried to skip the bad parts... but it gets to a certain place (almost the end of the movie) and just stops ... nothing you can do. I even tried popping the dvd into my laptop... and it was able to play some of the bad parts ok, but still stalled at the same place as the sony. I give up! I'm going back to VHS.