The DVD menu authoring process is made up of many different techniques and conventions that work together to create a theme for the movie. For example, if you put a Star Wars disc into a DVD player, then before the film begins what you will see is a DVD menu. This menu will generally be stylised around the actual film itself, with space-craft and planets that are a part of the Star Wars universe.
Normally there will be a short animation before leading into the DVD menu. Sometimes when DVD's put a lot of time and effort into menu authorship it can form a bond between dedicated fans and the producers which heightens the enjoyability and allows the fans to interact more with the universe of the film.
The DVD menu generally consists of several buttons which when clicked lead to either the film or technological pages. ' Play Movie ' will obviously start the movie. 'Subtitles' will turn on subtitles which will generally appear in bold text at the bottom of the screen during the movie. 'Language' will affect what language the movie audio is in and also what language the subtitles appear in if they are turned on. (Below we can see the Language selection screen for Hitchcocks 'Torn Curtain')
Normally there will be a short animation before leading into the DVD menu. Sometimes when DVD's put a lot of time and effort into menu authorship it can form a bond between dedicated fans and the producers which heightens the enjoyability and allows the fans to interact more with the universe of the film.
The DVD menu generally consists of several buttons which when clicked lead to either the film or technological pages. ' Play Movie ' will obviously start the movie. 'Subtitles' will turn on subtitles which will generally appear in bold text at the bottom of the screen during the movie. 'Language' will affect what language the movie audio is in and also what language the subtitles appear in if they are turned on. (Below we can see the Language selection screen for Hitchcocks 'Torn Curtain')
'Scene Selection' is generally a feature that will lead to a screen where small images of different scenes of the film will appear. Underneath these small images of particular scenes is sometimes text associated with the scene. A person can scroll through pages of these scenes and highlight a scene in particular that they want to go to, and when they select it the film will automatically start to play from that point onwards. (Below is the chapter select for Hitchcocks 'Rear Window' and instead of text describing the scene he has simply numbered the images)
Sometimes there are things called 'Easter Eggs' which are hidden inside of the DVD menus and allow for fans of the particular film or franchise to explore the universe more and feel closer to the producers. These easter eggs are often hidden inside of the menus and various different screens on the user interface. They are hidden special features and some are easier to find than others. Below is an explanation of the hidden/bonus features featured on the DVD release of Memento.
Different DVD Types
There are various different kinds of physical DVD's. There are '+RW', which are re-writable DVDs with 4.7GB of storage capacity. There are '-RW' DVD's, which are the same type of DVD but can only be played on specific players.
In recent years DVD players are both able to play +R and -R DVD's however originally only certain DVD's could be played on certain DVD players.
Some DVD's have region codes which means that they cannot be played on DVD players outside of certain areas. For example, if you lived in the UK and went to America to buy a DVD before it came out in the UK, then if you tried to watch it back at home in the UK it would not play. This is to avoid piracy and to stop people illegally selling DVDs before their official release date in their own region. Below you can see the DVD regions in the key on the bottom left and where they are allocated throughout a map of the world.
If you bought a DVD in the USA (Region 1) it could not be played on DVD players in Europe (Region 2).
In recent years DVD players are both able to play +R and -R DVD's however originally only certain DVD's could be played on certain DVD players.
Some DVD's have region codes which means that they cannot be played on DVD players outside of certain areas. For example, if you lived in the UK and went to America to buy a DVD before it came out in the UK, then if you tried to watch it back at home in the UK it would not play. This is to avoid piracy and to stop people illegally selling DVDs before their official release date in their own region. Below you can see the DVD regions in the key on the bottom left and where they are allocated throughout a map of the world.
If you bought a DVD in the USA (Region 1) it could not be played on DVD players in Europe (Region 2).