4 ms·

> You are going to need to provide some proof regarding that. That's gonna be hard to come by, I left that job more than twenty years ago and short of digging

> You are going to need to provide some proof regarding that. That's gonna be hard to come by, I left that job more than twenty years ago and short of digging an authoring tool and making one DVD I don't see how I could convince you. Provided I even remember how the damn thing even worked. Here's what I remember: - around 2004-2005 (checking movies I remember posters in the hallway it's more likely to be early 2004) ? - the studio had three authoring computers, two macos8 and one windows machine - couldn't upgrade to macos8 because authoring software wasn't supported on macos9 - authoring consisted in linking b-frame and a-frame as entry and exit points for chunks of video - programming was a mix of drawing video blocks, mapping some keys to them, building some loops into a kind of finite-state machine - we used dvdshrink a lot internally to move the movie between authoring guys and color/effects/editing guys - video blocks were overlayed with TIFF pictures to create menus effect - subtitles were rendered as TIFF at some points in the process, explained the rough edges (I remember I was surprised it wasn't a txt file or something but DVD players hadn't the processing power to render the overlay of arbitrary text so TIFF files were generated and it could overlay them over the video) - I remember the distributor representatives coming to check out the final master of the DVD: they would sit in a corner of the room in front of the TV and plays the menu to see if everything was right. We made fun of them because they claimed to check the DVD for quality but the TV was too crappy to actually display colours and play sounds right. Now that I think about it I believe they were more likely to check if subtitles and languages options were in accordance with the distributor's rights. They usually watched the whole movie ^^. Concerning UOP: - I don't remember if you could input the combination while the unskippable content was playing, I think it was something you had to do before that to disable UOP on the next block - But it definitely was like something described in that article https://lifehacker.com/hit-stop-stop-play-and-other-tricks-to-skip-dvd-tra-5518076 https://lifehacker.com/hit-stop-stop-play-and-other-tricks-t... > These tricks may not work every time and with every DVD, but thank god for the times they do. Got a trick of your own that does the trick? The fact it doesn't always work is because the authoring didn't always put them in.

nebula8804 3y ago
Thanks for the clarification but it appears you and are are talking about two different aspects of the production(at least in your first section). First of all I want to take a moment to state how hilarious it is you used DVDShrink: a tool developed for copyright infringement of content. What you described is the standard authoring process that even I did back when it was fun to make home DVDs. But regarding unskippable content, it is difficult to prove if the code you described will be respected by all brands of players. I recall that JVC players would always go back to the main menu as soon you press STOP and it would then start the playback over when Play was presented. Pause is what would halt playback temporary. Its been a while since I used JVC players though.
- johnchristopher 3y ago
  > First of all I want to take a moment to state how hilarious it is you used DVDShrink: a tool developed for copyright infringement of content. Yeah, the irony wasn't lost on any of us :]. > What you described is the standard authoring process that even I did back when it was fun to make home DVDs. One year after I left I heard from a coworker that they were going to close shop. Director had visited a freelance guy who was doing authoring with a single consumer PC box and he saw the writing on the wall. He wouldn't have been able to keep his team in-house with all the costs associated if distributors started authoring in-house or spread the orders among freelancers and drive prices down. So that studio left the market and went back to digital picture/movie effects. At that time, being a student, I also tried out adobe encore (I think it was the name) as an alternative the much expensive authoring tool (I think it was sonic but I am pretty sure there was another, both didn't look like a toy interface and the other one had a different name) and thought "wtf, it's way easier to author with that that almost doing assembler with the professional tool" but I found out it didn't produce 100% compliant DVD. Anyway. > But regarding unskippable content, it is difficult to prove if the code you described will be respected by all brands of players. I recall that JVC players would always go back to the main menu as soon you press STOP and it would then start the playback over when Play was presented. Pause is what would halt playback temporary. Its been a while since I used JVC players though. Ooooh. I think I understand your point now. Yeah, if the hardware indeed decide to ignore anything happening during an UOP block then nothing would work. My memory fails me, assuming the software can register keys during an UOP block even though the UOP logo blinks maybe what we did was register keys during the UOP block and disable the flag on the fly to give back user control (but then hw players that ignore anything while a UOP block is being played would result in non skipable content obviously) or maybe the combination had to be entered before so it sets a flag that is read before the next block to check if it should disables UOP on the next block (or skip it entirely and drop the user to the main menu ?). I am sorry to say I am unable to remember more details and I didn't keep in touch with anybody there :/.

nebula8804 3y ago

Thanks for the clarification but it appears you and are are talking about two different aspects of the production(at least in your first section). First of all I want to take a moment to state how hilarious it is you used DVDShrink: a tool developed for copyright infringement of content. What you described is the standard authoring process that even I did back when it was fun to make home DVDs. But regarding unskippable content, it is difficult to prove if the code you described will be respected by all brands of players. I recall that JVC players would always go back to the main menu as soon you press STOP and it would then start the playback over when Play was presented. Pause is what would halt playback temporary. Its been a while since I used JVC players though.

johnchristopher 3y ago
> First of all I want to take a moment to state how hilarious it is you used DVDShrink: a tool developed for copyright infringement of content. Yeah, the irony wasn't lost on any of us :]. > What you described is the standard authoring process that even I did back when it was fun to make home DVDs. One year after I left I heard from a coworker that they were going to close shop. Director had visited a freelance guy who was doing authoring with a single consumer PC box and he saw the writing on the wall. He wouldn't have been able to keep his team in-house with all the costs associated if distributors started authoring in-house or spread the orders among freelancers and drive prices down. So that studio left the market and went back to digital picture/movie effects. At that time, being a student, I also tried out adobe encore (I think it was the name) as an alternative the much expensive authoring tool (I think it was sonic but I am pretty sure there was another, both didn't look like a toy interface and the other one had a different name) and thought "wtf, it's way easier to author with that that almost doing assembler with the professional tool" but I found out it didn't produce 100% compliant DVD. Anyway. > But regarding unskippable content, it is difficult to prove if the code you described will be respected by all brands of players. I recall that JVC players would always go back to the main menu as soon you press STOP and it would then start the playback over when Play was presented. Pause is what would halt playback temporary. Its been a while since I used JVC players though. Ooooh. I think I understand your point now. Yeah, if the hardware indeed decide to ignore anything happening during an UOP block then nothing would work. My memory fails me, assuming the software can register keys during an UOP block even though the UOP logo blinks maybe what we did was register keys during the UOP block and disable the flag on the fly to give back user control (but then hw players that ignore anything while a UOP block is being played would result in non skipable content obviously) or maybe the combination had to be entered before so it sets a flag that is read before the next block to check if it should disables UOP on the next block (or skip it entirely and drop the user to the main menu ?). I am sorry to say I am unable to remember more details and I didn't keep in touch with anybody there :/.