DVDs: I miss VHS

Anybody else miss VHS when it comes to the relationship one must have with the high-maintenance DVD? Used to be, you just put the tape in and hit start. Rewind it if the jerk before you didn't do it ... but there, it's playing ... fast forward if you like ... But now, with DVDs, say I LIKE the idea of coming into the film late, missing the picture of Columbia on the mountaintop or the helicopter ride around the 20th Century Fox sign or the kid fishing from the moon, maybe I even like to come in after the action has started ... but no, I put the disk in, and wait a fantastically long time to be priviledged with a menu from which I can select "play," before I can walk away from the television. Does it have to BE watched to operate? I need less demanding appliances!