who gives a shit

[scaronelly]

why does anyone care about retaining the main menue. it's just an obstacle from getting to the movie, which is the whole reason you want the disc. every once in a while, exras or deleted scenes are important, so why not throw them at the end of the movie. furthermore it is so stupid to split a dvd to two discs. it is possibly the most annoying thing ever if you are watching a movie. if you only keep what is important (i usually only keep the main movie and the 5.1 track), you can have very high bitrates and with CCE, you cannot see a difference from the original to the new one (and this includes long movies like shawshank, gladiator, and lord of the rings). all you gotta do is set up the rip to automatically play the main movie as first play (using maestro). if you'r deaf then keep the subtitles too so you know what's goin on. they take up bearly any room. but i still think any thing is pointless, unless it's extras with nudity.

[LanceSteel]

I agree with you scaronelly but I do understand the other side as well. Personally I just want the main movie and the english audio tracks. I don't care about menus, pictures, the-making-of's, actor bio's etc. To me it's just wasted bits. Once dvd-r's get cheap enough then I'll contemplate doing a dvd-9 -> 2 dvd-5 but I usually don't watch the extra crap anyway. To me its a waste of time, to others its something that they think is important to keep.

[WienieMan]

Remember VHS when sometimes they put deleted scenes at the end of the movie and you had to FF through the thing to get to them cuz they had no menu? I really don't get your post man, menus make it easier and are fairly easy to get on vcd, most of them are just still frames. It takes like a minute and take up no space. and you're right, no one gives a shit about what you think

[donpedro]

scaronelly

Couldn't be this also one of the reasons ?

Cinema Craft Encoder SP $1,950.00
Cinema Craft Encoder Lite $250.00

I am not sure which one do you use.

[scaronelly]

YO WEINER MAN....YOUR DEAD WRONG.....DO YOU THINK DVD'S ARE VHS? IT AINT HARD TO SCAN THROUGH 15 CHAPTERS TO GET TO DELETED SCENES. JUST TIMED IT. TAKES ABOUT 8 SECONDS IF YOUR QUICK ENOUGH.

[scaronelly]

please follow our rules / Baaaaaaaldrick

[pacmania_2001]

DO WE ALWAYS HAVE TO TALK IN CAPS HUH?

[WienieMan]

YO WEINER MAN....YOUR DEAD WRONG.....DO YOU THINK DVD'S ARE VHS? IT AINT HARD TO SCAN THROUGH 15 CHAPTERS TO GET TO DELETED SCENES. JUST TIMED IT. TAKES ABOUT 8 SECONDS IF YOUR QUICK ENOUGH.

I WAS JUST MAKING A POINT THAT IT'S EASIER FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T MEMORIZE THE CHAPTER NUMBERS OR DON'T EVEN KNOW THAT'S IT'S THERE. ALSO PEOPLE ARE INTITLED TO THEIR OPINIONS ABOUT MENUS, JUST CUZ YOU DON'T LIKE THEM DOESN'T MEAN PEOPLE ARE DUMB THAT RIP THEM TO (S)VCDS

[adam]

Well obviously CCE doesn't market their encoder for the type of people who would download warez, off Kaaza no less. CCE is a professional encoder, which can compete with many hardware encoders which cost 10 times as much.

Why keep the menu's and extras? Because its interesting. When I watch a really good movie I want to know more about it. I want to know the real history behing that event that inspired the movie, or find out just how they got that effect to look so realistic. I am very interested in filming techiques so I like to hear the director comment on how he got this look, or what that object in the background symbolizes. Have you watched many deleted scenes or alternate endings? They can completely change the movie. Sometimes the best scenes end up on the cutting room floor.

This seems like a really silly question to me. If you have an even basic understanding of economics then you should easily be able to conclude that there ARE people out there who like the menu's and extras. If no one gave a shit then they wouldn't bother releasing dvds with menu's and extras in the first place.

[WienieMan]

Word to Adam!

By the way Adam you guide to rip Menus helped me a lot, so thanks.

[JasonK]

every once in a while, exras or deleted scenes are important, so why not throw them at the end of the movie. furthermore it is so stupid to split a dvd to two discs

LOL! First he says menus aren't important, then he says the extras ARE important and then said it's so stupid to split a DVD to 2 disks to retain the full quality (which costs a mere 80 cents! ) LOL

you can have very high bitrates and with CCE, you cannot see a difference from the original to the new one (and this includes long movies

YOu must have a crappy TV set. I can see the difference between CCE with the "best tweaks guides" and original even if encoding at 80% of the original bitrate with my high end equipment, good eyes, and particularity. Retaining as much quality as possible is important to many of us (apparently not you), and I would think less people care about all the "extras", although some people do. Menus on the otherhand are a great way to jump to scenes and retain that "original" feel of the movie. Dont' confuse that with VOB IDs of logos, warnings, etc.

[Will Hay]

unless it's extras with nudity.

I think this says it all about the intellect of this goon.
Will

[dc91gt]

I agree 100%.

All those extras are worthless.. and the menus are just a annoyance.

-d

[mats.hogberg]

If you have an even basic understanding of economics then you should easily be able to conclude that there ARE people out there who like the menu's and extras.

I don't agree! If there was an alternative to these menu-and-extras burdened DVDs on the market - OK, but there isn't. The way I understand economics, all this "extra" is just something the movie industry invented as a reason to charge 50-100% more for a DVD compared to a VHS of the same movie, when the actual prduction cost for a DVD is less than for a VHS cassette. If there where 2 editions available of a movie, one with just the movie for $19.95 and one with a fancy menu, some extra scenes,...the rest of the ususal stuff at $29.95, which edition would people buy?
Nope, this is just a case of the movie industry trying to squeeze more out of their product, nothing else.

/Mats

[JasonK]

If you have an even basic understanding of economics then you should easily be able to conclude that there ARE people out there who like the menu's and extras.

I agree completely. And not just that, but I have been on several video and DVD related forums over the last year, and MANY people want to keep the original menus, extras (making of, etc.), subs, etc. I'm not talking about just a person here or there, but one after another. When I tell new people about stripping trailors, etc, they are always a little disappointed, but can live with it. Many of these people are so bent on retaining them, that they are willing to sacrifice main movie quality by encoding it to a lower bitrate to retain the extras! That said, I should add that I am NOT one of them. I want maximum movie quality, and the rest can go.

[mats.hogberg]

MANY people want to keep the original menus, extras (making of, etc.), subs, etc. I'm not talking about just a person here or there, but one after another

That's just because it's there in the first place. Whatever you copy, you want a copy that's as close to the original as possible, even if much of it is rubbish/irrelevant. In the DVD case: Scanning and printing DVD cover slips, buying DVD cases... to the point where noone can tell the copy from the original. Hadn't those menus and extras been there in the first place, not many would have missed them. We lived thru the VHS era, didn't we?
Not only does all this "extras" give the movie industry as "reason" to raise the price, they are well aware of that fleshing out the DVD above the capacity of DVD-R, they are making it harder for the average Joe to make copies, and the copies that are made, can easily be distiguished from the original.

/Mats

[Craig Tucker]

Not only does all this "extras" give the movie industry as "reason" to raise the price

They don't need a reason to charge silly prices. Compare audio tapes and CD's. CD's are much more money than audio tapes, yet they are much cheaper to produce, and there are no extra's on these to justify the increased price.

[energy80s]

First of all I like the extras, it's the main reason for buying the DVD. If I just wanted the film I would copy it and be happy.

Secondly, someone said that people have no choice when buying DVD's and have to get the disc with all the extras on it. This isn't always the case. Recently there have been a number of SuperBit DVD releases that drop all the extras to get a higher bitrate (and therefore better quality) version of the movie onto one disc.

[Will Hay]

Personally I can do without extra's, but I'm hoping to learn enough so I can create dvd's and retain the menu's and chapter's.
This is my opinion which most well-balanced people will respect that
Unlike the fuckwit who posted the original message, for whom my sig has special meaning.
Will

[MaX_NormaL]

LOL @ silky31.

I give a shit... I like the menus anyway some of them are cool, like Aliens, Minority Report blah blah. Not mad on extras though, should be called 'fillers' instead IMO.

Who can watch a good film with the Director blabbering on all the way through it, not me. Only really like deleted scenes.

I have seen those superbit versions and they sound good shall give those a go. Horses for courses, some like all that extra stuff and some don't, would be better if there were two versions of each dvd retail, with/without extras etc. They couldn't charge same price and I wonder which would sell better?

[crahak]

I have yet to watch the extras off one of my DVD's. I have a hard time enough to find the time to watch the movie itself in the first place...

Menus are mainly a pain imho, and 95% of the time, I'll listen to the english AC3 5.1 track too.

[Xtasy2002]

I agree with poster too. All I care about is the movie. The rest of the crap to me is just a big waste of time.

But to each their own. If some ppl like the extra stuff they should be able to get it. Just like ppl who want the movie only should be able to focus on that.

PS to the guy talking about FF VHS tapes.. I play all my DVD on WinDVD. So going anywhere in a movie is a simple process of dragging the slider where I want it to be. Takes about 1 second.

[donpedro]

I like extras. For me nice menu is almost part of movie and sometimes I watch even directors comment. I is nice to know why they shoot it that way or why they cut off some scenes. Or how they created animation.

I am just fine that there are people that don't like that. What I don't like is this "who gives a shit"... Well I do and I don't thik that it has anythink to do with "shit". Also it is much easier not to re-encode when you do backup of your DVD and you don't loose quality at all. The worst that can heppen is that you will need to go to the bathroom in the middle of long movie (which I do anyway ). And suggest to use soft. that is very expensive just to fit it to one disk and get rid of extras ? I don't know....

[JasonK]

What it all comes down to is a personal preference. Those who want to keep all the menus and extras on a DVD that's over 4.3 gig are going to have to sacrifice movie quality (reencode) or split to 2 DVD. Some movies will require reencoding even without the extras if you want to fit on 1 DVD, but will let you use a avg higher bitrate if you drop the extras/menus. It's very clear that opinions vary, and no one should be criticized for what they value in their DVDs.

[Benzima]

Different strokes for differnet folks.

Let me say one thing about compression via CCE, etc. It may look OK or even very good on your high end CRT television, but on my 73" HD Mitsubishi and most other RPTVs, the difference is apparent, and to me, unacceptable.

As far as extras, I love em. The making of, directors comment, deleted scenes, etc. are interesting to me. Why do you think there's such a market for Special/Collector's Editions? Why do you think they can often get away will an initial no frills release and then get good sells with a special Edition release a few months later? It's because many people want the extras. Some do, some don't.

Here's one other thing I've learned. If you back up a DVD-9 and it takes 2 DVD-Rs (DVD5) to get the entire DVD and you have to change the DVD, that's not a big deal. I thought I would hate changing discs in the middle of a movie but it's really not that bad.

[crahak]

I don't care about having more than 1 DVD too. I always end up having to go away from the movie for a couple minutes anyways (kids woke up, need beer/pop/chips/popcorn/whatever, washroom, you name it). Besides, I have a DVD changer, so it's a non-issue for me anyways

I just hate some menus that seem to be made comlpetely backwards from what you'd think, and it's a waste of time browsing thru it... There can be a menu, but it must not "get in the way" of watching the movie in the first place.

[KaoS]

Who cares? Why is it wrong if someone wants different things than you do?

Why should you care if I want the original menus? (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't). Why should you care if I want to save 10 different subtitle languages?

Everyone does this for different reasons. We all want to accomplish different things. Maybe I do not care about the extras on a DVD while maybe others want them at all costs.

Maybe I do not want more than 1 DVD-R for a movie (although I have a 7DVD changer so you would think that I would not care), maybe others do not mind splitting it.

Who cares if I want to take the time to re-encode a movie (I have a seperate computer just for it so it does not take away my normal usage time) and who cares if others refuse to re-encode.

You are not the All Mighty "You will all do it the way I want you to do it" DVD Ripping God so step off your high horse and let everyone do it the way they want

[FoxGarrison]

Personally, I love the extras. There's a certain excitement when unwrapping a DVD for the first time, popping it into the player and the reveal to the opening frame occurs. That magic can't be replicated again once it was viewed for the very first time, but some of the beauty of the disk can be retained with a personalized interface that is created by someone other than the studio.

I know that I've made compilation disks of music videos that I ripped from the extras portion of DVDs. I've made effects disks of from various DVDs as well. It's exciting.

As for the economics of the whole thing, I remember when DVDs costed double what they are now. In fact, I now see many titles that were once expensive being displayed in bargain bins at Wally World (WalMart).

In the good though, there is the bad.

I hate the studios double-dipping on us with first a plain vanilla release and a few months later a full-featured special edition. I also hate commentary tracks being taunted as "scene-specific" when in fact all they are are rehashed interviews pieced together to appear as original material--Bruce Willis comes to mind in Hart's War (sounds like he's crapping while being interviewed in the stall of an airport bathroom). And I hate, most of all, directors who don't know how to give a half-decent commentary on a movie they supposedly felt so "passionate" about when filming the bloody thing. It's a wonder they get any of the 5000 bucks the studios say they paid them for sitting down for 100 minutes or so to talk about their movie.

Like everyone else though, I love the deleted scenes, trailers, well-thought out menus, the making ofs, outtakes and a good commentary (try listening to the one from American Beauty--spectacular).

Anyway, I consider making VCDs with the original animated menus and extras a challenge. Most of all, the movie becomes personal with a great edit of the disk and more appreciated had only the movie been ripped without any special features.

[Tiribulus]

My 2 cents... Personally I care enough about extras/menus to keep them on single layer DVD's where it's a click through with DVD decrypter to make an image and burn it. If it takes any more effort than that or takes more than one disc it's not worth my time or money. However you would think we were debating abortion or gun control the way some folks are firing off here. If people want menus n stuff it's their business, I don't know why they have to be stupid because they have different priorities than me regarding a movie for God's sake.
Tiribulus

[suckonthis]

Now Back to the origianl post.........................





WHO GIVES A SHIT!!!!!