[4.9] How do I play DVD video in HTML, PowerPoint, Director, VB, etc.?
A variety of multimedia development/authoring programs can be extended to play video from a DVD, either as titles and chapters from a DVD-Video volume, or as MPEG-2 files. In Windows, this is usually done with ActiveX controls. On the Mac, until DVD-Video support is added to QuickTime, the options are limited. Newer versions of the Apple DVD Player can be controlled with AppleScript.
DVD-Video and MPEG-2 video can be played back in an HTML page in Microsoft Internet Explorer using many different ActiveX controls (see table). Some ActiveX controls also work in PowerPoint, Visual Basic, and other ActiveX hosts. Netscape Navigator is out of the game until it supports ActiveX objects. Simple MPEG-2 playback can be done in PowerPoint using the Insert Movie feature (requires that a DirectShow-compatible MPEG-2 decoder be installed). DVD and MPEG-2 playback can be integrated into Macromedia Director using specialized Xtras.
Price HTML (IE only) PowerPoint ActiveX host (VB, etc.) Director
Microsoft MSWebDVD or MSVidWebDVD (see MSDN overview ) free yes yes yes no
Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.1 (docs in Windows Media SDK ) free yes no no no
InterActual PC Friendly not available certain versions no no no
InterActual Player 2.0 $2000 and up yes yes yes yes?
SpinWare iControl PE: $120, Web: $1200 and up Web version PE version no no
Visible Light Onstage DVD $500 and up ActiveX version ActiveX version ActiveX version Director version
Sonic eDVD (InterActual engine, feature of Sonic products) $4000 yes no no no
Sonic DVD Presenter (InterActual engine, no longer available) $40 no yes no no
Tabuleiro DirectMediaXtra $200 no no no MPEG-2/VOB files, but not DVD-Video volumes
LBO Xtra DVD $500? no no no yes
Matin¨Ĥe Presenter ? Separate presentation application. Plays MPEG-2 files (not DVD-Video).
Of course, if you simply treat DVD-ROM as a bigger, faster CD-ROM, you can create projects using traditional tools (Director, Flash, Toolbook, HyperCard, VB, HTML, etc.) and traditional media types (CinePak, Sorenson, Indeo, Windows Media, etc. in QuickTime or AVI format) and they'll work just fine from DVD. You can even raise the data rate for bigger or better quality video. But it usually won't look as good as MPEG-2.
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