Time Display on Playback
by Michael D. Brown
on
May 11, 2007 at 8:10:40 pm
I'm QC'ing an NTSC DVD produced by an outside vendor. On 2 different players I notice that I'm not able to see running time on the built-in displays. On one player, when I try to turn on the on-screen display, it says, "the player cannot do that now." The other player simply blanks the display. Can time display be disabled by the author? This could result our rejecting the master. I appreciate any advice as to how or why this would happen.
Mike Brown
Video/Film Producer
American Heart Association
Re: Time Display on Playback by Trai Forrester on May 12, 2007 at 7:42:33 pm
Hi Mike,
You've got a DVD authored with Multiple PGCs ('Program Chains') in the particular Title.
If the project was authored with the ReelDVD authoring system, it cannot create DVDs that show running time, as it exclusively contructs those types of Titles (long 'DVD spec' story).
If DVD Studio Pro was used, then they set the Next and/or Previous jump for the Track in question in the Connections Window; which forces a "multi-PGC" Title.
Scenarist, DVDLabPro, Creator and other direct DVD spec access authoring systems make it real easy to set up multiple PGC Titles, inadvertantly or by design.
So, if you want players to display running time you'll need to reject this submission, and instruct the vendor to reauthor with single PGC Titles (don't set the Next and/or Previous settings in DVD SP's Advanced Connections Window view for the Track).
