......... i've noticed that my dvd player (and my pc dvdrom drive) sometimes skip the menu altogether and go straight to the film, if i press the menu button the menu is there and it comes up, why is this?? is this a fault in the original rip?? not a groundbreaking question i know but its somrthing thats really bugging me
cheers

Was this taken from an original & how was the rip done and what was it ? i.e. was it a full disk copy ?, movie only ? and what ripping/compression software was used. Also was it re-authored ?

i'm not talking about one m8, but lots i have a few hundred mostly bought from traders on bst so i don't know the tech spec of em, but i also have original dvds that do this

Right ... well it's probably the way some of them have been ripped & authored. Often an authoring proggie will produce a slightly non standard menu, which some standalone players wont like. I find this often happens with multis, but some singles do it as well.
If you try them on another standalone, you may find that some of them will work ok.

Also, some Rental disks (Blockbusters) are deliberately put together that way, so as the Trailers & Coming Soon stuff launches first.

Hope this helps.

Thats cool that they start themselves, I see that sometimes too with my players.