The answer to this may be a no-brainer, but I'm no technical expert, and I've never come across this glitch before.

Watching a DVD today I noticed that, towards the end, it froze for a couple of seconds and then continued. I looked at the display window and saw that it had changed to "Title: 3, Track: 1". Considering it anomolous I tried to rewind, but it stopped at that new starting point every time. I initiated playing from the very beginning of the movie and saw that the DVD started with "Title: 2" and switched to "Title: 3" at about the 70-minute mark, as it had before.

I've never actually noticed this "Title" display before, other than that it has always shown #1. Is this a result of incompetent authoring, a defect in my machine, or something else?

That's odd, I've never seen a movie switch to another title while it was playing. Usually an entire film is on one Title, while various extras, etc are on other Titles. What disc was it? Maybe there is some strange reason for it to be authored that way.

I've seen this on a couple of different discs. It's really annoying only when you try to rewind past the beginning of the second title and it won't let you. Maybe its a poor man's way of doing layer switching at a forced spot.

Sounds like a defective disc problem to me - take it back and exchange it!

This definitely does not sound like a defective disc. Some companies just don't know how to author them well. Exchanging it would just be a waste of your time and some company's money.

Your replies are much appreciated. The movie in question is The Survivor, directed by David Hemmings, released on DVD by Platinum Disc Co., one of those el cheapo outfits.

I've only experienced this with bootleg dvds. Probably just some poor authoring.

Ah, Platinum, that explains alot. I'm sure that they have a crack disc authoring team.

The Bridge on the River Kwai LE was authored like this as well.

The discs that I noticed this on were definately non-bootleg, badly authored discs.

Just becasue a disc does not start with title set 1 does not mean it was incorrectly authored. (Althought coming from Platinum Disc Co. it was authored cheaply.)

A video title set can be numbered anywhere from 1 - 99, and the author can program the disc to start with whatever title set they like.

The only reason most major studio discs start the film with Title 1 is that it seems more logical... and some technical guru told them they should.

I worked a couple years in LA on DVD's for many of the major studios, and you would be stunned at some of the convoluted ways they wanted thier disc authored...

Some of the rather annoying issues we all have with the startup of many discs is a prime example of Legal and Marketing Departments ruling the roost.

On a simpler note, you cannot jump backwards between title sets due to the design of the DVD spec. There are no commands at the head of a title set that alow you to do this... At least not on the authoring programs I've seen.

fitprod

I don't think that anyone implied it was bad authoring because it didn't start with Title set 1. The problem stems from the fact that the movie is spanned across two title sets, making it unable to move back into the first half using the next/previous buttons....as well as creating an unusually long pause in the middle of the film.