Why the persistent, annoying little camcorder icon? - Following (1999) Discussion

[–] sdckapr 14 years ago

Why the persistent, annoying little camcorder icon?

It appears you are on the film from a "special feature" which allows going from the film view to the script view. Try restarting it without going through the features or try a different DVD player...

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[–] Miss_Chievous 14 years ago

I couldn't be suffered to sit through this film a second time, but I do thank you for the valuable tip about the camcorder icon. I certainly didn't go through Special Features — indeed I tried a few times to just shut down the player and restart it altogether, hitting PLAY (to no avail) — nonetheless, if I ever encounter this annoyance on a film I do wish to keep, I'll obviously have to hop over to the videohelp forums and get some expert guidance on how to rid myself of the icon. Extremely irritating; and the one and only film that has ever manifested such an aberration, out of thousands of films I've seen on this one player.

mc

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[–] saclydek 14 years ago

I had the EXACT same experience. I even thought my DVD player was at fault until I tried another DVD. :-(

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[–] LightningLad 14 years ago

Okay, I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one, I got that just hitting "play movie". It didn't bother me too much, but it was distracting, and made me wonder if something was wrong with the player or if I'd hit a mystery button on the remote.

-----
Reason is a pursuit, not a conclusion.

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[–] dan-calladine 14 years ago

I had this too - couldn't get rid of it.

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[–] deanlamb 14 years ago

Ha me too tried EVERYTHING but could not get rid of it!! It is a special feature to jump between movie and script but you cannot get rid of the camera icon how irritating!!!!

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[–] TheBeardedWonder 14 years ago

It's your DVD player, not the disc... mine used to do it too. Never figured out how to stop it, and eventually when I got a new player it never showed up again... do you guys happen to have cheap DVD players?

"Did you mean for all those words to come out like that or did they just fall out randomly?"-H.H.

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[–] powerslave06 14 years ago

Happened to me too. Although, I tend to not let technology failures ruin my film viewing experience. Especially on something this good.

Have you been Incepted yet?

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[–] fiatlux-1 12 years ago

I got that annoying icon too!!! How can it be the fault of the DVD player?!
Why would it show up on some DVD players & not others??

"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."

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[–] sdckapr 12 years ago

I got that annoying icon too!!! How can it be the fault of the DVD player?!
Why would it show up on some DVD players & not others??

I suspect it is the fault of the DVD programmers, not understanding how differetn players display things. Some get it right, others do not. It is like how some webpages do not work with all browsers. Is it the fault of the browser or the website designer?

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[–] kaream 10 years ago

This is a combination of the way the DVD is "authored", and of the way the specific player is factory set to begin play. For instance, on the player I normally use, several discs automatically start playing the commentary audio track rather than the film's soundtrack, so I have to go back to the menu and fix this.

I have the Columbia Tristar disc of Following. As do most DVDs, it comes with a menu. Any player should provide a way to access this menu, usually with the player's remote.

The menu on this Columbia release provides three initial choices:
--play movie (this uses your player's default setting, which may be wrong for what you want)
--scene selection
--extra features

"Extra Features" takes you to a second menu, with four entries:
--special features
--trailers
--bios
--DVD credits

"Special Features" takes you to a third menu, with four entries, which can each be turned ON or OFF:
--director's commentary
--shooting script alternate angle
--restructure FOLLOWING
--subtitles

If you are seeing this camcorder icon, your player is defaulting to the "shooting script alternate angle" turned ON rather than OFF. (The term "angle" does not mean seeing from a different camera's viewpoint. The video that you see is exactly the same. This use of "angle" is an industry standard, but can be confusing.)

"Restructure FOLLOWING" rearranges the movie into its chronological sequence.

Unlike the use of the special term "angle", there seems to be little or no industry standardization for which tracks on a DVD a player will look for, or for how a DVD should be authored to self-adjust for autostart in different players.

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[–] kaream 10 years ago

That is, I would say the problem isn't anyone's fault for not getting it right, because with a lack of standards both for DVD menus and track arrangements and for playing equipment, DVD authoring really comes down to doing the best you can.

Or in this case, maybe they thought it would be better to display the opportunity to view the script, assuming that someone curious about the icon would click on it, and perhaps also go back to the menus to see what else is on the disc.

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