OK, Icon Home Entertainment has now REALLY pissed me off
Saturday, 29. August 2009, 10:28:17
I was annoyed by Icon Home Entertainment's Black Sheep DVD. There were a load of trailers at the start I couldn't skip. That's not too bad since I probably won't watch Black sheep too many times, but I had thought to myself that I shouldn't buy any more Icon DVDs.
A friend had recommended I watch Seraphim Falls and the first time I saw it on DVD it was £17, but I didn't look to see which company had produced it. A year later I saw it for £3 so I snapped it up without noticing that it was released by Icon Home Entertainment (repeated mentions of the full name might get my page rank up so that more people might find this complaint).
This is not a review of Seraphim Falls, it is a complaint that there was a trailer that could not be skipped. It was only one trailer, but it's the principle. You put your DVD into the player and you don't mind the copyright notice or the badly authored Icon corporate logo animation because you have to go back to your chair and get comfortable or check your drink/snacks/whatever. But a trailer you can't skip or fast forward and that doesn't report how long it is puts you in a bad mood before the feature even starts. At least in the days of VHS you could fast-forward the trailers.
If I buy a DVD of a film, watching that film should be the point of the DVD. As I said I can tolerate about a minute of copyright notices and corporate logos, but it should go straight to the main menu. It's like the warning against illicit copying or filesharing. A pirate takes it out of the DVDs he sells or the files he shares, thus adding value to the consumer. When you're competing against free, don't annoy or alienate your customers.
Celtic Pride is a great DVD because not only is the film good, but also because it goes straight to the main menu!
A friend had recommended I watch Seraphim Falls and the first time I saw it on DVD it was £17, but I didn't look to see which company had produced it. A year later I saw it for £3 so I snapped it up without noticing that it was released by Icon Home Entertainment (repeated mentions of the full name might get my page rank up so that more people might find this complaint).
This is not a review of Seraphim Falls, it is a complaint that there was a trailer that could not be skipped. It was only one trailer, but it's the principle. You put your DVD into the player and you don't mind the copyright notice or the badly authored Icon corporate logo animation because you have to go back to your chair and get comfortable or check your drink/snacks/whatever. But a trailer you can't skip or fast forward and that doesn't report how long it is puts you in a bad mood before the feature even starts. At least in the days of VHS you could fast-forward the trailers.
If I buy a DVD of a film, watching that film should be the point of the DVD. As I said I can tolerate about a minute of copyright notices and corporate logos, but it should go straight to the main menu. It's like the warning against illicit copying or filesharing. A pirate takes it out of the DVDs he sells or the files he shares, thus adding value to the consumer. When you're competing against free, don't annoy or alienate your customers.
Celtic Pride is a great DVD because not only is the film good, but also because it goes straight to the main menu!
WIDGETIZE