DVD menu coding

Question

As a programmer I have no idea how one would go about programming menus for a DVD, I have heard that this is possible, and even seen basic games using DVD menus - although it may very well be a closed-system. Is it even possible and if so, what language, compilers etc exist for this?

Answer 1

There are a couple of open source projects that can create DVDs plus menus. I recently used dvd-slideshow to create a simple dvd with menus etc. Another one is DVD Styler. All of these programs are basically a front-end for various command-line tools for encoding, menu creation etc. Since these are open source projects you can have a look at the source and check out how they accomplish this.

Answer 2

The DVD menus that appear on a typical movie DVD are described in the DVD-Video standard: wikipedia.

If you are trying to create this type of menu, there are many programs that will create these. I have had luck with DVD Styler.

If you are creating an application that is distributed on a DVD, the choice of programming language is up to you. I suppose you could use some sort of OS auto-start feature to run an application that would bring up a menu for the user.

Answer 3

The WIKI States (in 2011) " Programming interfaceA virtual machine implemented by the DVD player runs 'bytecode' contained on the DVD. This is used to control playback and display special effects on the menus. The instruction set is called the Virtual Machine (VM) DVD command set. There are 16 general parameter registers (GPRM) to hold temporary values and 24 system parameters (SPRM). As a result of a moderately flexible programming interface, DVD players can be used to play games, such as the DVD re-release of Dragon's Lair, along with more sophisticated and advanced games such as Scene It, all of which can be run on standard DVD players.