Apple's DVD-player doesn't seem to get along with Toast DVD-menus

[HitTheRoad]

Skipping from chapter to chapter seems impossible in Apple's DVD Player if it comes to DVD-menus made with Toast.

Is there a workaround?

[Baldrick]

Does it work with other players like VLC?

[HitTheRoad]

It doesn't work in VLC. The only thing you can do there with Toast-fabricated DVD's is to skip within the chapters.

Skipping from chapter to chapter only seems to work on standalone DVD players.

[jman98]

Can you try a DVD you made with Toast on Windows and see what it does? It might at least let you figure out if the problem is with Toast or with Apple's DVD player. VLC isn't very good on OS X (it is releases behind Windows and Linux in the code base and often has horrible bugs that have long been fixed in those 2 platforms) so the fact that it isn't working means nothing. Toast is made by Roxio and they make truly horrible Windows software so it may be a Toast issue for all I know. If you can get access to a Windows PC it's OK to test with VLC on Windows.

[Case]

Going from chapter to chapter, using the |<< and >>| buttons in Apple DVD Player, work fine for me with a DVD converted, authored and chaptered by Toast (v11.0.3).
Not sure how your DVD is different.

[HitTheRoad]

@ Case:

To be sure I understand you: Did you try this with a copy you made with Toast from a commercial DVD? Or did you use a DVD that has a menu fabricated with Toast?

I'm using Toast 10.0.8

[Case]

Or did you use a DVD that has a menu fabricated with Toast?

This DVD has a menu made by Toast. I used the previous/next buttons while playing the main feature.

[HitTheRoad]

@ Case:

I also tried the |<< and >>| buttons in Apple DVD Player.

The difference between me and you is: your DVD has a main feature. My DVD's haven't, they contain short musical video's. Each video is an individual MPEG-2. It's impossible to skip from one MPEG-2/musical video to another. I can only skip within each MPEG-2/musical video.

[Case]

Each video is an individual video.

Those are not "chapters", but "titles", in DVD jargon.

[HitTheRoad]

@ Case:

You're right. I should have used the word 'title'. So here it is again, my description of the problem I'm having with the Apple DVD Player:

I can't skip from title to title using the |<< and >>| buttons, if it comes to menu's made by Toast.

[orsetto]

I can't skip from title to title using the |<< and >>| buttons, if it comes to menu's made by Toast.

This sounds normal to me: on most DVD software and hardware players, the track skip buttons skip between chapters within a title (not from title to title). Titles are normally authored to navigate via the top level menu (thumbnails). This typically holds true of commercial DVDs as well. But the function is somewhat dependent on the design of the player: some of them DO interpret rapid sequential presses of the skip button as a request to jump thru titles instead of chapters.

There are workarounds. You could re-author the DVDs without chapter marks within each clip: including chapters is usually counterproductive when making compilation DVDs of multiple short clips (under 5 mins @), because of the very problem you're experiencing. Chapter skip navigation will almost always plod along chapter by chapter, working its way piecemeal through one title to the next. But if you author the compilation with NO chapters within the clips, each press of the skip button will jump to the end of the currently playing clip. At the end there will be a slight pause, then the next title (clip) should play. Rapid repeated presses of the skip button should display title/clip numbers advancing on screen, when you reach the number you want to view release the button and it should play.

Toast is a pain but sometimes a necessary evil on Mac, ditto the useless Apple DVD Player. You may just have to live with the quirks, they occur on Windows PCs as well. I find software players annoying and glitchy on both platforms.

[HitTheRoad]

@ Orsetto:

Unfortunately authoring the compilation with NO chapters within the clips didn't make it possible to jump to the end of each clip by pressing the >>| button.

Without chapters within the clips I don't get any reaction if I press the >>| button.

[HitTheRoad]

I tried a second standalone DVD player. Like the first standalone I mentioned, this one also facilitates jumping from title to title by pressing the >>| button.

The Apple DVD Player just doesn't facilitate this.