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Author Topic: DVD "Security" Devices Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-25-2004 04:43 PM                        Ever notice when you buy or steal a DVD that there is tons upon tons of hard-to-remove tape on the box? Then there is that security thing inside of the box that also must be removed. Studios still feel that DVD boxes are not enough of a pain in the ass, though. They've taken it a step further... check it out: Now they are putting little plastic tabs which must be unswitched and opened before you can even open the box. Here they are in the open position. You can twist them off and discard them. My question for all of this is WHY? Why do the studios want us to have a hell of a time to get into the box? It can't be to prevent piracy, since the DVD itself is authentic. It can't be to prevent theft, since a thief would just steal the whole box instead of just the disc anyway. And who wants just the disc? The box is usually better than the movie! Why are there 3 pieces of tape on many DVD boxes? Why are plastic switches there now? I have never seen any retailer "deactivate" the little magnetic sticker that is inside the DVD box by rubbing it on something. I just pay for it and leave and no alarms go off. Movie studios suck ass.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-25-2004 07:03 PM                        The most obnoxious part of DVD packaging is sealing all 3 sides with ultra-sticky tape that's not easy to remove. A market has sprung up for devices like The Claw just so people can open their DVDs without struggling. Most stores don't seem to use those internal security devices. The only one I can think of around here that does for sure is Suncoast Video.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-25-2004 08:39 PM                        Those internal (magnetic?) strips are used by most of the bookstores and record stores that I frequent. They have a device at the checkout counter that deactivates (demagnetizes?) them. The ones that go in books and vinyl tend to be thin strips; the ones used in CDs and DVDs are sometimes thick (about the thickness of two credit cards) stickers. I don't understand those extra tab things, though, nor do I understand those stupid stickers that go on the top of CD cases that are nearly impossible to remove without a knife.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-25-2004 09:04 PM                        I hate the stickers too. I also hate the stupid DVD trays where there's a rim all the way around the disk making it impossible to get your fingers under the disk, and then you have to bend the disk in half tryiing to get it off the damn center spindle. The tray design used in CD jewel boxes is perfect and has been a success for over 20 years. Why don't they quit trying to invent new stuff when they have a device that works fine already?  |  IP: Logged Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 12-25-2004 09:12 PM                     I imagine the stickers and other devices are there to prevent people from swapping discs or just plain taking the discs out of the case, therefore circumventing electronic security devices. But yes, I agree, they are a pain. To me though the tabs seem like a way to keep the case closed. After a while the internal 'latches' on those cases can wear out, making them hard to keep closed. Course I haven't dealt with the new style case myself so it could very well be poorly implemented.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-26-2004 12:51 AM                        I've never had an issue where a case would have a hard time staying closed. Also, the packaging recommends that you twist them off and discard them, so that's clearly not their purpose. It's official: Movie studios only employ morons. I can't wait to see what stupidity they think up for the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray cases. Do you have to go to college to become as stupid as a movie studio employee?  |  IP: Logged Mike Olpin Chop Chop! Posts: 1852 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-26-2004 01:30 AM                     Ah, the tabs. I first came across them when I bought Mullan: SE. After I removed the two layers of celephane, the slip-sleve and the 7 pieces of tape, I tried to open the case. What happened next scared the **** out of me. As I made the quick open-the-dvd-case-motion, the two weak clips came flying off at me, one nearly missing my eye. The packaging did not contain any warning or advice about them.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 12-26-2004 06:22 AM                        The sticky tape round three surfaces of the case has pissed me off too whenever I've bought DVDs in or ordered them from the States, though I haven't come across one with the tabs yet. Presumably it's just a matter of time. But even that is marginally less annoying than what happens here, which is that the entire package comes shrink wrapped in cellophane. Furthermore, someone clearly spent a lot of money on the research and development necessary to ensure that this cellophane simply cannot be broken with a human fingernail! quote: Mike Blakesley The tray design used in CD jewel boxes is perfect and has been a success for over 20 years. Sorry, I don't agree - many is the time I've bought a CD and inflicted serious injuries on myself breaking through the cellophane wrap, only to discover one or more segments of the pressure device which holds the disc in the tray shattered and the disc loose inside. I've also bought DVDs which weren't pressed into the holders properly, with the result that they've been shaken around in the much larger tray and scratched the playing surface.  |  IP: Logged Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-26-2004 10:32 AM                        I found out last how much of a PITA the clip hinges are. After using a razor knife to slit the security tape around teh top, bottom and front of the case.. I pulled the cellophane off only to find that the damn thing wouldn't open. Stoopid clips.. Stoopid clips BLOW. The razor knife trick works pretty well tho.. Like the above posted link...  |  IP: Logged Adam Wilbert Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 590 From: Bellingham, WA, USA Registered: Mar 2002 posted 12-26-2004 04:39 PM                        I got the Lord Of the Rings Special Edition Trilogy for christmas, and each movie had one of those magnetic strips inside. They were so deep in the packaging that they were too far from any outer surface to de-activate. My brother was instructed to "just keep walking" when the alarms went off when he left the store!  |  IP: Logged Christian Volpi Master Film Handler Posts: 349 From: Arlington, NE Registered: Apr 2004 posted 12-26-2004 04:54 PM                        Just rent the dvd and burn it. That's what I do. I don't have to fight with shit!  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-26-2004 05:01 PM                        quote: My brother was instructed to "just keep walking" when the alarms went off when he left the store! That's what happens whever I go to Media Play. I don't know why they just don't turn the alarms off. As far as renting them and burning them, I would rather have the full bitrate dual layer version instead of the recompressed video that was already compressed in the first place. I could live without all of the menus, FBI warnings, Spanish audio tracks (who speaks Spanish anymore besides California and Texas, anyway?), interviews with the moron directors/producers/actors (who cares what they have to say? If they had anything important to say they'd be rich!... oh wait) and all that.  |  IP: Logged Adam Wilbert Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 590 From: Bellingham, WA, USA Registered: Mar 2002 posted 12-26-2004 07:36 PM                        ...or you could get yerself one of those fancy Sony dual layer DVD+-RW/+-R/CD units and pirate dvds in all their full compression glory. Granted, the blank media will probably come in a plastic clamshell with tabs and will have stickers on all three sides of the case too...  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-26-2004 11:17 PM                     quote: Just rent the dvd and burn it. That's what I do. I don't have to fight with shit! Yes, but if you rent from Blockbastard, they have that stupid added yellow "clip" on the bottom that you have to slide or pry or pick at before you get them open. Some kind of antitheft device. And what's even more annoying is that when they sell the "previously viewed" DVDs, they don't put them in the original cases! They leave them in the shitty rental ones with the yellow clasp. What do they do with the original cases anyway? Methinks imma go dumpster dive myself a blockbuster! quote: Adam Wilbert ...or you could get yerself one of those fancy Sony dual layer DVD+-RW/+-R/CD units and pirate dvds in all their full compression glory. I got a dual layer burner in my computer but the problem is that the discs are still about $15 each... =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-26-2004 11:39 PM                        Most Blockbusters do indeed throw the original cases away. My friend manages a store and gave me a crate of these empty cases once. I uses them for all of my Xbox games because I hate the green cases they normally come in (too "Fisher Price" for me) and I also use them for DVD-Rs. Time for me to get more crates of empty cases. Too bad my friend is so hard to get in contact with. I should just show up at his store and demand the cases.  |  IP: Logged

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