On any DVD I author from video made with camera ; When creating chapters , scenes of course vary widely in lenght, therefore chapters vary in time per each. As I have found out , the skip function does not work on the player's remote , UNLESS the chapter is at least 5 mins. in length. You are left to then use FFwd , or go back to the menu to access another chapter. On a Hollywood (?) DVD , you can skip from any point in the movie , tho' I dont know if you always get the same increment step forward , or to a pre-designated chapter point that is first ahead from where you use "skip" button. Anyway, it's annoying at times, and would appear to someone I may gift a home-movie DVD to , that it doesnt work in their player, or isnt made correctly. I've never purposely selected pre-set chapter sizes that I'm aware of , whether talking about my authoring app. (Pincl. Studio 9) , or DVDShrink....if I use it at some point for any reason. Any workaround ?
I don't know if your software has the same abilities, but you can try this out. On the Chapter and Edit step you can set chapters at any points you wish while watching and editing the screen.It's quite simple. This program has a 14 day trial. http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/tsunami_mpeg_dvd_author_pro_guide.cfm
Had concern my point may not be clear. On DVD made from home-video, I do set chapters, but at relevant points with respect to subject matter, as I think 99% would do. Problem due to "Skip" function on players. Is it a default 5 minute interval? If a chapter is less than 5 minutes, "skip" does not work. If it's , say 7 minutes in length, skip will work once!, then not again until next chapter arrives during play, and only then IF that chapter is a least 5 minutes long, and you use the skip before remaining time for that chapter reaches a point LESS than 5 minutes. All the while , FFwrd will work to get you to the next chapter. Other option is return to menu, select chapter. Note that I may be using chapter in place of "TITLES". Thats how authoring programs refer to them, however. I'm sure I'm not the only one annoyed by this matter, so there must be a way around it.
Yes, I see what you are getting at. I have two players.Panasonic honours the chapter marks on burned dvd's, no matter what the setting. The RCA ignores them and gives ten minute skips. Neither machine makes reference to the chapter skip behavior with burned dvd's.
Thanks "attar". Maybe I should have initially taken this approach; I would like my burned home-video DVD movies to behave like a factory-produced "Hollywood" DVD. Specifically, I would like to be able to use the "SKIP" function at any point during playback. As it now stands, if I create chapters of length less than 5 minutes while authoring the DVD, the "skip" does not work at all for that chapter. It doesn't even skip to NEXT chapter!! If a chapter I have created is greater than 5 minutes , the "skip" button will work once!, but only if there is still at least 5 minutes remaining for that chapter. Again, using this function does not advance to next chapter!(Rem: I'm talking only of DVDs made from home-video sources) I've owned 6 DVD players. They've all worked alike when playing a "Hollywood" DVD, in that they will skip ahead 5 minutes...OR to the next chapter point in the movie. Just wishing I could make mine work the same!
