CATEGORY: CD/DVD/Blu-ray

What is a “hybrid” DVD? And how can it help you?

Have you ever wanted to add some .pdf documents to your authored (aka “navigable”)  DVD video?  If you have, you know it can be a bit challenging.

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.

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UDF and the role it plays when you say, “My DVD won’t play.”

UDF.  Universal Disc Format.

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.

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Options for disc encryption

I get lots of inquiries from clients and prospects about copy-protecting their CDs and DVDs. 

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: 

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What are AC-3 audio files?

To quote the site www.fileinfo.com, “AC-3 files, or Dolby Digital audio file format; may contain up to 6 channels of audio, including a subwoofer output (a.k.a. 5.1 surround sound)”

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)

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