Dual Layer's Slight Pause

[Andy O'Neil]

An hour into a dvd, I find myself anticipating this jarring... glitch.

 

How much freedom does one have determining where this "pause" will be?

 

Who possesses this freedom?

 

Those who possess such freedom, how much time is spent thinking about its location and effect on the audience?

 

Other thoughts? Opinions?

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

> An hour into a dvd, I find myself anticipating this jarring... glitch.

 

Don't find most of them are too obvious - they tend to put it in a moment of black and silence or something. Which titles were you thinking of?

 

> How much freedom does one have determining where this "pause" will be?

 

Anywhere you like, within the limitation that you have to split the film so it fits between the layers somehow, without having to overly compress one half. Certainly, in a practical world, enough to ensure it comes at the end of a scene - which they almost always do.

 

Oh, edit: it strikes me that it may have to be at the end of a GOP, ergo some multiple of fifteen frames from the last break in the MPEG stream, usually the beginning of the movie.

 

> Who possesses this freedom?

 

Whoever does the MPEG-2 compression, technically speaking.

 

Phil

Edited January 15, 2005 by Phil Rhodes

[Mark Allen]

Now that you can buy a dual layer DVD for your very own (like the Pioneer 108) you too could put these pauses in your home movies if you wanted. Imagine your families surprise when you put this pause right between the blowing of the candles and the cut to Uncle Norman.

 

:)

 

Actually - DVDs are just about in their twilight. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD this year probably... I wonder if they've taken the pauses out.

[Guest Alex Taylor]

I've actually never noticed this pause, be it on my laptop, X-Box or set-top DVD player. I guess I'm lucky!

[Brad Grimmett]

Actually - DVDs are just about in their twilight.  Blu-Ray and HD-DVD this year probably... I wonder if they've taken the pauses out.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Are these new formats playable in existing DVD players? If not, the above statement sounds a lot like the people who said, in 1998, that film would be dead in two years and replaced with HD. Getting the whole world to trash their existing DVD players for new ones isn't going to happen for a long time.

[John Mastrogiacomo]

Are these new formats playable in existing DVD players?  If not, the above statement sounds a lot like the people who said, in 1998, that film would be dead in two years and replaced with HD.  Getting the whole world to trash their existing DVD players for new ones isn't going to happen for a long time.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The new HD DVD players will play your current DVD's, but your current DVD player will not play the HD DVD's. :angry:

[Chance Shirley]

"An hour into a dvd, I find myself anticipating this jarring... glitch."

 

But just think... if you were watching a laserdisc, you'd actually have to get up and turn the disc over!

 

As for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, I assumed that they'd incorporate dual-layer technology as well.

 

- - - - -

 

Chance Shirley

Birmingham, Alabama

[Andy O'Neil]

"Which titles were you thinking of (that had obvious pauses?)"

 

Actually, about 90% of the DVDs I watch. Several that come to mind that I've watched recently: "Garden State," "Collateral," "Ali."

 

"But just think... if you were watching a laserdisc, you'd actually have to get up and turn the disc over!"

 

That's just terrible, isn't it? I mean, that's worse than VHS.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I've never been entirely sure why they don't just buffer a bit more. It's only half a second - that's at worst around 500K of data.

 

Phil