Authoring Q&As

What is authoring?

DVD authoring is the process of combining video, audio, and still images to create a finished DVD. This finished product contains interactive menus that link the user to content in a logical and flexible way.

What steps are involved in authoring?

1. Encoding of video: Conversion of video
   

   The first step is encoding, in which the video content is converted to MPEG-2 format. The process determines the quality of the finished DVD.

2. Design: Creation of interactivity and menus
   

   The design of a DVD project is the longest step in the authoring process and involves importing the project into a computer program and building the DVD layout and functionality. The initial DVD interface typically contains an FBI warning, followed by the main navigation menu. Often, menu screens provide the option to play the entire movie or to jump to various chapter points within the movie. There also might be global options that need to be established, such as screen format (standard or widescreen), audio preferences (Dolby or DTS surround sound, for example, or just plain stereo) and the language preference. The underlying reality is that in order for these choices to function, the disc's author has to make a series of decisions as to what features are appropriate for the viewer. In order for the DVD to function, the designer must link things together and determine the nonlinear layout prior to authoring the DVD.

3. Mastering: Testing and delivery of final DVD
   

   DVD mastering, a digital optimization process, is the final step of the authoring process and prepares a DVD for replication. Depending on the source material and services requested, a wide range of processes might be involved. It frequently includes a mixdown of the audio, enhancing the sound quality by running the tracks through a mastering studio where they are balanced and equalized, resulting in a technically superior, completely optimized digital master. Before beginning the replication process, all masters should be completely tested to ensure there are no errors. Most replication facilities prefer DLT masters to disc masters.

How does chapter selection work?

When authoring a film, the filmmaker should break the final cut into chapters, denoted by invisible markers in the final video. These markers indicate breaks in the film that will enable skipping forward or back in sections. Numbered in order and often given a related or useful title, chapters allow viewers to identify where particular scenes are by just looking at the menu. It is important to make chapters break so the film can be viewed in this non-linear way, which is now the standard for DVDs.

What is the difference between PAL and NTSC?

PAL refers to a 625-line/50 Hz (principally European) television system, and to differentiate from a 525-line/60 Hz (principally USA/Japan) "NTSC" system. PAL players can usually play NTSC DVDs.

Used in Korea, Japan, United States, Canada and certain other places, the NTSC format consists of 29.97 interlaced frames of video per second. It is of poorer quality than PAL and, for this reason, NTSC players are unable to read PAL discs. If you can only create one version of your DVD, the NTSC format is more versatile.

Laptops can play both but televisions and monitors are specific to each format. The only way to have both formats on one disc is to do use a DVD-10 and the disc will have to be flipped from side to side in the player to alternate like two sides of a record.