DVD Demystified

Application Details: DVD-Video and DVD-Audio
TABLE 6.16
Remote Control
Labeling
283
returns from a submenu to its parent menu or to the current title if the
menu is a top-level menu. Some remotes or software players use other
labels such as “Guide” or “Setup” for the “Top” (“Title”) key and “Root” or
“Digest” for the “Menu” key. To make things worse, many Hollywood
movies do not have a title menu, so the “Top” (“Title”) key has no effect,
and the “Menu” key acts like the “Top” (“Title”) key. Confused? So are the
owners of most DVD players!
The DVD Forum issued a recommendation for standard remote control
key names in hopes of clarifying things. 6 See Table 6.16 for a summary.
More consistent use of menus by disc producers also will help a great deal.
Chapter 12 discusses consistency of menu navigation design.
Internal Technical Recommended
Name Name Key Label Other Labels in Use
Title menu VMGM (video manager menu) Top Menu or Top Title, Title Menu,
Guide, Info, Setup
Root menu VTSM (video title set menu) Menu Menu, Root, Root
Menu, Digest
GoUp MenuCall (GoUp) Return Back, Previous
5Some Pioneer remote controls require two keypresses to get to the title menu—the “Title” key
and then the “Menu” key—unless the disc is stopped, in which case only the “Title” key is needed.
The “Menu” key works with a single press, except that when the disc is stopped it goes to a
player-generated menu that is neither the title menu nor the root menu.
6Unfortunately, in typical style of the DVD specification, the “clarification” is almost impenetrable.
Here is an example, complete with typos, of a definition of button behavior; one of 18 paragraphs
defining four rules for the “Top Menu” and “Menu” buttons: “When [MEMU] is pressed,
Menu_Call() (the transition to Root menu) is executed and then the function of [TOP MENU] is
changed to Menu_Call() and the function of [MENU] is changed to RSM. In case that no entry
of Root menu exists, the transition to Root menu is not actually executed although Menu_Call()
is executed.”