any pros,cons,pitfalls using dvd@access?

Still somewhat of a newbie using dvdsp (I'm using fcp studio with dvdsp4) and haven't used the dvd@access function yet. My client has requested a quote on a project and part of the project includes making a dvd with a "hyperlink" to a pdf on her website. For starters I've read the 2004 article by Alex Alexander on Ken Stone's site - a tutorial using dvdsp 2.

But I'd like to hear from anyone who's actually done this and experienced the results in the real world - ie., any pitfalls or are both pc and mac users able to get this to work successfully liinking to a url file? I welcome any tips, updated info, advice.

Hello, Chris.

Pros (not that many):
* Doesn't require an additional authoring application. It's built into DVD SP.
* Although it requires users to enable it on the DVD player application, it works quite reliably on OS X Macs.


Cons:
* You have to install DVD@cess support on Windows Computers from the DVD. And still it won't be compatible with a number of software DVD players.
*It doesn't work automatically on OS X either. You have to get users to enable it on DVD Player preferences!
* The web/file links not are associated with buttons, but with the menu or track elements. So, you have to make the button point to some other place (usually a twin menu or an empty menu with a notice) to trigger the link.

If you want options, you could investigate Sonic's eDVD, which allows you to add web/file links to your DVD SP authored VIDEO_TS folder. Unfortunately, it only works on Windows (but in a couple of months we will be able to easily run Windows on Macs!)



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com

Here is a tutorial and review, rolled into one article I did to explore Sonic's eDVD.

[www.editorsbin.com]

Near the bottom, under review's notes, I added my comments regarding your issues. If you have access to a PC; this is the way to go in my opinion.

-Alex Alexzander

Thanks to Alex and Adolfo both for very helpful input on this topic. I will be reading more thoroghly the review and pondering this soon as I recover from an all night editing session.

I'm wondering if this recommendation is different in cases where you only have something like a pdf (not weblinked) that you'd want to have available for any user - pc, mac, set top or computer playback - to open and read without linking to any site. Maybe this will be obvious when I get a bit deeper into dvdsp4.

As far as the user experience dealing with the weblinked stuff, I personally am not real keen on having some application automatically open and choose a browser I don't trust to link to a site. But then, I'm probably not like most general users out there who probably prefer this.

"I'm wondering if this recommendation is different in cases where you only have something like a pdf (not weblinked) that you'd want to have available for any user - pc, mac, set top or computer playback - to open and read without linking to any site. Maybe this will be obvious when I get a bit deeper into dvdsp4".


Nope. It doesn't really change anything, because you know what? Once it works, it works for both compex and simple things. The problem is getting it to work at all. DVD@ccess needs to hack the player application in order to "capture" the links, regardless of how sophisticated or simple. It requires that Windows users install it from the DVD, and even then, it may not work well with some software players. And it also requires Mac OS X users to enable it in the player preferences, which is rather silly IMHO. If you want to establish a technology, you should make it as easy to access as possible, right?



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com