Thomas the Tank Engine - Best of Thomas

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DVD Reviews of Thomas the Tank Engine - Best of Thomas

DVD Review: BUY SOMETHING ELSE!
Summary: 1 Stars

I'm all for DVD. I was an early adopter and love the image quality. Remember years ago when you switched from tape to CD and loved the random-access? No more forever fast-forwarding and rewinding. DVD promises the same? Depends on the producer. We have all of the Thomas DVDs and they are all the same: you cannot get straight to the menu but instead are forced to watch meaningless junk.

A DVD producer encodes the disc with a script file full of various directives. Unfortunately, most (if not all) DVD players are programmed to honor these directives. For example, the Thomas discs will disallow the 'menu' and other keys during the first FIVE MINUTES of commercial material. In my opinion, it is a mistake for disc producers to make use of this feature for marketing. Even the FBI warning should be skip-able. Further, DVD player manufacturers should not program the devices to obey these directives, if present. Give the consumer the choice/control he deserves and the capabilities he paid for.

Before you say "stop complaining about 5 little minutes", consider this: of any kind of movie for which my arguments make sense...children's titles make the most sense. Most of the time it works as follows. My older boy wants to see a movie--he is patient about it. My younger boy needs to be put down for a nap. I am way behind on housework and rushing to get things done. What makes sense is that I should be able to put the disc in the tray and walk away! But, I cannot. I have to sit and wait 5 minutes...and then *finally* the menu appears. Still, I have to be there for this great moment because the movie does not automatically start at that point. It waits for me to press a single button: 'enter'.

There should be no commercial material unless offered as a "bonus material" selection in the menu. The movie should not require a menu selection, instead it should simply start playing if the menu button has not been pushed.

Disney learned this lesson years ago. Until the producers of Thomas also learn this lesson, just avoid it!

Description of Thomas the Tank Engine - Best of Thomas

Children's Music Music CDs

• Music > Styles