VCD stops at end of movie (sequence) - XML Help Please!!!

[mikk]

i made an xvcd with chapters. when it gets to the end of the movie, the player just stops with a black screen while the time keeps going. it does this on both powerdvd and a sony 525d. the players won't go to the next, timeout or default items automatically. the only way to get the player to go to the next item automatically is to use a playlist instead of a selection, and set a playtime for the playlist (i had to calculate higher than normal playtimes becaused i used a higher bitrate). when the playtime runs out, the player will continue. which one is it supposed to go to automatically anyway?

also when i make chapters the players have no way of knowing that the chapter has ended. this means that the movie could play into the next chapter, but the button settings are still the same settings. e.g the next button is pressed and it goes to the next ref setting for the first chapter that was played.

so the only way i have found that makes everything work properly is to make every chapter into a timed playlist. the problem with this is that there is a jerk between the chapters... is there a better solution? segment items seem to work fine, but i read in the vcdimager manual that segment items on 1 cd are limited to 658mb, so i haven't even tried putting an 800mb movie as segment items.

so just repeating my main question:
what do i have to put in the xml to make an xvcd with chapters play something else (e.g. a menu) when the sequence has finished playing?

Here is the last chapter of the sequence:

<selection id="selection-m3-10">
<bsn>1</bsn>
<prev ref="selection-m3-9"/>
<next ref="smenu-8"/>
<return ref="smenu-0"/>
<default ref="smenu-8"/>
<wait>0</wait>
<loop jump-timing="immediate">1</loop>
<play-item ref="entry3-10"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-0"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-1"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-2"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-3"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-4"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-5"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-6"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-7"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-8"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-9"/>
<select ref="selection-m3-10"/>
</selection>

[vitualis]

Okay...

A common misconception is that when the <play-item> finishes playing in a <selection> then it will automatically go to <next>.

It does not.

This is ONLY the behaviour of a <playlist>.

After the <play-item> has finished playing in a <selection>, it looks at the <loop> tag. If it is any number other than 1, it will loop for that number of turns. If it is 0, it will loop indefinitely.

After all the looping, it looks at <pause> and pauses for that amount of time.

After pausing it looks at <timeout> and GOES TO WHAT IS LINKED THERE. Thus, timeout is where the money is in this function.


A few tips
- you must must must must must have a <timeout> defined for the <selection> to go somewhere after the <play-item> has finished playing

NOT having a <timeout> function can have dire consequences:
1. Scenario one: no <timeout> but some <select> tags --> after the looping and pausing, the <selection> will randomly choose one the the <select> tags and go there. This is the way to get random choices in VCDs.

2. Scenario two: no <timeout> and no <select> --> after the looping and pausing, the <selection> will have NOWHERE to go and the VCD/DVD player may hang. Thus, this is a BIG no-no.

Note: I would always set the <pause> tag to at least 1 (i.e., 1 second rather than 0 seconds) if your <selection> is not going to loop indefinitely. The reason why is that some players can't handle a <pause> of 0 seconds for <selection> even if a <timeout> tag is defined and will hang the player.

Regards.