Web linking in DVD SP is a sordid affair at the moment, which is why you might not have heard about it much (thankfully :-). I do not recommend you use it at the moment, except under certain limited conditions.

First of all, it doesn't work reliably on Windows machines, on any of it's operating systems. Tech support nightmares await those DVD Author's who "spoke to soon"; to "get the job", with the promise of "Web-connectivity" capability to their clients.

Second, the user has to install different @ccess drivers for both Windows and Macs before it won't work (er..will work I mean :-). If Web links are used in your project, DVD SP will automatically add the drivers (that the user must first navigate to and install, before watching the DVD), to the ROM portion of your disc (outside the Video_TS folder) upon building and formatting. This gives you in effect, a hybrid DVD. If you use Toast for writing the disc, you will need to add the files manually (the two files are in the "Resources folder", in the DVD SP program group). Later versions of Apple DVD Player will automatically recognize the Web links in your DVD, without the need to install the Mac version of the DVD@access drivers, but you do have to go into Apple DVD preferences, under the advanced tab, and choose to enable DVD@ccess before they'll work (and you will have to give instructions on your DVD for your viewer to do this).

In your project, Web links are "triggered" by URL's embedded in Menu, Track, and Slideshow Objects; as well as by individual markers in Tracks (not by individual slides in slideshows though). So if you want a menu button to launch a website, "new email", or local file you may have put in the "Others Zone" of your DVD, you jump to a menu object or slideshow, say (the menu button itself, cannot launch a URL). In your navigation targets property inspector, lets say a Slideshow object (I'll bring up in a minute what asset you might put in this Slideshow object), you'll see the choice up top, that says @ccess. Right under that you'll see @ccess type; Choose URL, and two fields will pop up. You can name the URL, and then bellow type the URL following these syntax's.

For Websites it's:

http://www.DVDProducersguild.com/public/main.cfm

For files in folders on your DVD (in the "Others Zone" of your hybrid disc, Located OUTSIDE the Video_TS and Audio_TS folders):

file:///NameofyourDVD/Folder/file

Example of above:

file:///CorporateDVD/PDFfiles/Howtoinstall.pdf

For a "new email" box to open on the clients computer with an address entered and ready to go in the "to" field:

mailto:trai@tfdvd.com

Underscores are not allowed in the syntax, btw. Now that you have your Slideshow object with the correct URL typed in it's property inspector under @ccess, it would be a good idea to include some instructional text in a Pict Slide still to warn (er.. tell :-) the viewer what's about to happen (to their viewing experience? :-): Website launching.... (plus some text about installing the Access driver, if they haven't already, etc).

So the idea is to send Menu button activations that you want to launch something, to an asset in a presentation object (all kinds of neat technique's and graphics can be used in the process of launching a web site. Make sure to send navigation back to the menu after the slideshow displays for about 10 seconds or so: long enough for the browser to launch the web site). It's the presentation object (or marker in a Track), that does the actual launching of the URL, assuming the Access driver is installed, and is active "reading" the DVD as it plays along. The Access driver "knows" when to launch the URL. If we could get the bugs out of this thing it would be really nice.

The best Web connectivity implementation is when the viewer can push a button on the web site to get back to the DVD (and even have the DVD playing inside an adjustable window, inside the Web browser itself). I would also add, we need to have this occur automatically, without the viewer having to install anything.

There are a lot of cool ways to launch files and programs from on the DVD itself. But the viewer will have to move around a bunch of windows on the screen. It's easy to have your DVD window covered by the browser, etc.

But you can definitely give the viewer instructions on how to arrange the windows on screen (not really a good solution though), or a presenter could arrange things this way, so that both the DVD playback window and Browser were on the same screen at the same time, for instance. A whole series of markers in a Track could trigger "synchronized" (more or less) web pages, displaying along side the main DVD video program (in the marker properties you can enter URL's that the markers can "launch", as navigation crosses the marker boundaries, or in point).

In the coming year we will be going over a lot about web connectivity, and the best way to implement it. Hopefully Apple will get on the stick and give us some reliable capabilities in this regard.