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  1. Member
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    Hi there,

    Im new to all this so I have no idea about particular software or technical terms - ooops

    I want to create a menu at the beginning of my DVD. An option to play the movie and another to ldirectly ink to a word document which has important information about the movie.

    I would like Options such as : Play Movie
    or
    Read Info

    If I can do this for free it would be great and if anybody could possibly give me any (simple) advice on how to build this menu I would be grateful.

    Thank you
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  2. Member driguy's Avatar
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    You won't be able to do it as a word doc, that is not part of the dvd spec.

    You can take the text and put it in a still menu frame but a word document won't fly on a regular dvd.

    See "WHAT IS" DVD on the upper left-hand corner for more details. Read, Search and Study.
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  3. Member
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    Think about it: no DVD player has Microsoft Word loaded into it. It won't display .doc files. Like driguy suggested, your text will need to be displayed on a DVD-compatible still image.

    Check out this thread:

    https://forum.videohelp.com/topic353796.html
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  4. Member
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    Thanks to you both for your replies - this makes sense.

    The dvd is ideally meant to be played through a computer- hence why i thought the option which linked to word document could maybe automatically close down the dvd player and open up Microsoft word instead?

    Still impossible?
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  5. Member
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    p.s thanks for the link to the other thread- just having a look through it now
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  6. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    YES YOU CAN!!!

    This kind of DVD is what's known as an "Enhanced" DVD (sometimes called "Hybrid", but that's better left for other times...)

    This means, on a standard settop, is plays like normal DVD-Videos, and the link is non-functioning.
    On a PC, it allows for the live link.

    There are 2 ways to do this:
    1. Create a custom metadata link in the MPEG User data section of your MPEG video, and when that cell is showing, a link-aware DVD-Video-Player app will spawn an additional window with the link's destination. This works, and even allows for links to running office docs, apps, etc (not just html). This was the original setup, and worked OK for the first ~5 years that DVD was around, but it has 3 drawbacks in that it REQUIRES the app to be Link-Aware and only a few of them ever were. This was the version championed by Astarte, Spruce and Apple (with WinDVD and similar players).
    The other drawback is that it is possible to link to a virus.
    Finally, it is a non-standard extension to the DVD-Forum, in that it is embedded in the DVD-Video portion, but wasn't approved ahead of time by the DVD-Forum.
    2. The other way: Leave your DVD-Video alone, but wrap copies of the IFOs within an autorun/script in the ROM portion of the disc, with the links specified in the autorun/script. This is "PC Friendly"'s version. it doesn't have quite as much functionality, but because there wasn't the possibility of viruses (because it REQUIRES one to use ONLY the PCFriendly DVDPlayer app), and MAINLY because it didn't do an end run around the DVD-Forum, it was the one "blessed" by them.
    And with the digesting of Spruce (the strongest supporter) by Apple (weak support at best), that was the end of that.

    You can still make and get DVD's with ROM material; this hasn't disappeared. It just isn't out front in everybody's mind, and unfortunately, you MUST use a powerful authoring app like Scenarist, with additional tools supplied by PC Friendly, to be able to create these. That means $$$$!

    Scott
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  7. Member oz_surfer's Avatar
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    It can be done, but using a different method.

    I have a piece of software called Universal Document Converter. It converts virtually any written document to a graphic file.

    String a few written / converted documents to graphic files, then use Adobe Premiere or sim to convert to a mpeg. This mpeg can then be linked to.

    I use this method for school dvd's which demonstrate student work. The written stuff is usually the work outline, marking scale etc.
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  8. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    THEN IT ISN'T A WORD DOC ANYMORE!

    Sure, you could also create a facsimile of a program with menu screens, etc. that on the surface seemed to act like a program, but unles that program were extremely simplistic, the facsimile couldn't do what the program does. Same goes for PPT, DOCs, PDFs, XLS. You couldn't EDIT these once they've been converted. You can't COPY THEM. You can't even view them in their native application anymore.

    I've done Mock-Ups of websites, PPTs, flash swf's and other multimedia applications via DVD and VCD, and as far as mock-ups go, they're fine, but they'll never have the quality nor the functionality of the real app.
    That's why "Enhanced DVD"'s were created in the first place.

    Now, since HDDVD and BD have a MUCH MORE ADVANCED VM and interactivity toolkit (with built-in linking to websites, etc), you can start to finally have the best of both worlds...

    But the best you can do with DVD is either what I mentioned above, or if mock-up conversion/translations are ok with you I'd recommend Zoo Digital's "DVD-EXTRA" stuff http://www.zoodigital.com/software.

    Or just go low-tech and put a MENU that says where on the disc the native files are stored, and trust in the audience to know how to work a computer...

    Scott
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  9. Originally Posted by Cornucopia
    ...Or just go low-tech and put a MENU that says where on the disc the native files are stored, and trust in the audience to know how to work a computer...

    Scott
    Yep. This is my method when I create DVDs with extra content like PDF files and MP3s. I label it "DVD-ROM Content" on the DVD menu. When the user chooses that menu item, a graphic text page is displayed explaining the content and where to find it on the disc.
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  10. Member
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    Ok- this all sounds very complicated haha. But i'll read through all of your comments and try and give it a whirl.

    From the sounds of it, the easiest way is maybe to go 'low tech' and provide info on where the word files are stored on the disc.

    What programme do you guys use to do this? Sorry about my total lack of knowledge but I am a TOTAL beginner.

    Thank you for your help!

    HB
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  11. Member
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    There used to be a product called interlectural player ... or something similar people installed by accident onto their pc's when they inserted dvd movies a few years ago and since then its been canned ... you'll find it on a lot of titles made 4 or 5 years ago.

    Found it > http://www.interactual.com/news/InterActual_Sept24.htm

    This allowed document and web links accessibility when inserted into pc along with playing the dvd itself ... but only the dvd title side worked with dvd players ... we all know this, lol.

    Anything beyond this point must be converted and linked via menu buttons in the dvd menu ... problem is the restricted scale of documents you wish to include ... think of them as a powerpoint slideshow and break them down to suit and you'll have something ... just take care of the fonts ... some dont only look like crap but can cause unnecessary eye strain and migraines.

    As for what you want to do is just for the pc it may be simpler to use a small autoit script which when loaded looks just like the dvd menu but the required links are available ... the detection of an application closing which had been activated by link would take more knowledge of autoit's functions but the autoit forum has many helpers.
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  12. Member
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    DVD-ROM content is only accessible on computer DVD drives, provided that computer also has the loaded software to execute that material (like MS Word, PowerPoint, etc.) No stand-alone, set-top DVD player can display .doc, .pdf, PowerPoint, or other non-DVD-compliant files.

    From reading the first post, my understanding is that the OP wanted text accessible from the DVD menu and universally displayable on a wide range of DVD players.
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