New Authoring, DVD-R Options Enable Lower-Tier Markets | |
| by Terence P.
Keegan (May 2001) Las Vegas-New DVD authoring and burning products have finally achieved levels of affordability, functionality and ease-of-use to cause widespread excitement for the format amongst the digital video production community beyond high-end authoring houses. The excitement was obvious at last month's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention here: while authoring mainstays Sonic Solutions and Spruce Technologies announced advancements in high-end DVD production, they joined a slate of other companies that introduced new technologies to meet a surge in demand for short-run or one-off DVD production. The catalyst to this market expansion is Pioneer's release of a $995 combination DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW drive this month-the same model already found in top-of-the-line Apple G4 and Compaq computers. Pioneer's DVR-AO3 drive writes to 4.7GB "general use" DVD-R discs, which are about half the price of the incompatible "authoring" discs used in the high-end drives of Hollywood title authoring facilities (general discs, flagged with copy-protection measures like consumer audio CD-Rs, can be found for about $10 each, while 4.7GB authoring discs, which can copy a Hollywood title's CSS keys, fetch about $20 each in quantities over 100). Panasonic's support of the format with a newly announced combination DVD-R/-RAM drive, another industry first, affirmed the emergence of this new professional market tier. At NAB, Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company demonstrated the LF-D311 drive in PC-based professional video production systems, showcasing its uses for professional DV acquisition, nonlinear editing, DVD authoring and DVD-R distribution. Like Pioneer's AO3, the Panasonic drive writes to the "general" DVD-R format, but it is incapable of writing to CD-R or -RW discs. The LF-D311 will be available in the third quarter 2001; pricing information was not released, but the company's current DVD-RAM drive sells for about $550. (Dual-sided, 9.4GB DVD-RAM media in cartridges sells for about $25 a piece online.) The splitting of the DVD-R specification into general and authoring sub-formats out of Hollywood copy protection concerns was but a minor source of confusion for NAB attendees, most of whom don't require copy protection, and only knew previously of DVD-R for its prohibitive price. For authoring DVDs, production houses can select a system from a wider range of price, functionality and suppliers, with the established leaders (Sonic and Spruce) reinforcing their wide product ranges. On the heels of its acquisition of the Scenarist DVD product line from Daikin, foremost authoring tool manufacturer Sonic introduced a new version of Scenarist (Ver. 3.0) that incorporates the company's SD-series of MPEG encoders directly into the Scenarist authoring environment, and adds Sonic's DVD and CD disc imaging engine to ensure compatibility with a wider range of recorders. Thanks largely to bundling deals with computer and drive manufacturers, sales of Sonic's lower-tier authoring software, DVDit!, have passed the 500,000-unit mark, with the new Panasonic combination drive being the latest to bundle the software. Sonic demonstrated its full line of DVD authoring systems, which includes its Creator, Producer, and Fusion products, and allows users to burn products to recordable DVD or CD media. Spruce, Sonic's chief competitor, previewed some sophisticated new features forthcoming in the next version of its Maestro high-end authoring product. Topping the list of innovations officially debuting in 3.0 is SpruceShare, a technology that allows for facilities to assign various encoding, authoring, compiling and emulation tasks of a project to specific personnel for easy integration (without scripting) into the project upon completion of the work. The feature results in higher productivity for authoring facilities, towards a more cut-and-paste flexibility (entire components or structures can be re-used from one project to another). Spruce also announced a technology cross-licensing and software distribution agreement with PC Friendly purveyor InterActual that pairs the SpruceLink WebDVD technology with the InterActual Player 2.0 for the creation of advanced Web-enabled DVDs. The agreement will enable Spruce users to create WebDVD titles that utilize such format options as Dolby Digital and CSS encryption. InterActual's technology and support services will be integrated into the range of Spruce authoring products, which includes the $129 SpruceUp consumer DVD authoring software, the mid-range DVD Virtuoso and DVD Conductor systems, and a new Spruce Automation Server Interface Software Development Kit (SASI SDK) available for license to companies wishing to create custom, specialized DVD software, hardware and turnkey systems (for example, non-linear editors or transcoders). The option to output to a DVD with simple chapter breaks and menuing now appears on many major editing and digital video encoding systems. Non-linear editor leader Media 100 touted the ability of its MediaPress real-time MPEG-2 encoder to interface with Apple's DVD Studio Pro and other authoring systems, while competitor Avid showcased the DVD options (including Sonic's DVDit! authoring) on its XpressDV system. Meanwhile, MPEG encoder maker Zapex displayed its Gemini DVD video transfer system, which it has been selling into video transfer houses since January.
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