Elapsed time display question

[ToddS]

Hello all,

I have noticed that many DVDs that I play on any one of my Panasonic DVD players (DVD-F87K, DVD-S29K, and an old DVD-A110) show the word PLAY in the display window instead of the elapsed time that most DVDs show. While creating back ups of these discs, I notice that the software I am using (DVDShrink, DVD Decrypter, DVDFabDecrypter, IfoEdit, VobEdit, VobBlanker, etc.) seems to know the actual running times of the various titles on the DVD.

Is there some way during any of the steps in the back up process where I can change something so that these DVDs display elapsed time on my DVD players instead of simply the word PLAY?

Thank you.

[soneman]

Isn't there a "Display" button on your DVD player's remote control?

There should be. You need to press it a few times to switch between "Time Elapsed" and "Total Time".

[ToddS]

I have tried switching the display mode in the past and that's not the problem. On certain DVDs the elapsed time just does not appear to be available. For some reason a small percentage of DVDs that I have seem to be authored in such a way as to not allow the elapsed time to be displayed. Most DVDs do play just fine, showing elapsed time just as they should. Perhaps it's just the way that my Panasonic DVD players treat certain DVDs but there must be something in the authoring process that is causing this.

Off the top of my head, one DVD that acts this way in my players is the original Anchor Bay release of The Night Stalker/Night Strangler. There are a few others as well but I can't think of any at the moment.

I am guessing that there is something I can do in the back up process to change the way these discs act in my players when I convert them to DVD-R. I just haven't figured it out yet.

Edit: I'm not sure but I think I may be onto somthing with this message thread that I just discovered: http://www.dvdmadeeasy.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=next_topic&f=1&t=000034&go=newer

[ToddS]

I just made another observation. I am backing up another DVD right now and notice that DVDShrink is showing the main movie as being made up of 4 titles, Titles 1, 3, 8, and 10. Title 1 is showing a length of 02:02.02 in DVDShrink while PGCEdit is showing VTST 1, 1 as being 40:40 (which is the actual running time of Title 1). None of the other title lengths match up either (Title 3: 01:15.51 vs. 25:17, Title 8: 1:13.41 vs. 24:33, and Title 10: 2:21.35 vs. 47:11).

Can this discrepency be the reason my DVD players are not displaying the elapsed time? I am guessing it does but I'm not quite sure how to correct this error. Any idea how to correct the title duration to reflect the correct running time?

Thank you.