Can DVD Bring the World Together?

Can DVD Bring the World Together? - Part 2

A more minimalistic design for a DVD version of the project encouraged viewers to access the high-quality, full-service video.

Working Across Platforms
Even though producers have tried to settle on standards, efforts to prescribe working methods for Web DVD developers have been unsuccessful. LaBarge was one of the leading voices in an informal industry group called DVD Haiku that tried to hash out a single, workable specification for Web DVD production. In recent months, the DVD Forum has established an ad hoc group, chaired by InterActual, to investigate advanced interactivity and Internet connectivity as part of the DVD-Video specification. "We changed [DVD Haiku's] approach to trying to influence the Forum rather than publishing an independent recommendation," LaBarge says.

The lack of standards is bad news for the consumer market, where end users may be on either Windows or Mac, or even a Unix-based operating system that's incompatible with a specific Web DVD application. But for many corporate projects, the Web DVD project can be tailored to the target platform. "The situation is actually better for the corporate world [than for consumer titles], because you're designing for a standard playback platform, a standard MIS platform or kiosk," LaBarge says. "You're not terribly concerned about the compatibility of your title across all the players-you have to make it work for that specific platform and nothing else."

Better to CD or to DVD?
In some cases, producers will provide a DVD version of a project for internal use, but will also design a Web-connected CD for wider distribution. Blaine Graboyes, COO and creative director of Zuma Digital in New York City, recalls a recent project the for clothing giant Guess that germinated at a record company. Graboyes was working with RCA Records' senior VP of strategic business development, Joe DiMuro, on a project demo that would combine music videos by the recording artist Tyrese, a Guess spokesperson, and Guess marketing campaigns.

Sidebar:
DVD disconnection
The Web DVD Holdup

Zuma eventually burned the Tyrese/Guess project to an 8 cm mini CD-R, which it put on the table when Graboyes lucked into a meeting with Monica Adler and Leilani Augustine of the Guess marketing department in Los Angeles. "In retrospect, the deal was done as soon as they walked in and saw that cute little disc," Graboyes says. "Monica and Leilani walked in and said, 'Oooh, what's that?' We showed them the demo and they said, 'This is your lucky day.' [Guess co-founder] Paul Marciano had just asked them to put together disc-based marketing for Guess."

That meeting took place on a Wednesday. Zuma received the official go-ahead on Thursday and sent the finished project to replication on the following Tuesday. A total of 10,000 discs were pressed before Tyrese's contract with Guess ran out earlier this year. Both CD and DVD versions were prepared, since Guess wanted the highest-quality video for internal use but nixed the idea of handing a DVD out to consumers. (The accelerated schedule was necessary because Tyrese was slated to hand out the CDs at in-store appearances.) "Basically, the idea was to show the technical capabilities of DVD versus CD and also to see about the installed base issue," says Graboyes. "Now we're only talking about DVD [in the future], but where also planning a CD-audio compilation, and we're trying to get them to Web-connect that."

As users watch videos, they can click on items of clothing, taking them to detailed information and e-commerce screens.

The main difference between the two versions of the project is video quality. The CD has 320 x 240 QuickTime video playing in a window; the DVD offers full-screen video. Users watching the DVD version can click on an article of clothing while the video stream is playing to link to a product information screen with more details and an "order" button. Clicking that button links back to a live page from the Guess Web site selling the item being showcased on-screen. On the CD, viewers see product information listed below the video window with a picture of the item off to the left, and can click on the image of the product itself to reach the e-commerce links. The disc also includes more information about Tyrese, as well as links to a "VIP Lounge" at the Guess Web site, where user information and demographics are collected.

The DVD was created using Sonic DVD Creator and the stand-alone PCFriendly application separately, while the CD was built using Katabounga, a QuickTime-based multimedia-authoring software package. At all times, Zuma sought to maintain key design features of Guess's Web site. "We lifted the navigation bar straight off their Web site and had it live inside our multimedia environment. Those hot spots were available from every screen of each disc we created. From a creative standpoint, it was like their Web site was on the disc," Graboyes says.

Livingston agrees that the visually seamless integration of Web-style content and DVD-based multimedia is key to the Web DVD experience. "We integrate the design of the DVD window into the HTML," he says. "You can't see the borders of the DVD object; the graphics transition from HTML into the ActiveX object to create one appearance. It's not a clunky video window in an HTML page.

"I can't wait to start integrating things like flash and animated HTML," Livingston continues. "Because the reaction time for DVD is instantaneous, you could have Flash information that works together with the DVD, so that you could have 3D animations pop up in the middle of your Web browser. It's a neat thing, but we've been very limited in our development, and we're working toward a test market."

For Today and Tomorrow
Looking forward, the possibilities are endless. As DVD becomes more ubiquitous, Livingston sees HTML-editing programs, such as FrontPage, incorporating Web DVD functions, making applications that require specialized experience today a snap to author. For his part, Livingston says Web DVD is the answer to a question that has dogged multimedia producers: How can we maintain video quality in online applications.

"Maybe within eight or 10 years everybody will have big fat pipes coming into their houses and will be able to cache MPEG-2 in their home servers, and the DVD format might not be the way to deliver it," Livingston says. "But this is a great intermediary step, and it's important to tell clients that this is here to stay for several years."

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