Chapters don't work in set-top player

jkrepner wrote on 4/14/2005, 5:43 PM
Hello... I've created a DVD with about 5 or 6 videos linked together using end actions. I haven't added any additional chapters to any of the videos. So each video only has the default "1: Chapter" chapter stop that seems to get created automatically at the very beginning of each video. When previewed in DVDA, the next and prev chapter buttons on the remote take me to the next or previous video in my chain. However, on two different set-top players the chapter buttons don't work. I made sure that ALL of the buttons are set to the On position for each of the videos.

Still new at DVDA... am I missing something simple?

Thanks in advance.

Jeff

Comments

jkrepner wrote on 4/14/2005, 6:38 PM
[adding more info]

Could it be that DVDA only allows chapter skipping within a single video file? (i.e. if you have two 10 minute videos linked together you can NOT navigate between them)

So, then I would have been better making one 40 minute video as opposed to four 10 minute videos?

If this is the case... well then, I'm doomed.
cworld29 wrote on 4/15/2005, 1:39 AM
Yeah the preview does not acurately create how your chapter skip button will work.

This is what I do. During the render process I add 1 second to the end of each clip then put a chapter marker right in fornt of it. What this does in DVDA is gives a chapter right at the end of the clip. When you hit chapter skip it jumps to the end of the clip, plays out that last 1 second then starts the next title.

If you would have made one 40 minute video the same way you have described you would have had to have markers at the beginning of each clip.

If you want to make it work now, the only thing I can think of is to add a marker as close to the end of each clip as you can. You will find this to be exactly 1 second. When this chapter is skipped to it will play out the last second of the clip then activate the end action. This will probably look like crap if you don't have a second of black screen at the ends of your clips.
jkrepner wrote on 4/15/2005, 5:00 AM
Oh okay, that's brilliant cworld29. The videos fade to black, so I'm sure I can add a second or so of black to the end to cover up the chapter marker. That should work. Actually, the only problem now will be going backwards I bet. So once the viewer gets to that second movie, if they wish to skip back to the previous movie they'll need to exit out to the menu and start over. Or, will what you just taught me work in reverse? Either way, I'll be sure to try.

Thanks a million.

Jeff
johnmeyer wrote on 4/15/2005, 9:14 PM
Actually, the problem may be something else.

If you put multiple MPEG/AC3 files into DVDA, each MPEG/AC3 file gets created as a separate title. In the DVDA preview, this gets treated as a chapter, but titles are really completely independent videos. Each DVD player handles title navigation differently. Some let you advance to the next title simply by pressing the chapter advance button on your remote. On other players, the only way to advance to the next title is by going back to the menu and navigating from there.

The end actions will cause the DVD to move to the next titleset, and all players should handle that correctly. Thus, one way to navigate to another titleset on a DVD player that doesn't allow you to do so using the chapter advance button, is to fast forward. As soon as the video reaches the end of the titleset, it will hit the end action and then go on to the next section.

Another way to get around the limitation (and it's a limitation in some players, not in DVDA), is to put a chapter stop just before the end of each video. The chapter advance button will move the video to that point, a few frames of video will play, and then the end action will move the video to the next title. I don't know, however, how close to the end of each title you can place this chapter stop. I don't think you can put it at the very end, but if you have a DVD-RW or DVD+RW disc that will play on your DVD player, you can experiment.

You can also put MPEG/AC3 files into a "music compilation." This will then create the entire thing as one title, and each MPEG/AC3 file will be a separate chapter. This is what I would recommend.

Do a search on my user name and search on "music compilation" in this forum. I've given all sorts of detailed instructions in previous posts.
jkrepner wrote on 4/16/2005, 7:45 AM
John, thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. I ended up going back into Vegas and exporting the 5 movies as 1 long movie. It didn't take as much time as I would have thought to remaster the DVD, since I already had my transition videos rendered and menus layed out. I tried the chapter mark right at the end of the video suggestion, and it works... but then you can't skip back to that video once you move to the second video. I haven't done anything with the music compilation as of yet, but that sounds interesting.

Thanks again.

Jeff