Features

Sidebar 4: What's Your Angle?
With both the Pioneer DV-09 and DVL-909 players, I noted that the Alternate Angle symbol defaults to the On position. (It can be turned off by the user.) It pops up at the beginning of the Video Essentials DVD, but also on a number of Disney DVDs, which is puzzling; there are clearly no multiple angles on the latter discs.

Or are there? It turns out that the Alternate Angle feature is used on those Disney discs to provide French titles and end-credits. You cannot select them with the Alternate Angle button; they show up only when you select the French language track. It's a neat idea, but there is no indication of this on the packaging. If it hadn't been for the fact that the Pioneer's Alternate Angle symbol defaults to On, I would have never discovered it. Of course, if you watch the French versions of those Disney discs, you'll get French titles and credits automatically, which is perhaps all a user needs to know.—TJN