Menus don't work

[Mikael]

The highlighting when I select a link in the menus don't show up on my older Samsung player, and on my four year old JVC player most of the menus just freeze. The discs work fine on my newer Kendo player and PS2 however.

I've used several different programs for both authoring and burning, but the problem remains. I always burn at a 8000 bitrate.

Is this just happening to me, or is it a common problem on older players? Should i change the bitrate?

Thankful for any help!

[Scheif]

This is not a common problem, and I doubt it's related to bitrate. What authoring package are you using?

[turk690]

It IS a common problem on OLDER DVD players (mostly because they were never made to play DVD-Rs to begin with). The proof is that Mikael's created DVDs DO work PROPERLY on the newer DVD players he has. The DVDs I create with DVD-lab behave unpredictably on a two-year old JVC XV-S62, but are OK with a newer Sony NVS530, a PS2, and an Acer miniDVD player ALL THE TIME. I don't fret that my JVC sometimes do not recognize some links in menus, links to wrong chapters, or outright refuses to play a DVD-R: it says on its instruction manual "doesn't play DVD-R". I have the other DVD players to save my day. This reminds me of when some of us were all fired up with old CD players that wouldn't read CD-R and would try all sorts of tactics (including, but not limited to tweaking the laser levels, etc) just to make said players work with CD-R, when a more bloodless approach was simply to buy a new player.

[lordsmurf]

It's likely tied to faulty IFO files.

[Mikael]

I've experimented some more and come to the conclusion that turk 690's answer is right on the spot. I've now tried two older JVC players, and they mess up the menus all the time, as soon as there is more than one link on them.

It has nothing to do with faulty IFO files. I've tried several authoring packages, and the same thing happens every time, with some variation.

[lordsmurf]

My only menu errors have always been faulty IFO files. So it can happen.

[turk690]

The possibility of IFO files being faulty increases when they are opened and manually edited with the use of, say, IFO-edit. That's why it should be emphasized IFO-edit, great as it is, is neither for the faint of heart nor for the noob, at least where editing IFO files are concerned. The various DVD-authoring programs out there from $50 to $50000 adhere to a common set of rules for DVD navigation when these programs create the IFO files so we can take it they are accurate and to spec as they come out of compilation. Unless one knows exactly what one is doing and for what, that accuracy is not guaranteed anymore when said IFO file is opened and edited with IFO-edit.

[Skynet107]

U can try burning a 1x speed and try it in your troublesome DVD player. I would say your problem is most likely because of read errors on the DVD-R media. The older the player the less adept it is at reading DVD+-R media. Burning at 1x speed will give the best burn and will make it as read-proof as possible.

[enzowong]

I think I have similar problems on my old (around 5 years) JVC player, but the situation is more complicated.

When I use DVD-LAB, the problem I encountered are:
1. the menu screen is corrupted, a dark bar appear on the bottom covering some button, and part of the top part of the screen is missing
2. the selection button does not change colour when press the button on my remote control.
3. In title 2 or beyond, press the next chapter will freeze for a while
The disc play 100% OK when view in PC.

Further more, I also have bad experience when using TMPGEnc Author. The disc is completely not readable in my JVC player.

But I am doubt if it is pure player problem cos when I use DMF2, the above problem never happen.

I will try to get hold of a second player, and see if there is improvement.

[Megahurts]

To all

I had the same problem as Mikael when modifying a VTS.IFO file to make DVDlab work with multiple titlesets. It worked OK in WinDVD and with a Pioneer DV333 player. It would not work with an Apex 1200. The menu poped up with nothing highlited and could choose nothing. The Pioneer is 2 years older than the Apex, so I don't think it's an age thing.

The problem was the VTS_01_0.IFO file had no 'SubPicture 1:' in the Menu attributes. So adding a subpicture it solved the problem.

Click VTSI_MAT and scroll down to 'Number of Sub-picture streams in VTSM' and click. Enter 1 then save file.

It would be helpful to know how Mikael authored his DVD to solve his problem.

Regards,

Chas