Buttons to get into cd menu....

[katiekat]

Hello all!

My question is this: Can you put a movie on a cd, and have a button that will take you to the menu of the cd? Hnm. That doesn't really make any sense....

I guess what I mean is this. You put in this cd, the movie plays, loops to the first bit and then you have a choice either to look at the contents of the cd, or play the movie again.

The questions that raises are 1. what will this menu look like, 2. how/where will it open 3. does it need to be in flash? 4. do I have any other options? 5. is this even remotely possible?

The more I think about it, the less it seems like something that can be done.

Has anyone tried anything like this before? Any ideas? Help!!!!! Thank you!!!! (-:

 

[katiekat]

Perhaps this is too broad of a question? How about this, instead:

Will a flash movie launch automatically when you load a cd?

please and thank you! Holy tek-tips batman!

 

[blended]

Hmmm...

Well, It is remotely possible. For one thing, the flash movie won't automatically play unless you use an autorun string on the cd. Secondly, as far as menus are concerned, what kind of menus do you mean? It's easy as pie to do in Director which is what I'd recommend you use for this kind of project. My experience with flash generated exe and app files is that they kind of suck. You have heaps of control over this kind of thing in Director, so there would be no guesswork involved in what it would like or whatever.

One option is to use the previously mentioned autorun script on a cd and then use html and swf files as the interface. Same as a webpage, just all off-line content. Sure, you have all the browser stuff to deal with, but maybe that will work for you. The Flash 5 Magic cd does this beautifully, by the way, but no, you don't need flash 5.

Good Luck!

Blended

 

[katiekat]

Thanks for responding! Perhaps you will come back here and look again. Thanks for the ideas, you got the cogs going.

What is this auto run string on the cd? Meaning in the cd, or some sort of scriping in the flash file? And, this auto run scripting, can it be done for the html file? that would be very cool.

I have zero exposure to director, so I think I will be smashing it out with flash.

So, thanks! (-:



Holy tek-tips batman!

 

[blended]

Sure-

Just look on any cd-rom you have and browse the contents. Just open up the autorun file and copy it and paste it into your cd-rom. Tell it to point to whatever file it is you want to have start first. Boom! THere you are! No flash at all for this one. Just publish the flash file as .exe or .app or both, then install the autorun file in the first directory you have on the cd-folders option.

Gotta go, I'll get more to you later, if you want.

Blended

 

[katiekat]

Thanks!

What we decided was that there's going to be a button in the movie that will take you to an .html "table of contents" page on the cd. I haven't tried to write it yet, anything I should know when doing this?

Spanks man! Holy tek-tips batman!

 

[blended]

I'd imagine that all you have to do is from the .exe or .app (What are you using anyway? A mac or pc?) is call up a link (make it a relative one and not absolute) which is an html link and the browser will load. It is more than likely that the computer will want to log on to the internet (this is the facts on a pc) and there is no known workaround for this.


Incidentally, this is what an auto run file looks like:


[autorun]
open=start.exe

Yes, it's only two lines. I don't know if you have to point to an .exe file or not (Also, I don't know if the same calls are used on a mac. Sorry). Also, save it as an .inf file, put it into the first directory of the cd, and boom, your loading (assuming the user has autorun turned on).

That should do it,

Blended

 

[katiekat]

Thanks for all the help Blended! You be da man! *ahem* Right, well, thanks a bunch! I think it's all happy now, I just have to get the stupid .fla file from the executive jerkys so I can fix everything and put it together! You're the best! Holy tek-tips batman!

 

[davdesign]

as a minor addition to Blendeds 'inf' information. You can also use this file to place an icon in Explorer, instead of the default 'cd' icon for cd-rom drives. Just add the line:

icon="youricon.ico"

Make sure that the icon is in the same place as your inf. You can also 'borrow' the icon from an application:

icon="yourexe.exe"

This works for all drives on your computer (c:/, d:/ etc) as long as the inf and ico/exe files are in the root directory of the drives. To see the effects you need to reboot after changing the inf file.

Just a wee addition anyway....

dD davdesign@hotmail.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[blended]

Excellent note. There's been loads of hullabaloo about this one so far for the week.

Blended

 

[katiekat]

now...since you suggested it, and I think it's a great idea, I have another question.

If I wanted to make an Icon, how would I go about it? Is there a certian size/extention that it has to be?

spanks guys!
Holy tek-tips batman!

 

[davdesign]

hi

I use Microangelo to create any icons I need. You'll find downloads for this in a million and one places if you do a search.

dD davdesign@hotmail.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^