NAB: DVD authoring for HD with Sonic

Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 26, 2006. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.

At NAB, Sonic is presenting the new version 4 of Scenarist, which is also suitable for authoring HD content. The system consists of several modules that can create either Blu-ray Disks in HDMV or BD-J mode or HD-DVD Disks (Standard and Advanced mode). Because of the different specifications of the formats, Sonic prefers the modular structure to a unified authoring tool.

Sonic developed the program modules to market maturity with the help of the HDAA (High Definition Authoring Alliance) and several authoring studios. The HDAA Advisory Group (see news item from April 24) is intended to ensure the greatest possible compatibility of the created media with consumers’ devices.

The interface has remained unchanged compared with the previous versions of Scenarist. The transition to the new media therefore does not require much adjustment. Scenarist naturally continues to create conventional video DVDs in SD resolution.

In addition to the authoring system, there is the CineVision encoder, which supports the formats AVC/H.264, VC-1, and MPEG-2. The encoder plugs directly into Scenarist and can also be controlled from there. It can handle AVIs, Quicktime movies and DPX sequences, which considerably simplifies integration into a postproduction workflow.

The two new technologies ExpressQC and StreamData are integrated into the encoder. The tools automatically monitor the quality of the encoded footage in the timeline and enable partial re-encoding by checking the metadata.

Both products are to be available in May; Sonic does not yet state their price.

Further links:

• Sonic Scenarist