You buy an original DVD movie (or get one on rent), pop it in your DVD player and quickly grab a snack from the kitchen hoping that the movie would play right away.

Obviously, that won’t happen as you’ll have to patiently sit through all the movie trailers, video ads, copyright notices, FBI warnings and lot of other stuff before the movie starts playing on your TV screen.

These trailers and commercials can run anywhere between 10-15 minutes so you are likely to be done with your snack by the time the actual movie begins playing. And they appear even more annoying if you are trying to watch the same DVD movie for the second or the third time.

How to Skip Trailers and Ads on DVD Movies

DVD discs often have a UOP flag set that is used for displaying copyright notices, FBI warnings and commercials that cannot be skipped. However, if your DVD player hardware ignores the UOP flag, the commercials can be bypassed.

The easiest way to skip (or fast forward) all the ads, warnings and trailers from the DVD movies is this - just press the Stop button on the DVD remote followed by the Menu button and it will take you straight to the main menu from where you can play the movie.

If the classic trick for skipping ads on DVD doesn’t work, try these options:

Trick One – For DVD Players

When the first trailer on the DVD starts playing on your screen, press the STOP button of your DVD remote twice followed by the PLAY button. That’s STOP – > STOP – > PLAY and it should take you directly to the movie skipping all the trailers and ads.

Trick Two – For DVD Players

If the above trick doesn’t work for your DVD, try a different sequence. Instead of pressing the STOP button on your DVD remote twice, press it three times followed by PLAY and it should skip all the trailers and previews. To repeat, the sequence becomes STOP – > STOP – > STOP – > PLAY.

Also see: Take a Screen Capture of DVD Movies

Trick Three – For Laptops and Desktops

If you are watching the DVD movie on your laptop computer where you don’t have an external remote to skip the ads, try Rick Brodia’s suggestion. Insert the DVD into the computer and when the first splash screen appears, hit the Stop button.

I popped in a DVD and fired up Windows Media Player. When the first splash screen appeared, I clicked the player’s Stop button. Then I clicked Play, and the disc skipped ahead to the previews. I repeated the process — Stop, then Play — and it advanced to the FBI warning. I did it a third time and presto: I landed right on the movie’s menu screen.

You won’t just save time by skipping trailers but it will also save you some battery life if you are watching the DVD movie on a laptop while on the move.

Give it a shot and do share if these tricks work on your DVD player / computer.