Hyperlink on DVD Menu?

[fateman]

Can you make a hyperlink on a DVD menu so when you play it on a computer you can click on the hyperlink and have it open in the default browser? I'm pretty sure some movie DVDs do this, but I forget exactly...

Thanks,
Jeff

[Msc_Alex]

Search search (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=53510&highlight=webdvd+maestro) ;)

[fateman]

Awesome!

Thanks for linking me with that. I guess I should have just poked around Maestro first, but that is a really nice tutorial.

:)

[Arky]

Sonic recently released 'eDVD (http://www.sonic.com/products/edvd/default.asp)', a program designed to integrate URL functionality with projects authored on ANY authoring system.

Unfortunately, they're not selling it very cheaply, but it's not a bad product (although, strangely, it does not appear to allow the opening of saved (i.e. 'Off-line') webpages - to open a webpage, it apparently needs to be genuinely 'online'). Projects enhanced with eDVD (http://www.sonic.com/products/edvd/default.asp) require the famous Interactual Player in order to take advantage of the URL functionality (whereas Maestro required the somewhat-erratic Syzygy Player). If you have seen a Hollywood disc wth URL functionality, then it is quite likely that it would have been an implementation that utilised the Interactual Player.

Also, DVD SP 3, on the Mac platform, operates much like Maestro (well, it is basically a port of the same program!), and requires Apple's own software DVD player in order for the URL fucntionality to work. A friend of mine recently deciphered some of the underlying structure of a DVD SP-authored URL-functional disc, which, while not essential to understand, is quite interesting (http://dvdafteredit.com/node/42)

Anyway, I hope you have fun, fateman. Although I now author with DVD SP 3, I am very fond of Maestro.


Arky ;o)

[Arky]

UPDATE:

It seems Sonic have dropped eDVD from their product line, if their website is anything to go by(!). I've just browsed around and can't find it (6-11-07). It's still mentioned in a 2005 newsletter on the site, though http://www.sonic.com/about/press/news/2005/04/edvd4.aspx, and many online retailers are still listing it for sale - e.g. http://www.mitcorp.co.uk/images/eDVDBrochure.pdf.

Perhaps Sonic themselves realised it was more trouble than it's worth. If you try to find it through Sonic, you just get redirected to their Roxio arm and DVDit products. Using the Roxio site search, I can only find mention of 'eDVD skinbuilder' but this takes you back to the DVDit product page which does NOT list eDVD anywhere in it's features.


Arky ;o)