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By Jon Leland
In one of those deceptively “simple twists”
of technological “fate,” DVD has, it seems to
me, suddenly become a key component of almost every video
post-production system. Driven by the explosive growth of
the DVD player platform—as TV set-top boxes and within
PC’s—as well as by the emergence of new low-cost
DVD recorders, DVD has now become not only the premiere
interactive video delivery platform, but it has also become
a new kind of video mastering medium as well. As a result,
there is also new software on the way to make the interactive
DVD authoring process easier than ever and there are new
DVD (and VHS) video duplication and distribution opportunities
being offered as well.
While hardly a comprehensive overview, this article will
feature Adobe’s brand new, just announced DVD authoring
software and the time and money saving CustomFlix duplication
and distribution system. Along the way, in addition to my
own views, I will offer insights and perspectives from DVD
software execs and a DVD book author, as well as additional
resources. All of this is designed to help video professionals
to use, or perhaps get started, with the DVD medium more
effectively.
Explosive Growth
Amidst all of the “noise” about the Internet and
other digital video “revolutions,” and despite
the slackening economy—in only six years, DVD has become
the fastest growing consumer electronics product ever. Just
as a couple of points of reference, and in case you were distracted
by other news, Christmas 2002 was a milestone where DVD titles
outsold VHS titles for the first time; and despite the soft
economy, DVD sales and rentals grew from $6.8 billion in 2001
to $11.6 billion in 2002.
On the desktop NLE post production front, I got an even
clearer indication of the explosive growth of DVD among
video producers when Adobe’s
Senior Director of Digital Video, Dave Trescott came to
my office to demo the soon-to-be-released Adobe Encore DVD
authoring software. Trescott explained that one of the reasons
that Adobe is joining what I might call the “DVD software
dance” is because their research tells them that 50%
of Adobe Premiere customers will
buy a DVD-R this year. That’s serious stuff.
“Tape is Dead”
And, while I found Mr. Trescott’s provocative proclamation
that “tape is dead” to be a bit over the top,
one of the other real world dynamics that captured my interest
was the discovery that the CustomFlix duplication and distribution
system is designed and built to take advantage to the increasingly
widespread trend toward digital studio DVD mastering.
You can still use the CustomFlix
service if you master to tape (like in the “old days”),
but it will cost you more because you will need to create
(or have CustomFlix create for you) a DVD master. (More
about the reasons you might want to do this later.)
Up until very recently, DVD duplicators or replicators
were requiring DLT (digital linear tape) masters. According
to Darren Giles, CustomFlix’s Chief Technology Officer,
“In the last year, (mastering a DVD for duplication
on anything other than DLT) has gone from unheard of, to
a world where a majority of duplicators will accept DVD-R
as a mastering format.”
So, tape may not be dead, but as a mastering medium for independent
productions, especially those that are created with one-person
run project studios, tape for mastering can certainly be considered
an ”endangered species.” Once again, the cost
of owning your own post suite has come down significantly,
especially if you acquire your footage on a DV format. In
this case, you no longer need a Betacam deck (or something
comparable) for mastering—in many cases, a $350 (or
less) DVD-R drive will suffice.
A New Learning Curve
At the same time, video shops that want to get into DVD
authoring are facing a new learning curve because DVD is
a new technology with its own production process. Producers
have a classic choice that CustomFlix’s Giles summarized
as, “You can have someone else do it for you, or do
it yourself” (and address the learning curve). But,
most importantly, he said, “Don’t take the process
for granted.”
As I learned during Adobe’s Trescott’s tour
of Encore DVD’s authoring
configuration, DVD has significant constraints, or as Giles
also said, “just because it’s on DVD, doesn’t
make it ‘awesome.’”
I also spoke with Douglas Dixon, author of the very well
thought out book “Desktop
DVD Authoring” (New Riders). Dixon provided an
orientation to the DVD platform with these words, “Think
of it as video tape with good navigation. If you think of
it as a Web page with good video, you’ll be disappointed.”
While DVD video obviously far surpasses the Web in terms
of video quality, I was surprised to find out, for example,
that because of “constraints” in the DVD specification,
interactive button highlight graphics can only have a color
depth of one-bit!
When you are considering what software to use for DVD authoring,
Dixon offered this perspective, “The more sophisticated
the authoring tool, the more trouble you can get into.”
Enter Adobe
Bottom line, I was way more impressed with my sneak preview
of Adobe’s new DVD authoring tool, Encore DVD, than
I expected to be. Not that I expected it to be a weak product;
but I was surprised to see a significant number of features
that leverage Adobe’s expertise so effectively—especially
in terms of integration with Photoshop—that I think
Encore DVD will deserve serious
consideration when it is released “this summer”
at an estimated price of $549.
To me, one interesting dimension of this product introduction
is the fact that Encore DVD is a Windows-only product. Yes,
95% of Premiere users are on the PC platform; but, I believe,
equally influential is Apple’s strategies especially
in the DVD market which make it more difficult for third
party developers to integrate video applications on their
platform. (In the interest of full disclosure, I want you
to know that I am a Mac user who is thrilled with OS X and
some of Apple’s other applications.)
I don’t have space to go into much detail here, but
essentially, with regard to DVD mastering, Apple has built
a relatively closed system. For example, one of the disappointments
that I ran into while researching this article was when
I inquired about a new Sony DVD-R drive that I wanted to
evaluate. This particular piece of hardware, among others
is not available to Mac users because there’s no compatible
software on the Mac that works with this drive.
As the author Doug Dixon described it, “Like everything
else on the Apple platform, the good news is that they control
everything. So, if they happen to offer exactly what you
want, you’re in great shape… (On the other hand),
the trouble with the PC platform is that there are too many
choices.”
In this case, as a Mac user, I felt disappointed that Adobe
Encore DVD will not be available on the Mac. I’ve
looked at Apple’s professional authoring software
DVD Studio Pro and it’s an excellent product with
sophisticated features and capabilities, but not only are
the number of drives that it works with limited, I was excited
by some of the features that Adobe showed me with its new
product—features that will help video professionals
to be more creative and to work with more flexibility when
authoring DVD programs.
Leveraging Photoshop
One clear differentiator between Adobe Encore DVD and most
other DVD authoring software is that when you use Photoshop
or another application to create interactive menu graphics
for your DVD program, you have to flatten the files (eliminating
the flexibility provided by Layers) when you import the graphics
into your DVD authoring program.
Encore DVD, on the other hand, provides the full functionality
of Photoshop layers within the program, so that if you want
to move a button’s position relative to its background
while you are designing your DVD program, you can do that.
In other DVD software, you would be sent back to Photoshop
to make changes and then would need to go through the whole
import process all over again. Encore DVD is even going
so far as to read simple programming symbols that can be
added to the beginning of a Photoshop Layer’s name
in order to identify its function on the DVD. For example,
placing a plus symbol (“+”) at the front of
a Layer identifies that graphic component as a button highlight;
thus saving a whole step of programming when the graphic
is imported into Encore DVD.
I was also impressed with the fact that Encore DVD does
MPEG compression as necessary AFTER the authoring process
is complete so that you can work with, for example, DV format
footage right within the program. That’s a clear workflow
enhancement. Encore DVD also has a very familiar looking
timeline where you can make chapter marks, and I came to
understand after talking to Doug Dixon that authoring chapter
marks in your NLE software, while often hyped by Apple and
others, is “not necessarily the best idea.”
When you are doing professional DVD program production,
chapter marks are frequently best programmed directly within
your DVD authoring software.
Doug Dixon summarized the impact of Adobe’s new DVD
software this way, “DVD has historically been a‘write-only
process’ where making changes is painful. (Encore
DVD) will make this process less painful.”
On-Demand Duplication
An interesting new way to make the duplication and distribution
of DVD titles less painful (by decreasing the upfront investment,
among other things) is
CustomFlix. By working with your DVD-R master, CustomFlix
is especially attractive for those who would prefer not to
make a commitment to 1,000 units (or some other volume order)
from a duplicator.
CustomFlix has developed a unique proposition by innovating
an on-demand duplication process that includes both DVD
disks and VHS tapes as well as all the necessary packaging,
all with no minimum order. For just a $49 set up fee, in
addition to a duplication platform for your program, you
get a credit card-taking online store that is customized
with your own digital graphics and a streaming video sample
of your program, as well as an option to get your title
listed with Amazon.com among other e-commerce web sites.
As a small, independent producer myself, I wish CustomFlix
had been around when I was selling my own programs because
they also include fulfillment services. You pay about $10
per unit and set your own price price. Then, they duplicate
DVD disks and VHS copies as needed including reproduction
of the packaging from your digital files, and they put the
packages together and ship them to your customers, including
internationally. I think CustomFlix is a duplication and
distribution service that every independent producer—whether
corporate, independent film, educational, weddings or whatever—should
know about.
A Medium with Momentum
Needless to say, this medium will be continuing to evolve
rapidly. For example, Sonic Solutions
is now offering “plant direct” technology that
allows you to transmit your disk image to the duplication
plant directly—without even the need for a disk master.
Depending on the depth with which you want to approach
DVD authoring, there’s lots to learn. I also spoke
with Rolf Hartley, General Manager of the Professional Products
divison at Sonic Solutions because it became clear to me
that Sonic is a leading vendor, on both the Mac and the
PC platform, when you are considering DVD authoring software.
In fact, Sonic’s DVD “engine” has been
licensed by Adobe for Encore DVD; and Sonic claims about
80% of Hollywood’s DVD titles use its engine. (A DVD
authoring program’s engine “multiplexes”
the individual assets together, including graphics and interactive
programming commands as well as the MPEG video streams so
that they become one large program.)
CustomFlix also uses the Sonic engine when it creates professional
quality DVD masters from tape because the DVD engine is
a significant contributor to the compatibility of DVD-R
disks. And because everyone wonders, with good reason, about
the compatibility of different DVD players with DVD-R disks;
CustomFlix has published a chart:which is available online
at: http://www.customflix.com/Customer/Compatibility.jsp
If you want to learn more about the ins and outs of DVD,
in addition to Douglas Dixon’s “Desktop DVD
Authoring” mentioned above, Sonic’s Hartley
highly recommended Jim Taylor’s “DVD
Demystified,” which is in its second edition (McGraw-Hill
Professional) and that book’s Web site offers a comprehensive
FAQ (answers to Frequently Asked Questions) about DVD: http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
Doug Dixon also has several valuable articles on his web
site, http://www.manifest-tech.com
including a comprehensive listing of DVD authoring software
options with illustrative screen shots at: http://www.manifest-tech.com/links/dvd_sw_gallery_full.htm
Good luck, and stay tuned.
Jon Leland is the publisher of MediaMall.com. His professional
bio is here.
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