Last Updated 9/15/03
I have found two DVD video releases that have logos dumped into the supplemental material. Needless to say, I am Not Pleased.
In thier release of Armageddon The Criterion Collection placed at least one logo in one of the supplements. I found this by buying the set, getting home, tossing disc 2 into the player because I wanted to check out the supplements first. I no longer remember precisely which one it was, but I do remember that once I saw the logo on one of the supplemental disc, I pulled the thing out of the player and hurled the whole package against the far wall. Someday when I'm in a sufficently evil mood I'll root around behind the shelving and see if anything survived. What a waste of $35.
Some time later, I was watching the Troma Films feature Sgt. Kabukiman, N.Y.P.D and discovered, yes, a logo on the supplements. Unfortunately, this was after I had ordered most of thier DVD stock from thier web site on a 25 cent sale. On the plus side, because of the sale I spent about what I would for two regular discs. My effort in prying a refund out of them would be more than the recovered money was worth. I had forgotten the order completely in my anger, and was surprised when a box from Troma arrived. I threw it in the basement. When I feel like getting some entertainment out of it, I'll do something nasty to the box, probably involving my outdoor grill and flammable liquids.
If there is anyone I'd have expected never to pick up bad habits from the big players, Troma was it. I'm extremely annoyed to be proved wrong.
The Criterion group is so low-profile on contact information that they cannot be located for sending complaints to, how they manage to be so high-profile without having any means of contact available to the public is beyond me. Once Troma got into the act, I realized that complaints were a waste of time. I no longer even consider purchases from either group. This is particularly sad when you consider that Criterion used to be my preferred edition supplier.
News to the Hollywood crowd: Some of us buy DVDs precisely because we do not want to have to deal with any of the bad habits of most broadcasters and cable networks. If I'm laying out money for it, I expect certain things to apply. No advertisements not expliticly marked as such on the menu. (Comedy Central, one of the big logo offenders, does this much on the South Park discs. For this they get credit. They don't get watched until they lose the logo, but at least they got the video right.) No logos anywhere but the advertisements (which I don't watch.) Trailers are a special class of advertisement and are not expected to have logos. No credit mutilation, no voice-overs on the material. (Directors commentaries and the like don't count because 1] they are not advertising anything, and 2] they are on seperate audio tracks, I have to take action to hear them. Beyond that, they are an incentive to purchase a disc)
I don't pay to collect coasters, I get enough free in the mail. If you must commit these atrocities, agree on a single means of indicating which discs have been mutilated in this way, and use it. If this isn't done, the first disc that I get from any studio that is mangled in this way will be the last disc that studio sells to me.
For those who wonder about my griping, remember that videos are not returnable unless physically damaged, and then only in exchange for the exact same video. I regard logos on DVDs as manufacturer sabotage, and retailers don't recognize the concept. So when I get stuck with one of these, I have wasted money with no possibility of getting it back. As I have an ethic or two lurking about my person I cannot sell them to anyone else for the same reason I would not knowingly buy them in the first place.
Update: Well, its March of 2001, and most of the other studios seems to have a clue. I haven't run into this again. Heres hoping that I never do. (Previously I had typoed that it was December of 2001, I'm watching too much Doctor Who.)