DVD Commands

[The feature associated with this page, DirectShow, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by MediaPlayer, IMFMediaEngine, and Audio/Video Capture in Media Foundation. Those features have been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use MediaPlayer, IMFMediaEngine and Audio/Video Capture in Media Foundation instead of DirectShow, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

The DVD navigation and playback commands are defined in a section of the DVD specification named Annex J, which is why the DirectShow documentation often refers to "Annex J commands." The names given in Annex J are not always very intuitive, however, so DirectShow uses names that may be easier to understand.

The following table lists the Annex J commands and their DirectShow equivalents.

Annex J command Description IDvdControl2 method
Title_Play Play a title. PlayTitle
PTT_Play Play a chapter in a title. PlayChapterInTitle
Time_Play Play a title starting from a specified time. PlayAtTimeInTitle
Stop Stop playback. Stop
GoUp Return from a submenu to the parent menu. ReturnFromSubmenu
Time_Search Play at a specified time within the current title. PlayAtTime
PTT_Search Play a chapter within the current title. PlayChapter
PrevPG_Search Go to the start of the previous chapter and resume playback. PlayPrevChapter
TopPG_Search Go to the start of the current chapter and resume playback. ReplayChapter
NextPG_Search Go to the start of the next chapter and resume playback. PlayNextChapter
Forward_Scan Play forward at a specified playback rate. The default playback rate is 1.0. PlayForwards
Backward_Scan Play backward at a specified playback rate. PlayBackwards
Menu_Call Show a menu. ShowMenu
Resume Return from a menu and resume playback. Resume
Upper_Button_Select, Lower_Button_Select, Left_Button_Select, Right_Button_Select Select a button whose position is relative to the currently selected button. SelectButton
Button_Activate Activate the selected button. ActivateButton
Button_Select_and_Activate Select and activate a button. SelectAndActivateButton
Still_Off Resume playback when displaying a still image. StillOff
Pause_On Pause playback. Pause
Pause_Off Resume playback from the paused state. Pause
Menu_Language_Select Select the language for menus. SelectDefaultMenuLanguage
Audio_Stream_Change Set the audio stream. SelectAudioStream
Sub-picture_Stream_Change Set the subpicture stream; enable or disable subpicture display. SelectSubpictureStream
Angle_Change Set the camera angle. SelectAngle
Parental_Level_Select Set the parental level. SelectParentalLevel
Parental_Country_Select Set the country/region for parental management. SelectParentalCountry
Karaoke_Audio_Presentation_Mode_Change Set the audio mixing mode for karaoke. SelectKaraokeAudioPresentationMode
Video_Presentation_Mode_Change Set the aspect ratio mode to widescreen, letterbox, or pan scan. SelectVideoModePreference

 

DVD Applications