Hidden Extras on Your DVD Movies

Like to try your hand at reworking a scene from Shrek or an Austin Powers movie using your own voice? Or how about remixing a Motown song track the way you want to hear it? With some of the DVD movies on our list, you can be your own director.

Given the incredible popularity of DVD movies, it's surprising that many viewers have yet to discover the rich bounty of features that can only be accessed on your PC. Run selected DVDs on your PC and you may find games, movie-theme calendars, posters, greeting cards, exclusive Web links, and unique features that let you create your own versions of movie scenes or new mixes of music tracks.

How can you tell if a particular DVD movie has DVD-ROM content? Often, the liner notes on the back of the disc package will tell you--and they'll indicate the type of material. In many cases you will see an InterActual Player or a PCFriendly icon on the package (more on this below). If you're buying a DVD movie on the Web, scroll through the product description or release notes to see if it offers DVD-ROM extras. Amazon.com, for example, includes DVD-ROM features in its product descriptions.

Most of this extra content is viewed using software known as an interactive viewer or player, also included on the disc. InterActual Player 2.0 is usually installed automatically when you insert a DVD with extra material into your DVD-ROM drive. All the DVD movies we looked at, except Ice Age, used this player. (On discs released before fall 2002, InterActual's player was called PCFriendly. You can uninstall PCFriendly and use the new player for older discs, as well.)