Is there dvd software out there that allows you to create a dvd menu in which the viewer can choose to play different sequences of the videos offered?

DVD Studio Pro can do this using stories.

TThat would have nothing to do with the DVD disc. That would be a function of the player. AFAIK no player can do that.

I Don't know any way to use the DVD controller to program different playback sequences on the DVD. That would have to be recorded in memory somewhere, and there is no way that can be stored on the disc.

They might have programmed 30 different possible story sequences using DVD Studio Pro or something else. If there are only 30 playback options it's not that hard, but if you have 10 videos on the disc, to play all the possible combinations of 10 videos is not possible. The story sequence code would fill the disc.

DVD Studio Pro is part of the now redundant Final Cut Studio suite of apps. You buy it all.

Your best bet is to look at the second hand market for Final Cut Studio. Maybe you can get a new copy but fairly unlikely.

Bear in mind as time continues these older apps have less chance of being compatible with newer OS changes.

In fact, do your homework to make sure whatever you purchase will indeed work successfully with your current OS.

Al

This is probably a less expensive alternative – at least over the short-intermediate run. It would require a CC subscription.

Russ

meghanica wrote:

I think that's on the right track but I'm wanting something that allows the viewer to choose the sequence when they're looking at the DVD menu. I only see how the creator of the DVD can make different sequences. It's a yoga tutorial DVD and we are wanting the viewer to be able to pick a sequence from the menu items as such: pick one of the 3 warm-up videos, then pick one of the 2 yoga practices and then pick 1 of the 3 cool-down videos and then the dvd will play the sequence of selected warm up, practice, then cool down. And it can be differently chosen every time the viewer uses the menu.

You can do this on a DVD with DVD Studio Pro.

DVD's have some very basic storage called SPRM/GPRM scripting IIRC.

There are a few tutorials around for DVDSP…

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/dvd_language_nattress.html

http://www.digitalproducer.com/article/DVD-Studio-Pro-Scripting-Part-4-28784

You use scripts to set values that are stored in a tiny amount of memory on the player & then have to use additional scripts to respond to the values set, so that at the end of a sequence it will jump to the one a user previously chosen.

Some things to consider…

DVD's have limits on the number of chapters & titles, you need to plan around that.

Some DVD players are terrible to navigate, the settings that a user selects will be forgotten when the player is powered off. Users will need to make the choices over & over, every time they use the DVD (computers may remember it - I haven't tested this in years).

You will also need to setup many variations of menus to be able to indicate what selections they chose.

It is not a trivial task, you may want to hire a programmer to set it all up.

Testing is also a lot of work - too many combinations can quickly cause issues for testing, different players can also do odd things too.

I have used scripting for basic, 'play all' or 'play chapter' menus where the video is encoded once on the DVD & the scripts will either play through, or simply play a chapter & return to the same menu.

You may find that it would be better to invest in setting up a website with this. On a custom site it would be possible for users to save a playlist or several, they can also share playlists etc, it would be more flexible & usable IMO.

See roaring apps for info on others who have used DVD Studio Pro with various OS's…

http://roaringapps.com/app/dvd-studio-pro …it looks like 10.8 may be the last OS to work correctly with DVDSP.

Other DVD authoring apps may be able to do GPRM scripting too, but you will have to search for them.

I think the registers are part of the DVD spec, so devices should support them, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video