Adding Extra Files to a DVD

[ankitgarg]

Hey guys,
I'm completely new here and have spent the past few days searching the forums. I have been tasked by my ROTC unit to make a Yearbook DVD with pictures/video. What I have concluded is that viewing pictures on a TV leads to really crappy quality because of the low resolution of TVs so I have decided to make a DVD with videos and seperate .exe files of flash slideshows for the pictures. The person I am working with is using Pinnacle Studio and I am going to do all the DVD menu making on there and have all the videos linked from that menu. My question is (if you have experience with Pinnacle), is it possible to add extra files to the DVD before burning and is it possible to make links in a DVD menu to non-video features (like a folder or an .exe in the DVD for computer use exclusively)?
Thanks alot.

[Cornucopia]

What do you mean by "crappy quality"?

If you're talking about printability, then, yes it's crappy, and you should just add the photo source files (jpg, tif, raw, etc) to an additional folder on the DVD.

If you're talking about computer viewing, Standard-Def DVD is a slight step down from the higher quality PC views (1280x1024, 1024x768, etc). You could do a slideshow for this type, but it'll only look as good as the person's display setup (CPU/RAM+VidCard+Display). If it's going to various people, some won't get the best viewing experience, some will be great. Also depends on how you set it up in Flash/etc.

If you're talking about viewing on a StdDef TV, DVD slideshow is as good as it gets! Just make sure you're using the best encoder for the job.

AFA extra folders, don't know if Pinnacle Studio (?) does this, but it ought to be able to output to folders as well (VIDEO_TS, AUDIO_TS), which you could then incorporate into a DVD (along with an "OTHERS" folder) in Nero, etc. I have Pinnacle's ImpressionDVDpro (as well as a few others--it's not my favorite) and it can do either/both.

Scott

[ankitgarg]

By crappy quality I mean alot of pixelation and fuzziness. Thanks for the help, but I decided to make a seperate CD slideshow to view on computer because I just couldn't take the drop in quality and the lack of control of slideshows on DVDs (making menus for certain portions, etc., too complicated for me). I'm just going to stick with Flash .