Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 11, 2005. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
At its booth 7.731, Sonic is presenting prerelease versions of “ScenaristHD” and “Blu-ray Creator”, with which the high-resolution successor media to DVD can be produced.
However, the name “Blu-ray Creator” is not yet the final product name because it cannot be protected in this form. Although both programs are made for different target media, no difference can be discerned at the present stage. ScenaristHD is used to create film media in the HD-DVD standard and “Blu-ray Creator” for authoring BDMV media, Sony’s alternative medium.
No playback devices for either medium are currently available in stores, and the associated specifications have only just been completed. The release date for both applications depends mainly on the availability of playback devices, staff at the Sonic booth explained. Prices are also not yet known.
To keep pace with software development, Sonic has founded the HD Authoring Alliance. In addition to Sonic, it includes 24 other companies from the film and DVD industry, such as Daikin and Ascent Media.
The new authoring tools difer only insignificantly from previous DVD authoring tools. What is new is that high-resolution film material can be usd, which may be encoded with MPEG2, MPG4-AVC or VC1. Rollover images for subtitles or menus may now have up to 256 colours.
To use the advanced functions of the new medium, the HD-DVD must be created with Sonic’s “HDDVD advanced multiplexer”.
This new authoring software makes it possible to integrate a primary and a secondary video stream. The secondary video stream is an overlay video track that can be shown when required. Both video tracks can contain HD video or animations with 2-bit or 8-bit colours. This allows a menu to be shown at any time while the main film is running – an important difference from video DVD.
Scripts can now also be integrated into the data stream and, if necessary, their validity can be temporaly limited. This is “ecma-script” (“AuthorScript” for BDMV), which looks like a mixture of Javascript and XML. It can be used to implement complex program structures or also download content from the Internet, because every HDDVD or Blu-ray player must have an Ethernet interface.
The authoring tools also support the AACS encryption system, which can also be brought up to date later via software. For Blu-ray Discs, the encryption method is called SPDC(selfprotecting digital content).
On the audio side, the programs offer support for the formats “Dolby digital +”, “DTS HD”, “Dolby TrueHD” (formerly MLP), Mpeg Audio and PCM.
Further Links:
- Sonic
