INTERACTION

More and more clients are asking us about "Interactive DVD". But what is it? Current video DVD technology cannot achieve the same degree of interactivity that can be found with CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or e-learning via the intranet. We are about at the stage of the old Philips format CD-i (CD-interactive) which, after early promise, died about a decade ago.

Essentially a DVD player is a video display machine. Clicking on a menu button or hotspot will simply display another video clip or still image.

This menu function can be used to create an interactive video DVD with very simple multi-choice quizzes, eg “In order to do X, should you do A, B, C or D?” If B is the right answer, clicking on this will show a screen saying “Yes, well done.” Clicking on A, C or D show a screen saying “Sorry, the answer is …”

The advantages of interactive video DVD include:

Better picture quality than interactive CD-ROM

Can be viewed on any DVD player and controlled with the remote - a whole lot cheaper and simpler than a PC or laptop

Things interactive video DVD cannot yet do include:

• • Identify the user by name
• • Remember where the user got to (if they have had to break off and start again another day)
• • Generate a certificate of completion
• • Permanently store details of users’ activity
• • Send details of users via e-mail
• • Interact with a database or Learning Management System
• • Accept text input
• • Make complex calculations