A DVD system includes a graphic user interface which is constructed during information playback from commands and attributes extracted from the DVD data stream. The extracted commands are presented to an intelligent DVD browser engine which gathers information about the shape and location of a user menu from the navigation data in the DVD data stream and other sources. The browser engine operates with a database containing sets of predefined images which depict controls, buttons and other graphic images that form part of the user menu. The browser engine uses the command information to construct a query in the database. The query is applied to the database to extract a set of images which form the complete user menu. The extracted images are then used to display the menu on a visual display along with the multimedia information. The images are updated as new commands and attributes are received.