Question about the use of some Audio & Subtitles ID linking

[LordCrew]

Hello I'm currently authoring one movie and I was wondering what's the use of Audio and Subtitles linking in this case.

I already know that subtitles linking is used in the case you have 2 version of the same language such as a Widescreen and a Letterbox version but in this one the other languages are pointing to the english one.

If I try to reauthor it the same way as the original it works pretty well when playing back with a software DVD player but if I try on a standalone player, I get the english 5.1 track playing instead of the french one and same with the subtitles, only the english are being showed. :confused:

What's the catch to make audio and subs to play properly on a standalone?

Here's the original IFO information:

Title Set (Movie) attributes:
Video: MPEG-2 720x576 (PAL) (PAL 625/50) (16:9) (letterboxed)
Audio 1: English (Dolby AC-3) 6ch 48Kbps DRC (ID: 0x80)
Audio 2: Français(Dolby AC-3) 6ch 48Kbps DRC (ID: 0x81,0x80)
Audio 3: English (Dolby AC-3) 2ch 48Kbps DRC (ID: 0x82)
SubPicture 1: English (2-bit rle ) (ID: 0x20)
SubPicture 2: Français (2-bit rle ) (ID: 0x21,0x20)
SubPicture 3: Français (2-bit rle ) (ID: 0x22,0x20)
SubPicture 4: Arabic (2-bit rle ) (ID: 0x23,0x20)

[LordCrew]

Wow that seems like a though question ;)

[mpucoder]

The original was authored incorrectly. The second audio stream incorrectly includes stream 0, you can ignore that when reauthoring.

For 16:9 video the DVD MUST have a means of viewing on a 4:3 display. That requirement has been met by allowing letterboxed. But it also MUST provide subpictures for all display modes in any subpicture track. IfoEdit knows this and displays the wide and letterbox values, in that order. If a stream number is not specified for a display mode it defaults to stream 20.

What you can do when reauthoring is specify that each stream is both the wide and letterbox version.

[LordCrew]

Thanks for your answer mpucoder.

I've checked with another DVD (Return of The King Extended Edition R2), it looks like this:

Title Set (Movie) attributes:
Video: MPEG-2 720x576 (PAL) (PAL 625/50) (16:9) (letterboxed)
Audio 1: Français (Dolby AC-3) 6ch 48Kbps DRC (ID: 0x80)
Audio 2: Français (DTS ) 6ch 48Kbps DRC (ID: 0x89)
Audio 3: English (Dolby AC-3) 6ch 48Kbps DRC (ID: 0x82)
Audio 4: English (Dolby AC-3) 2ch 48Kbps DRC director's comments (ID: 0x83,0x84,0x85,0x86)
Audio 5: English (Dolby AC-3) 2ch 48Kbps DRC director's comments (ID: 0x84)
Audio 6: English (Dolby AC-3) 2ch 48Kbps DRC director's comments (ID: 0x85)
Audio 7: English (Dolby AC-3) 2ch 48Kbps DRC director's comments (ID: 0x86)
SubPicture 1: Français (2-bit rle ) (ID: 0x20,0x23,0x24,0x25,0x26)
SubPicture 2: English (2-bit rle ) (ID: 0x21)
SubPicture 3: Français (2-bit rle ) (ID: 0x22)

That movie has multiple Titles/PGCs with the main movie, (probably one with the main soundtracks/subs, others with the commentary tracks only ) could it be that such IFO layout could happen if you have PGCs with different audio/sub tracks within a same VTS?

[mpucoder]

What this is showing is the track numbers that have been used (not IDs) for each audio or sub stream. So, yes, they are used differently in different PGCs. The only thing that will be consistant for any stream number is the language and extension. Any stream can be assigned to any track in a PGC.