A Question for the experts

[AZTEC]

Hello

I am at the planning stage of a new project and would like to get feedback from members who have experience of dvd production.

My project involves taking images from my web site (pages) and creating an interactive dvd so that people without a computer can view my site from the comfort of their arm chair on a TV.

It would involve a lot of links to different pages so the two initial questions are:- A) is it feasible and B) what software would be best suited to this project.

Kind Regards

[Ron P.]

First you need to understand the structure of DVDs. They are videos, that does not have any interactivity, aside from selecting Play, Pause, Rewind, Fast-Forward, Titles and Chapters.

You would need to have numerous Titles (separate movie clips), or using Chapters to select specific web-page images. The viewer could then select a movie (title), or a specific part of that title (chapter). They would have no other interactivity beyond that.

Next depending on the size (layout) of your website, you need to be able to fit the image into a DVD spec size. If not then you need to setup pan/zooms for each image.

If you have a good screen capture program like Camtasia Studio, you could produce video clips of your screenshots. Those video clips could then be imported into DVDMF. Again very little user interactivity.

Video/DVD production is controlled by the producer (camera, and editors). You are the viewer's eyes, and control what you want them to focus on. They have no way of changing (other then selecting a different title or chapter), what it is you're presenting...

[skier-hughes]

web images are normally low quailty, so don't expect high quality viewing.

[AZTEC]

Hello

Thanks for the replies.

First to skier-hughes. Thanks for your observations, I have all the pages on my computer so I was hoping to get a reasonable resolution image to place in the video time line. Is this indeed possible.

Second to videoman. My site runs to some 350 pages of family history information.

From your comments it would appear that each family line would need a Title and each family would need to be a chapter.

I have VideoStudio11.5 Plus at the moment but it would appear I need some video authoring software, do you have any recommendations.

Regards

[Ron P.]

Corel VideoStudio Pro X2. The Ultimate version is not available in North America, however the only difference is that the Ultimate version comes with an SE version of Steinberg's WaveLab.

[AZTEC]

Hello

Can I upgrade to VideoStudio Pro X2 from 11.5Plus? and will this be adequate software for my project.

Regards

[Black Lab]

VideoStudio 11.5+ will do exactly the same things that X2 will in regard to your project. X2 just has a few enhancements over 11.5, but none that involve authoring. If you like you can always download the X2 trial to see if you would like to upgrade.

[sjj1805]

You are attempting to create an interactive DVD - the sort of thing that you use when playing DVD Games such as
Deal or No Deal
And lots of other similar games

Whilst those Game Play DVD's demonstrate that it is feasible to create an interactive DVD for a Family Tree, these were created by specialist purpose built software.

Popular Video Editing software such as VideoStudio, MediaStudio, MovieFactory, CyberLink PowerDirector, Sony Vegas, Pinnacle Studio, Adobe Premier, Nero and many other similar editors - these are not designed or intended to be used for creating interactive DVD's.

They are designed for taking a movie or a set of photographs to create a Video DVD or a Photograph slide show.

By the way - if you do manage to come up with a good system of creating an interactive family tree DVD - I would immediately seek a patent or copyright of it. As far as I am aware there is a hole in the market for such an item and you could earn yourself a small fortune if you are able to develop one.

[AZTEC]

Hello

Thanks for your input, to Black Lab I think I will try the trial version of X2 and I have found out that I am eligible for an upgrade.

To sjj1805 I will let you know when I have created the disc, maybe you could market it for me!!!!

I will continue to try to create a family tree disc that is interactive, or at least as some interactivity.

Maybe the answer will be to revert to my pattern of creating answers to problems by using lots of different software to achieve what I want.

Regards

[Black Lab]

Maybe the answer will be to revert to my pattern of creating answers to problems by using lots of different software to achieve what I want.

You will find that is exactly what most of the advanced users on this forum do.