It seems like a great match--combining the local storage and full-quality video playback of DVDs with the interactivity and timeliness of Web-connected computers. Many Hollywood DVDs use the InterActual Player (http://player.interactual.com) to deliver these kinds of bonus experiences, such as interactive screenplays, video-enhanced games, and exclusive online sites and events.

Sonic's acquisition of InterActual in early 2004 promised to make this kind of capability more widely available for both DVD authors and end users. For example, Sonic has since licensed the playback technology for use in the CyberLink PowerDVD and InterVideo WinDVD consumer players (www.gocyberlink.com; www.intervideo.com), so the InterActual Player is no longer required to view enhanced discs.

Sonic introduced eDVD 3 in September 2004 (see Reviews, Jan. '05 DV) for corporate and independent authors to add external links to discs. It provided a taste of the possibilities for building enhanced DVDs, but was limited to displaying links only to external Web pages and local images or PDF files. Originally priced $599, then lowered to $199, eDVD 3 also required additional licensing fees for wide distribution.

The new release of eDVD 4 (www.sonic.com/products/Professional/eDVD) fulfills Sonic's initial promise, as a $199.99 tool that can enhance DVDs with arbitrary links--to both external Web pages and to any type of file stored on the disc. You can augment DVD productions by displaying on-disc Word, Excel, PDF, and other files in their native applications; display and play image, video, audio, and Flash clips; and even launch executables. Sonic eDVD 4 also provides extensive customization, including player skins and formatting of the displayed windows. Plus, it now includes an unlimited distribution license.

The main eDVD screen lists all titles and chapters found on the disc, showing options for setting the link type, window format, and DVD playback actions.

The workflow with eDVD is straightforward. First, design your DVD as usual in any authoring tool, building the final production as a VIDEO_TS folder. Then use eDVD to associate links with chapter points in the production. When you're finished, eDVD builds the project to create the data files to be added to the ROM portion of the disc.

Finally, you can use your DVD Video burning tool to burn the final disc, combining the original VIDEO_TS folder and the eDVD build data (or burn with Sonic RecordNow 7.3, included with the product). Although you must build the project with eDVD under Windows XP, the resulting disc plays back on both Windows (98 and later) and Macintosh OS X (10.3).

To start the process of enhancing a disc, eDVD displays a New Project Wizard to define the basic characteristics of the project: the project directory, associated VIDEO_TS folder, plus the player window size and skin design. These settings also can be changed in the Project Settings dialog.

The eDVD Project Settings dialog box sets up preferences, determines player size, and allows for different player skins and installer graphics.

You can customize the installation by creating a background graphic image for the installer, and you can design a custom skin for the InterActual Player using Sonic's $49 Skin Builder Pack, using Photoshop to design the graphics elements and XML to assemble them.

The main eDVD window displays a list of all of the titles and associated chapter points found on the DVD. You then associate links with chapters and define how they are displayed. As you enter links, use the Check Link button at the end of each row to preview the link content and display format. To finish, click Build on the toolbar to build the eDVD project files and then click Simulate to preview the resulting enhanced disc directly within eDVD.

The first Link Type menu specifies one of four basic types: Launch URL for online Web links, Open HTML for on-disc Web pages, Open file for linking to any on-disc files and folders (displayed in the associated registered application for that type), or Launch Executable for on-disc applications, with the option to specify both Windows and Macintosh executables.

When linking to a cross-platform folder or Macintosh program, you must burn the final DVD on a Mac with a tool such as Roxio Toast in order to preserve resource forks for Mac files.

For each link, the Link Target menu specifies whether the link is displayed in a new window, replaces the video playback in the main window, or is displayed in a second popup window (replacing enhanced content that is already being displayed). The DVD Action menu specifies what happens to the video playback when the link is displayed: continue play, pause on the current frame, or stop with a Resume Playback message.

The Configure Link dialog box then offers options to customize the display of most link types: the Window Attributes (controls, size), Location on screen, and Behaviors (auto-close the window when video resumes, and delay before displaying after the chapter point). While resizing, positioning, and time delay of enhanced pop-up windows is supported across platforms, browser settings and auto-close aren't available when playing on the Macintosh.

Links can be placed at chapter points within movie titles, or at the beginning of slide show titles, and the chapters must be at least three seconds long. Links can also be launched from menus by having the menu buttons link to a chapter point in the title space. Sonic provides sample bumpers and slates to display on nonenhanced players.

The eDVD application itself is simple and straightforward, if a bit clunky and sluggish (it's a Flash application). Sonic offers a free 10-day, 10-run trial download. Some small inconsistencies in the initial release are due to be fixed in a point release in July 2005, followed by a later upgrade to fix the irritating habit of rebuilding projects each time they are opened.

The start-up process is designed to be as seamless as possible when users are playing back discs. Under Windows, the AutoRun file runs the InterActual Launcher, which displays a simple dialog confirming it's installing the InterActual Player, if needed-with no separate installer windows or reboot required. The user can then play the DVD, with or without the enhanced features. On the Mac, the InterActual Player must be installed and run manually.

This is what end users see when they insert a DVD enhanced by eDVD.

However, the InterActual Player depends on an external decoder to display the video (like PowerDVD or WinDVD), and on the good graces of the Windows configuration for its smooth operation. For example, I saw unexplained installation warnings (not repeated), and the Simulate mode in eDVD displayed only a black screen on my test machine unless I ran PowerDVD first (apparently to reregister it as the preferred decoder among all of the others installed).

The new eDVD version 4 opens up the full range of linking to content from DVD Video productions, allowing producers to enhance productions with both additional local material such as high-res images and PDF specifications, and also reach out to external Web sites for updated information such as recent news and pricing.

Interactivity can be created with eDVD using the Open HTML command if the author knows the InterActual API, but eDVD doesn't directly support dynamically coordinating video and interactive playback, as with Macromedia Director MX (www.macromedia.com/director). However, these kinds of features are available using JavaScript coding to the underlying InterActual API, which will be accessible through a WebDVD add-on pack that Sonic plans to release later this year. But if your main focus for playback is the DVD production, eDVD 4 provides a quick, easy way to enhance your work with links to associated material.