Speaking of DVDs/Blu-rays...

This should probably be a fourth mini-rant to the previous post, but since they annoy me almost every time I insert a disc, I figured I'd give it a post of its own.

1. Language Selection: Why is it that so many discs open to a menu page asking me what language I want to use? Why can the disc not just read my language settings from the player? After all, I had to set those up when I first added the player, so I'm obviously at least comfortable with whatever that setting is. So just pick up those settings from the player, and then give me a menu to change them if I want. (And, for extra credit, the player could contain my preferred language and sound mix preferences as well, so I automatically get the DTS soundtrack if available, or whatever.) Still, I suppose it's early days - DVD's only been around for, oh, twenty years.
2. Copyright Notices: Yeah, I've ranted about this before, but it's still annoying. I've bought your disc, so please stop telling me not to engage in piracy - that just encourages me to do exactly that and save myself the hassle. (And if you absolutely must inflict this on us, at least have the decency to show one copyright notice in the chosen language. It's inexcusable to lock up my player for 10 minutes while you show an unskippable sequence of 20 notices that are identical but for the language used.)
3. Starting the Film: When I insert a disc, there are two acceptable things that can happen. Either I should be taken immediately to the disc's root menu or I should be given a choice whether to resume playback from the last position or go to the root menu. And that's it. Adverts before that root menu are bloody annoying, especially six months after the disc came out and I already own any I care about. Simply assuming that I want to start/resume playback is likewise a pain - I'm quite capable of pushing the button, thanks. And those discs that show the main menu but then automatically start the film for me are the worst - if I was ready to start the film, I would have started the film.
4. Hidden menus and Easter Eggs: Yeah, yeah, it's all very clever that if you go to this menu and enter that code then you get some special feature that nobody else knows about, 'cos it's hidden and stuff. Or, no, what's that other thing? Oh, yeah, it's bloody annoying. There is exactly one valid use for Easter Eggs on DVDs: if your time machine has been stolen by Weeping Angels and you need to leave a message for Sally Sparrow to come find you.

But, other than that, DVDs are great!