DVD Annoyance

I can understand why tech savy people prefer movies in a DivX or other nefarious format: to avoid being force-fed previews and FBI warnings!

There is nothing worse than renting a DVD from the corner video store, and still being forced to sit through previews that autostart when the disk is inserted! Somehow, the MPAA has figured out a way to prevent any of my DVD controls from working while the previews are playing (same behavior as when the FBI warnings are being displayed).

Even when I pressed the Stop button, the "You can't do that" icon on the screen. No, take a moment to appreciate what I just said: the STOP BUTTON, who's very purpose is to stop the video, could not be used! And this is on a Sony DVD player!

(Update: I did some searching after writing this post, and this exact behavior is not only common, but also years old, because I found mention of it dating back to 2000. Goes to show how little movie watching I actually do.)

The movie was Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I finally figured out that the "Next" button (>>|) would skip to the next preview (so it was inaccurate for me to say that none of the controls worked), but what ever happened to just being able to press the Menu button to go to the DVD's main menu, regardless of what you are currently watching?

Now, let's think about this: If someone has the chance to watch a movie at home and have the choice between (1) just the movie, or (2) be forced to watch previews, FBI warnings, and THX sounders before the movie starts, which do you think they will choose?

I, for one, am looking forward to the legal downloads of movies sans any of the annoying features mentioned above. Let me pay, download them using a Bittorrent network, and burn them onto a DVD. Let the movie autostart right away with NO PREVIEWS. That's what I'm talking about.