DVDMax, other use than Video

[danbe]

Just wondering if anyone here has written (or seen) any application which utilizes the DVDMax feature to display other things than video?

I'm building a home theatre system, which I also plan to use for handling my mp3 collection etc. Since you get much much better image quality on the tv using DVDMax than Clone Mode, it'd be nice to use the DVDMax feature for, for instance, scrolling though mp3 playlists, etc.

Have looked (very briefly) into DirectX programming, to create the overlay surface which DVDMax detects. Being quite a novice in DirectX (experienced programmer otherwise though, VB being my main prog. language), I was hoping that perhaps any of you had done this previously... Any pointers/examples would be very welcome...

[Drizzt]

danbe, if you know well VB then it should be not that much a problem. Just d'load the DX SDK and it's full of sample for VB.

Oh, and there is the full DX object model for VB included.

[drslump]

IIRC Ulead MediaStudio 7 builds a preview on the fly which uses an overlay.

You can check the XVID directshow filter source code to see how they create the overlay.
Many directshow subtitle renderers can draw on top of an overlay. So they could be a good place to start looking at.

if you make any progress, please contact me. I'm busy at the moment but I'll love to know how to implement it.

ciao, ivan