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A brief intro on how to make your own MicroDVD On this a brieflt explain how to create a basic MicroDVD yourself. Meaning: a MicroDVD with subtitles and autorun, suitable for example for use with a DivX movie. Getting subtitles can be done by either "Ripping subtitles from a DVD" or by looking at some of the subtitles-collection pages on the Internet. Note: Unfortunally MicroDVD is announced to become a commercial product :(. Note: The explanation below is DivX based! Note: Do NOT forget to read the disclaimer! TIP! In the meanwhile there are two - even better - alternatives: - VobSub, my favorite (official site or download it from WeetHet) - DivX G400, originally designed for use with Matrox videocards (official site or download here).

Before we can start creating a MicroDVD, we need to rip a movie and it's subtitles:

1. Rip a DVD and convert it to a DivX.
2. Rip the subtitles you want to use from the VOB files.

Next we create a directory structure. This we will use for the structure of the CD we are about to create.
The structure presented here is a suggestion. If you wish you can use a different strcucture, however I like this one.

Suggested directory structure:

Directory's

Next step is to copy the appropriate files to the directory structure we created.
The DivX movie can be called anything you like, for example "Lake Placid.AVI" or to make it a bit more cool "Lake Placid.DivX" and copy it to the VIDEO directory. The name used, should match the name mentioned in the INI and MVD file we are going to create later on!

I usually copy the 3 subtitle formats, SRT (native SubRip format), SUB (MicroDVD format) and the SUB (SubViewer format) files, to the SUBTITLES directory.

Optional Directory's

I also, always, scan the cover of my DVD and copy the scanned image (in any fileformat you prefer) to the COVER directory.

To make the CD's more accessable for users that do not have the DivX codec, I copy the DivX codec setup file to the DIVXCODEC directory.

I also, for the same purpose, copy the MicroDVD playback software to the CD in the MICRODVD directory.

Files

The two files, MDVD.INI and MicroDVD.MVD, are identical.
Open Notepad or any other text editor and create a text file with a text similar to this example:

[Micro DVD Ini File]

[MAIN]
Title=Lake Placid
ID=LAKEPLACID

[MOVIE]
Directory=VIDEO
AVIName=LakePlacid.DivX

[SUBTITLES]
Directory=SUBTITLES
1=DUT Nederlands
File=LakePlacid.SUB
Format=0
Lines=2

Change all appearances of "LakePlacid" for the movie you're copying. Don't forget that the filenames should match the files you want to use (as mentioned before)!
Once you have completed the text, you can save the file as "MDVD.INI".
Save it once more as "MicroDVD.MVD".

For more details on the format of the INI/MVD I can refer you to the documentation that comes with the MicroDVD zip file. Additional features involve multiple audio languages, multiple subtitles, menu-structures, etc.

We can now test the MicroDVD by double clicking the MVD file.
If you haven't double clicked a MVD before, then Windows will ask you which program to use to open this filetype. Choose "Other..." and select MICRODVD.EXE which can be found in the directory of MicroDVD.
As soon as the movie starts, make MicroDVD go to FullScreen mode. next click on the subtitle button and select the desired language for susbtitles.

Note: If MicroDVD is NOT running in FullScreen mode, subtitles will not be displayed (future version will display subtitles).

Note: if the path of the directory structure we just created contains a space: MicroDVD will generate errors!

Finally you can use a CD-writer program (Nero is my favorite) to write the structure you have just created to a CD-recordable or a CD-rewriteable.