Author, Author, Author! Sony, Spruce, and Sonic Debut DVD Solutions at NAB - Sony Electronics Inc., Spruce Technologies Inc., Sonic Solutions, digital video disk, National Association of Broadcasters - Statistical Data Included

Emedia Professional, June, 1999 by Stephen F. Nathans

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 99 conference and exposition had Las Vegas abuzz with talk of electronic convergence and a dazzling array of new and ever-evolving digital audio and video production and distribution technologies. And somewhere amid the shouting, selling, and soothsaying was the onrush of DVD as a key distribution, publishing, and storage medium spanning the landscape of video and audio applications, NAB's vast broadcast belt included. Heard above the pulsing Expo din and the ever-present high-C ring of the slot machines were the oohs, ahhs, and huzzahs that greeted three key DVD authoring announcements.

The most dramatic came from Sony, which unleashed upon the world the multiseat, high-end production-to-premastering system previously reserved for use only in the company's own studios. DVD authors were also regaled with a major upgrade of Spruce's DVDMaestro System, highlighted by new Web/DVD hybrid authoring capabilities and the inclusion of Pioneer's second-generation DVD-Recordable drive, which offers 4.7GB capacity that matches DVD-5 and thus transcends its predecessor's 3.9GB mismatch, while also reducing OEM pricing and by extension the cost of the DVDMaestro package. Rounding out the trio was authoring market mainstay Sonic Solutions, which presented several new packages incorporating the new version 1.6 of Sonic's DVD Creator, the first iteration of the software to feature support for DVD-Audio.

"We don't mind being the last to market," said Sony Video Institute senior instructor Michael Pretzinger, "as long as we can offer the best product." Arguably the most ambitious DVD authoring solution ever made available for commercial sale, Sony Electronics, Inc.'s DVA-1100 DVD premastering system has actually been in use for quite some time at Sony's own production studios. The production bed for all Sony/Columbia Tri-Star DVD-Video titles, it operates at the height of the high-end as a scalable solution that can encompass up to eight workstations simultaneously engaged in various aspects of DVD content and title creation.

The single PC system, with pricing beginning at $175,000, uses Sony's DVD authoring software and includes the company's DVA-V1100 video encoder, offering fixed (singlepass) and variable (double-pass) bitrate encoding, automatic scene change detection, closed-caption support, multireel encoding, reverse 3:2 pull-down encoding, preview and review functions, SDI/analog inputs, multi-angle encoding, and VTR remote control support; a Dolby AC-3 encoder or Philips MPEG Audio encoder, attached via Sony's own DVA-A1100 audio interface for onboard LPCM encoding and decoding and supporting up to eight simultaneous audio streams; Sony's DVA-P1100 DVD subpicture encoder/ decoder boards for real-time subtitle and menu encoding and positioning, and supporting up to 32 subtitle streams; a nine-pin DVD authoring interface board; Sony's emulation and emulation control units; and one Pentium II or III NT workstation. The system also includes Sony monitors and a SCSI hard disk array for storing media assets and in-progress authoring project elements.

Scaled for up to eight authoring seats, the system incorporates discreet workstations for video and audio encoding, multiplexing, emulation, and streaming, all connected to a central hard drive array. The final seat is used for the Authoring System Supervisor. The Supervisor application manages the entire authoring process, guiding the operator through all phases of setting parameters for video, audio, and subtitle encoding and menu authoring. Entries are verified throughout the process to minimize potential errors in title creation. Active windows in the Supervisor application include Main Title Project Index, Title Registration, and Menu Background.

At the video encoding station, enhanced controls enable customization and fine-tuning; a file export function allows video elements to be exported to other authoring systems. Similar windows for menu, button, and color encoding and editing allow comparable levels of customization and control. Data is ultimately output to Sony's DLT drive for delivery to a mastering facility. While DVD-R is supported, Sony has no plans to integrate Pioneer's DVD-Recorder or the Sony DVDRecordable system, which is in limited distribution overseas. Sony will not release the recorder, Pretzinger said, until universal compatibility with DVD-Video and ROM drives can be ensured, and that the dual-layer titles (DVD-9), increasingly common in today's market, can be written to DVD-R media.

Titles created with the DVA-1100 system, Pretzinger added, are "platform-agnostic," which means developers can author with confidence, knowing that titles produced with the system will run on Windows systems with or without Windows 98's DirectShow.

DVDMaestro 2.0, the new version Spruce Technologies' popular DVD authoring system debuted at NAB 99, offers several key new features, most notably Web hybrid authoring support. The Windows NT-based solution also enables users to import Adobe Photoshop files for use in DVD menu screen creation. DVDMaestro identifies the multiple layers that comprise a PhotoShop file, then automatically turns those layers into DVD-compliant menu components in the DVDMaestro interface. DVDMaestro 2.0 also supports creating presentation-style DVD-Video and ROM titles. Designed for use in kiosk and sales and marketing applications, the Maestro titles can run automatically based on time or driven by end-user input such as set-top remote control units or PC keystrokes or mouse-clicks. Also new in version 2.0 are enhancements to Maestro's encoding, segment-based re-encoding, and two-pass variable bit-rate encoding. Version 2.0 also enables users to perform basic editing functions directly on the interface's non-linear editing-style timeline, which means they can implement decisions such as trimming the tops and tails of chapters on-the-fly.