back to home
Mary's DVD - FAQ & Tech Details
Mary Gardner's Adventures in Local Ecology
Byron Bay 2007-2009
The DVD has been constructed using both Mac and PC technologies to provide an integrated digital video production in conjunction with website-like access of the stories and other features on the DVD. These 2 separate sections of the DVD are accessable from the DVD's main menu when viewed via a DVD player on a computer - PC or Mac. When viewed on a DVD/TV combo, only the video is available for playing.
When played on a Mac, the Mac DVD Player should be version 2.4 or greater and should have the DVD@ccess option turned ON in the player preferences.
When played in a PC/Windows situation, it is necessary to install a small program from the DVD to enable the PC's DVD player to process the links on the DVD. The instructions to do this are on the DVD, and are -
Known Issues.
Computer technology is full of surprises and often provides little mysteries not readily solved. A few issues reared their heads and are being investigated. They do not, however, degrade from the performance or operation of the DVD.
Note 1 - To improve the operational performance of the stories and other features of the DVD, you can copy the "MaryGardnerStories" folder to your hard drive (approx 550Mb). Then, open "index.htm" in that folder to display the Welcome page. If you know how, set a shortcut to that file to your desktop and use the icon image provided in that folder to represent it - too easy!
NB - This procedure also removes the problems in 1 and 2 above.
When played on a Mac, the Mac DVD Player should be version 2.4 or greater and should have the DVD@ccess option turned ON in the player preferences.
When played in a PC/Windows situation, it is necessary to install a small program from the DVD to enable the PC's DVD player to process the links on the DVD. The instructions to do this are on the DVD, and are -
- Use Windows Explorer to locate the DVD@CCESS folder on the DVD
- Run the DVDccess.exe program in that folder to enable the DVD links (you will need to reboot the PC after this).
- Restart the DVD, then take the link to The Stories & Other Features from the DVD.
Computer technology is full of surprises and often provides little mysteries not readily solved. A few issues reared their heads and are being investigated. They do not, however, degrade from the performance or operation of the DVD.
- DivX Slideshow - This may or may not play from the DVD, depending on what computer you are using. Does not appear to be a problem with Windows but could be on a Mac. Refer to Note 1 below for work-around.
- About Byron Flash slideshow - a small Flash slideshow on the About Byron page has similar problems to above - same work-around.
- DVD@ccess from a PC - Once the DVD@ccess software is installed, access is available from a PC to the stories and other features via the link on the DVD Main Menu. When selecting this link, on some occasions more than 1 page may be opened at the same time. If this occurs, clode down the unwanted pages. This does not appear to be a problem on a Mac.
Note 1 - To improve the operational performance of the stories and other features of the DVD, you can copy the "MaryGardnerStories" folder to your hard drive (approx 550Mb). Then, open "index.htm" in that folder to display the Welcome page. If you know how, set a shortcut to that file to your desktop and use the icon image provided in that folder to represent it - too easy!
NB - This procedure also removes the problems in 1 and 2 above.