Normal video DVD's with Rev applications on them?

[chris livermore]

Not so much a compatibility problem but a delivery issue. I used to  
churn out the cd-rom apps with video (which is similar to what you're  
describing), years ago, now my clients request web delivery.
I've found there's no such thing as 'plain ol dvd players'. Many PCs  
still don't have them, if they do they sometimes don't have the grunt  
to run them. Then you have Win Media player auto opening some movie  
files at times.

If you are going to play DVD movies (i think this is what you're  
suggesting) and have a separate rev app, then I'd say no-one will see  
your app. The movie will play and the app is forgotten. You need to  
run the movies from within the app, so you have one interface  
delivering all components. Even then many of my cd-rom and dvd  
products have made great coasters ;-)

Auto-boot: problematic. On a Mac a DVD movie will open in DVD Player,  
on a PC win media player usually open the dvd and people have  
problems. VLC is better on PCs but there are other options.
The rev app can autostart on a PC but you may have problems doing the  
same on a mac.

I've seen a few of these type of media around but, in my experience,  
if it's not simple it won't work.

hope this helps, lots more info on this topic

cheers

chris

On 19/01/2010, at 5:28 AM, David Bovill wrote:

> Thanks all - seems unproblematic then? I'm a little worried that  
> I'll break
> compatibility with plain old DVD players. I'm a little intrigued by  
> this, as
> something doesn't stack up - which is why I assumed there would be a  
> problem
> doing this with DVD's.
>
> Where does this argument go wrong:
>
>   1. It is straight forward to author (Rev) apps, that sit on a DVD  
> in such
>   a way that the DVD plays normally on a DVD player and the app auto- 
> boots
>   when inserted into a PC / laptop.
>   2. The (Rev) app can offer additional interactivity / games /  
> features to
>   the plain DVD adding value to the DVD
>   3. Rev apps could offer cross-platform interactive video
>   4. There are quite a number of videos / documentaries that don't  
> take up
>   the full DVD disk space - leaving room for H264 encoded  
> interactive video
>   applications
>   5. Consumers would benefit from the additional features.  
> Publishers could
>   create apps that easkily build communities around the DVD.
>   6. There should be quite a few of these hybrid beasts out there...
>
> but there aren't? Which makes me think there is a compatibility  
> problem
> doing this?