Since you're on windows, I thought of a simple fix for your problem...
Find a compsci major at your school to help you with this.
What I'm thinking is: have them write a small program that converts your
joystick input (i.e. individual joystick buttons) to keyboard input... as
in, have it respond to your pressing of a joystick button the same way it
would respond to a key being pressed on your keyboard. If this is possible,
you could have a button on your joystick "wrapped" to your "right"
directional key on your keyboard, to change to the next chapter on the DVD
(for example). Run this small simple program, then run your DVD player on
your computer. Assign the controls on your joystick (via this small program
you/your friend made) to the keyboard buttons that control your DVD player.
I'm not a programmer at all, so I'm not sure it'd work like this, but it
seems like something simple enough that you or a friend could make it, and
even present it in class for extra credit :-D
-Ian