Titles in Metadata?

Hi folks,

My question is not about onscreen titles, but rather about the program titles that one can see on the TV screen when scanning from channel to channel - they appear on text-enabled TVs that show what program and/or station one is watching. I'm interested in including that in my DVDs. Lord knows why, but I am.

I was wondering if that can be put on a DVD, and where is it done - can it be embedded in FCP for later use in iDVD/DVDSP, or is it only done in iDVD or DVDSP? Or is it an ID thing done at the head end of the station?

thanks,

HarryD

Are you talking about station logo's or "Bugs" as they are called - on screen?

I don't think he is.
My Sony VHS machine recognizes these ID signals and puts a text overlay with the channel name and sometimes the show name. It's infrequent so I don't think it's a technology that is widely implemented and I've never read about it or heard what it is called. It would appear to be some variation on close captioning and probably uses the same technology like the vertical interval. It's not a cable thing either because I first noticed it when hooking up a VHS machine at a house with no cable, just over the air reception.

Strangely, the Sony TV that is one year younger than the VHS machine does not display this behaviour.

I'd be curious if anyone could enlighten us about this.

ak

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

Hi,

It's a tossup if i can clarify... <grin>

I'm not talking about station IDs, and I don't know what "bugs" are (please enlighten!).

Andrew has is right: My Comcast cable has this for most stations, but not all, so it seems the information must be coming from the channel itslef rather than the Cable Provider (eg, from Discovery, rather than Comcast).

As an example of what I describe, TCM will always display on screen the movie's title upon initially selecting the channel, for about 5 seconds or so. Conversely, American Movie Classics will never do this. Additionally, I have a Pioneer DVR which I use to record programs off-cable. The DVR will pick up the metadata used for the onscreen title and autotitle the recording. So for example, if I record "Casablanca" from TCM, the show will display "Casablanca" on the screen when I change the channel to TCM, and if I record the movie, it will show up as "Casablanca" in the recorded program list.

Additioanally, some channels (Discover, History and/or TLC, I think) even offer a Time Remaining display, which is also cool.

This was the promise of digital TV, and I like it (when it's implemented, but it always isn't).

thanks mucho.

HarryD