Rivergate Software Inc. - makers of DVDAfterEdit

Hi Michael,

I first came across issues of this type back in 1999 and into 2000, when Astarte DVDirector could create streams that would crash the DVD player after they played. This behavior could reliably be reproduced whenever a Track was set to pause for a length of time. The player compatibility hit was up in the high 30 percent, or so.

The workaround back then was to pause the last chapter in the Track. The same disfunctionality was carried over to DVD SP 1.x, and into DVD 2/3/4.

When I finally got the spec books in 2003, the reason for this mystery popped out right away; one sequential PGCs cannot have a still time set (What DVD SP does for paused Tracks), but their programs can be paused for a time, or indefinitely.

2 years ago, I wanted to define a Title PGC as it's own next link target, so we could preserve the one sequentialness of the PGC and it's ability to display running time in the player's LED, in the case of employing the GoUp (return) functionality in the Title Domain. I asked Alex Alexzander to tackle inserting the commands into DVD SP's abstraction layer to make this happen (and write an article on the process, which he did a great job on).

Well, it worked just fine on the 15 or so players we tested it on, to our delight. But low and oh no; one day, while doing some "bathroom reading" :-), I found a whole other section of restrictions of settings concerning one sequential PGCs, and what we'd pulled off was not spec compliant. Ouch (GoUp needs another PGC in the Title to be the playing PGCs target, which means bye-bye one sequentialness).

Not sure what percentage of players would balk at out of spec one sequential PGC next/previous/GoUp settings, but based on the previous PGC Still experience I mention above, I highly recommend avoiding messing with a one sequential PGC, if you want it stay in that PGC category type.

And just so Everyone's clear on this: Replicators won't find ton's of issues, is the reality. They don't verify the VIDEO_TS folder for spec compliance; and they don't have the time or expertise to check out the navigation for abstraction layer gotcha's (lot's of in-spec gotcha's there).

Eclipse is great for checking things concerning the suitability of the DDP Image for mastering, but a program like the MEI DVD-Video verifier, and even DVDAfterEdit, is necessary for a complete going over.

Take care,

Trai

Hi Michael and Ian,

Just so you know, if a Title PGC is one-sequential, it can only have a value of "0" in the next and previous setting to be spec compliant (Menu domain PGCs can only have a value of "0" in the next and previous settings, as well). MEI will flag the one-sequential Title PGC with an error if any other value, including itself, is present.

Take care,

Trai

I would love to have the prev/next links in all one sequential titles automatically set to self (if requested). Helps with users that "fat finger" the prev/next chapter key on the remote: some players blythley skip right off the ends of the currnent PGC.

Michael