Poorly-Placed Layer Changes In Annie Oakley & SNL 25th Anniv? (1 Viewer)

[spookcentral]

This message is directed to anyone who owns either VCI's "Annie Oakley TV Collection" 2-Disc Set (#8261) or LionsGate's "Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary" DVD (the 2004 release with the cover seen here: amazon.com/dp/B00014K5CI). I'm trying to figure out if my DVDs contain defects or just poorly-placed layer changes.

* Annie Oakley - On Disc 2, episode "Annie Trusts A Convict", at 14:44 the picture freezes for a second in the middle of a scene, before it resumes playing.

* Saturday Night Live - At 88:58, right when the scene turns from black and white to color, the picture freezes for a second before it resumes playing. (A layer change would have been better placed a few minutes later in the black space between the skit and Jimmy Fallon's intro - where the two-tape VHS set splits.)

My guts tells me that these are both layer changes, but it would be nice to get confirmation from others who also own the DVDs in question.

 

[spookcentral]

I don't mean to be a pain, but it's been a week since I posted my query, and I was hoping that someone could answer my question. I know that these aren't extremely popular titles, and they're not recent releases, but I was hoping that with the large number for forum members, MAYBE there would be at least one other person to have each of these titles.

If not, does anyone know of a software DVD player that shows what layer is being played? If I could see it tell me that it switched from layer 1 to 2, then I'd know that it's a layer change and not a defect.

 

[AnthonyC]

I have the SNL disc and haven't played it in a long time but I don't remember any pause like that. I could be wrong however; I'll try and check it and see.

 

[Bob Gu]

O.K., I have looked at "Annie Trusts A Convict" on my VCI DVD and at around 14:44 there is double image stutter for split second at the point where Lofty and Tag ride up. So I guess that's the layer change.

I'll ask you a question Paul, how can a non-tech like me tell the difference between a layer change and a damaged print or other transfer glitch?

 

[spookcentral]

AnthonyC, I appreciate any help you can give with the SNL disc.

BobGu, thanks for confirming what I suspected with the Annie Oakley disc. Although I've gotten somewhat familiar with DVD technology from the playing side of things, I'd hardly call myself a techie. I'm still trying to learn how to best author a DVD, so that I can make some really good use of the DVD-R/RW drive that I bought a year and a half ago.

Anyway, to answer your question about the difference between a layer change and a damaged print or transfer glitch... it really depends on two things: the player you have and the disc. I have three different players, and two that I gave my parents. My main player is a Pioneer DV-343, the other two are a PlayStation 2, and the one in my computer (software is Nero Showtime 3.2.3.1 which is in the Nero 7 bundle). The Pioneer will pause for a second at a layer change, and show "search" on the front panel display. The other two, and my Dad's player, will all pause, but not show any indication what they're doing. My mom's player won't pause at all for a layer change.

To compicate things, some DVDs will trigger a pause in my Pioneer player that I'm pretty sure are NOT due to layer changes. On the Weird Al Yankovic: Ultimate Video Collection, it pauses and "searches" after every music video, but I highly doubt that there's 24 layer changes on the disc! What I suspect is happening is that the video data is stored in a different file or location on the disc, and the player pauses while it finds it. If I knew anything about the authoring side of things, I would probably know exactly what it's doing, but all I'm left to do is make educated guesses.

What threw me for a loop with the SNL and Annie Oakley discs is that the suspected layer changes occurred right in the middle of scenes where there was action going on and music playing. All of the layer changes I've seen in the past were at spots where there wasn't any movement or music in the program, which is the best spot to put a layer change, in my opinion.

To get back to your question, find a disc that you know has a layer change in a certain spot, and see what the normal behavior for your player is at that spot. If you're lucky, the player will give you some special indication, even if it's not something obvious like "layer change in progress"

It would be really great if any of the five players I have access to said what layer it was playing.

If you're really stumped about a specific disc, as I was with the SNL and Annie Oakley discs, come to forum and ask others if they have the same problem. Obviously, that's what I did. If you really think it might be a disc error or bad print, sometimes some of the reviewers at Amazon.com will mention those, so you could always check a few reviews there, too.

WOW! I didn't realize that I typed up such a long reply.