A rant about Shout Factory

[Cheeseness]

I don't know where to put this but I really feel the need to get it off my chest.


When I had a knock on my door yesterday morning and was handed a box that said it came from San Rafael, I squealed with joy and quickly scampered back inside to enjoy my newly acquired treasures. Unfortunately, my happy dance was cut short when I noticed that the Freelance Police DVD was produced by Shout Factory.

Now I'm glad that I own the series, but I definitely would not have purchased it if I had've known that I'd have to sit through a whole bunch of ads before I could watch the DVD I'd stuck in my player.

I know that it sounds petty and I can just skip them or rip the DVD or find some other way to get around it, but the point is that *I shouldn't have to*.

I'm already a paying customer. If they make good products, of course I'm going to look at their entire catalogue. Why should I be subjected to additional advertising after I'd already forked out for something??? Surely that money would be better spent trying to get NEW customers. The brochure inside the DVD case is more than enough (if only in that it provides me with an updated checklist of what not to buy).

This isn't free to air TV. What justification is there for having this junk in there at all?

Why aren't the consumer's needs being thought of here? When I buy a DVD, I want to be able to put it in my drive, click play and sit back to watch without all the advertisements and other bollocks associated with watching TV. That's the *only* reason I buy DVDs, so why aren't I getting what I'm paying for here?

Nothing spoils a romantic movie night quite like having to sit through a huge bunch of loud and annoying ads (with the possible exception of a fire or food poisoning or something). It's nearly as bad as the piracy warnings that only the poor bastards who haven't pirated the damned thing have to sit through, but that's another rant for another time.

I guarantee that if record companies started putting 10 minutes worth of ads on the front of every audio CD they produced, everybody would be crying blue murder, so why is it even remotely acceptable to do it with video products?? Why couldn't this be put in as an item in the main menu rather than something that I have to be assaulted by up EVERY FREAKING TIME?


Steve, TellTale, Nelvana, and whomever else has been involved in getting the DVD out the door, if you're going to use this mob in the future, please please please please please please please make mention of it on the store so we can make more informed purchases (I know the Shout Factory logo is visible in the photo of the set, but it's that small it could be anything).


P.S. Don't buy the Weird Al Show DVD. The ads aren't skippable on that one.

[Emily]

We didn't intentionally hide the fact that Shout Factory made this disc -- in fact, I try to give them props whenever possible since I think they did a great job. I corresponded with Brian Ward, the producer, regularly while the set was in production and it was clear to me that he really cared about Sam & Max and was very excited about the project. You're definitely entitled to your opinion and I'm sorry you're upset about it, but if your only beef is that they show some ads when you pop the DVD in, I feel like you're being a bit unfair to them. This is a pretty standard practice these days, and they're definitely not the only ones who do it!

Shout Factory has their own forum here (http://www.shoutfactory.com/community.aspx). I hope you'll post your feedback about the ads over there since they're much more likely to see it that way.

[Cheeseness]

G'day Emily

I wasn't suggesting that it's hidden in any way, just that it's not mentioned in the product description.

I agree that the content's really good, it just really gets under my skin that somebody could think it's good business practice to gratuitously put in things (no matter how trivial) that annoy their consumers (no matter how little an annoyance that may be).

I also sent this directly to Shout Factory along with the note that though I sound irate, I'd really like to hear their thoughts.

As for whether it's a standard practice or not, that doesn't make it any more appropriate. I specifically avoid publishers who do this, which is the main reason I'm a little disgruntled about this particular one (that and Freelance Police is something I've been looking forward to for ages).

I still love you guys though. :)

[Breakman]

I'm use to skipping ads in front of DVD menus. It's rare to find one that doesn't have them.

Shout Factory is cool and all about releasing many old shows in great quality. The only problem I have with them is their DVDs have no subtitles. Transcribing every single line and timing it on a subtitle track is time consuming, I bet. They just want to spend as little time making a DVD so people could get the product faster (plus why would they spend so much time on a DVD that may not sell very well). That's all good, but it's still a bummer though.

[Cheeseness]

It can't be that rare. I haven't counted in a while, but I'm pretty sure my collection is over 700 discs now and there's only four titles with ads at the beginning (two of them were gifts and the other two are Weird Al and Freelance Police).

You're right about the subtitles. That's a real shame.

[Jake]

Presumably you don't own anything from Disney, and almost no network TV shows on DVD? At least not Region 1...

[Kedri]

*Tries to picture a romantic movie night with Sam & Max: Freelance Police*

Seriously, though...advertising is impossible to avoid nowadays...it's not just Shout Factory. The goal of televised entertainment is to make money, and they can't do that if people don't know about the latest product...

Anyway, just sit back, hit that 'menu' button, and enjoy the show. Three seconds of the first ad shouldn't be too much, right?

[Cheeseness]

My copy of The Emperor's New Groove and all of my Pixar movies go straight to the menu if I am not mistaken. None of the TV shows I have aside from Weird Al have ads at the beginning (Star Trek, Red Dwarf, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, Quantum Leap, Futurama, IT Crowd, Firefly, etc. etc.) either.

You might be right, Jake. Maybe it's just less prevalent over here in Australialand. Either way, not having to deal with the ads is the only reason I buy DVDs, so for me it's important that I'm able to avoid them.

*Tries to picture a romantic movie night with Sam & Max: Freelance Police*
If you ever find yourself in that sort of situation, DON'T MESS UP. Keep this person for life (I recommend serving green eggs and ham).

[Molokov]

Very few of my DVDs have ads before the title, and even if the 'skip' or 'menu' buttons are disabled, you can usually fast forward through them.

One thing that really annoys me is if a DVD starts with an unskippable anti-piracy ad... the irony being that if I /had/ pirated the movie, I wouldn't see the stupid ad...

(I love what The IT Crowd did with that... You wouldn't steal... a baby!)

[Cheeseness]

Did you see the piracy warning on the front of the season 2 DVD?

WARNING

Stop watching this DVD immediately. If you suspect that you
or anyone you know is watching this DVD, then you, or they
are breaking the law! Move back from the television place
your heads behind your head and await further instructions.

Piracy is a crime.

I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere Graham Linehan admitting that the show would not have taken off the way it did if it hadn't been downloaded and shared around the world the way it had.