Rivergate Software Inc. - makers of DVDAfterEdit

We have a DVD-9 project that was authored elsewhere in DVD Studio Pro and sent to us to QC in DVD-AE ME 3.0.4 and add layer break, which we set within AE's recommended red arrow zone. Replicated discs now have playback issue where playback stops right after layer break, but only on some players (Pioneer DVD-V7400 industrial player being the most notable, otherwise on a Philips, an old Toshiba and a couple other cheaper players). Pressing Play button doesn't continue play after it has stopped after the LB but you can scan forward and back over the layer break and Next and Previous over it. Some players, like a Panasonic, all Sonys, a Daewoo play through the LB just fine.
Any ideas what may be going on with this or recommendations on how to troubleshoot? LB was placed about a minute into a video clip on a static shot with no audio, chosen because of combination of red arrow LB zone area and rare non-intrusive place to have LB. DLTs wrote out fine, no issues and no indication of any problems on most discs.
Thanks
Simon

So, if there's absolutely no metadata on a DVD to indicate the location of the break between layers, just how does a drive know that it's at the end of a layer 0 and that it needs to switch to layer 1 (refocus the laser)?

I'm thinking something is there, but it's part of a lower-level spec for the physical media itself, something that's not part of the upper-level DVD spec (e.g. data that's read back and parsed by the DVD virtual machine or DVDAE). That spec is probably very low-level, part of the DVD-R/+R media spec itself. If so, then technically speaking, the LB is known, but it's just not visible (nor even necessary, for that matter) at the DVD-Video or ROM level. I bet folks who write firmware for DVD drives know all about this spec (and little to nothing about the upper-level specs for data that may be stored on the disc).

As DVD authors, we wouldn't need to care about the LB position at all if its position didn't affect playback - i.e if the drives buffered enough data to prevent anyone noticing the transition. However, for better or worse, the LB does affect playback so we have the case where a very low level bit of metadata needs to be exposed at a higher level - through DDP or CMF as the case may be - as part of pre-mastering. My guess is that this wiil remain a problem with multilayer HD-DVD or BD media. [Cripes! I just imagined having to plan for two or even three LBs one day. Ouch!]

OK. This is sounding right to me. ;->

Michael

And is my first statement also true (that the red arrow bears no relationship to the actual LB on the disc?

Michael

Larry -

So what you are saying is that when I open up a random DVD9 using DVDAE, the LB indicated (with the red arrow) may not indicate the actual position of the LB on the disc, only the position at which DVDAE would set it if asked to generate a DDP image. Is that correct?

And you are also saying there's no information anywhere on the disc that indicates the sector count per layer? That seems odd to me.

Michael

Ian -

Why you wouldn't you just check the break on a Toasted DVD using DVDAE?

Michael

P.S. FWIW Toast always seems to follow the LB I set - esp. after preening with DVDAE, ensuring that there's but a single seamy break. These are projects coming out of Spruce or Sonic Creator.

Hi Eric,

No, there shouldn't be any issues ( we've done many discs this way with no complaints ) IFO files are great places to put the layer break.

Ian

Thanks Ian and Larry. So here come my next question (That has already been discussed): I make a Disc Image with DAE, choosing the layer break (IFO) and burn it with Toast 8. Will Toast consider the LB or just recalculate itself, as I read here I think ?

The start of a VOB, ie. on the first cell, is a good place, too, since these are non-seamless by definition, so again the user won't notice it's there. But IFO is still best !

Ian