DVD Features wish list

What features do you like the best on DVDs and which ones do you want on every disc? I've got to say I want deleted scenes, alternate endings, easter eggs, and visual commentaries on every disc. List as many as you can think of and the 'powers that be' will listen. This also includes people who want movies in DTS, 6.1, 7.1, 8.1, THX, etc...and those of you that want all standard format, letterbox format, or enhanced DVDs. This is a petition of sorts that I will pass along at work, so anything goes. You can also create features here if you want. Say you want a feature where you see how a film is edited or detailed specifics about a certain special effect, speak up, and it could show up on future releases. Thanks

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Well I like my idea you already read, where you pretty much choose the ending. Which would be possible, with enough alternate endings. But yea I love deleted scenes. Except for the ones like in X-Men, which were merely just alterations of the original scene. I love interactive menus. Not just those lame ones, where the box says interactive menus, but really there is no transition, just menus. Like T2, or the Abyss, Or ID4. Hmm... I like those eggs, but if they were on EVERY DVD they might get boring after a while. I wish there were DVDs where the eggs would be hidden extremely well. So not many people found out about them. That would be cool. And I like commentaries. And the little doccumentaries, like TV spots, the one on X-Men, and the Blood Sport of a Gladiator, on Gladiator. Those type of things. And interviews with cast and crew are nice. Uhh.. What else....I'd like it if they put previews that ran the day it came out on there. Or just previews in general, as an option in a menu. I also like it when you can't change from letterbox version. I like letterbox, but sometimes I wanna see the whole TV filled with it. A cool feature, but it would be hard to do, is if you could re arrange the scenes so that you watched them in a different order. Like you start off making a playlist of scenes. And then watch it. i'll probably think of some more stuff. But I'm good for now.

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I agree - being able to re-order scenes and perhaps "Save" a copy of the movie that way would be the coolest dang thing - I guess you'd have to store the data in the DVD player and call upon it with the info on the disc...or something like that.

I think alternate endings are far and away the coolest thing a DVD can have. I'm much more likely to a buy a DVD of a movie that has that. [red]MUCH MORE LIKELY! [/red]

I don't know much about all that DTS/THX stuff.

I also highly second Peter's recommendations for different previews - in a chronological order so you can see the small teaser, then the beta preview (whatever it's called), and then the full blown one. More and more, as if you're watching TV waiting for the release. Makes the flick more exciting!

I didn't mean it like that, the previews. I do like those though, and alot of DVDs do have them. I ment like previews for other movies.

I like the director's commentary. And I like it when the actors are there too. (Like in SLCPunk) On some dvds it says "Here are some other movies you might like" but it just shows the covers. I want to be able to click on them and see previews for those movies. I rent a lot of movies just 'cause I liked the preview. Specially movies I've never heard of before. I would like a separate soundtrack thing. So if I just want to listen to the songs in the movie I can do that. The deleted scenes and alternate endings rule! Please leave letterbox in there. Most people are used to the tv and don't like letterbox, but please please leave it as an option. I love it and I think many true movie fans do too. When they have the biographies of the actors it would be nice if it had a moving picture of them kinda like they do with football players on tv. They show the guys face and have his stats underneath or on the side.

Off topic, I don't understand why they don't put How To videos on Dvd. Like home repair or something. It would be really easy to jump to the thing you want to learn. Or Cooking. You could just click on the dish you want and go to that part. That segment would have other links on it to things that go well with that dish etc.. Navigating a dvd is really really easy compared to trying to do that with a vhs tape. I don't know why they don't have How To dvds. It seems logical to me.

Oh, since some dvds have web stuff, they could include a feedback section, like rate this movie, rate the actors rate your overall satisfaction etc.. People could submit it over the web and the studios could get feedback that way. I don't know if this already exists 'cause I have a dvd player on the tv not on my computer. I'm just saying.

I didn't mean remove the Letterbox version. Just on some movies, I like other versions.

Ok, so far we've got more movies that are both letterbox and standard, more previews...kind of like Armageddon Criterion Collection that has 10 or so, commentaries, scene selections that can be rearranged, alternate endings, deleted scenes, spectacular menus, bios, and isolated scores. Okay. What about being able to see the film's Premiere and everyone who went to it. Or maybe even award segments from the Oscars and Golden Globes to show acceptance speeches. I've always wanted Tom Hanks' speech from the Oscars when he won for Philadelphia and outted his teacher in front of the world...which turned into the story behind In and Out.

Anyhoo...How-To DVDs are coming. Studios have got ideas for dancing, cooking, traveling, home repair, auto mechanics...etc, but they want to wait until most of their movies are on the format.

Keep the ideas coming. I've got a great running list here.

Acceptance speeches and premiere info is great! Hanks really did that? In and Out was pretty funny - didn't my religion spoil it for me.

Letterbox - the black above and below the picture, right? I know, I know, I ought to know for sure, but I don't!

Lol...Letterbox has the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen to 'matte' the picture and keep it in the original theatrical aspect...aka...rectangle like theater screens instead of square like TVs.

I loved In and Out. The 'learn to be a man' segment with the dancing is priceless.

I saw one dvd, I think it was Central Station where they showed how it won a bunch of awards and had clips from the awards shows. It was great. I vote for that too. Seeing what happened at the premier and afterwards at award shows and stuff. I think Life is Beautiful had that too but I might be mistaken. I also like to see when actors come in and audition for the part. Like uhm.. that one where the guy was a gameshow host. Magnolias? Was there a gameshow host in that one? Well, anyway, I like to see the auditions even from people that didn't get the part. I like all that behind the scenes stuff.

Oh, you know how you guys want to make your own stories? I saw a dvd like that about Xena but it wasn't real people. The characters were computer generated. It wasn't that great. If you do a search on Netflicks for Xena you can prolly find it.

Oh yeah, I wasn't voting for bios, I was voting that when there are bios could they have a moving pic of the actor on there. Some pages are just a page with a bunch of words on 'em. Kinda boring. Sorry. They need a little something to liven 'em up. Like at least a picture or something.

Is it possible to have subtitles in a language other than English? Or maybe to add Spanish to the languages available? Most dvds have the original language the movie was made in, say German, and English, but my parents would be happier if it had Spanish too. So the movie would have as languages, German, English, Spanish. Or for subtitles English and Spanish. You probably have other languages in dvds you send overseas so it wouldn't be too hard and a lot of people in America speak Spanish. Sorry white people, I know you don't like that. Lol! J/k

I'm just throwing suggestion at ya.

There are a lot of DVDs on the market that have several different languages and subtitles. A DVD can be encoded with 8 different language tracks and up to 32 different subtitles. English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and Thai are the most common languages out right now, but Chinese, Russian, and even Celtic are used.

Bios with motion pics would be sweet. Especially if they add childhood and class photos.

Screen tests and audition reels are becoming more popular too. I'm glad for that. Hugh Jackman's audition for Wolverine on the X-Men DVD is pretty cool.

What nationality might you be? Just curious. Yeah, I'm plain old white - boring, huh? I don't have a romantic accent like the French, or an intelligent-sounding one like the British...but the rest of the world considers me arrogant. Hehe

Hmm.. I don't know. Both my parents are Mex-American so uhm.. Hispanic? I don't have an accent either but I can do a good one. Ah like Scrooge McDuck wha canna say? Hehehe.

Do you guys ever put subliminal messages in your dvds? Just wondering.

LOL...what kind of subliminal messages are you wanting...lol. "Go buy more DVDs" or "Dress in drag and do the hula while you're at work tomorrow".

I had meetings this week with people from Warner Brothers, Universal, Columbia, Tristar, New Line and some smaller studios and gave them a pretty detailed listing of special features that everyone here has been giving me.

Universal was gung-ho about the premiere and special appearence DVD features and asked if interviews with David Letterman and Jay Leno would work too. I figured everyone would get a kick out of that idea, so they may add that feature in future.

Warner Brothers and Columbia liked an idea for behind-the-scenes featurettes of actors and directors doing a DVDs commentary. Virtually all the studios are wanting more languages, making-of featurettes, and more animated menus. Warner Brothers especially is looking into animated and motion menus since they don't use those very much at this time. We talked about 20th Century Fox releases like X-Men and Entrapment for menu possibilities...Warner is already working on this.

Universal liked the moving pictures idea for bios and said it would be difficult to develop, but they would like to see it in the future.

All the studios are trying to get away from any film in standard format, except those that were originally shot as a standard film. So look for movies in letterbox or widescreen formats with more anamorphic or enhanced discs to come out soon.

This next week I'll be meeting with Paramount, Fox, MGM/United Artists, MGM/Turner, Slingshot (IMAX), and a few minor studios, so any more ideas that anyone has, let me know and I'll pitch them.

The talk shows thing sounds cool to me. I think it would be kinda neat if you did a commentary, and had the commentators off to the side. Sort of like a split screen thing(it would be optional)so you could watch them talk about it. I'll think of some more.

Picture in pic you mean? That might be neat when they have actors there.

Hey, you know how on Galaxy Quest they have it so's you can switch the language to the alien tongue? It would be neat to switch to Klingon on Trekie dvds.

Also, on old movie dvds it would be neat to see the original movie posters that went out at that time. Like for War of the Worlds say. Also the little newsreels and cartoons they played at intermission. Commentary by old actors who are still alive would be neat, and give them some work. I've been watching the History channel, can you tell?


The soundtrack thing on Blair Witch 2 is what I was talking about in an earlier post. I want a separate soundtrack thing. It doesn't have to be on the other side, just somewhere. And it should be free of commentary unless it's commentary from the artists who made the songs. Like say, Shania talking about what inspired her to do the songs on Twister. As a menu option I could play the soundtrack itself or listen to a version with her commentary. And also I want the artists like Snoop or whoever, not the director saying I picked a Snoop song because I wanted a gritty urban feel in this part of the movie etc.. Directors and composers are good for musical scores like Fantasia 2000 but on soundtracks with hot artists I want the artists themselves.

Oh yeah, on old movies how about having the original black & white version with the option to switch to colorized mode?

Thanks for listening!

Good idea with the Klingon language...lol.

There are some older flicks already that feature original poster art as well as intermission newsreels and radio 'theater' promos.

Isolated scores are picking up interest and are usually found as easter eggs on a film, like The Mummy (1999). Good idea with the soundtrack feature interviews.

Studios would have to remaster the old black and white prints in order to get them encoded on a disc along with a colorized version. They probably won't go for the extra expense, but I'll forward all the ideas along.

Ok, this is a little far fetched, and is kinda a DVD player feature but here goes.

Would it be possible to make a DVD player that holds a few DVD's and randomly plays them? Sometimes I'm not in a mood to watch a movie, but if I'm flipping through the channels and its at a part I like I'll end up watching it completely. I would love this feature if a DVD player could do this. I could just be flipping through the channels and get to video 2 and woah it could be midway through one of my DVD's and I'd watch it. Sorry if this sounds like a really obscure liking of mine.

Gotta admit I never thought of that one. The only thing I can think of is to get a 200 DVD changer, put it on index shuffle, and flip the channels. The player should shuffle each disc and play just one chapter of each. If you catch a flick you want, then turn off the index and it'll continue to play the whole film.

I'll pass on the idea, but I'm not sure manufacturers would go for it.