Link to web

Maxsbox wrote on 12/4/2007, 7:10 PM

Is it possible to add a website to a menu? Providing the DVD is being watched on a computer could the website title autimatically link to the internet?

Comments

bStro wrote on 12/6/2007, 7:48 AM

Is it possible to add a website to a menu?

Not within DVD Architect, it's not.

This generally requires software that's designed specifically for creating multimedia / web-enhanced DVDs. I believe that it involves having HTML versions of of your menus on the disc, which are then displayed using a proprietary DVD player app. If you tried playing the same DVD in a regular DVD player app (like WinDVD or DVD Max), the web link would not appear.

You could look into eDVD, which is not as expensive as it used to be but still fairly expensive for what it does. I think

Rob

ScottW wrote on 12/6/2007, 12:34 PM

eDVD is no longer a product. It might have been rolled into something else, but it's not available stand alone anymore.

--Scott

MPM wrote on 12/6/2007, 3:30 PM

In order to follow a link to a web page or external (not part of a DVD) document like a PDF, there has to be a program running on the PC to intercept the call and do whatever's necessary. Nothing like that is built into DVDs themselves, which were designed primarily for TVs a decade or so ago.

Currently there are 2 main avenues I'm aware of to accomplish this... Using MAC software (DVD Studio Pro?) there's a separate program that runs on the viewer's PC at the same time as the DVD and is supposed to intercept those calls and open the proper program.

2nd, on most retail movie DVDs when there's added content there's a PC application that starts from an autorun.inf file when the disc's inserted. Check out the Monsters Inc. or Shrek 1 DVDs for good examples. This application can run included DVD playback software, & work like a standard web page with links to on-disc and on-line content.

An alternative that might work would be to mimic software installation discs, using anything from html to flash etc. creating an opening dialog box with choices. There is quite a lot of software available to do this for you -- search on autorun DVD or autorun menus for starters. Your menu would then offer links for both playback and interactive content like html.