How the hell do I get a dual Dolby Digital/DTS DVD to play DTS?

It sure is a lot easier to deal with in a REAL theater!

Does anyone besides me absolutely hate DVD menus? Especially the ones that animate, and those that you have to watch for a few seconds until the options come up. I also hate having to watch the studio logo that pops up before the menu, then only to watch it again after you get through the menu and select "play". And I love not being able to skip the WARNING DO NOT COPY screen. That screen alone is enough reason to pirate movies. I'd pay for a version that didn't have that screen I do not like not having the option to skip segments of video when watching something in my own home. Is this really fair?

Sorry to appear so negative lately. DVDs piss me off. But I don't have much of a choice. I think THAT'S what pisses me off.

However you have brought up a major pet peeve of mine. Some DVDs seem to require 10 minutes of prep time to make them play in Dolby Digital, while others won't play in stereo if you search through every menu (case in point, Paramount's "The Wonder Boys"). Having to sit through those cutesy menus is a real aggravation. Why can the DVD industry not settle on some kind of "escape" format that is standardized, much like entering a website done in Flash has a "regular" entrance or a "skip introduction" link for the people who don't want to mess with the snazzy Flash stuff to get to where they want. Having to sit through a 5 second audio loop playing while I am trying to figure out where the navigational buttons are certainly puts ME in the mood to enjoy the "film". Geez.

I can hardly wait for the DVDs that force the complete playing of advertising trailers before they will allow you to get to a menu. Just wait. It'll be here sooner than you think!

And when I rented "Bean" at one time, I could NOT turn off the Spanish subtitles no matter what I tried. And I tried everything. I took the disc back to the rental shop and got refunded.

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

There are a couple of tricks that might work on your player.

Try hitting the DVD menu button when the animation begins to load. In some cases that will skip you directly to the menu you want. If that doesn't work, try the chapter skip/next chapter button. I've found that one or the other works on every DVD I've played (I'm not a fan of the FBI and Interpol warnings either.)

The closest thing to a trick I've been able to do is on the DVD of Gladiator. The Dreamworks logo starts (before the menu). I press MENU to skip this BS, and the menu animation starts. I press MENU again in an attempt to skip the animation. Instead I am taken back to the point in the Dreamworks logo where I left off. Pressing Menu again immediately takes me to the menu, but skips the animation so I can actually get on with what I want to do. I choose DTS, press play, sit thru the DTS trailer and WARNING screens, etc, then get to watch the Dreamworks logo AGAIN! Hooray! Although this time it is the DW logo that is part of the feature. I'm not sure why Dreamworks feels the need to put a logo on before the menu. I wish the studios would release a DVD with nothing but the studio logos repeated over and over. Oh yeah, and a whole bunch of WARNING screens as well.

I'm sure if it wasn't for the unskippable WARNING screens on every DVD that piracy would be prevelant, studios would all go bankrupt and we would be a nation of criminals, just like those crazy Aussies Thank God the WARNING screens are unskippable!

I like LaserDisc. Just put it in and press play. But I like the size, picture quality and storage space of DVD.

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

Honestly, I think it's a waste of money to have a home theatre. How much money does your average setup cost? $1,000? Add the cost of buying/renting movies and you'd probably have to watch a movie every day for 6 months to equal the cost of just going to the theatre.

 |  IP: Logged