Aron wrote:

> As the video on the DVD plays and reaches the next chapter, the video and audio both "jump." This occurs at every chapter point. How do I fix this to create a seemless flow in the video?

> jbowden replied: 12:43pm Oct 18, 06 PST (#1 of 1)

> Remove the chapter point end actions. They are not necessary when video is to play continuously from chapter to chapter.

In the case where the DVD has both chapters and a play all button, its not really an option to remove the end actions of chapters is it?

If that is true, is there some trick way to avoid that `bump' Aron described?

Maybe use a more motion intensive transition to place the chapter points in? Or is there a more reliable way.

I know I could use separate media for chapters but more often than not that isn't really an option due to size constaints.

> Harry, I think you're coming at this at a cross purpose.

> By default, you do not need chapter point end actions to advance to the next chapter. Once you enter a chapter in a timeline, all the following chapters will play seamlessly if there are no chapter point end actions. As I interpreted Aron's first post (which did not provide a lot of info), he had placed end actions on each chapter in the timeline.

To me the whole point of chapters includes being retuned to the parent menu allowing a choice of a different chapter. I guess I can see how a user might want to go to a chapter and then just watch from there or manually come back to the menu when ready.

One problem with that is that it assumes a more skilled user than I see mostly using dvd players. Especially with those of us above 55.

Judging even from my own usage I usualy cannot see or make heads or tails of the remote controls. But the on screen buttons, chapters, play all or whatever are hard not to understand.

I think I'd personally prefer to be retuned to a menu ... and just assumed most people would I guess.

> If you intend to use chapter point end actions (presumably to return to a menu after the chapter has played), then use a chapter playlist for playback.

Yes thanks, I did find a post laying out exactly that technique by Jeff Belune here:

Jeff Bellune, "Encore not playing seemless" #10, 25 Oct 2006 10:40 am

jbowden wrote:

> All valid points, but if you read Aron's original post up top, I don't think he's talking about returning to a menu, but continuous playback in a timeline*. Which is why I advised him to delete any chapter point end actions.

There is no indication of that to me. I took him to be talking about having both chapters and straight thru play options on one timeline. I thought it obvious maybe because I'm currently wrestling with that very thing and thats how I expected it to be done.

But really if he is only talking of straight thru play why would he have chapters at all? And if he has chapters why would we assume he doesn't want the dvd to return to menu after each one, and be able to play straight thru too.

Do you think most users want to always play straight thru. Do they even bother at all with carefully setup chapters in that case. Would they not just use chapter jump to move around quickly?

I really don't know.

You probably have vastly more experience than I do, having just entered the game of event videography. I'd be interested to here your thoughts about DVD usage norms.

My own personal DVD usage is almost exclusively for study of one thing or another... rarely for movie watching. Maybe that is what gave me the idea most people would expect the end of a chapter to return them to the menu where chapters are selected.

My wife (she does most of the camera work) and is usually more sensisble than I about things, and I pulled out a couple of comercial DVD movies and tried to understand the intent of chapters.

I ended up mostly confused. I see some chapter like entries that lead to extra footage or other extra stuff not in the movie. One link is to `scenes' These appear to be a chpter like setup. in both the DVDS that we looked at, those entries univerally had no end actions

In both cases they were presented as groups of scenes .. 1-4 5-8 etc.
even the group endings had no end actions. I would have expected both the individual chapters and the groups to ahve end actions that retuned to that parent menu.

Since they didn't I don't really understand why they are there. If it is just a way to start at some point other than begin, I'd expect most users to just start the DVD and hit chapter jump until they got to a point they wanted. If that is true then having a special menu for chapters without endings seems a waste of time.

But again, I've not studied at all about usage habits or know what is trendy or current.

> * (some users have expressed this idea they have that to play the next chapter, the previous chapter must a an end action directing the DVD player to play the next chapter- as I pointed out in my replies, this is not the case)

OK, that is a far away from what I'm talking about and I haven't heard that particular notion... but as I mentioned I am quite new in this area. Off hand I doubt I would ever have expected that to be the case.

But I'd expect it to be pretty common to want to have both chapters and straight thru options to a single timeline.

Let me reiterate that I have found descriptions of how to have both without that hesitation or `bump' by searching these forums.