Posted by Teeafit on 11/16/05 16:25

I'm having a worrying problem with a 2-disk DVD project authored on
Pinnacle Edition Pro v6.10.

Both disks are very similar, with 2 chapters. They have been authored
in the same way, with just the chapter content and menu buttons
differing. Each starts with an 'invisible' menu which contains a
scrolling copyright warning which must be viewed before the Main Menu
appears. This Main Menu has 4 buttons, two text and two transparent
ones relating to an element of the background image - one of each goes
to each of the chapters. Each chapter returns to this Main Menu.

Everything played properly in Edition's DVD Preview section, so I
burned a 'DVD IMAGE 1' to a hard drive. That played well in WinDVD, so
I used it to burn a DVD-RW. That worked OK in all my test machines, so
I burned another copy onto DVD-R from the image, and tested it as
thoroughly as I could. It played well on 3 computers and two DVD
players, so (after a total of 7 tests) I sent it for glass mastering
and duplication.

Today I've received notification from the duplicator that a quality
control check on the second glass master has showed a menu problem. I'm
afraid that there will be a similar problem with the first disk, from
which 1000 copies have already been made.

I re-checked the original DVD-RW, and it still played without fault on
5 PCs/players. I then took it to my son's house, and his (Panasonic)
player did what the duplicator reported - the disk plays fine until the
Main Menu, at which the menu background picture appears, but none of
the buttons are superimposed on it. You cannot select a button, but by
using the 'Skip' control you can jump to the individual chapters
direct. I've checked the safety backup copies of both disks, and BOTH
exhibit the same symptoms, so I suspect that 1000 faulty DVDs are on
their way to me, with the other 1000 'on hold' until I can come up with
an answer.

Has anybody experienced this? Is it a bug? Is there a workaround? It's
possibly too late now for this project (and I shall have to put in some
kind of "If you have problems, press the Skip button" slip), but I'll
need to nail this one before the next project comes to duplication
early in the New Year.

GRAEME ALDOUS
Yorkshire

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