I hate DVDs

Who would have thought that when we moved from 1970's technology to 1990's technology, we would be taking a gigantic step backwards? That is however what has happened, and as long as we remain capable of playing videotapes, that will be our preferred technology ("Honey, should I get it in video or DVD?" "It comes in video? Get the video!!!").

There are two main problems with DVDs -- they are fragile (more fragile than videos -- how could you do that?) and you have less control over how they are played. First the fragility -- DVDs are so easily scratched that 60% of the DVDs we get from the library won't play at least a segment and 10-15% of those from Netflicks won't finish. For reasons I don't entirely understand, it's always the climatic end of the movie that freezes. From video rental, the fraction is higher -- maybe 25%. Nice of Netflicks to ship you a working one, but in our busy lives we don't get a second chance a few days later to sit down again. Videos were never this bad -- it was a rare video that had problems -- as a teenager I rented tons of flicks, watched them from beginning to end. Then in college I worked at Pleasant Street Video renting videos and while we were prepared to refund rentals if the video didn't play, I don't remember having to fill out that paperwork a single time. They melted spectacularly in the car window -- but so do DVDs!

Add a technologically savey four year old to the mix and the stress goes through the roof. She knows how to pause and play the DVD player. She can turn off and on the TV, and she wants to load her own DVDs. At the moment, with her safe in bed, I don't think rationally that her little fingers make scratches between the case and the DVD player. But in the light of day, with half of the DVDs not playing, seeing her open a DVD case causes instant panic. I've heard of people who break the copyright protection to create copies, then file the originals and let their kids watch the copies -- that sounds smart. For our commute to work, we get lectures on CD from The Teaching Company, which has a lifetime warranty -- if any CD gets scratched, as long as they are still making it, they will replace it. DVDs are much cheaper to make and ship than the videotapes they replaced, but unlike The Teaching Company CDs we cannot make a backup copy, and the distributor feels no obligation to replace them when they fail.

The second problem with DVDs is the lack of control over how they play. We prefer our four year old to watch DVDs over TV precisely because we want to preselect what she watches and we don't want her watching advertisements. At first, if you wait patiently through the FBI and/or Interpol warning, followed by logo presentations with sound effects for two or three responsible entities, then pressing "MENU" would skip the previews -- important because we already steered her past Disney Princess movies, Lilo and Stitch in the library so we don't want the DVD we've selected drumming up demand for the things we've already tried to avoid. It's not just that we are against previews to kids movies -- some of the movies are veiled comericials -- Transformers, The Weebols Movie. Some are ads for merchandising related to Disney and some are ads for interactive computer and internet games. The last thing I need is my savey four year old on the internet at this age. Now "MENU" is as forbidden during previews as it is during FBI warnings, although skip will take you past one of the X number of previews. Then, last week, the final indignity. On the Wiggles DVD, "Menu" functioned properly, but the preview had been prepended to the episode!

I can understand being forced to sit through the FBI Interpol warning. However I think messing with the controls in any other way, preventing my skipping to the part I want to watch should be against the law. I have to say, I love videos -- I can get them used very cheaply, and we may just build our collection that way...and wait for technology to start serving consumers again.