how to determine the make of a dvd player

[Eric Pautsch]

Then dont use cell commands. You’re surely not going to find anyone here that knows this data from ages ago. I’d try the Tully List…a great mailing list for DVD professionals.

[Terry Wilson]

thanks, i’ll check that out.

I think the only way I’m going to be able to do this is to compile a list of every dvd player i can find.

sprm 15 is 16 bits, and every player has a different configuration it seems, so i can use that as a bit of a finger print…. maybe i can find a list somewhere……

[Eric Pautsch]

Also could you be more specific on how some some player implement SPRM differently. SPRM 7 & 8 are pretty critical so if certain brands dont interpret these right, there’s no way to author a disc and get around the discrepancies. Keep your authoring simple I always say.

[Eric Pautsch]

SPRM 15 just reads whats on the disc. It read what the current audio you have authored. If there’s a player out there that doesnt support any SPRM, you cant help that and its a faulty player, so I wouldn’t be authoring based on faultiness 🙂

[Noah Kadner]

I would say scale back the design a bit. At the end of the day, yes fancy menus on your DVD are fun to have. But if you create a disc that doesn’t play on a single player because of too complex authoring, you’ve failed don’t you think?

Noah

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[Bill Stephan]

When you set a GPRM or SPRM value from a menu button, you need to do two things: (1.) Set the desired value into the proper register, and (2.) Jump somewhere else that makes sense (for example, jump to the beginning of the program). It sounds as if you did the first but not the second, especially since a cell command can hold only one command.

The solution is to jump somewhere you can place more than one command, such as the pre-command area of a dummy PGC.

You should be able to make this work for almost all DVD players.

Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City

[Terry Wilson]

no that’s not it, sorry if my post is confusing, that’s not what I’m trying to do. The idea is to have a menu with a motion background that doesn’t reset when you activate a button.

so the background video begins, the user hits various buttons to set some options, and the background is continuous until the user hits the play button.

By setting the button command to something like: R(0)=63, this goal is achieved.

BUT the problem I am having is that on some older dvd players, this will freeze the button navigation, and you will have to hit the menu button on your remote to get back out (which in itself isn’t all that bad, just a nuisance).

So I’ve set up 2 versions of the menu, one for older dvd players, and one for newer ones. All I have to do is figure out how to differentiate between the two.

I think I’ve pretty much solved it.
What I have found in the couple days since my original post is that because SPRM15 is 16 bits (set by the manufacturer), it’s almost like a signature that’s different on every dvd player model,
what I’m currently looking for is a list of various SPRM 15 values out there for different models.

Because there are so few players that have this problem all I have to do is check for those signatures, and send any matches to the menu designed for older players

[Michael Sacci]

[terry wilson] “and you will have to hit the menu button on your remote to get back out (which in itself isn’t all that bad, just a nuisance)”
Not all that bad, IF you know what to do, must people will find this more than a nuisance.

[terry wilson] “Because there are so few players”
How do you know which players have this problem (which is not a problem since you are going against spec, buttons should just somewhere) have you tested every player on the market? How you tested this in every software player with every OS that have been available for the past 15 or so years?

But this sounds this is more like a personal challenge, which is fine, if you succeed more power to you. This is a lot of effort to make a background video to continue. I hope you are getting paid by the hour to do this.

But for everyone else out there, author disc as within spec to assure the widest compatibility, you own that much to your client. Creativity needs to take in the boundaries of the format and work with it.

[Eric Pautsch]

Dude…you’re way out in left field. Are you authoring on Scenarist? When a button is chosen you can set whatever value you want but ultimately the disc needs to go somewhere. Its impossible to set values while a menu’s stream play continuously.

Whats do you mean by R(0)=63? All that is is giving a value of 63 to GPRM 0. No wonder you have players stopping if thats your only command on a button. I hope none of your clients are reading this thread…ha ha!

SPRM 15 just defines a player’s audio capabilities. Most are for karaoke functions but the last three bits are for AC3, DTS and PCM. Just about every player supports these 3 audio streams so I guess Im not really sure what your goal is. I appreciate the zeal and all but I think you’re confused. Whatever “signature” you’re looking for simply does not exist…Sorry 🙂