Theme 1 – Frustration with DVD menus as obstructive and poorly designed
Many commenters complained that menus were ugly, slow, and forced unwanted ads or trailers before the movie could start.
“I never quite understood who made those menus. I think 95% of them were absolutely hideous, just like early webdesign.” – spiderfarmer
“They were hideously designed, overly complex, or just pointless when I just wanted the content to start when I put the disc in.” – garciasn
Theme 2 – Nostalgia for creative, artistic, and interactive menus
A sizable group recalled fondly the Easter eggs, secret menus, and special features that made DVDs feel like an experience.
“Back in High School me and my friends made a zombie movie over summer vacation, and I had so much fun making overly‑complicated DVD menus for it … full of stylized video transitions, … easter eggs …” – kalleboo
“The late '90s had some fun ones, like the Austin Powers DVD that had secret menus and extra scenes … That was a ton of fun and I wish more studios did it like that.” – hed
“They felt like artistic expressions made with pride … New movies would come out and break the mold and deliver a new flashy menu experience.” – SpaceL10n
Theme 3 – Technical challenges and possibilities of preserving DVD menu functionality
Discussion frequently turned to how menus are actually a virtual machine, the difficulty of emulating them, and which tools can still play them.
“Unfortunately, it's not really a matter of simple 'parsing' - the DVD menu is really a program with an entire virtual machine … You basically have to implement the VM …” – ks2048
“VLC can do DVD menus as well, either from an ISO or a VIDEO_TS folder.” – kalleboo
“VLC can run the menu with the large videos stripped out … I assume I could create a single iso file that would run as a 'menu.'” – SeaGully