Data + video in one disc

June 6, 2008 11:49 AM

Trying to make a multi-mode DVD: video plus data. What tool do I need?

I want to make a DVD that will play in an ordinary DVD player, but also contains some data files (independent of the video content) that can be seen when you put the disc in a computer.

I don't need to have autoruns, link to the data content from the disc menus, or anything fancy like that. I just want two types of data accessible by different machines.

The full story: I have video of an educational presentation. During the talk the speaker refers to the handouts. I'd like to have copies of the handouts on the disc so people can view them there or print off new copies if they don't have the hardcopies they got the first time.

Free/open source is best, but I might be willing to spend some money if necessary. Are there any good software tools for this?

posted by echo target to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I recently made a dvd on an ubuntu system following (skimming) this guide. Here's how it went down:

1. Used kmediafactory (front end to dvdauthor - it's in the ubuntu repositories) to convert the video into mpeg2 and write the xml menu/file settings for dvdauthor. (takes a long time to convert video)
2. Run dvdauthor with the xml file from step 1 to create the DVD file system (.vob files and stuff). Command line program, so google the documentation to see how it works.
3. (here's where you can add files to the file system -- it's just a folder on your HD at this point)
4. Use mkisofs to make a DVD-image file (command line again)
5. Burn the image file using Brasero/whatever

My menus came out blank but the dvd auto-plays fine, has chapters I can jump around in, etc. So if you want slick menus you'll have to learn kmediafactory or another front end.
posted by cowbellemoo at 12:38 PM on June 6, 2008

Sorry, should've mentioned; I'm on a regular old XP machine. I may yet install Ubuntu at home, but this is for work.
posted by echo target at 12:56 PM on June 6, 2008

It's way easier than doing a multi-mode CD. In fact, all DVDs are actually data discs. It's just that DVDs with video have a folder named VIDEO_TS containing the appropriate files. Any decent DVD burning program like Nero will let you start a video DVD project, which defaults to having an empty VIDEO_TS folder. You populate VIDEO_TS with your authored DVD data, and then you are free to put files or folders anywhere else on the disc. If you're looking for free, Nero has a time-limited trial. There are several genuinely free DVD burning apps, but I have little experience with them.
posted by zsazsa at 1:05 PM on June 6, 2008

Thanks, zsazsa, that's excellent. Worked like a charm. I learned something new today.
posted by echo target at 1:17 PM on June 6, 2008