Sonic's acquisition of
InterActual in early 2004 promised to
make this kind of capability more widely available for both DVD authors
and end
users. For example, Sonic has since licensed the playback technology
for use in
the CyberLink PowerDVD and InterVideo WinDVD consumer players
(www.gocyberlink.com; www.intervideo.com), so the InterActual Player is
no
longer required to view enhanced discs.
Sonic introduced eDVD 3
in September 2004 (see Reviews, Jan.
'05 DV) for corporate and independent authors to add external
links to
discs. It provided a taste of the possibilities for building enhanced
DVDs, but
was limited to displaying links only to external Web pages and local
images or
PDF files. Originally priced $599, then lowered to $199, eDVD 3 also
required
additional licensing fees for wide distribution.
The new release of eDVD 4
(www.sonic.com/products/Professional/eDVD) fulfills Sonic's initial
promise, as
a $199.99 tool that can enhance DVDs with arbitrary links--to both
external Web
pages and to any type of file stored on the disc. You can augment DVD
productions by displaying on-disc Word, Excel, PDF, and other files in
their
native applications; display and play image, video, audio, and Flash
clips; and
even launch executables. Sonic eDVD 4 also provides extensive
customization,
including player skins and formatting of the displayed windows. Plus,
it now
includes an unlimited distribution license.
Workflow in eDVD
The workflow with eDVD is
straightforward. First, design
your DVD as usual in any authoring tool, building the final production
as a
VIDEO_TS folder. Then use eDVD to associate links with chapter points
in the
production. When you're finished, eDVD builds the project to create the
data
files to be added to the ROM portion of the disc.
Finally, you can use your
DVD Video burning tool to burn the
final disc, combining the original VIDEO_TS folder and the eDVD build
data (or
burn with Sonic RecordNow 7.3, included with the product). Although you
must
build the project with eDVD under Windows XP, the resulting disc plays
back on
both Windows (98 and later) and Macintosh OS X (10.3).
To start the process of
enhancing a disc, eDVD displays a
New Project Wizard to define the basic characteristics of the project:
the
project directory, associated VIDEO_TS folder, plus the player window
size and
skin design. These settings also can be changed in the Project Settings
dialog.
You can customize the
installation by creating a background
graphic image for the installer, and you can design a custom skin for
the
InterActual Player using Sonic's $49 Skin Builder Pack, using Photoshop
to
design the graphics elements and XML to assemble them.
The main eDVD window
displays a list of all of the titles
and associated chapter points found on the DVD. You then associate
links with
chapters and define how they are displayed. As you enter links, use the
Check
Link button at the end of each row to preview the link content and
display
format. To finish, click Build on the toolbar to build the eDVD project
files
and then click Simulate to preview the resulting enhanced disc directly
within
eDVD.
Linking DVDs to content
The first Link Type menu
specifies one of four basic types:
Launch URL for online Web links, Open HTML for on-disc Web pages, Open
file for
linking to any on-disc files and folders (displayed in the associated
registered application for that type), or Launch Executable for on-disc
applications, with the option to specify both Windows and Macintosh
executables.
When linking to a
cross-platform folder or Macintosh
program, you must burn the final DVD on a Mac with a tool such as Roxio
Toast
in order to preserve resource forks for Mac files.
For each link, the Link
Target menu specifies whether the
link is displayed in a new window, replaces the video playback in the
main
window, or is displayed in a second popup window (replacing enhanced
content
that is already being displayed). The DVD Action menu specifies what
happens to
the video playback when the link is displayed: continue play, pause on
the
current frame, or stop with a Resume Playback message.
The Configure Link dialog
box then offers options to
customize the display of most link types: the Window Attributes
(controls,
size), Location on screen, and Behaviors (auto-close the window when
video
resumes, and delay before displaying after the chapter point). While
resizing,
positioning, and time delay of enhanced pop-up windows is supported
across
platforms, browser settings and auto-close aren't available when
playing on the
Macintosh.
Links can be placed at
chapter points within movie titles,
or at the beginning of slide show titles, and the chapters must be at
least
three seconds long. Links can also be launched from menus by having the
menu
buttons link to a chapter point in the title space. Sonic provides
sample
bumpers and slates to display on nonenhanced players.</P.
Flashy application
The eDVD application
itself is simple and straightforward,
if a bit clunky and sluggish (it's a Flash application). Sonic offers a
free
10-day, 10-run trial download. Some small inconsistencies in the
initial release
are due to be fixed in a point release in July 2005, followed by a
later
upgrade to fix the irritating habit of rebuilding projects each time
they are
opened.
The start-up process is
designed to be as seamless as
possible when users are playing back discs. Under Windows, the AutoRun
file
runs the InterActual Launcher, which displays a simple dialog
confirming it's
installing the InterActual Player, if needed-with no separate installer
windows
or reboot required. The user can then play the DVD, with or without the
enhanced features. On the Mac, the InterActual Player must be installed
and run
manually.
However, the InterActual
Player depends on an external
decoder to display the video (like PowerDVD or WinDVD), and on the good
graces
of the Windows configuration for its smooth operation. For example, I
saw
unexplained installation warnings (not repeated), and the Simulate mode
in eDVD
displayed only a black screen on my test machine unless I ran PowerDVD
first
(apparently to reregister it as the preferred decoder among all of the
others
installed).
Conclusions
The new eDVD version 4
opens up the full range of linking to
content from DVD Video productions, allowing producers to enhance
productions
with both additional local material such as high-res images and PDF
specifications, and also reach out to external Web sites for updated
information such as recent news and pricing.
Interactivity can be
created with eDVD using the Open HTML
command if the author knows the InterActual API, but eDVD doesn't
directly
support dynamically coordinating video and interactive playback, as
with
Macromedia Director MX (www.macromedia.com/director). However, these
kinds of
features are available using JavaScript coding to the underlying
InterActual
API, which will be accessible through a WebDVD add-on pack that Sonic
plans to
release later this year. But if your main focus for playback is the DVD
production, eDVD 4 provides a quick, easy way to enhance your work with
links
to associated material. |
