Introduction
This Tehachapi DVD user guide explains how the on-screen navigation works. Of course one is most welcome to just put the disc in the player and experiment. However DVD players follow a convention for the organization of disc content. The following guide may explain some idiosyncronicies about the player's operation.
Organization
All DVDs have a hierarchical menu organization: at the top is the root menu. Beneath the root are title menus. And titles are composed of scenes called chapters.
We follow this same convention. The root menu is shown at the left and has several links. One is Select Scene, which starts a series of title menus. Finally each scene on disk is a stand-alone chapter.
Control and Navigation Keys
DVD players also have a standard remote control layout. The shape and size of the keys may vary from model to model, but the functions of the keys are the same.
There are three groups of keys on the remote. The first group is Navigation, green in this example, which includes the following keys:
- Left
- Right
- Up
- Down
- Enter
These keys are used to follow links in the root and title menus.
The second group is Control, white in this example, which includes the following keys:
- Play
- Pause
- Stop
- Cue (Fast Forward)
- Review (Rewind)
- Previous Chapter
- Next Chapter
Control keys are used to navigate without a menu after the DVD has started playing.
Menu Keys
We mentioned there were three groups of keys on the remote. The third group is Menu.
One Menu key is Return, which always goes back to the parent menu of the currently playing chapter (or scene). This may be either the root or a title menu. Return on this remote is part of the cluster with the Navigation and Control keys.
There are two other Menu keys. One is called Menu, which goes back to the DVD's root menu. The other is called Title, which goes back to the previous title menu. On this particular remote, these two keys are away from the main navigation cluster as shown on the left.
Starting the DVD
Open the disc tray, insert the DVD, close the tray. Most players will start automatically, play the copyright notice, and display the root menu shown at left.
The first link in this menu, Play Feature, is highlighted by default. To start the main feature, just press the Enter key. On some players one can also press the Play key. The feature will then begin. The player will return to this same menu when the feature ends.
Menu Navigation
One does not have to view the entire feature at once. Menus are provided to select each scene as a chapter.
To access the first title menu, press the Down and then Enter keys. The menu starts with the scene in the top right corner highlighted in a yellow box. Wish to play this scene? Just press Enter.
Why is this menu choice selected instead of the scene in the upper left? Because Select Scene was the second link on the root menu and ATSF 5009 is the second link on the title menu.
It's part of the DVD navigation standard to land on the destination link with the same numeric value as the source link. It may seem strange, but all DVD players work this same way.
Other Menu Pages
Use the Left, Right, Up, and Down arrow buttons to navigate to the other scenes on a menu page. For example, pressing Down, Left, Up, and Right will rotate clockwise among the four scenes on a page.
But what about visiting other menu pages? Press Right twice to reach the next page arrow. Then press Enter to visit the next menu page.
Note that pressing Up or Down switches from scene to scene, but not to the next or previous page arrow. That's another thing about DVD menus: you may have to press a different navigation button two or more times to reach a desired link.
Enjoy The DVD
Including the root, there are fifteen menu pages on this DVD. See if you can find them all!
