DVD buttons

looky

I made buttons on my DVD that set the subtitle language and the commentary audio track… but I wanted the menu to also show which track was active, independent of which button the cursor was selecting.

For example, suppose the Vietnamese subtitles are active-

  • when on the subtitles menu, the user can move the cursor over any of the items representing different languages’ subtitles.
  • But there will be a graphic conveying that the active subtitles are in Vietnamese. Possibly just a sign saying SUBTITLES: VIETNAMESE
  • When the user selects Vietnamese, nothing happens, because those subtitles are already active.
  • When the user selects Spanish, the graphic changes to SPANISH

Well, I did it. How?
Basically there are two tricks here:

  1. there is a different menu for every choice of data stream for a given single track. For Subtitles, there is:
    1. No subtitles
    2. English subtitles
    3. Spanish subtitles
    4. Japanese subtitles
    5. Vietnamese subtitles

    The state of the active subtitle is reflected in which version of the Subtitles menu being displayed;
    selecting one of the buttons for another language will link to that particular menu.

  2. there is a central Subtitles page which forwards to the appropriate Subtitles page. The page runs a script and queries a register to see the current subtitle setting. All other menus forward to this central page and not to the individual subtitle pages

The feature track should run a script at its termination to see which menu it should be returning to! I have renamed all my variables so I don’t get confused. Their values are occaisionally bitwise ANDed with the SPRM values:

  • SPRM 0 is the current menu language (e.g. “en”=0x656E for English)

  • SPRM 1 is the current audio stream number… starting with 0 (add one to get stream number)

  • SPRM 16 is the initial audio language code for this DVD player

  • SPRM 2 is the current subtitle stream number-

    • range is 0 through 31… (add one to get stream number)
    • “on” flag is decimal 64 = binary 01000000 = 0x40

  • SPRM 18 is the initial subtitle language code for this DVD player

Links:

SFPD Porn

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Since the news stories seem to be fading away, I thought I’d preserve the names of the SFPD officers busted for making porno movies here for posterity

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

San Francisco Officer Darryl Watts and Kelly Francisco, who works for the Sheriff’s Department at San Francisco General Hospital, were the protagonists of “Bus Stop Whores.”

Police believe Francisco made at least four videos, attended adult film conventions and had her own adult Web site under the name Reina Leone.

Swordquest interview

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I remember this game for the Atari 2600 which was basically impossible, Swordquest. Maybe I was just too young to understand its appeal… It had two cartridges, Earthworld and Fireworld. And I found out about 20 years later there was a contest associated with them, with the winners taking home a $25k prize…

This is an interview with Michael Rideout, the winner of the Fireworld contest.
Web link of note: Swordquest interview
(At http://www.atarihq.com/2678/swordqst.html)

Cooperative Games

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The parents of my brother’s friend gave us the “Save the whales” game back in the mid 1980s. It is basically Monopoly with whales… except much much less competitive.

The beaver one is pretty good too. It comes with little matchstick “logs” to build the dams with. I haven’t played the honey bee game but it looks good and friends liked it.

Now, I’m not a psycho Ayn Rand fanatic, but a completely cooperative board game seems a little boring to me. Making a board game that is inclusive is a real challenge… which I would say these guys have met.
Web link of note: Cooperative Games
(At http://www.cooperativegames.com/)

Fraggle Rock Episode Guide

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There were a total of 96 episodes in four seasons.

Looks like a British DVD has been released in the UK, but it only has 12 episodes on it in a “best of” collection, and the transfer is not to hot. Plus, it is in PAL obviously.

I have seen some bootleggers selling video CDs of the entire series!
Web link of note: Fraggle Rock Episode Guide
(At http://www.punchandjewelry.com/legacy/html/eps_short.htm)

Amaranth

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We popped amaranth the other night. Keep in mind the pan should be very hot and the amaranth needs to be in the pan, popped or unpopped, for the shortest period possible.

  1. The trick is to heat the ungreased, completely dry metal pan with a few test kernels in it… when they pop you are almost ready.
  2. Heat a little more and remove from heat.
  3. drop a tablespoon or two of amaranth into the pan…
    make sure the pan is covered!

  4. wait about five seconds. If they don’t pop, it’s not hot enough
  5. after you hear them no longer popping, dump the popped amaranth into your serving bowl
  6. the result is like tiny little popcorn. Great on salads, or as a dusting on other vegetarian sides, like a couscous or a quinoa
  7. put the pan back on the stove for another batch. As you get better at your timing, the resulting popped amaranth will get fluffier and whiter