Chapter placement issue.

I apologize if this is a frequently asked question, but I am not familiar with DVD authoring and I am not sure what this behavior is called, so it makes it difficult to search.

I am making a DVD with multiple interviews on it. The interviews are edited together rather tightly. I place chapter markers in between the interviews inside of FCP. I then encode the video in compressor. I then import the .m2v file and chapter markers into DVD-SP. I want to be able to skip from interview to interview using the chapter markers I made inside of FCP.

My problem is this. When I play back the DVD in some DVD players the chapter markers are rite where I want them. In others (specifically when I play back the DVD using Windows media player) the chapter markers are a few frames earlier. This normally wouldn?t be a problem, but because the video is so tight you can hear the last syllable of the previous clips audio.

Is this a normal way for DVDs to work? Am I don?t something wrong?

Thanks,
Ryan

Ryan: The best way to make sure the chapter makers will be at the exact points you want them, is to place them before the MPEG-2 encoding stage. You're already doing that, because you set them in Final Cut Pro and then go to Compressor. Very well done, specially for someone who says is not familiar with DVD Authoring. Many users have no clue about how to turn regular FCP markers into chapter markers, and how to include them in the exported master. BTW, setting them in Compressor's mini timeline would do it too (without the flexibitility of FCP's timeline, of course).

Since you did everything well, the suspect is... Windows Media Player itself. It's not really reliable as a DVD player. Nothing you can do about it, then You could try other Windows software DVD players, like PowerDVD, and see if they behave. It's something.


Hope this helps.

Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com

Adolfo,

Thanks for your reply. My guess was that the problem was Windows Media Player also. I was looking for someone else to confirm my hunch. I have tried the disk on 4 different set top boxes and 3 different computer programs and WMP is the only player that I have this problem with.

I like to cover as many different scenarios as possible before I send anything out, but it looks like this one may be out of my control.

Thanks again,
Ryan