Multiangle FAQ

January 13, 2009 ·

Michael Reichmann

Multi-Angle FAQ

Q:The Multi-Angle feature doesn’t work right on my player. What’s wrong?

Q:The segments of the Luminous Landscape Video Journal featuring Multi-Angle are garbled on my machine. (Or, the whole disk won’t play). What’s wrong?

A:Multi-Angle is a normal feature of the DVD Standard. It is not new. It has been around as part of that standard for years, almost as long as DVDs have existed.Luminous Landscapediscs are professionally created and replicated to this industry Standard. Unless there is a physical defect (scratch, debris, dirt) there is nothing technically wrong with the disc. In fact our disks are certified by our replicator, one of the industry’s largest, to be technically 100% standards compliant.

This leaves two possibilities:User Error, ora player that is non-compliantto the DVD standard. Let’s talk about the first possibility:

User Error 

All DVD players decode the picture and sound information into a cache or buffer. When there are two tracks (Multi-Angle), the use of the Angle button on your player tells the machine to start delivering the second video track to the cache. As the new information works its way to the head of the cache and onto your screen, there is a delay. This delay can be up to five or six seconds! The amount of delay varies by make and model of player. If the user presses the Angle button again a second or subsequent timebeforethe new information reaches the screen, the player will start to decode the first stream of picture again. This will result in an apparently uncontrolled ‘jumping’ between the two picture segments as the player feeds out a bit of one track then a bit of the other.Be patient!Learn the reaction time that your player needs to switch between the two video tracks.

If you are playing theLuminous Landscape Video Journalon a PC, and are tempted to open the raw Video files (.VOB files) on the disc, don’t do so and expect them to play normally. The DVD player software needs the instructions contained in the sister information file (.IFO files) for any multi-tracked video or audio file to play properly.

Machine Error

Now the more difficult problem ofnon-compliant DVD players. All DVD players are, according to the Standard, supposed to look at a header information file that tells the player if a video track has more than one video stream (Multi-Angle). It seems that some players take a shortcut and try to play the video stream of a segment without checking the information header properly. Since there are two video streams running parallel on the same track, a multiple of the two tracks will result in gibberish on the screen.

Sorry about this, but if this is what’s happening your player would appear to be is one of the very few that is non-compliant with the accepted industry standard. The reason that you may not have seen this before now is that there are very few multi-angle disks available; some porno and a few Pop videos.

The only solution to being able to play the current issue ofThe Video Journal, or future editions as well as such disks from other publishers, is to switch to an up-to-date Standards compliant player.

More Information

For more information on problems with various players check out the DVD FAQ at:http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

In particular look at:http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.41

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Michael Reichmann is the founder of the Luminous Landscape. Michael passed away in May 2016. Since its inception in 1999 LuLa has become the world's largest site devoted to the art, craft, and technology of photography. Each month more than one million people from every country on the globe visit LuLa.

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