Creating Customized DVD Menus

R

ruharvey

New member
Hey everyone, this is my first time here and my first post. Lots of awesome information for a new guy here, like myself.

I have a question that may require more from me than I may be capable of doing. I have a client that wants to put 500 one minute clips on a dvd, that part is easy. Is how to the clients want the viewers to view the clips.

They would like a DVD menu system that the user inputs the video number and it plays that video and loops it until the user presses the menu button to go back to the title screen with the three blank spots to enter in the next video number.

The client is not worried about logistics of wether or not it will work in every DVD player. They want what they want and thats the end of it.

Can anyone tell me if this is possible and what program and the best way to approach this kind of task. I appreciate all the help I can get!
 
for dvd output? that's a tricky one.

too bad they don't want it online. this could easily be handled with some flash animation and scripting.

one method that MIGHT work would be to develop this in flash, put the programming behind it and export it in a format that plays on CD or DVD. i know it will work on computer.....dvd player i'd have to check....but sounds like its going to require some kind of programming.

just my 2 cents.

i'd be interested to know if there was any other way though.
 
For a DVD player that's running on a computer its a no brainer and will easily work. If its for a standalone DVD player though you're SOL, regardless of what your client wants.
 
I've not heard of any way of doing search or input functions with traditional dvd players, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

What they need is a flash site on a CD to send to whomever. That could be programmed to do anything they want.
 
You could do this with Adobe Encore 2.0 or later [2 is what I started with, maybe 1.5 also], its just gonna take a lot of time and thorough programming (looping is easy with this program).

Based on a similar experience, what concerns me more than the programming of the menu....you are going to have menus with submenus. For example a menu that says choose the color you want, red, blue, green, yellow, etc..... when they choose green, it brings up another menu that calls up green1, green2, green3, etc.... Its gonna be a lot of work-- hope your making a ton of $.

I agree with others there's other technology that can help you do this, but if they want DVD, fine, just make a bunch of money.
 
This is probably possible but it'd be a big hassle, and it would also take forever to test that is works once you're done scripting.

I've done a small amount of scripting in DVD Studio Pro. You can set a script to run when a button is pressed that stores a number in one of the disc's 16 GPRMs (General Parameter Registers). Inputting the 3 digit number would be a tough part. I would guess: you need three columns of buttons, each button corresponding to a digit in the three-digit number, and script it so when the viewer selects button 4 in the first column of buttons a script runs that sets GPRM block 1 to hold the value 4 and then to jump the DVD to the button 1 in the second column so they can select the next digit and so on. And then you would need a play button with a script that would look at the three values stored in GPRM 1, GPRM 2, and GPRM 3 and play the track that you have told it corresponds to each number... But I don't know if there's a way to do that other than typing in each an every connection between number and track. So that's 500 lines of code where you have to set a track for it to jump to and the condition for jumping, and iirc there is a length limit to scripts so you'd actually have to breka it up across two scripts and, well... I would say, a DVD is not the best way for them to present these videos.
 
I would agree that what they want is not best for a dvd setting. But the client has seen it done before on another dvd. I havn't seen the dvd personally, so I can't recreate what they have seen. I will keep trying and see what I can come up with. They want a quick turn around time. So I may have to pass on this project entirely.
 
and they cant get you a copy to view? if they could, maybe you could hire a third party to do the programming and charge an overhead in order to make a profit.
 
I have no experience with this product, but I think this might be something that Adobe Director might handle pretty well.
 
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