Cropping for DVD TV

Because of the size of the pictures not being close to a T.V. 4:3 aspect ratio the pictures have black side bars when viewing them. I was wondering if anyone knows a way to resize the background wider to match the 4:3 ratio?

Photoshop 911 (2005). Design>Multimedia>Video>DVD

The Degree of Usability from Selected DVD Menus and Their Navigational Systems  

The purpose of this research is to investigate the usability of DVD interfaces via their menus and navigation, inspired by Donald Norman who has had a pivotal role in user-centred design and usability. The paper encompasses theoretical aspects of interactivity, usability and DVD technology. A usability test was administered with the DVDs chosen. The results from the usability test were the main focus in this research. Such results were supportive of Norman's claims, as participants experienced varying degrees of usability issues. Furthermore, the findings were used to develop a set of guidelines and recommendations designers could follow. If these were adhered to, it would have significantly alleviated the difficulty the participants had in interacting with the DVDs.

Wood-Bradley, Guy and Malcolm Campbell. SpringerLink (2005). Articles>Usability>Human Computer Interaction>DVD

Developing User Interface Guidelines for DVD Menus

Watching DVDs can be a frustrating experience, because DVD menus often miss out on usability and are complex and difficult to navigate through. Similar to the early years of web development, there is a lack of design standards. In this paper, we show the development of user interface guidelines for DVD menus. These guidelines can be used to design and evaluate DVD menus. We built a prototype according to the guidelines, conducted usability tests with the prototype and evaluated other movie DVDs using the guidelines to show the applicability, utility and usability of the guidelines.

Kappel, Karin, Martin Tomitsch, Thomas Koltringer and Thomas Grechenig. Proceedings of ACM CHI 2006 (2006). Design>User Interface>Multimedia>DVD

DVD Menu Design: The Failures of Web Design Recreated Yet Again

Designers of DVDs have failed to profit from the lessons of previous media: Computer Software, Internet web pages, and even WAP phones. As a result, the DVD menu structure is getting more and more baroque, less and less usable, less pleasurable, less effective. It is time to take DVD design as seriously as we do web design. The field needs some discipline some attention to the User Experience, concern about accessibility for those with less than perfect sight and hearing, and some standardization of control and display formats.

Norman, Donald A. JND.org (2002). Design>Multimedia>Video>DVD

DVD Menu Design: The Failures of Web Design Recreated Yet Again

Designers of DVDs have failed to profit from the lessons of previous media: Computer software, Internet web pages, and even WAP phones. As a result, the DVD menu structure is getting more and more baroque, less and less usable, less pleasurable, less effective. It is time to take DVD design as seriously as we do web design. The field needs some discipline some attention to the User Experience, and some standardization of control and display formats.

Norman, Donald A. Alertbox (2001). Design>User Interface>Multimedia>DVD

DVDs with Audio Description

DVDs can carry up to eight audio tracks. It is theoretically possible to provide main audio and dubbing in three languages and audio description in all four languages. In practice, all anybody's asking for is an audio description track in the main language of the audio.

Clark, Joe. JoeClark.org (2001). Articles>Accessibility>Multimedia>DVD

Exporting to QuickTime or for use with iDVD

You have this great project that you've just finished, and you need to bring it into another program, display it on your web site, or turn it in on CD or DVD. To do this, you will need to export your movie. iMovie has several 'built-in' configurations that take much of the guesswork out of compressing your video for optimal playback on one of those media types. I often find, however, that the standard choices are not quite what I want or need. This is when the Expert options come into play.

Iowa State University (2003). Design>Multimedia>Video>DVD

Guidelines for Designing Usable DVD Menus  

DVD menus often suffer from serious usability problems, which has a negative impact on the user experience. The reason for this is that there is a lack of design standards. In this paper we describe the development of user interface guidelines for DVD menus and present the final guidelines. In order to obtain usable and applicable guidelines we went through three phases, which included among other usability-engineering methods an expert walkthrough, a ua prototype, and validating and improving the guidelines.

Költringer, Thomas, Martin Tomitsch, Karin Kappel and Thomas Grechenig. University of Vienna (2006). Design>User Interface>Multimedia>DVD

An iDVD Slide Show

Hardware is easy to talk about, test, evaluate, review and sell. Software takes a little more study. Which is why we remain one of the very few imaging publications to review software in any depth. Most people find software is a solid that must be chewed to derive any nutritional benefits. And so they chew and chew and chew. But, no matter how much they chew, the stuff is still pretty hard to swallow.

Electric Escape (2003). Articles>Presentations>Multimedia>DVD

Implications for Designing the User Experience of DVD Menus

DVD menus often miss out on usability and are complex and difficult to navigate through. One of the main problems is the lack of design standards. By conducting an expert walkthrough we identified typical usability issues of DVD menus and verified them with usability testing and a user survey. Our research goal is to develop a set of specific solutions for designing usable DVD menus to improve the overall user experience. As a first step towards this goal we present an initial set of usability issues that are specifically relevant for DVD menu design.

Koltringer, Thomas, Martin Tomitsch, Karin Kappel, Daniel Kalbeck and Thomas Grechenig. ACM SIGCHI (2005). Design>User Experience>Multimedia>DVD

Recordable DVD: Worth the Wait or Worth Waiting For?

It may be a bit hasty to declare the end of the CD-ROM era, but the signposts are pointing in that direction. Although the CD provides a convenient way for presenters to store multimedia, distribute data and back up hard drives, the medium's space limits in the coming era of 100GB and larger hard drives and ever more ambitious multimedia projects will become increasingly evident. Indeed, many see the recordable DVD as the next killer app in computing – the one that makes the most compelling use of all that digital horsepower sitting idle on desktops everywhere, at home and at the office. More than a million recordable-DVD drives were sold in 2001, and the market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) predicts that number will grow to more than 30 million by 2005. Apple, Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony and other major computer manufacturers already ship recordable-DVD drives with their top-of-the-line models. Drives supporting the highly anticipated DVD+RW format (a format presenters should like because of its greater flexibility and superior write speed) have finally hit the market. And, as with almost all digital technology, recordable-DVD drives and media, not to mention video camcorders and software, are getting cheaper and more widely available by the day.

Kawamoto, Wayne. Presentations (2003). Articles>Presentations>Multimedia>DVD

Taking Flash Animation to DVD Video

This article is meant to inspire creators much more talented than ourselves to take the risk and dive in head-first with the idea of bringing their Flash animation work to industry-quality DVD. The efforts and obstacles involved in bringing Broken Saints out as a four-disc collectors' edition were overwhelming, and if we can give you some insights, save you some steps, keep you from making the same mistakes we did, or even inspire you to experience Broken Saints on your spiffy new home theatre, then it all will have been worth it.

Burgess, Brooke. Adobe (2005). Design>Multimedia>Flash>DVD