Page 1 of Stand alone DVD Player with Menus & chapters

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Stand alone DVD Player with Menus & chapters

logic (Mostly Harmless) posted this on Saturday, 14th August 2004, 08:11

Can anyone tell me if all stand alone DVD Players do Menus with thumbnails. I asume they all do. My Question is, is there a player that will do Chapters with thumbnails. I know the Philips DVDR70 Does NOT. Does anyone know if the Goodmans GDVD300R or the Panasonic DMRE55 can make chapters with thumbnails. Thanks to all. Sam

RE: Stand alone DVD Player with Menus & chapters

Hamid (Competent) posted this on Thursday, 19th August 2004, 00:38

I think you are asking, "Are there any standalone DVD RECORDERS that create a menu with chapter thumbnails as well as title thumbnails?"
You are right in that the Philips DVDR70 creates a menu with a still image of each title, but not of each chapter. However, if you have a computer with a DVD+RW drive, you can edit the Philips menu with software like Ulead DVD Movie Factory, and create a chapter menu with thumbnails. It only takes a couple of minutes to re-write the menu on the disc. Of course this will only work with DVD+RW discs, because DVD+R (or for that matter DVD-R) discs are `write-once` and cannot be edited. If you used a write-once disc for recording, you would have to re-author it onto a new blank DVD. This means all the video content has to be copied from the disc to your computer`s hard drive, then written back to a new disc after you`ve finished editing the menu.
This information should apply equally to the Goodmans recorder which uses DVD+R/+RW discs like the Philips. The Panasonic recorders use DVD-RAM/-R which will need re-authoring if you wish to see your newly-created menu discs in a standard DVD player. The Panasonic DVD-RAM does have some features not found on DVD+RW recorders, like Chasing Playback. If you are considering one of these, you`ll have to weigh up the usefulness of the extra features vs. the extra time you`ll spend re-authoring discs every time. Remember too that you`ll need a DVD drive in your computer that can read DVD-RAM discs - most can`t.

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