My wife and I rented two movies from Blockbuster this past weekend.
Whoever is in charge of producing the DVD’s has now decided that we cannot skip the trailers or commercials by hitting the DVD menu or the skip button on the DVD player remote.
They have crammed each trailer with just about every important scene from the movie. If I haven’t watched the movie yet I would prefer a teaser not a spoiler. If I have seen the movie, I’d like to skip the trailer. Also, If you rent more than one of this weeks releases you are going to see the same trailers again.
Now I don’t mind a little advertising but there is a limit. My wife and I timed how long it took before the menu finally came up. Below are the two movies we rented and the time it took for the trailers and advertisements to play out:
“Whiteout“: Fifteen Minutes.
“The Hangover“: Sixteen Minutes.
Fifteen minutes drove us well past being annoyed and far into being angered and we are never doing this again.
This is not the case with all rental companies. At least it isn’t yet. A friend rented “The Hangover” from Netflix. She said that she wasn’t forced to watch the trailers on her rental.
I e-mailed this complaint to Blockbuster customer service. They were very responsive. I got this reply within an hour.
“Thank you for providing the account information for speedy escalation of your concern.
I have forwarded this issue on your behalf to the District Manager and hope to have it resolved for you as quickly as possible. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
Should you have further concerns, please let me know.”
Quick reply but no answer. I have yet to hear whether this is a Blockbuster policy, if it will continue, if it has been forced on them by the distributors or if it was an error in the production of the DVD’s.
I will not be renting from Blockbuster until I know it will not happen again. I will be using pay per view or some other rental service. I hope the cable company has not been forced to turn off the DVR buttons while the trailers are on.
This better not be the case for purchased DVD’s. I will not be forced to wait fifteen minutes each time I watch a movie that I have purchased?
I guess that I will have to go back to watching TV, reading or actually talking to my family. I just had a scary thought. No, not the part about talking to my family. Do you think that the Kindle is a conspiracy. When paper books have been replaced, will we be forced to watch commercials before we can read? Someone call Jesse Ventura!
I’ll let you know what Blockbuster has to say about this when I get an answer. -Tim
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Fear not, rage not people. It is just another attempt by the corporate machine to subvert consumer freedom and democracy…but there is a peaceful solution. No need to get angry, destroy discs or pirate movies…get even by getting methodical.
Stop-Stop-Play may work on some players for some discs, but not all.
You will need to learn the quirks of your own unit by bringing a mindful presence or child-like curiosity to the task (think like a zen monk or a 10 yr old).
On my Panasonic Blue-Ray with the movie “Truth”
1) insert DVD and let copyright warning play thru
2) during first preview, press stop
3) press top menu (it will display error…but wait)
4) when error has cleared, press top-menu again
(or try play, wait until error clears then press top-menu…experiment until you find the pattern)
On another DVD it would not stop until I pressed top-menu a couple of times. The trick is to identify the key sequence adndtiming that work on on your player. Enjoy the experiment, impress your friends. Consider writing a note to a movie distributer to remind them of the importance of consumer goodwill.
Blog (and watch movies) in peace.
The same thing now happens with Netflix rentals. It’s really annoying. Especially when you are limited on time to watch a film such as later at night and you want to get to bed. Or if your DVDs sometimes lock up or have problems and you need to eject the disc. Then you have to watch 10 minutes of previews again when you’re halfway through the movie. I can handle it just not so long.
Thanks a lot to Dan for the tips. Gonna try those next time.
DVD from Blockbuster stopped playing sound so I had eject and clean the disc and start from scratch. I have to watch the trailers again. Really? This is nuts. IT makes me miss the days of VHS when you could just rewind or fast forward as you wanted to. Damn frustrating.
Tim being forced to watch commercials is definitely frustrating and you’re not the only one angry about it my friend. Thanks for posting. I’m going back to books.
Need to see a doctor? Next time your in for a visit, just check out how much propaganda the prescription drug companies have brought to the office.
Lets go to the grocery store and watch a few commercials while we’re in line…wait I think Wal-Mart is already on to this on.
How about buy gas? hmmm , your going to be standing there so why don’t we just force you to watch a little commercial or two while you’re at the pump.
I for one think the world is going “commercial” crazy.
I was trying to watch a movie tonight from Netflix (who funny enough is actually running a ad right on this blog) when I figured out, I couldn’t get around being forced to watch the commercials (trailers to movies that I’ve already seen) and decided to simply eject and return.
I also just close my account.
Netflix is no different that Blockbuster. They both suck. If enough people let them know how much we appreciate them appreciating us…maybe they’ll get the message. Thanks again for the little place to rant.
Actually, Netflix and Blockbuster do not control the ads on the discs, so neither suck for this reason. They’re put there by the studio. The same ads will be there if you purchase the movie at Best Buy. You didn’t show Netflix anything. All you really accomplished was removing the least expensive way to watch a movie from your options. But if you really are going to move on to books, then good for you! It’s the more intelligent option anyway.
Although, I find myself wondering, if you can find the time for 5 mintues of trailers, where do you find the time for a whole book?
@Paul
Are you serious with that question or are you just a netflix cheerleader? It has nothing to do with ‘having the time’ and everything to do with control over your time. When you read ‘an entire book’ you are completely in control of the time you spend on the activity. If you are forced to watch 5 minutes of trailers that you don’t care to, you have no control over the time.
I can’t believe you actually had to have the explained to you.
So, the book comment was your take-away? How rich. And as I said, it has nothing to do with Netflix or Blockboster. Now, even Comcast On-Demand forces you to watch commercials for FOX and NBC programming because the network demanded it. Nothing to do with Comcast, yet people are upset with Comcast. Wise up sir, and direct your anger at the appropriate party, otherwise you just make a fool of yourself.
@Paul
You asked a question and I answered it. How rich that you needed it explained in the first place. Also, you are truly naive if you don’t believe Netflix gets anything from the studios for those ads and foolish if you think rental and retail DVD’s are identical. If you insist on those fallacies, you can’t be reasoned with.
You win, sir. Recommend you never rent or purchase a DVD again. Problem solved for you.
Thank you, but it really wasn’t a contest. Your comments run the gamut from vacuous to inaccurate. I’m actually not even sure why’d you post here at all.
You sure are the clever one. You seem to know so much yet offer no evidence. Since you like to read so much, how about you educate youself on the Netflix/Blockbuster SUBSCRIPTION based business model. Do you really believe that the very content providers who demand ever increasing fees from these rental companies are in turn paying them for using DVDs with their ads and trailers? If you want something to read, go to the SEC website and download yourself a 10-Q from one of these companies and kindly identify the revenue stream originating from studio or network. And, how many different versions of the physical media do you really believe exist? Do you understand the concept of piece price increase with proliferation? You question why I post here, meanwhile you see fit to chime in and attack me at a personal level, yet offer no substance or fact based argument supporting whatever your position is in the first place. Attacking me is fine, as I could care less what an ignorant “joe” such as yourself thinks of me, but if you’re trying to convey any kind of point at all I suggest you do so with facts to avoid looking futher like the fool.
There were some good, and helpful posts here. Unfortunately, this thread has become a forum for slinging no value added nonsense by lesser sophisitacted people with a missguided axe to grind with rental companies. Sling away amongst yourselves, folks.
I sent a letter to two major home video distributors today (Warner Bros and Alliance), asking for info about this new trend in distributor control over playback, and noting the negative impact on customers.
–PS
Paul/wayninja…Consider focusing the topic and the sprit of the comment guidelines, and things are less likely to degenerate into personal insults. Life is too short to fight amongst ourselves. Sarcasm just does not work online, when you can’t see the twinkle in the other person’s eye
http://brusimm.com/comment-rules/
Hey GANG!!! This is the site owner… since Tim wrote this article, I don’t get the emails that alert me to the comments… they go to the author.
Bottom line… comment rules say play nice. This site is about the freedom to speak your mind and not worry about being attacked. I don’t want to spam anyone… but don’t try me. I’d rather have two GREAT commenters than 10 nasty ones.
Thanks for coming by. Now let it go and focus on the subject at hand.
The management.
I agree. The subject is that you can’t skip the trailers on DVD Rentals. I really don’t think the answer to that problem is to stop renting DVD’s. I’m also not sure what comcast has to do with it since they don’t rent DVD’s.
I am just interested in debunking inaccurate information. There is a difference between rental and retail DVD’s. Period.
I read this post while I was unable to skip or fast forward the trailers from a newly released redbox movie. So, it seems that people have reported this behavior from Blockbuster, Netflix, and redbox rentals.
I say, we just sit back idly and hope that whoever is pushing this new trend just decides to stop (jk).
This is so frustrating. I never watched trailers until our right to fast forward was taken away. Is this their way of punishing us for renting instead of purchasing? I usually barely have time to fit a movie in…now its even harder with an extra 10-15min. tacked on. I guess I’ll watch fewer movies if that is what they want.
WRONG! It is wrong to have a DVD ignore your remote’s commands until you have satisfied the GREEDY corporate moguls by watching their ads. APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE ABOUT MY LENGTHY RANT THAT FOLLOWS. We rented HANNA (Universal Studios) from Red Box. Could not skip the trailer promos regardless of what kind of “moves” I put on my remote. Even tried using the posted tips, no help. Called Red Box to express my displeasure about being forced to wait 11 minutes before we were allowed to see the movie we wanted. I mentioned they should have some clout in making the studios or publishers of the DVDs make viewing all promos optional not manditory. Basically my conerns fell on deaf ears and at the end of the conversation with the cust serv rep I was told in a slightly sarcastic tone “Red Box is not going out of business to accomodate people for this type of problem”. I remained civil, said goodbye and hung up. I realize it is not the fault of Red Box for this issue however when enough people stop renting or begin closing their accounts maybe Red Box or other rental businesses will help exert pressure on the studios and DVD makers to make promos an optional view. It is a roll of the dice when you rent a DVD now whether or not it’s promos can be skipped. I know getting the government involved is not always the best thing but maybe it is time to force the studios and DVD makers to indicate (truth in labeling) the duration of promos and whether or not they are an optional view. Not disclosing if promos are optional before purchase or rental prevents the consumer from making an informed decision and places consumers at an unfair disadvantage. Big businesses are taking more liberties especially when it comes to advertising as in more commercials on TV less program content, internet videos and now they plague our DVDs. A young adult used an online petition to force our nation’s largest bank to cancel charging it’s customers $5 per month for simply using their ATM cards then there should be some way to let the studios and DVD makers know they will hear from consumers if they continue to force us to watch their self promoting advertisements. Thank you for reading my message.
Apparently I forgot/overlooked there are multiple Dan entries on this site. The comments posted for Dec 29, 2011 at 1:01 AM by “Dan” is not related to any previous Dan comments before this date. Sorry about any confusion I may have caused.
I consider this problem more insidious that most of the other posters.
They have managed to create a DVD that breaks the functionality of my DVD player. Software that intentionally breaks the functionality of my machine has another name: a virus.
There should be a good market for DVD/Blueray players that defeat this crap.
Dangerous words Aaron, with citizens united, the stance of Apple on jailbreaking, rampant piracy, SOPA, and various other movements towards protecting the rights of intellectual property holders I’m sure it won’t be long until finding a way to circumvent the previews is tantamount to theft as well.
Beaides that, I don’t mind watching the previews anyway. They are usually composed of the most exciting parts of the movies they preview which generally on average makes the previews better than the movie that follows them anyway.
It is absolutely a fact that Netflix and Comcast sign contracts with the studios and networks. The networks and studios are the ones doing it, not Neflix and Blockbuster and Comcast. It’s a fact that the content creators are squeezing everyone. The advertisements are all for the creators products and don’t benefit Netflix and Comcast in the least (although I have other beefs with those two for other things.)
But the problem I have – which is even worse than watching them once (I can use the bathroom or make popcorn for that) – but having to watch them over and over because my laptop shut down and I never finished watching it! Now I have to watch the same damn ones a second time. And a third. And maybe a fourth. Just because I sometimes watch the movies in chunks. Now that really sucks!
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