DVD-ROM Feature (DVD@ccess)

There is nothing else available when using DVDSP.
Create a text page that that tell the user which web page to go to.
I'm sure that others will say that DVD@ccess works perfect for them, but that is a matter of (narrow) opinion. Mac users have to enable the feature in the DVD Player, and (even worse) PC users have to install a program and reboot their PC. It's just not worth it.

I was under the assumption that you either create the web site or save the site and include it in the DVD build, then when you click on the link, your browser opens and, since the site is physically there on the DVD, it works perfectly. Once the browser is open and the saved page is loaded, all subsequent links should work just fine. I haven't tried it, but I have worked with people that use it and have never heard of it being a problem before.

Red T

the problem is not whether the files are on the DVD or on a mebsite or indeed the files themselves; PDF, text or an HTML webpage, but that the process of making the links work is flawed and unreliable.

In addition, if you take into account that:
- most users computers are Windows based PC's
- most Windows PC's are used in a network configuration
- most network PC's wont allow the user to install or run the DVD@ccess application, then most users are prevented from the use of the DVD@ccess feature.

If you havnt heard that DVD@ccess is a major problem, just do a search of the discussions and read the extent of the complaints.

If DVD@ccess worked, it would be a treamedous feature to users, unfortunatly we are all deprived of it intended use.

That's too bad. No I haven't heard, because I have not had a use for it yet in my line of work. I always see it there as an option, and have always thought it would be cool, but now I guess I won't think that anymore. What a shame that it is dangling there in front of us and we can't really use it.

In principle, the idea of DVD@ccess or creating enhanced content DVDs is rather cool. In practice, the experience was never anything but variable. Whilst DVD@ccess seemed to work for Macs, and some PCs the result was never reliable on a PC. Alternative solutions on PCs, including Sonic's eDVD, have also since been abandoned. There is no single standards based system for creating interactive links and that is what is needed for all discs to work.

If you want to put a microsite on a DVD then you can, and you can use a menu screen to inform your viewers that it is there. All that is missing is the ability to click a link in a menu and run the index file. You might get it working for some people, but not for all... but if you include it on a disc then at least there is something there for them to see.

The other thing to consider is that if you do include some HTML pages on your disc, when they are played in an internet enabled PC you can rely on the usual html links to call up further content not based on the DVD.

THAT was what I thought it was about. The first part of the site included on the disk, just to launch the browser and get you started, and then the links would work from there. Just like the instructional DVDs that I have for Maya and Photoshop. The tutorials always load Firefox, and from there the links seem to work fine.

Yes - that's totally possible, and what a lot of people are doing. Create a single page (or a few pages) of HTML, add them to a directory on the disc and let the user browse to them. They'll open them in whatever their default browser is and carry on from there. All of this will happen without the DVD actually running, just as if accessing a file off any other optical disc.

What DVD@ccess allowed you to do was launch the browser for the HTML pages from within the DVD Player application - i.e. you'd be watching the video and then click a link on a menu which opened up Firefox and displayed a web page, leaving the DVD player application in the background and still running. It's that part of the jigsaw which is missing.

Forget about DVD@ccess. It's a dog that should be put to sleep...

may I second the view that DVD@ccess does not work reliably.

I can get it to work on the machine that authors the DVD which is pointless, but on windows machines its virtually a non event

ah... I see... thanks for the clarity.