DVD authoring is the process of creating a
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
video capable of playing on a
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to wa ...
. DVD authoring
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
must conform to the
specifications
A specification often refers to a set of documented requirements to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service. A specification is often a type of technical standard.
There are different types of technical or engineering specificati ...
set by the
DVD Forum
The DVD Forum is an international organization composed of hardware, software, media and production companies that use and develop the DVD and formerly HD DVD formats. It was initially known as the DVD Consortium when it was founded in 1995.
H ...
.
DVD authoring is the second step in the process of producing finished DVDs. The first step is the creation of the movie (or programme) and the second, the authoring, is the creation of artwork, user menus, insertion of chapter points, overdubs/commentaries, setting autoplay and/or repeat options, etc. The final step is the manufacturing (replication) process to mass-produce finished DVDs.
Strictly speaking, DVD authoring differs from the process of
MPEG encoding, but most DVD authoring software has a built-in encoder, although separate encoders are still used when better quality or finer control over compression settings are required.
Most DVD-authoring applications focus exclusively on video DVDs and do not support the authoring of
DVD-Audio
DVD-Audio (commonly abbreviated as DVD-A) is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio uses most of the storage on the disc for high-quality audio and is not intended to be a video delivery format.
The sta ...
discs.
Stand-alone
DVD recorder
A DVD recorder is an optical disc recorder that uses optical disc recording technologies to digitally record analog or digital signals onto blank writable DVD media. Such devices are available as either installable drives for computers or a ...
units generally have basic authoring functions, though the creator of the DVD has little or no control over the layout of the DVD menus, which generally differ between models and brands.
The DVD specification
To develop a DVD application (software or hardware), one must first license the particular book of DVD specifications from DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation. The different DVD formats have different books. Each book contains hundreds of pages and costs approximately $5000. After obtaining this license, the developer must become a licensee, which requires an additional fee. Without becoming a licensee, the book can be used only for reference, not for actual creation of DVD applications.
The DVD specifications were written in Japanese and then translated to other languages such as English. This process has resulted in text that can be difficult to interpret, and to this day, many companies interpret various parts of the specifications in different ways. This is the primary reason DVD players from different manufacturers do not always behave identically.
Applications
Many different DVD authoring applications have been created. Many high-end authoring applications evolve in-house in companies such as
Matsushita,
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
, and
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
. Such companies strictly forbid the sale of their systems outside each company: internal and DVD laboratories or movie studio partners use them to produce DVDs for customers.
Daikin
is a Japanese multinational air conditioning manufacturing company headquartered in Osaka. It has operations in Japan, China, Australia, the United States, India, Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.
Daikin is th ...
, a large Japanese air conditioning and refrigeration contracting company, developed
Scenarist
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
T ...
, a high-end DVD authoring software package. Daikin has partnered with
Sonic Solutions
Sonic Solutions was an American computer software company headquartered in Novato, California. In addition to having a number of offices in the U.S., the company also maintained offices in Europe and Asia. It was acquired by Rovi Corporation in 201 ...
for development and marketing in the United States. The software was translated to English and has since become the standard for DVD production in Hollywood. Like the other high-end and very expensive systems, it conforms to the DVD specifications more closely than other software. In 2001,
Sonic Solutions
Sonic Solutions was an American computer software company headquartered in Novato, California. In addition to having a number of offices in the U.S., the company also maintained offices in Europe and Asia. It was acquired by Rovi Corporation in 201 ...
acquired the DVD authoring business, including ReelDVD and Scenarist, from Daikin and now sells Scenarist.
Sonic, a United States corporation, has a major share in the market for selling DVD-authoring tools. They previously manufactured computer based audio recording applications, but realized that at some point DVD recorders would become as widely available as CD recorders and that there was no affordable application for the home market or that DVD recorder makers could license as an
OEM
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
. At that time, all DVD authoring applications cost many thousands of dollars.
Sonic developed DVDit, an application that started selling below $500.
It used only a small part of the whole DVD specification and presented it in a form that didn't require any knowledge of internal DVD structure. Later, this form became the building block of many other simplified consumer DVD applications. OEM licensing allowed Sonic to very soon become a major player. Sonic is now part of Rovi Corporation.
See also
*
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs. DVD-Video was the dominant consumer home video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia in the 2000s until it was supplanted by the high-definition Blu-r ...
*
List of DVD authoring applications The following applications can be used to create playable DVDs.
Free software
Free software implementations often lack features such as encryption and region coding due to licensing restrictions issues, and depending on the demands of the DVD produ ...
*
Optical disc authoring
Optical disc authoring, including DVD and Blu-ray Disc authoring, is the process of assembling source material—video, audio or other data—into the proper logical volume format to then be recorded ("burned") onto an optical disc (typ ...
References
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DVD