Actor Peter Davison, The 5th “Doctor” with David Ryan

So it was about a year ago that I arrived at work and opened a new email that said,

“Are you the David Ryan who was on assignment with the Doctor Who team in 1983 that produced The Awakening story?”

I smiled.  With the age of the internet, I knew it was just a matter of time before they found me.

Let me digress.

Back in the 80’s, when I was working at the Denver PBS affiliate, KRMA-TV, I produced a documentary on the then exponentially growing popularity in America of the campy BBC TV sci-fi series, Doctor Who, which at the time was being aired primarily by PBS stations.  Aficionados of the series will recall that actor Tom Baker played the Doctor at that time.

Now, if you are not familiar with Doctor Who, the overarching storyline is about the adventures of a human-looking alien of the Time Lord race, known as the Doctor.  Time Lords have the ability to travel through the fourth dimension.  It turns out that the Doctor is sort of a renegade Time Lord and his time vehicle (aka a TARDIS) is in the shape of an old British police call box (that defies normal physics by being spacious with many passageways and rooms on the inside).

The Doctor and his companions constantly stumble upon crisis situations where they are called upon to intervene for good – not in a typical comic book super-hero manner, rather more in a quirky, almost geeky fashion.   And oh yeah, Time Lords don’t die, they just regenerate into a new body when the time comes.  (How convenient for carrying the series forward as lead actors change.  The series began in 1963.)

My producing that documentary about the series back in 1982 came about through a series of coincidences.  At the Denver PBS station, I was among the corral of on-air pledge drive hosts.  I had a knack (ok, zaniness) for successfully soliciting pledges during the PBS lineup of children’s programs and weekend special programming, shows like Doctor Who.

Pledges from the fans of the Doctor Who series turned out to be numerous, and the station figured they could further capitalize on the interest by having me produce a documentary exploring in further depth the appeal of the series and selling the resulting program to fellow PBS affiliates.

My crew and I went to Chicago to videotape at a Doctor Who conference attended by hundreds of fans (aka “Whovians”).  We also met and taped interviews with the show’s BBC producer at that time, John Nathan-Turner, and stars, writers and other personnel connected with the series who had “crossed the pond” to attend the convention.

The folks from the BBC were naturally very supportive of our documentary, both at the convention and in the months afterwards.  The program ended up being a big success, with lots of airplay here in the States.

Well, for a PBS television dude like me back then, having an “in” at the BBC was very valuable.  I had always dreamed of getting an opportunity to spend time at the BBC.  So I took advantage of the connections I had made with the Doctor Who team, and eventually producer John Nathan-Turner helped get me approved for one of the BBC’s professional exchange programs.

I was granted a leave of absence from my Denver station and was off to London for four months of observation of the production activities of Doctor Who.  Too cool!

I was also fortunate that a college friend and her husband had a house in London with an extra room located four blocks from the Doctor Who office and the nearby BBC Studios in Shepards Bush.  Excellent!

The Doctor Who team, for both the series and for the particular two-part program, “The Awakening,” (featuring Peter Davison as the 5th Doctor) to which I was assigned, couldn’t have been nicer.   John Nathan-Turner also arranged for me to have pretty much carte blanche within the BBC — and coolest of all, he allowed me to take photos of whatever I wanted pertaining to my activities with the Doctor Who series.

The Awakening - studio

And boy, did I take photos . . . predominantly color slides, because I knew they would be the best format at the time for giving presentations of my trip when I returned home to the States.  (Remember, this was well before digital photography, and making presentations projecting 35mm slides was state of the art at the time.)

When I got back to Denver, I indeed gave a number of presentations about my experiences to my colleagues at the PBS station and to various television industry trade groups.

And then I packed away those slides, along with the rest of my memorabilia from that summer experience, and proceeded on with my career, which included moving to the DC/Baltimore area.  Yes, I did remain in touch with several of the contacts I had made over in England.

The powerful reach of the appeal of the Doctor Who series was certainly made apparent to me one day in the mid-90’s when I was directing a satellite videoconference for a government agency in DC.  There in a TV control room deep inside a government building, one of the crew members hired along with me for the event, Al Faison (great guy and superb multi-talented tech dude and director himself, by the way), came up to me and asked, “Are you the David Ryan who worked with Doctor Who in the ‘80’s?”  Imagine my surprise.  Turns out he was (and remains) an avid “Whovian,” and he had read an interview in a fan magazine with John Nathan-Turner where my time spent with the series had been mentioned in passing.

Fast-forward another 15 years, (during which time I had further encounters with die-hard “Whovians,” including several here at Video Labs),  to the winter of 2010 when I started thinking that I probably ought to digitize  those slides I had in my possession.  So I began the tedious process of scanning.  Yeah, I had in the back of my mind that given the power of the internet and the on-going interest of the series, someone likely would track me down and ask if I had any memorabilia from the series — even though John Nathan-Turner had by now passed away and my contact with anyone from the 1983 production team had pretty much dropped off.

So then arrived that email last summer from a researcher for producer Chris Chapman of Dene Films in Newcastle, England.  Then Chris communicated with me directly.  Turns out the BBC has over the past few years been releasing episodes of Doctor Who on DVD, and The Awakening was now in line (or as they say in England, in the “queue.”)

Independent production companies, like Dene Films, are engaged by the BBC to produce the background special features to these DVD releases.  And sure enough, Chris and his team had run across production notes from the series indicating that a “Yank” named David Ryan from Denver had been allowed to take production stills.  Good ‘ole Google.  They typed in my name, “producer” and “Denver” and came up with my DavidRyanMediaSolutions.com website.

Chris asked whether I might still have any of those slides.  Needless to say, he was thrilled when I replied that I did, and after negotiations, I employed Dropbox uploads to send him a bunch of the photos I had taken those many years ago.

The result is a superb DVD.

Chris and his team deftly integrated my slides in to his background special features that contain interviews with the actors and production personnel connected with The Awakening, including director Michael Morris, who had been so gracious allowing me to tag along beside him back in 1983.

Yeah, it was gratifying seeing my old slides being put to such good use.

The DVD Chris sent me is a PAL version packaged with a second DVD of a story titled, “The Gunfighters,” featuring the original Doctor, portrayed by William Hartnell.  As far as I can tell by searching on the internet, The Awakening DVD is also available in NTSC as a single DVD release via Amazon and other online distributors.

After a hiatus of several years, Doctor Who is back in production today with Matt Smith playing the 11th Doctor and can be seen on BBC America and various PBS stations, including Maryland Public Television.  Storylines and production values have been enhanced many times over from when I was observing the series in the 80′s.  No longer can it be described as “campy” or “charming tounge-in-cheek” sci-fi.  No matter, I think it is great, and I have started watching it again after many years absence.  I highly recommend that you do too.

And oh yeah, lesson to keep in mind, keep those old photos.

Your comments are most welcomed.

Follow me on Twitter for more media news and info and exclusive steep, quick-turn discounts on our media replication and mutlimedia services.

That’s why most of my clients who shoot and edit in HD end up choosing to release their programs utilizing the anamorphic widescreen standard DVD format.

Still, if your final need is just a few discs, say under 100, then there still is a cost-effective way for us to create you a Blu-ray disc master and copies.

We do so by taking your HD .mov files of your edited program and compressing them to mpeg2 and AC-3 files that maintain the HD qualities.

We then take those files and import them into the disc authoring program Encore, versions of which have the capability to also author Blu-ray discs.  We can even add a simple opening menu with links to clips.

Then we output to a Blu-ray burner and use our Blu-ray duplicators to make copies.

And we can provide high-quality thermal-transfer print right on to the disc face, just as we do with our DVDs and CDs.

Now granted, the resulting Blu-rays are duplicated, not replicated, and they are not the lock-tight securely encrypted discs of replicated Blu-rays.  Nor do they offer the expansive interactive capabilites available with replicated Blu-ray discs.

But our authored & duplicated Blu-ray discs do maintain the HD quality of the originally shot and edited program . . . and with the simple menu, they can be easily used for presentations.

And that’s where the demand seems to be concentrated right now.

A typical order these days is for a presentation to a Board of Directors meeting where “wowing” the audience is very much desired.

This all can be done very cost-effectively.  Call me at 240-268-3504 to discuss this in more detail.

Your comments are welcome below.

If you are looking for a great resource book on all things Blu-ray, I highly recommend “Blu-ray Disc Demystified.”

And read my blog about how I feel the role Twitter is playing in the Arab Revolution illustrates that social media platform’s strengths.

Follow me on Twitter for more media news & info and exclusive steep, quick-turn discounts.

What it boils down to is that there are different qualities of digital encoding . . . even when going to the same end product like a video DVD.  

Let’s say a client wants to transfer a digital betacam videotape to DVD.  At Video Labs, we have three routes we can follow. 

The least expensive option is to play back the videotape and encode the signal directly into our Pioneer DVD recorder. 

We have three of these Pioneer DVD recorders.  Even though they are not made anymore, they continue to be workhorses fo us.  We like them for a number of reasons, including: they can take component and SDI in, can handle both NTSC and PAL signals, and offer some basic authoring capability.  (And as a side note, an added bonus is that when encoding  SD captioned tapes, these DVD recorders don’t strip the line 21 captioning information in the vertical interval, thereby making for an easy way to carry over captions from a tape to a DVD.  Read more about this in my article: “The Challenges of Subtitles and Captions in DVDs“ ) 

A more expenisve solution for encoding a video would be to digitize the footage into our Final Cut Pro and then use Compressor to create a MPEG2 video and AC-3 audio file, and then create a DVD in DVD Studio Pro, Adobe Encore or Sonic Scenarist. 

 Our top of the line solution would be to output the tape to a digital betacam dub, and then encode that dBeta into our Sonic SD-2000 encoder via SDI, and then take the resulting MPEG2 video and AC-3 audio files and import those either into  Adobe Encore or Sonic Scenarist to create a DVD.

There are two types of digital encoding.  One is constant bit rate encoding (CBR).  This is what lower-end priced encoders employ.  The operator sets the bit rate and that’s the rate  the video will be encoded throughout.  One advantage is that encoding occurs faster. 

But is that the best use of the allotted bit budget?  Think about it.  Doesn’t it make sense that a static series of images within a plain background would take less data (read bit rate) than a series of images with a lot of  motion and action and/or a wide range of color and contrast? 

Well, if that’s true, then would it not be more efficient if the “bit rate budget” (remember, like a , you have only so much available digital space on a DVD) could be spent such that it used a lower bit rate for the static scenes in a program and then “poured it on” when really needed for those scenes with high activity and/or lighting/color? 

That is the concept behind ”variable bit rate encoding” (VBR).  And higher-end encoders employ this more sophisticated approach. 

(Our higher-end Sonic D-2000 encoder also employs “segment encoding” which accounts for its premiere pricing.  But let’s save that for another article.) 

Now, technology is moving fast in our field, and I am getting new info from my various multimedia “gurus,” who say that actually there are now very cost-effective software encoders on the market that employ CBR which are actually pretty darn good.   As explained to me, these software encoding programs are kinda setting the ole “hardware is always better than software” philosophy on its head.  The thinking is starting to be that since tech is changing so fast, the ease with which software can be updated vs. hardware offers a increasingly distinct advantage.    

Hmmm, looks like your favorite media sales dude here is just gonna have to keep listening to his gurus and researching.  Stay tuned . . . 

Again, I always welcome your feedback.  Feel free to comment below. 

Are you receiving my monthly eNewsletter that always includes a “Mindy the Cat” discount?  If not, click the home button on the left side of the screen here and look for the picture of ”Mindy the Cat.”  Just enter your email where requested. 

Contact me anytime at 240-268-3504 or dryan@videolabs.net 

Follow me on Twitter for media news and info and short-term steep discounts.

Shrinkwrap is made of polymer plastic film and is of the consistency of the material that comes with your drycleaning. 

It has the property of shrinking when heat is applied.

Overwrap is what I refer to as the “crinkly” wrap (made of polypropylene) that comes with audio CDs and many retail DVDs. 

The advantage of overwrap is that it is more durable in protecting the product, and it presents a nice neatly folded corner.

It also doesn’t involve heat, which avoids any potential damage to the underlying product.  

But those advantages also present a disadvantage in that this process isn’t as versatile as shrinkwrap in the products it can cover.   It can work on only certain fixed, established products, like audio CDs and certain standard DVD cases.

Conversely, the advantage of shrinkwrap is that it can be applied to a wide range of shaped products.  For example, the process is even used to wrap pallets for freight. 

Now, the disadvantage of shrinkwrap in the media replication realm is that the process involves heat, which means that it can sometimes present a challenge when applied to standard DVD cases which typically have a thin transparent plastic outer cover into which a DVD paper wrap for labeling is inserted.  With too much heat, that outer cover can warp a bit.  Some clients are  ok with that, while others are not.

One alternative to shrinkwrap or overwrap (and yes, a more eco-friendly alternative) is to consider using wafer seals to secure a product.

At Video Labs, we offer only shrinkwrap for our duplicated products.   We offer overwrap only for  replicated audio CD and standard DVD products.  (Read the differences between disc “duplication” and disc “replication.”) 

Notwithstanding the cautions and challenges mentioned above regarding “shrinkwrap” and “overwrap,”, you should still contact me before dismissing a certain wrapping option.  The “X” factor in all of this is our vast experience with packaging.  Usually we can find a solution that meets your needs.  Our track record of satisfied customers speaks for itself.

I hope this has been helpful.  As always, your comments are welcome below.

Contact me with any questions.  dryan@videolabs.net or 240-268-3504.

If you found this article of interest, you may want to also read my quick-read post about disc face printing.

Follow me on Twitter for more media info & news and exclusive steep quick-turn discounts.

Let’s take an example.  Say you have a 20-minute video and a dozen .pdf documents.

OK, let’s make this really challenging, and say you want to add captions to the video.

We can make this happen by creating an authored “hybrid” DVD.   Here’s how it works:

We get a dBeta videotape version of your program, your .pdf docs, a caption file, plus .scc and .smi versions of the same caption file.

Then we step into the “authoring” kitchen.

The over-arching goal is to make three partitions for the disc.  One for when it is playd in a stand-alone DVD player, second for when the disc is played in a PC computer and third when it is played in a Mac computer. 

The result would be that when played in a stand-alone DVD player, it would open with a splash screen menu allowing for:

1) selection to play the video with optional captions in full-screen video (this would use the .scc file for the captions) 

2) since a stand-alone DVD player cannot read .pdfs, when the documents button on the menu is selected, a message would appear telling the viewer that the disc needs to be put into a computer DVD drive to access the documents.

When put into a PC, a splash screen menu would open allowing for

1) selection to play the video as a high quality Windows Media or mpeg1 file (not full-screen, but large enough) with optional captions (this would access the .smi version of the caption file)

2) when the documents button on the menu is selected, access to the documents would then occur

When put into a Mac computer, an icon on the desktop would open (Macs do not allow for auto open) that would allow for:

1) selection to play the video as a Quicktime file (again not full-screen, but large enough)  NOTE:  QT cannot easily handle captions, so to accomodate that, we’d have a separate captioned version button option available on the menu which when selected would access a QT version of the program that has captions “burned in.”  Another way of thinking of this is that this would be a fourth version of the program on the hybrid DVD.  (In order to make this version, the original caption file would be used.) 

2) when the documents button on the menu is selected, access to the documents would then occur as with the PC.

So, the resulting DVD is really three-discs-in-one, in other words, a “hybrid.”

Questions?  Contact me at dryan@videolabs.net or 240-268-3507

Ever wonder how you can tell a CD from a DVD?

Follow me on Twitter for media news and info and exclusive quick-turn steep discounts.

This term came up recently in a conversation with my multimedia team on a recent project.

Our client wanted us to do all that was possible to maximize compatibility with a wide range of DVD players, old and new.

My team said, well, given that we are burning a DVD via the standard universal disc format, there really isn’t a way to make a DVD “more compatible.”

You see, UDF deals with standardizing the way data is stored on a DVD.

Quoting from Wikipedia:

“The Optical Storage Technology Association standardized the UDF file system to form a common file system for all optical media.  The goal was to make a common file system for read-only media and optical media that are re-writable.”

In other words, when we burn a DVD for a client, it’s about as vanilla as it gets.

If the disc plays on several stand-alone and computer-based DVD players, then it is safe to assume any subsequent playback issues encountered are not with the disc.

But those that have been dealing with Video Labs for several years may be thinking we are talking out of both sides of mouths.  To be sure, you may have heard us a few years ago say that duplicated discs sometimes didn’t play on older DVD players, yet that same issue didn’t happen with replicated discs. (read the difference between duplicated and replicated discs.)

But that was an issue more with the sensitivity of the lasers in the first generations of DVD players.  They didn’t have compensation mechanisms to handle minute bumps or fluctuations introduced during the burning process of disc duplication.

Today, the DVD players are much better at doing that – like computerized suspension systems in cars today handle bumps in the road better than older models.

So having playback issues with duplicated DVDs today is almost non-existence, again due to the enhanced abilities of the players.

And replicated discs are stamped, so the uniformity of that manufacturing process makes the fluctuation issue virtually moot.

But do we still get calls from clients saying their DVD won’t play?

Yep.

So what do we do?

We first ask that they try the disc on a standalone (aka set top box)  DVD player.  If it plays there, chances are that the disc is not the issue.

Our experience has shown that while playing DVD videos on a computer is cool, it indeed can be frustrating at times.

What are some of the possible reasons why a DVD might not play on a computer?

* the disc somehow got dirty or scratched after delivery from us.

* the computer drive is not a DVD drive, it’s a CD drive.

* the DVD software installed with the computer is not being properly accessed.  In other words, some other media program stepped up first and decided it was going to try to play the disc.

* too many other programs have been or are open — in other words, not enough RAM is available.

In conclusion:

If the DVD plays on a stand alone DVD, but not on a computer, and given that the disc is made following the Universal Disc Format standard, you can see how we are going to probably say that we are unable to do anything to the disc to make it “more compatible.”

What we can do, is try to help our clients work through some of the obstacles, including the above listed possible factors, that might be preventing playback on a computer.  We value our customers, and we will do our best to get them where they need to be.

If you found this article helpful, you might want to check out my blog post about AC-3 files and the role they play with the audio portion of DVD & Blu-ray video discs.

I welcome your comments below.

Disc authoring, disc duplication and disc replication are our forte.  Contact me if you have a project you wish to discuss.

Follow me on Twitter for exclusive quick-turn steep discounts . . . and other media news.

In the heyday of vhs dubbing, we at Video Labs would add Macrovision encryption http://tinyurl.com/gzmrj, versions of which either added spikes in the voltage of the signal or added a “flag” in the vertical interval of the video signal . . . (that area you can’t normally see at the top of a standard def tv signal, where items like vertical interval time code, closed-captioning and SpoTTrac information is encoded.) 

As we have moved into discs, we’re now at the following point: 

For CDs, it’s basically “coming up empty.”  You can scour the internet and find products, but from our experience — and I am always open to new information if you have any — there is nothing that satisfactorily can protect the information on a CD from being copied. 

Now, keep in mind that there are features within certain software programs, like in Acrobat, that can make taking elements out of a document difficult.  The analogy would be like turning a layered Photoshop or Illustrator file into an unlayered document.  But that doesn’t prevent the document in total from being copied. 

For DVD-video discs, we do have an option  (again, not for DVD data discs.)  

The most common type of encryption, and the one we offer, is CSS, which stands for Content Scramble System. 

This is not to be confused with .css or Cascading Style Sheets http://tinyurl.com/7x56p, which is something completely different pertaining to working with HTML code in the web development arena. 

I invite you to check out this Wikipedia for more details on how CSS encryption works: http://tinyurl.com/28zo32, but in short, it involves placing a set of digital keys in a certain area of the DVD which can then be “unlocked” only by licensed DVD players. 

Is it fail safe?  Nope.  If you Google CSS, you are going to find De-CSS, abundantly available in various flavors to circumvent the encryption.  So, I always tell my clients that if someone really wants to rip off your content, they can find a way to do it. 

Still, as some clients have correctly reasoned, it still makes sense to add the encryption.  CSS may very well discourage the casual otherwise well-meaning consumer user who doesn’t see the harm in making a DVD copy of a program for a friend down the street.  Most folks like that will go no further upon seeing an initial cannot copy warning. 

Now there is one thing to keep in mind.  CSS encryption can be added only in a disc authoring process.  Read this quick-read blog for what disc authoring entails: http://tinyurl.com/5m6hga 

This means that the encryption cannot be added “after the fact.”  It has to be “cooked in” when the DVD is first created.  And it doesn’t matter whether or you have any menus or not (the usual reason for doing disc authoring).  Even if you want to CSS encrypt just a straight-play DVD, the first part of the encryption can be added only in a DVD authoring process. 

I say “first part” because the “second part” of the encryption can be added only via disc replication. (Read this to understand the difference between disc “duplication” vs. disc “replication:” http://tinyurl.com/2ox2rk 

So, to reiterate, to add CSS encryption, an authoring process is essential, and the disc copies have to be made via replication. 

And as you may know, DVD replication requires a minimum order of 1,000 DVDs. 

What are the costs?  Well, it depends on the program length.  But figure on $250 – $400 for the disc authoring time, and $250 for the adding of CSS. 

Moving forward:  One of the features of the Blu-ray disc format is that it offers a much-advanced, robust, triple-level system of disc encryption.  This includes Advanced Access Content System: http://tinyurl.com/ye3zr5

My media replication industry colleague/partner, Tim Schoonenberg, of Great Lakes Media Technology www.glmt.com, wrote a good blog on the 3-levels of Blu-ray disc encryption as well: http://tinyurl.com/29x6op2

As with DVD-video discs, to incorporate the encryption with Blu-ray, there needs to be a combination of advanced disc authoring and disc replication.  I can tell you, this ain’t cheap, hence why at this time, the creation of such Blu-ray replicated discs is limited to studios and broadcasters with deep pockets. 

But with that said, please remember that if you do not need encryption, we at Video Labs can author both DVDs and yes, Blu-ray master discs, and duplicate smaller quantities of each very cost-effectively.  

NOTE: I should qualify that by saying that the Blu-ray authoring in that case will be somewhat basic compared to the extensive BD-Live features that studio film titles may offer, but still, many of our clients find our Blu-ray disc process really suits their goal of providing high-quality video on a budget. 

Contact me for more information:  dryan@VideoLabs.net 

Follow me on Twitter:  www.Twitter.com/drmediasolution for more news & info including short-term steep discounts. 

Find out more about our Blu-ray disc duplication: http://tinyurl.com/a6jqd6

These have been referred to as  ”Audio Codec 3″ or “Advanced Codec 3″ or “Acoustic Codec 3.”

Regardless, this is the file format that was adapted for the audio portion of DVDs and Blu-ray discs.  Just like the mpeg2 files that make up the video portion of a  DVD or Blu-ray discs, the AC-3 files cannot be edited.  That was instituted on purpose of course, as an anti-piracy measure.

(As a side note, remember, in addition to not being able to edit mpeg2 or AC-3 files, you cannot drag those files as accessible elements from a DVD or Blu-ray video disc either: http://tinyurl.com/yj8wy3c)

The AC-3 format has the capacity to record audio with fidelity up to 48k, which is audio CD quality.

The AC-3 codec is also an efficient codec in that a number of audio channels (up to 6) can be included in just one AC-3 file.

The AC-3 files are actually located within the VIDEO_TS folders on the DVD or Blu-ray [see below].  (the BUP folders are backup folders, for use if the main TS folders cannot be accessed for some reason — like due to a minor scratch on the disc).

While you can get to the level of the DVD or Blu-ray architecture that is depicted above, by right clicking on the DVD icon in My Computer and choosing either Open or Explore, you won’t get any further down into the structure without some sort of “ripping” software.

When burning or authoring an edited video from a non-linear editing system on to DVD, the video of the final sequence needs to be converted to mpeg2 and the audio to AC-3.

In Final Cut Pro, that means exporting the edited sequence, which is usually in some form of .mov file, through the Apple Compressor software.  The resulting files can then be loaded into an authoring program, like DVD Studio Pro, Adobe Encore or Sonic Scenarist.

Some folks are not always pleased with the resulting files from Compressor, so they opt for outputting the edited sequence to a dital Betacam tape and then encode the videotape into a hardware encorder which also makes mpeg2 files and AC-3 files that can be loaded into an authoring system.

Again, remember, the mpeg2 and AC-3 files are not editable.

I welcome your feedback. Either write a comment below, or write me at dryan@videolabs.net

Follow me on Twitter for news and info along with exclusive steep quick-turn discounts.

Also, please note that I now have a direct number at the office as well.  240-268-3504.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also be interested in reading about our Blu-ray disc duplication services:  http://tinyurl.com/a6jqd6

And I certainly understand the frustration.

Prospects and clients think they are doing the right thing to get their video assets transferred DVD, to a safe permanent digital format.

And they have.  But the issue gets complicated when they also want to then edit the footage on that DVD further.

The calls usually center around the prospect or client wanting to import the mpeg2 files into a non-linear editing system.

When answering, I like to use the following analogy: Think of a video DVD being like a wedding cake.

And think of the native mpeg2 files being the layers of the wedding cake underneath.  When asking whether you can access the mpeg2 files for further editing, it’s like asking the chef to take the wedding cake back into the kitchen and delivering to you clean cake layers.

It just ain’t gonna happen.

The only way you can use the video on the DVD as source material is to play it out again from a DVD player as an analog composite or component signal and re-digitizing it into a non-linear editing program.

But that of course if not ideal because you’ve gone from analog to digital to analog to digital — unnecessary extra compressions that will degrade the signal.

Here’s why you can’t just drag the mpeg2 files from your video DVD:

If you click on the directory of a video DVD, you will see there is a video-TS folder.  This is the finished “wedding cake.”  (the audio-TS file you may see is a dormant file structure from back when it was thought DVDs would be used for music, but that really hasn’t evolved.)

Yes, dig further and you see .vob files, which yes, are a type of mpeg2 format file, but even these are not clean “cake” layers. These are mpeg2 files with other data wrapped with them.

So bottom line, a DVD-video has files that contain a lot of other embedded information that allows the video DVD to work as more than just a data storage disc.

Now, with that all said, ok, ok, I know, yes, there are indeed ways of pulling out the mpeg2 files.  Doing so involves that somewhat shady term, “ripping.”

There are indeed ripping programs out there, some legitimate, and some not so.

Understand that as a licensed replicator, we at Video Labs are very reluctant to utilize ripping software.  Such programs are often used by “hackers” to violate copyright restrictions, and anyone who has worked with us knows that we do our best to protect copyrighted material from being “ripped off.”  (Also, check out this link about the legal repurcussions of ripping under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act http://tinyurl.com/6u7hf)

The other thing about ripping is that the mpeg2 video files taken are indeed already compressed.  So, if the source material (i.e. SD or HD tape or high-end digital file) is still available, (which it should be if rights are truly clear) we suggest that it’s better to just go back to the original for further editing.

So there are exceptions of course, but you can understand our skepticism when we hear that the original material or the edited sequence, is not available.

Hmmmm . . .

So, let’s review the options when considering transferring video material to digital:

If you are transferring a final product that will not require more editing, then making a DVD video is an excellent way to go.  And we can certainly do that for you.

But if the material is likely to used as source material for further editing, then we suggest having it be converted to a Quicktime or .avi file (uncompressed or perhaps slightly compressed, depending on the eventual future need) and stored as data either on a DVD-R or a portable hard drive.  Using the above analogy, what that does is make basic clean “cake layers” which can easily be loaded into a non-linear editing program.

As always, I welcome your comments below.

(Thanks also to Hugh Robertson of our Video Labs’ multimedia dept. for the fact-checking and input he provided for this article.)

If you found this article of interest, you might also like to read: The Challenges with Captions and Subtitles for DVD http://tinyurl.com/5vgp9m

Remember to contact me dryan@videolabs.net or 301-217-000 x104 for all of your media replication and related multimedia needs.

Follow me on Twitter www.Twitter.com/DRMediaSolution for steep short-term discounts and other news and info.

And no wonder, without being clearly labeled, they look almost exactly the same.

Here’s an easy way to tell whether you have a “duplicated” CD or DVD. 

(Note: I say “duplicated” because  a ”replicated” disc is  almost always clearly labeled on the face label as to whether it is a CD or DVD.  Here’s my blog further explaining the differences between disc duplication and replication: http://tinyurl.com/2ox2rk

OK, turn the disc over in your hand so that the data side is facing up at you.

If the surface has a faint brownish tint, then you have a duplicated CD.  Another trait is that when moved in the light you see a lot of green in the iridescent light refraction.

If the disc surface has a bluish tint, you have a duplicated DVD.  Again, when moved in the light you should also see a lot of blue or purple in the light refraction.

Now, if you happen to have a duplicated Blu-ray disc, it will have the same traits as a DVD, but it will seem just a bit more heavy, or dense, in your hand.

OK, as I mentioned above, a replicated disc will almost always have a label on it that includes information as to whether the disc is a CD, DVD or Blu-ray.

But let’s pretend we didn’t know, just for kicks.

Replicated discs have a polished mirrored look to the data surface, and it will in fact be difficult to discern between a replicated CD and DVD.  I asked my good buddy and disc replication expert Tim Schoonenberg at Great Lakes Media Technology www.glmt.com for his input.  Tim replied, “It’s hard to tell them apart, but a replicated DVD has 2 thinner layers glued together and a replicated CD has just a single layer.  A trained eye can spot it.”

It is easier to detect a replicated Blu-ray disc though.  Just as with a duplicated Blu-ray disc, it too will seem a bit more dense when held, but also, the mirrored bottom surface will give off hardly any iridescence at all when moved in the light.  That’s because the tracks and data are so densely packed on to a Blu-ray disc.  Remember, a DVD holds about 4.7 gb.  A Blu-ray disc starts with storage of 25 gb.

I hope that helps.  Contact me with any questions.  dryan@videolabs.net   I also welcome your comments below.

Thanks also to Juan Carlos Elizalde in our Video Labs’ www.VideoLabs.net multimedia dept. for sharing his expertise on this subject with me.

Remember to contact me with any of your media replication or related multimedia needs at 301-217-0000 x104 or dryan@videolabs.net

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like to check out “What is an “authored” disc?” http://tinyurl.com/64td2m

And you might like to read more about our Blu-ray disc duplication services: http://tinyurl.com/a6jqd6

Follow me on Twitter for more media info and Twitter-exclusive time-sensitive discounts: www.Twitter.com/DRMediaSolution