User manual APPLE DVD STUDIO PRO 4.1

DVD Studio Pro 4 User Manual K Apple Computer, Inc. © 2006 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Under the copyright laws, this manual may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Apple. Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Use of the "keyboard" Apple logo (Option-Shift-K) for commercial purposes without the prior written consent of Apple may constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition in violation of federal and state laws. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this manual is accurate. Apple Computer, Inc. is not responsible for printing or clerical errors. Apple Computer, Inc. 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014-2084 408-996-1010 www.apple.com Apple, the Apple logo, Apple Cinema Display, DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut, Final Cut Pro, FireWire, iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, Mac, Macintosh, Mac OS, Panther, PowerBook, Power Mac, QuickTime, and Soundtrack are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. DVD@CCESS, Exposé, Finder, GarageBand, Keynote, LiveType, SuperDrive, and Tiger are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Apple Store is a service mark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. .Mac is a service mark of Apple Computer, Inc. Adobe and Photoshop are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other company and product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective companies. Mention of third-party products is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the performance or use of these products. 1 Contents Preface 15 15 18 19 19 20 22 23 24 25 26 28 29 29 29 30 31 31 33 34 34 34 37 37 38 38 39 39 40 40 40 45 An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 What's New With DVD Studio Pro 4 Moving From iDVD to DVD Studio Pro About Standard and High Definition DVDs But I Thought DVDs Were Already High Definition? About DVD Studio Pro 4 and HD Resolution DVDs HD Video Assets Brief Overview of the DVD Creation Process Creating Source Material Encoding Video and Audio Authoring With DVD Studio Pro Creating a Disc What Makes a DVD Authoring System? Hard Disk Storage SCSI Devices DVD Burners DLT Drives External Video and Audio Monitoring Audio and Video Assets Resources for Learning About DVD Studio Pro DVD Studio Pro Onscreen User Manual Apple Websites Planning Your Project Investigating Existing DVDs Determining Your Target Audience and Playback Device Deciding Which DVD Standard to Use Deciding Which Video Standard to Use Deciding What Content to Include Creating a Storyboard Designing the Menus and Buttons Making Sure Your Content Will Fit General DVD Limitations Chapter 1 3 Chapter 2 47 48 48 49 50 54 54 62 68 70 76 76 76 77 77 77 80 81 81 81 82 82 86 91 91 93 96 97 97 97 98 98 98 100 100 102 102 103 103 104 104 106 Preparing Assets Preparing Video Sources NTSC or PAL? Using 24 fps Video Choosing an Aspect Ratio About MPEG Video Encoding Video Materials for DVD Using the Embedded MPEG Encoder Encoding Video for Multi-Angle Tracks Adding Markers to Your Video About H.264 Video H.264 Bit Rates H.264 Frame Sync Setting Preparing Audio Sources Audio Formats Not Supported by the DVD Specification Audio Formats Supported by the DVD Specification and DVD Studio Pro Using Multiple Audio Formats in Your Project Required Audio Formats for SD Projects Preparing Menu Sources What Is a Menu? Creating a Menu Creating Graphics to Use in Menus Creating Overlays Creating a Layered Menu Creating Video for Motion Menus Creating Shapes Creating Graphics for Drop Zones and Buttons Preparing Stills for Slideshows File Formats Aspect Ratio and Resolution Colors Audio Preparing Alpha Transitions Transition Asset Folder Asset Movie Asset Matte Movie Background Matte Movie About Alpha Transition Durations About NTSC and PAL Alpha Transitions DVD Source Settings Summary DVD Video and Audio Settings for SD Projects DVD Video and Audio Settings for HD Projects 4 Contents Chapter 3 109 109 112 125 131 133 134 135 137 139 141 142 144 147 154 154 155 155 156 156 157 160 160 162 164 164 164 165 167 177 181 181 187 192 199 199 200 202 202 203 204 Starting a Project Opening DVD Studio Pro Setting DVD Studio Pro Preferences Creating a New Project Opening an Existing Project Video Standards of the World Changing a Project's Video Standard Changing a Project's DVD Standard The DVD Studio Pro Interface Configuring the Interface DVD Studio Pro Quadrants and Tabs Working With the Quadrants Working With the Tabs Overview of the Quadrant Tabs Inspector Hiding and Showing the Inspector Palette Hiding and Showing the Palette Templates and Styles Tabs Shapes Tab Media Tabs Toolbar Customizing the Toolbar Toolbar Items Drop Palette Using the Outline and Graphical Project Views Comparing the Outline and Graphical Tabs Using the Outline Tab Using the Graphical Tab Managing Elements Using the Outline and Graphical Tabs Importing and Managing Assets How DVD Studio Pro Manages Assets Assets Tab Importing Assets Removing Selected Assets Renaming Assets Refreshing Still and QuickTime Assets Opening Assets in Their Editor Identifying an Asset Previewing Assets Asset Inspector Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Contents 5 Chapter 6 205 205 206 208 208 209 209 211 212 212 215 218 218 219 219 220 222 223 224 225 226 229 231 231 233 236 236 237 238 239 240 244 244 253 253 256 258 259 264 266 268 272 Introduction to Creating Menus About Menus DVD Studio Pro Menu Creation Methods Working With 16:9 Menus Creating Menus for HD Projects Adding Intro and Transition Clips to Menus Adding "Easter Eggs" to Your Menus About the Menu Editor Using the Menu Rulers Menu Object Alignment Features Using the Menu Editor Pop-Up Menus and Tools Starting and Working With a Menu Creating a New Menu Opening a Menu Naming Menus Adding Assets to a Menu Selecting Multiple Menu Items Copying Menu Items Moving and Resizing Menu Items Verifying Your Menus About Chapter Index Menus Creating Menus Using the Standard Method Setting a Menu's Background and Overlay Choosing the Background Choosing the Overlay Understanding Color Mapping Differences Between Simple and Advanced Overlays Color Mapping Palette Color Mapping Sets Using Simple Overlay Color Mapping Using Advanced Overlay Color Mapping Configuring the Menu Inspector for Standard Menus Setting Menu Properties Adding Buttons to Your Menu Adding Overlay-Based Buttons Adding Shapes to a Menu Setting a Button's Connection Setting Button Properties About Button Numbers Adding Text to a Button Configuring Button Navigation About Overlapping Buttons Chapter 7 6 Contents 272 273 276 276 279 280 280 282 285 285 294 299 Chapter 8 303 303 304 309 312 313 315 316 317 323 323 323 326 326 326 331 331 332 333 337 337 342 345 345 345 347 347 352 Adding Drop Zones, Text Objects, and Audio to a Menu Adding Drop Zones to Your Menu Working With Assets in Buttons and Drop Zones Adding Text Objects to a Menu Adding Audio to a Menu Configuring Drop Shadow and Motion Settings Configuring the Menu's Drop Shadow Configuring Motion Menu Settings Options in the Drop Palette for Standard Menus Drop Palette for Standard Menus--Dragging Assets Drop Palette for Standard Menus--Dragging Project Elements Drop Palette for Standard Menus--Dragging Templates and Styles Using Templates, Styles, and Shapes to Create Your Menus What Are Templates and Styles? Templates and Styles in the Palette Applying a Template or Style Setting Default Styles Creating a Template or Style Importing Templates and Styles Deleting Templates and Styles Managing Shapes Creating Menus Using the Layered Method Setting a Menu's Background and Overlay Choosing the Background Choosing the Overlay Configuring the Menu Inspector for Layered Menus Setting Layered Menu Properties Adding Buttons to Your Layered Menu Mixing Overlay Buttons With Layered Buttons Configuring a Layered Button Setting Layered Menu Button Properties Options in the Drop Palette for Layered Menus Drop Palette for Layered Menus--Dragging Assets Drop Palette for Layered Menus--Dragging Project Elements Using Advanced Menu Features Adding Intro and Transition Clips to Menus Using Menu Intro Clips Button Transition Clips Using the Menu Transition Feature Manually Creating Button Transition Clips Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Contents 7 352 353 355 Chapter 11 357 357 358 358 358 359 359 359 360 364 364 366 370 370 372 376 378 379 380 380 381 384 385 386 387 390 390 391 392 393 394 395 395 396 396 397 398 398 399 Using Languages With Menus Creating and Configuring Menu Languages Setting Up Menus for the Languages Creating and Editing Tracks Working With a Track's Assets How Many Tracks Should You Have? About Subtitle Streams DVD Studio Pro Tools for Working With Tracks Getting Started With Tracks Creating Tracks Opening Tracks Setting Track Properties About the Track Editor Configuring the Track Editor Understanding Time Information in the Track Editor Working With the Track Editor's Streams Supported Asset Types Adding Video and Audio Assets Editing Video and Audio Clips Setting Stream Properties Exporting an MPEG Clip Working With Markers About Marker Placement Creating and Editing Markers Importing Markers From an Editor Importing Markers From a Text List About the Marker Types Setting Marker Properties Working With Stories Creating a Story for a Track Using the Story Editor Setting Story Properties Setting Story Entry Properties Simulating a Story Adding Alternate Video Streams Multi-Angle and Mixed-Angle Tracks About Alternate Stream Video Assets Creating a Multi-Angle Track Creating a Mixed-Angle Track Using Still Clip Transitions Adding Transitions to Still Clips Transition Tab in the Track and Clip Inspectors 8 Contents 400 400 401 402 403 Chapter 12 405 405 406 407 407 408 409 411 415 415 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 424 425 428 429 430 431 432 432 433 434 434 434 435 436 436 442 443 445 445 Transition Parameters Viewing a Track About the Viewer Tab Previewing Angles Simulating a Track Creating Slideshows But I Want My Slideshow To Do More File Formats for Slideshows Creating Slideshows Adding a Slideshow to Your Project Creating a Slideshow Using the Menu Editor Working With Slides in a Slideshow Adding Audio to Your Slideshow Working With Slideshows Setting the Slideshow Editor's Thumbnail Size Slideshow Editor Settings Slideshow Editor Controls Slide List Manually Changing a Slide's Duration Setting Up a Slideshow to Let the Viewer Advance the Slides Setting a Pause on the Last Slide Using Slideshow Transitions Converting a Slideshow to a Track Setting Slideshow Properties Setting Slide Properties Previewing a Slideshow Simulating a Slideshow Creating Subtitles Importing Older DVD Studio Pro Subtitles Subtitles and Overlays About Subtitles and Closed Captions Subtitle Stream Basics Working With Subtitles in DVD Studio Pro How Subtitles Switch Streams Subtitle Preferences Applying Subtitle Settings to the Stream Subtitle Inspector What Happens With Different Aspect Ratios? Viewing Subtitles Creating Subtitles With DVD Studio Pro Creating and Positioning a New Subtitle in a Stream Chapter 13 Contents 9 447 452 452 453 453 454 454 454 456 460 460 461 461 462 462 Chapter 14 467 467 469 469 470 470 471 474 476 476 477 477 478 479 480 481 483 484 485 488 488 489 489 490 490 490 491 Entering, Formatting, and Positioning Text Importing Graphics Files for Subtitles Importing a Graphics File Using Graphics Files to Create an Animation Creating and Importing Subtitle Files Using a Single Subtitle File Using a Group of Graphics Files Importing a Subtitle File Creating an STL Format Subtitle File Creating Buttons Over Video How Do Buttons Over Video Work? Adding Button Highlight Markers How a Button Highlight Marker Affects the Subtitle Stream Adding a Button Over Video Subtitle Clip Configuring a Button Over Video Subtitle Clip Creating Scripts Pre-Scripts Scripting Overview About DVD Player Registers About Scripting Commands The Scripting User Interface Script Tab Script Inspectors Creating Scripts Creating a Script Duplicating and Saving Scripts Loading Scripts Testing Scripts General Scripting Information Script Command Details Compare Function Nop Command Jump Command Set GPRM Command Goto Command Set System Stream Command Resume Command GPRM Mode Command Exit Command Exit Pre-Script Command Jump Indirect Command System Parameter Register Memories 10 Contents 491 503 504 504 509 509 510 512 517 519 Chapter 15 525 525 526 527 531 531 532 534 534 541 543 544 545 546 552 552 553 555 557 558 560 560 560 562 562 563 564 565 568 570 570 SPRMs' Values and Their Meaning Using Bit-Wise Operations General Purpose Register Memories GPRM Specifics Scripting Examples Jumping to a Menu's Loop Point Randomly Playing Tracks Playing All Tracks Checking a DVD Player's Parental Management Setting Language Code Table Establishing Connections About Connections Connections Tab Connection Items Making Connections Changing the Displayed Sources Establishing Connections in the Connections Tab Connection Details Source Details Target Details Finishing a Project Should You Burn, Build, Format, or Build and Format? Testing Your Project With the Simulator Simulating Your Project Setting Disc Properties Settings at the Top of the Disc Inspector General Tab in the Disc Inspector Disc/Volume Tab in the Disc Inspector Region/Copyright Tab in the Disc Inspector Advanced Tab in the Disc Inspector Building Your Project Prebuild Disc Properties About the Macrovision Settings About Jacket Pictures Building the Project Incremental Builds General Build Information The Build Files for SD Projects The Build Files for HD Projects Emulating Your Project Emulating Using DVD Player Chapter 16 Contents 11 572 572 572 576 580 581 581 583 585 585 Chapter 17 587 588 588 589 593 594 594 596 597 598 598 599 602 603 603 604 604 605 606 607 608 608 609 610 611 611 611 Setting Disc Format Properties Preformat Disc Properties About DVD-ROM Discs About Dual-Layer Discs About Two-Sided Discs Formatting Your Project Starting a Format Process Configuring the Output Type The Cutting Master Format Reading a DLT Drive Using Advanced Features VTS Editor About VTS Blocks Using the VTS Editor VTS Inspector DVD@CCESS Creating DVD@CCESS Links in Your Project Testing DVD@CCESS Links Configuring Computers for DVD@CCESS Playback User Operations Setting User Operations User Operations Properties Getting Consistent Previous and Next Button Behavior Display Condition Comparing Display Conditions and Pre-Scripts Display Condition Parameters Setting Up a Display Condition Example: Setting a Parental Management Display Condition Conditional Elements and States Conditional Relationships Issues With Display Conditions Remote Control Settings Remote Control Buttons Configuring the Remote Control Buttons Line 21 Settings for Closed Captions About Subtitles and Closed Captions Adding Closed Captions to a DVD 12 Contents Appendix A 613 613 615 616 616 617 618 618 619 620 622 623 623 623 624 624 625 626 628 629 629 631 632 633 633 638 639 639 639 639 640 645 655 Keyboard Shortcuts General Interface and Application Controls General Project Controls Adding Project Elements Scrolling Through Lists Assets Tab Connections Tab Graphical Tab Log Tab Menu Tab (Menu Editor) Outline Tab Palette Script Tab (Script Editor) Simulator Slideshow Tab (Slideshow Editor) Story Tab (Story Editor) Subtitle Editor Track Tab (Track Editor) Viewer Tab Importing Other Projects Importing iDVD Projects and Themes Importing DVD Studio Pro 1 Projects Into DVD Studio Pro 4 Importing DVD Studio Pro 2 and DVD Studio Pro 3 Projects Into DVD Studio Pro 4 Calculating Disc Space Requirements Calculating a Project's Disc Space Requirements Using the Calculated Bit Rate Transition Parameters Transition Duration Video Transition Alpha Transitions Standard Transitions Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Glossary Index Contents 13 An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 DVD Studio Pro is software for authoring DVD-Video titles. It is both powerful and easy to use. DVD Studio Pro lets you work with audio, video, graphics, and text materials that you have already created and edited and orchestrate them into a DVD that can be played on a DVD player or a suitably equipped computer. If you have used such production tools as Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Media 100, or Discreet cleaner, DVD Studio Pro will be easy for you to learn. You can use DVD Studio Pro for everything from constructing sophisticated training materials, corporate presentations, sales tools with web links, or high-quality event videos, to preparing a motion picture for release on DVD. When you install DVD Studio Pro, you have access to the following tools (in addition to the DVD authoring software) to help you prepare your material, learn the program, and view your DVD: · QuickTime MPEG Decoder, for viewing MPEG-2 streams with QuickTime · The Apple Compressor application, for encoding QuickTime video to MPEG-2 streams and uncompressed audio to Dolby Digital AC-3 What's New With DVD Studio Pro 4 There are a number of new features, enhancements, and changes in this version of DVD Studio Pro, the most significant of which are introduced below. Support for Authoring DVDs With HD Video In addition to authoring standard definition (SD) DVDs, DVD Studio Pro 4 adds support for authoring DVDs containing high definition (HD) video that conform to the new HD DVD standard. This makes it possible for you to author DVDs using a variety of HD video sources that can be burned to either red laser or blue laser drives and played by the latest Apple DVD Player. Preface 15 See "About Standard and High Definition DVDs" on page 19 for additional information. See "Emulating Your Project" on page 570 for more information on DVD Player requirements. Support for External Video and Audio Monitors You can now connect external video and audio monitors that can be used when simulating your project. When you author a DVD, it can be important to see the video and hear the audio with devices that closely match those that the viewer is expected to use. Being able to do this while simulating your project allows you to verify the video and audio prior to building your project and burning a test DVD. In particular: · You see the true color based on YUV values instead of a computer monitor's RGB values. · You see the actual pixel aspect ratios. To display SD resolution 4:3 or 16:9 video on a computer monitor requires the pixels to be scaled, which can create or hide issues in the video. · By connecting a suitable AC-3 or DTS decoder, you can hear surround sound audio. The video monitor uses your system's second monitor connection (if available). For example, you could connect an NTSC or PAL monitor to the S-Video output of a PowerBook G4 computer. The audio monitor, which can include a suitable AC-3 or DTS decoder, can be connected to the computer's optical digital audio output (also known as an S/PDIF output) or to the computer's FireWire or USB port. See "External Video and Audio Monitoring" on page 31 for details on the equipment and "Simulating With an External Video and Audio Monitor" on page 547 for information on using the Simulator. Video Title Set (VTS) Editor Added DVD Studio Pro 4 now includes a VTS Editor that allows you to view and control the VTS structure of your project. Using the VTS Editor, you are now able to manually assign elements to VTS blocks. This makes it possible for you to optimize the final DVD's layout so that when it's played there are minimal pauses due to the player having to move between elements in different parts of the disc. Important: The order of elements in the Outline tab no longer affects the file structure when building your project. Additionally, DVD Studio Pro 4 will now automatically create additional VTS blocks as needed to support menus with a variety of video and audio assets. For example, if you have a main menu that uses an AC-3 audio asset and a second menu that uses an AIFF audio asset, each menu is automatically placed in its own VTS. See "VTS Editor" on page 588 for more information. 16 Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 Improved General Purpose Register Memory (GPRM) Usage When creating scripts, you may find that you could use an additional GPRM or two. DVD Studio Pro provides access to eight 16-bit GPRM registers, but you don't always need the full 16-bits of a register. DVD Studio Pro 4 allows you to increase the number of GPRM registers by partitioning one or more of them into smaller sizes. For example, you could choose to partition GPRM 1 into four 4-bit registers. This makes it possible to greatly increase the usable number of GRPMs available when creating your scripts. See "Configuring GPRM Partitions" on page 505 for more information. Improved Motion Integration DVD Studio Pro 4 can now support specialized markers added to your Motion projects. These markers can define the loop point when creating a motion menu and the transition switch point when creating Alpha Transitions. See the Motion User Manual, in the Motion Help menu, for more information. AC-3 Encoding Added to Compressor Compressor now includes the ability to encode Dolby Digital AC-3 audio files. You can encode uncompressed audio assets containing from 1 to 5.1 channels using the Compressor batch and preset capabilities. See the Compressor User Manual, in the Compressor Help menu, for more information. Compressor Includes Distributed Encoding DVD Studio Pro 4 includes an enhanced version of Compressor that supports distributed encoding. Distributed encoding allows you to spread the encoding workload among several computers, which can greatly speed up the process. See the Compressor User Manual, in the Compressor Help menu, for more information. Support for Additional Digital Theatre Systems (DTS) Audio Formats You can now use DTS ES audio that has up to 6.1 channels, as well as audio that uses a 96 kHz sample rate and a 24-bit sample size. Important: All DTS audio imported into DVD Studio Pro must use the compacted file format, with a ".cpt" file extension. See "DTS Audio" on page 79 for more information. Dual-Layer Break Points Can Be Set in DVD-ROM Area In those dual-layer projects that have more DVD-ROM content than DVD-Video content, you can now set the break point within the ROM content. See "Setting the Break Point With Large DVD-ROM Contents" on page 578 for more information. Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 17 Menu Loop Point Feature Improved You are now able to use the menu loop point feature with any motion menu, even those with drop zones, text items, and buttons with video assets. Additionally, you can now use a script to jump to a menu's loop point. When configuring the Jump command, an option has been added to the Script Inspector that allows you to jump directly to a menu's loop point rather than the start point. See "Jumping to a Menu's Loop Point" on page 509 for an example and "Configuring Motion Menu Settings" on page 282 for information on setting the loop point. Moving From iDVD to DVD Studio Pro The Apple entry-level DVD authoring application is iDVD. It allows you to create simple DVD-Video titles with some of the most popular features found in Hollywood-style releases, without having to know any technical details about the process. The interface and feature set are configured to make the process nearly foolproof. Eventually, however, you will find yourself requiring features beyond those that iDVD offers. DVD Studio Pro gives you access to a wide range of professional features outlined in the DVD specification: · Support for multiple video, audio, and subtitle streams, making it easy to create discs that support multiple languages or add features such as a director's commentary · Additional menu functionality. For example, you can create and add up to 36 buttons, control the navigation between them, and have more flexibility when assigning their functions. · Alternate ways to play back movies. You can use the DVD Studio Pro story feature to control how a movie plays. · Support for web interactivity. You can embed links to websites or other documents into your DVD title. · Many advanced features supported by the DVD specification, such as dual-layer discs and copy protection DVD Studio Pro offers several workflows and work styles for creating DVD projects, including templates and the drag-and-drop method used within iDVD. This makes DVD Studio Pro easy to learn while still providing the advanced features you need. Important: See "Importing iDVD Projects and Themes" on page 629 for information on importing iDVD projects. 18 Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 About Standard and High Definition DVDs Standard definition (SD) DVDs provided most viewers with their first digital video experience. The great video quality, interactive menus, and surround sound audio found on current DVDs set a high standard for viewer expectations. Meanwhile, the establishment of high definition (HD) video format standards and the increasing availability of HD broadcasts have led to more and more viewers having HD video monitors, and even higher expectations for DVDs. These expectations, along with the development of improved compression technologies and a blue laser technology that greatly increases a disc's storage capacity, have led to the ability of recording HD video onto a DVD. But I Thought DVDs Were Already High Definition? In addition to traditional 4:3 aspect ratio video, traditional DVDs support widescreen 16:9 video, which is often mistaken for being high definition. The 16:9 video used on current DVDs, however, is the same resolution as the 4:3 video, which is the same as the standard NTSC and PAL broadcast resolutions. The 16:9 video must be anamorphic, which makes it appear horizontally squashed when viewed on a 4:3 monitor. This leads to a logical next question--what constitutes high definition video? While most HD video formats use a 16:9 aspect ratio, what generally defines whether they are HD or not is the resolution. Video resolutions that result in more pixels per frame than are used in SD-based DVDs are considered high definition. There are two common HD vertical resolutions: 720 lines and 1080 lines (used for both NTSC and PAL). These compare to NTSC's 480 lines and PAL's 576 lines for SD video. As with SD-based DVDs, the scanning method used on HD-based DVDs can be interlaced, with a video frame containing one field with the odd lines and another field with the even lines, or progressive, where each frame is complete. Not all HD formats support progressive scanning, however. See "Supported Video Resolutions" on page 21 for details on supported SD and HD video formats, including frame rates and scanning methods. Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 19 About DVD Studio Pro 4 and HD Resolution DVDs In addition to supporting standard definition (SD) format video DVDs, DVD Studio Pro 4 now supports creating high definition (HD) format video DVDs. With the exception of support for HD video resolutions and the number of buttons on menus and button over video subtitles, HD projects in DVD Studio Pro 4 have the same limits as SD projects. There are two aspects to creating DVDs with HD content: what you can put into the DVD video zone and the DVD disc media. DVD Video Zone With HD Content While the contents of the DVD video zone for an HD-based DVD (HVDVD_TS) are similar to those of an SD-based DVD video zone (VIDEO_TS), there are some important differences: · HD-based DVDs support a broad range of video resolutions, including most of those used in SD-based DVDs. See "Supported Video Resolutions" on page 21 for a complete list of supported resolutions. · In addition to supporting SD MPEG-2 video encodes, HD-based DVDs support HD MPEG-2 and H.264 video encodes. These are discussed in "HD Video Assets" on page 22. Blue Laser Disc Media Due to the improved video resolution possible with HD video, the encoded video files for HD resolution DVDs can be larger than those used with SD resolution DVDs. For that reason, a media format based on a blue laser was designed specifically for DVD projects containing HD video. See the following table for a comparison of SD and HD disc sizes. Disc Single-sided, single-layer Single-sided, dual-layer Red laser capacity 4.7 GB 8.54 GB Blue laser capacity 15 GB 30 GB In addition to blue laser based DVD media, an HD project's DVD video zone can be written to DVD media based on the red lasers used by traditional DVDs. (The obvious limitation is that you will not be able to fit as much video data on the disc.) Important: SD-based DVD players are not able to play DVD projects containing HD content, whether they are on red or blue laser media. Additionally, only HD projects on special 3x DVD-ROM red laser media are officially supported in the HD DVD specification. You can burn HD projects to traditional red laser media on your system; however, the discs might not play in all HD DVD players. 20 Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 Supported Video Resolutions All video resolutions supported by SD-based DVDs are also supported by HD-based DVDs. This means that an HD-based DVD can use an HD video resolution for the main feature, then use an SD video resolution for extras. The following list includes the SD and HD video resolutions supported by DVD Studio Pro 4. Note: MPEG-1 encoded video files are not supported in HD projects. NTSC Frame rates with an "i" indicate the interlaced scanning method; those with a "p" indicate the progressive scanning method. Resolution 352 x 240 352 x 480 704 x 480 720 x 480 720 x 480 1280 x 720 1440 x 1080 1920 x 1080 Frame rate 29.97i 29.97i 29.97i 29.97i 59.94p 59.94p 29.97i 29.97i Aspect ratio 4:3 4:3 4:3, 16:9 4:3, 16:9 16:9 16:9 16:9 16:9 Notes Also known as SIF format Also known as 1/2 D1 Also known as Cropped D1; 16:9 is anamorphic Also known as Full D1; 16:9 is anamorphic HD only, also known as 480p; is anamorphic HD only, also known as 720p HD only; 16:9 is anamorphic HD only, also known as 1080i PAL Frame rates with an "i" indicate the interlaced scanning method; those with a "p" indicate the progressive scanning method. Resolution 352 x 288 352 x 576 704 x 576 720 x 576 720 x 576 1280 x 720 1440 x 1080 1920 x 1080 Frame rate 25i 25i 25i 25i 50p 50p 25i 25i Aspect ratio 4:3 4:3 4:3, 16:9 4:3, 16:9 16:9 16:9 16:9 16:9 Notes Also known as SIF format Also known as 1/2 D1 Also known as Cropped D1; 16:9 is anamorphic Also known as Full D1; 16:9 is anamorphic HD only, also known as 576p; is anamorphic HD only, also known as 720p HD only; 16:9 is anamorphic HD only, also known as 1080i Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 21 Using 24P Video Formats Both SD and HD projects can use assets encoded at 24 fps (actually 23.98 fps), as long as they are encoded specifically with NTSC or PAL flags set. Video at 24 fps has two main advantages: It matches the film frame rate, and, in the case of NTSC, provides much smaller files due to having six fewer frames per second. See "Importing 24 fps Assets" on page 49 for more information. HD Video Assets There are a variety of sources for HD video assets to use in your HD projects, with the most common being DVCPRO HD and HDV camcorders. · With DVCPRO HD, once you have finished editing the video, the result will need to be encoded to the HD MPEG-2 or H.264 video format. · With HDV, which is already compliant MPEG-2 HD video, you can edit the video in Final Cut Pro 5 and import the result directly in your HD projects. DVD Studio Pro 4 supports HD video encoded using the HD MPEG-2 codec and the H.264 codec. Both of these formats are playable with the Apple DVD Player. You can use Compressor to encode video to either of these formats. When you import HD resolution QuickTime video, such as DVCPRO HD video, into DVD Studio Pro, it is HD MPEG-2 encoded using the embedded MPEG encoder. Using HDV Assets The HDV format uses MPEG-2 encoding to store HD video on a standard DV or Mini DV tape. There are two video resolutions supported by the HDV format: · 1280 x 720 (720p) at 19 Mbps · 1440 x 1080 (1080i) at 25 Mbps (which is anamorphic 16:9) Imported HDV assets have the video and audio separated into elementary streams (the HDV format combines the video and audio into a single file), but are not otherwise processed or converted. Using H.264 Assets You can use the H.264 for HD DVD presets included with Compressor to encode several supported HD and SD video resolutions for use in your HD projects. The H.264 encoder is twice as efficient as the standard MPEG-2 encoder. When compared to encoding with MPEG-2, this means that with the H.264 encoder: · You can use a lower bit rate to get the same quality, resulting in smaller files. · You can use the same bit rate and get better quality with the same file size. 22 Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 Using DVCPRO HD and Uncompressed HD Assets Another source of HD assets for your HD projects is video encoded with the DVCPRO HD compression types or uncompressed video. DVCPRO HD video, like DVCPRO SD video, and uncompressed video cannot be used directly in your DVD Studio Pro projects. You can import them, however, and DVD Studio Pro will automatically encode them to compatible HD MPEG-2 assets using the embedded MPEG encoder. You can also encode them to HD MPEG-2 or H.264 using Compressor or QuickTime. Brief Overview of the DVD Creation Process You can create many different styles of DVDs with DVD Studio Pro, from corporate presentations to training materials to event videos to feature films. While the content and structure of each style may vary considerably, they all use the same basic DVD creation process. Edit raw sources · iMovie · Final Cut Pro · Final Cut Express Other sources · Motion · Keynote · LiveType · Soundtrack · Compressor · iTunes · iPhoto DLT drive DVD burner (SuperDrive) Encode assets. Create menus, tracks, slideshows. Build and format the project. Author the DVD with DVD Studio Pro Replication facility Duplication facility There are four phases to the DVD creation process: · · · · Creating your source material Encoding audio and video to compatible formats Authoring your DVD title Building the project and creating your disc It's important to understand the entire process, and how DVD Studio Pro is used in the process, before you begin your DVD projects. Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 23 Creating Source Material The first part of the DVD creation process is to create or assemble your source material. This might mean shooting video, recording voice or music tracks, designing graphics to be included, and planning the general functionality of your project. If you are converting an existing video program into a DVD, you may only need to gather your original video and audio material and design graphics for the menus that will weave them together. You can use whatever tools you prefer for creating your video and audio material, as long as the resulting files are compatible with the MPEG or H.264 encoder that you plan to use. In most cases, your video and audio assets will be created and saved as QuickTime movie files or in standard sound file formats like AIFF, WAVE, or SoundDesigner II. Your program material should be completely edited, including any special effects, audio fades, and scene transitions, before you encode it. Menu graphics can be still image files, multilayer Photoshop files, or full-motion video. To create the menu graphics, you can use virtually any graphics program. DVD Studio Pro includes extra support for Adobe Photoshop (PSD) files, taking advantage of Photoshop's "layers" feature to simplify the creation of backgrounds and overlays. Also included is support for the menu loop point you can set in Motion. If you plan to include alternate-language subtitles in your DVD project, you will want to have your soundtrack transcribed and translated. Quality In = Quality Out The most important thing you can do when preparing your assets is to use the highestquality settings available. Any flaws in your material will be revealed on DVD much more quickly than in any other medium. Once they are encoded into a DVD-compliant format, DVD Studio Pro does not improve or degrade the quality of your source material in any way; if you use highquality source materials, you'll get high-quality results. 24 Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 Here are some guidelines to help you maintain high quality. · Capture and edit your video material at the same resolution that you will use on the DVD (typically 720 x 480 at 29.97 frames per second [fps] for NTSC or 720 x 576 at 25 fps for PAL for SD-based DVDs). · When recording and editing audio, use a 48 kilohertz (kHz) sample rate and no compression. This assures the best quality whether you use the uncompressed audio on the DVD or decide to use the Compressor AC-3 encoder to compress it. Important: When creating DVDs, your audio must have either a 48 kHz or 96 kHz sample rate. You cannot use the 44.1 kHz sample rate found on standard audio CDs. In most cases, the DVD Studio Pro embedded AIFF encoder will convert your audio to the correct sample rate if necessary. · When saving video material to the QuickTime format, either specify no compression (which requires a lot of disk space) or use a high-quality compression codec like DV or Motion JPEG. Encoding Video and Audio Once you have created your source materials, they must be encoded to comply with the DVD specification. DVD Studio Pro can use materials encoded using its embedded MPEG and AIFF encoders, as well as materials encoded using the Apple Compressor application and other methods. What Is Needed for DVD? Before video or audio material can be used on a DVD, it must be prepared in one of the formats defined in the DVD specification. This usually means MPEG-2 format for video and Dolby AC-3 format for audio files (although you can also use standard PCM audio formats, such as AIFF files, DTS format files, and MPEG-1 Layer 2 formatted files). SD projects also accept the older MPEG-1 video format, most commonly seen in webbased applications. Because MPEG-1 is about one quarter the resolution of MPEG-2 (352 x 240 as opposed to 720 x 480 for NTSC or 352 x 288 versus 720 x 576 for PAL) and utilizes much lower data rates, the quality is significantly lower. However, MPEG-1 is useful for very long programs if the picture quality is not of primary importance. Using MPEG-1 encoding, you can fit many hours of material on a single DVD. Important: You cannot use MPEG-1 formatted video assets in HD projects. MPEG encoding performs extremely complex calculations on your source material to determine what can be safely "thrown away" with minimal impact on the visual quality. As a result, MPEG encoding can produce files that are less than ten percent the size of the source files, while still looking great. Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 25 Using the DVD Studio Pro Tools DVD Studio Pro includes embedded MPEG-2 and AIFF encoders. When you add a QuickTime asset directly to your DVD Studio Pro project, it is automatically encoded to be DVD-compliant. You can choose whether the asset is encoded in the background while you continue authoring or whether the encode waits until you build your project. Also included with DVD Studio Pro is Compressor, an encoding tool that provides additional MPEG encoding configurations and can process batches of video and audio clips in one step. For many projects you will probably want to use a Dolby-certified AC-3 encoder (such as the AC-3 encoder included with Compressor). An AC-3 encoder can be used to encode multichannel surround soundtracks for inclusion on a DVD, as well as for stereo or mono soundtracks. Using AC-3 encoded audio results in smaller files and a lower playback bit rate. Uncompressed audio formats (PCM or AIFF) have significantly larger file sizes and generally do not support specialized soundtrack formats, such as surround channels. Using Pre-Encoded Sources There are many other available tools that produce MPEG and H.264 streams, including software and hardware encoders. You can use any MPEG encoder you prefer, as long as it creates DVD-compliant elementary streams. This means that the audio and video information is contained in separate files (the streams). Important: DVD Studio Pro cannot use MPEG multiplexed System, Program, or Transport streams for DVD projects. See "About MPEG Video" on page 54 for more information on DVD-compliant requirements. Authoring With DVD Studio Pro You use DVD Studio Pro to orchestrate your video, audio, and graphics material into an interactive DVD-Video title, complete with menus, buttons, subtitles, and alternate languages or soundtracks. DVD Studio Pro gives you complete control over every aspect of your DVD, and lets you view its elements and simulate your DVD in real time as you create it. You can easily create menus, add buttons, and specify the actions that occur when the buttons are activated. You can define powerful linking and scripting functionality with just a few clicks. And the Inspector gives you a complete picture of all the characteristics of any item in your project. 26 Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 Authoring in DVD Studio Pro consists of these basic steps: Step 1: Set the DVD and video standard You can use DVD Studio Pro to author traditional SD-based DVDs or HD-based DVDs using either NTSC or PAL frame rates. It is important to set this before importing your assets since these settings control what happens when QuickTime assets are imported. Step 2: Import assets Import your video, audio, graphics, and subtitle assets into DVD Studio Pro. If they are not already DVD-compliant, the embedded MPEG encoder automatically encodes them. Step 3: Create menus Create one or more menus to define the structure and navigation of your DVD. The menus can rely completely on the supplied templates and styles or can use your own graphics. Step 4: Add buttons to the menus Add one or more buttons to your menus. The display mode (4:3, 16:9 Letterbox, and so on) and DVD standard (SD DVD or HD DVD) determine the maximum number of buttons each menu can have. Each button can initiate a wide variety of actions, the most common being to open a different menu, play a track, or run a script. This hierarchy of menus and buttons gives you tremendous flexibility in constructing an "interactive" program in which the viewer has numerous options to choose from. Step 5: Create tracks and slideshows Create one or more tracks, each consisting of one or more video streams, audio streams, subtitle streams, chapter markers, and stories. Create one or more slideshows, each consisting of still images and, optionally, audio. Tracks and slideshows can also be created by dragging assets to the Menu Editor and choosing options from the Drop Palette. Step 6: Link the project elements Set up the various actions and links that will make your project work as it should when viewed. For example, you can set what happens when a DVD player first starts playing the disc, what happens when a track finishes playing, and what happens if the player sits idle at a menu for a specific amount of time. Step 7: Simulate your project View your elements and test your project as you go using the real-time DVD Simulator built in to DVD Studio Pro. This process allows you to verify the links between the project elements. Step 8: Build and burn your project Build the completed project and either send it to a replication facility or burn a DVD on your own system. Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 27 Creating a Disc Creating a disc involves two steps: building the DVD-formatted video zone (VIDEO_TS for SD-based DVDs and HVDVD_TS for HD-based DVDs) and formatting it for how you intend to deliver it. Building the Video Zone When you build your SD-based DVD project, a set of files is created and stored on your hard disk in a folder named "VIDEO_TS" (video title set). The contents and structure of this folder is strictly defined by the DVD specification. HD projects store their files in a folder named "HVDVD_TS." When you build your project within DVD Studio Pro, it combines all the material you've included (video, audio, and subtitles for the menus and tracks) into a single stream and writes it to this special folder. Using DVD Player, which is included with your operating system, you can open and play the contents of this folder, just as if it were on a DVD disc. Formatting and Burning Depending on the quantity of DVD discs you need, you can: · Burn one or more DVDs on your system (if properly equipped). This is a quick way to create a test disc. Note: You cannot add high-end features such as copy protection. · Send a burned disc to a duplicator who can burn additional copies for you. This allows you to create more discs than you would want to burn on your own system at a lower cost than using a replicator. Since the copies are based on a disc you burn on your system, the duplicated discs have the same restrictions as when you burn on your system. · Prepare suitable files to send to a DVD replication facility. Use a replicator to make copies that are compatible with all DVD players, to create larger quantities of discs, and to include specialized features not supported by your system's DVD burner. If you are using a DVD replication facility, you can deliver your project to the facility in several ways: · DLT: Digital Linear Tape (DLT) is the preferred method for sending a DVD project to a DVD replication facility. DVD Studio Pro supports writing directly to a DLT drive. DLT is well suited to transporting DVD projects because of its reliability and very high capacity. · DVD-R: Many DVD replicators accept DVD-R discs for replication. There are special requirements if you want to include high-end features such as dual-layer and copy protection. See "DVD Burners" on page 30 for more information on using DVD-R discs for replication, including information about the Cutting Master Format (CMF). 28 Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 What Makes a DVD Authoring System? The DVD Studio Pro installation booklet lists the minimum hardware and software requirements necessary for using DVD Studio Pro to build DVD titles. However, you may find you need additional items beyond the minimum requirements to make up your DVD authoring system. Depending on the types of DVD titles you intend to create, your DVD authoring system can be an off-the-shelf Power Mac G4 with a SuperDrive, or a specialized system with additional drives and hardware. Hard Disk Storage No matter what sort of titles you intend to create, you will be working with very large files. You should have at least twice as much hard disk storage space as the size of your project. (For DVD-5, for example, which can hold about 4.4 GB, you need 4.4 GB for the MPEG-2 encoded asset files and another 4.4 GB to hold the built, or compiled, project. An HD project can require about 60 GB to hold the asset and built project. Original asset files, such as DV format video, require much more space than the MPEG-2 encoded versions used in your DVD project.) For best build performance, dedicate two or three Ultra Wide A/V or FireWire hard disks to your project. (Make sure they contain only your media and no other programs that might fragment the disk and decrease performance.) If you have three disks, use one for video assets, one for audio assets, and the third for the finished files. If you have two disks, use one for source assets and one for final files. SCSI Devices Depending on your needs, you may need to add external devices--such as hard disks and DLT drives--that require SCSI support. To use SCSI devices, you must either have your Mac properly equipped when ordering it, or add a third-party SCSI PCI card to your existing desktop computer. Contact your Apple Authorized Reseller or see the Support area of the Apple website for a list of suggested SCSI cards and devices. Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 29 DVD Burners Being able to burn a DVD is useful for both proofing your titles on set-top DVD players and burning the finished project (when only a small number of discs are required). You can also burn a disc for a duplication or replication facility to use as a master when larger quantities are needed. You cannot burn discs that support Macrovision copy-protection or Content Scrambling System (CSS) encryption. These must be created at a replication facility. Note: For best results, it is recommended that you supply the replication facility a DLT tape instead of a DVD-R. Be sure to confirm with the facility what formats it supports. When choosing a DVD burner for your system, you have the option of using an Apple SuperDrive or other drives. Your choice depends in part on which media you want to use: whether you intend to burn on red laser or blue laser media and, in the case of red laser burners, whether to use general or authoring media. Note: You cannot burn SD projects to blue laser media. General Versus Authoring Media The first drives created to write DVD-R discs used a special red laser and expensive media, now known as authoring media drives. The most common DVD-R drives, however, use a less expensive red laser and media. Such drives are known as general media drives. Red laser DVD-R drives can write to either general or authoring media--not both. The SuperDrive supplied with many Apple systems supports only general media. To use authoring media, you need to connect a special DVD-R drive. Important: Be sure you write only to media supported by your drive. If the media is not labeled either general or authoring, it was likely manufactured before the existence of general drives, and can be assumed to be authoring-compatible. The type of media you use only affects the writing of the disc. Both types of DVD-R drives and most DVD-ROM drives and set-top DVD players can read and play both general and authoring media. For most projects, there is no significant difference between a DVD created using general or authoring drives and discs. However, if you intend to use a replicator and require highend features such as dual-layer discs, Macrovision copy-protection, region support, and CSS data encryption, you must use authoring media with an authoring drive. 30 Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 Even with authoring media, you cannot burn a DVD that supports any of these highend features on your own system. However, authoring media supports the Cutting Master Format (CMF), which can be used to add information required by the replicator to put these features on your discs. General media does not support CMF. See "The Cutting Master Format" on page 585 for more information on the CMF standard. DLT Drives Digital Linear Tape (DLT) drives are the most reliable way to deliver DVD content to a replicator. They are also a good way to back up completed projects so that you can remove them from your hard disks and make room for your next project. DVD data written to DLT drives with DVD Studio Pro can use Data Description Protocol (DDP) version 2.0 or version 2.1. You can also write using CMF version 1.0. External Video and Audio Monitoring You can configure your system to support external video and audio monitors. This makes it possible to more closely simulate a viewer's environment before you build the project and burn a test DVD. When using external monitors, keep the following in mind: · External video monitors are only used during simulation. · External audio monitors are active during simulation and while playing from the Assets tab or any of the editors (Track, Story, Slideshow, and Menu Editors). · When using an external video monitor, the Simulator window on your computer is inactive. · You cannot use the pointer to click buttons on the external video monitor. You must control the simulation by using the Simulator window's controls. · Depending on your system and the video being simulated, frames may be skipped during playback in order to maintain synchronized playback with the audio. The Simulator pane in DVD Studio Pro Preferences contains settings that control whether the external video and audio monitors are used. Additionally, the Simulator contains settings that allow you to change the display mode (4:3 Pan-Scan, 4:3 Letterbox, or 16:9) and resolution (SD, HD 720, or HD 1080). See "Simulator Preferences" on page 122 and "Simulating With an External Video and Audio Monitor" on page 547 for more information. Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 31 Connecting an External Video Monitor When simulating your project on your computer's video monitor, you do not see video exactly as a viewer would when playing the video using a set-top DVD player connected to an NTSC or PAL monitor. There are two primary differences: · Pixel aspect ratio: Computer monitors always use square pixels, while SD video uses rectangular pixels. When viewed on the computer's monitor, the Simulator scales the pixels to make them fit the 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio, which can affect the video appearance. · Color space: Computer monitors generally use RGB color space for their displays while most monitors used to view DVDs use the YUV color space. The advantage of connecting an external video monitor is that, depending on the monitor you connect, you are able to see the video as the viewer would see it. The external video monitor uses the second monitor as configured in the Displays pane of System Preferences. You must set the resolution and refresh rate to match the external monitor. There are two common approaches to connecting an external video monitor: · Connecting a video monitor to your computer's S-Video output (if present) · Connecting a second monitor to your system (if supported) For example, you could connect an NTSC or PAL monitor to the S-Video output of a PowerBook G4 system. Note: When connected to an NTSC or PAL monitor, this video output provides only an approximation of what the video will look like when burned to a disc and played on a DVD player. Due to rendering, rescaling, and interlacing issues, you should not rely on this output as a true representation of the video quality, especially with SD projects. 32 Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 Connecting an External Audio Monitor There are two primary issues with monitoring your project's audio using the computer's built-in audio system: · The built-in system cannot play surround sound audio. The audio is first downmixed to stereo, then played. · The built-in system cannot play DTS audio. There are two common approaches to connecting an external audio monitor: · Connecting a suitable AC-3 or DTS decoder to the computer's optical digital audio output (also known as an S/PDIF output) · Connecting a suitable AC-3 or DTS decoder to the computer's FireWire or USB port Audio and Video Assets Audio and video assets can come from a wide variety of analog and digital sources. You must have an equally wide variety of ways to capture these sources on your authoring system. When bringing your assets into DVD Studio Pro, you should keep in mind the following issues. Have the Assets Been Edited Yet? DVD Studio Pro is not an editor. You can use it to link assets together on a timeline, as with an editor, and even trim an asset's start and end, but you cannot add effects such as dissolves and text credits, or perform any audio mixing. Your assets need to be already edited using an application such as Final Cut Pro. If you are editing the assets on your authoring computer, you need to capture them in a format required by your editing software. Once edited, the assets can be imported into DVD Studio Pro (if they are in a QuickTime-supported format) or encoded into DVD-compliant MPEG and audio formats, using either the encoders supplied by DVD Studio Pro or third-party applications. Capturing From an Audio or Video Player Often your assets will be edited at a post-production facility and you will capture them directly from a video- or audiotape player. In this case, you must have a third-party capture card that supports the video and audio formats used. This video must be captured in a QuickTime format that the DVD Studio Pro embedded MPEG encoder can convert to DVD-compliant formats, or captured directly as DVD-compliant MPEG and audio sources. Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 33 Resources for Learning About DVD Studio Pro This manual provides background and conceptual information, as well as step-by-step instructions for tasks, and a glossary of terms. It is designed to provide the information you need to get up to speed quickly so that you can take full advantage of DVD Studio Pro. In addition to this manual, DVD Studio Pro provides other sources of support. DVD Studio Pro Onscreen User Manual The DVD Studio Pro onscreen User Manual allows you to access information directly onscreen while you're working in DVD Studio Pro. To view this information, choose Help > DVD Studio Pro User Manual. DVD Studio Pro User Manual is a fully hyperlinked version of the User Manual, enhanced with many features that make locating information quick and easy. · The homepage provides quick access to various features, including Late-Breaking News and the DVD Studio Pro website. · A comprehensive bookmark list allows you to quickly choose what you want to see and takes you there as soon as you click the link. In addition to these navigational tools, DVD Studio Pro User Manual gives you other means to locate information quickly: · All cross-references in the text are linked. You can click any cross-reference and jump immediately to that location. Then, you can use the Preview Back button to return to where you were before you clicked the cross-reference. · The table of contents and index are also linked. If you click an entry in either of these sections, you jump directly to that section of the user manual. · You can also use the Find dialog to search the text for specific words or a phrase. Apple Websites There are a variety of Apple websites that you can visit to find additional information. DVD Studio Pro Website For general information and updates, as well as the latest news on DVD Studio Pro, go to: · http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro 34 Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 Apple Service and Support Website For software updates and answers to the most frequently asked questions for all Apple products, including DVD Studio Pro, go to: · http://www.apple.com/support/dvdstudiopro You'll also have access to product specifications, reference documentation, and Apple and third-party product technical articles. Other Apple Websites Start at the Apple homepage to find the latest and greatest information about Apple products: · http://www.apple.com This page lists complete specifications for DVD Studio Pro: · http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro/specs.html QuickTime is industry-standard technology for handling video, sound, animation, graphics, text, music, and 360-degree virtual reality (VR) scenes. QuickTime provides a high level of performance, compatibility, and quality for delivering digital video. Go to the QuickTime website for information on the types of media supported, a tour of the QuickTime interface, specifications, and more: · http://www.apple.com/quicktime FireWire is one of the fastest peripheral standards ever developed, which makes it great for use with multimedia peripherals, such as video camcorders and the latest highspeed hard disk drives. Visit this website for information about FireWire technology and available third-party FireWire products: · http://www.apple.com/firewire For information about seminars, events, and third-party tools used in web publishing, design and print, music and audio, desktop movies, digital imaging, and the media arts, go to: · http://www.apple.com/pro For resources, stories, and information about projects developed by users in education using Apple software, including DVD Studio Pro, go to: · http://www.apple.com/education Go to the Apple Store to buy software, hardware, and accessories direct from Apple and to find special promotions and deals that include third-party hardware and software products: · http://www.apple.com/store Preface An Introduction to DVD Studio Pro 4 35 1 Planning Your Project 1 Before you start authoring your DVD title, it is highly recommended that you set aside some time to plan your project. Spending time in the beginning to outline the various aspects of the project will lead to a smoother production with minimal surprises. Investigating Existing DVDs A very effective way to start planning your project is to spend some time viewing existing DVDs. This process provides you with examples of ways others approached various aspects of their DVD projects, such as using slideshows or providing language selections. It can also help you understand how frustrating the viewing experience can be when a disc has poorly conceived menus or confusing interactivity. Not all DVD titles are Hollywood releases--be sure to spend time looking at a variety of titles, especially those that best match the goals of your project. Keep in mind that, while DVD Studio Pro provides the tools needed to create highly complex DVDs, most Hollywood-style titles have teams of specialists who work on each project. Before you set out to create a complicated DVD, be sure you understand all aspects of what is involved, and are prepared to deal with them. 37 Determining Your Target Audience and Playback Device As with any media project, you must have a clear idea of who the viewers are and what their expectations will be. You may need to create a title that simply plays a movie as soon as the DVD is loaded, with no viewer interaction at all. Or, you may need to create a title with highly customizable languages or display types. Another major consideration is whether your DVD will be played on a computer. When a DVD is played on a set-top DVD player, the arrow buttons on the remote control provide the primary navigation controls. However, when a DVD is played on a computer, viewers will typically use the pointer for navigation. This distinction affects menu designs, since you need to make it obvious where viewers should click to activate the buttons. Additionally, if you need the title to play on older computers, you may need to set the bit rate as low as possible, to increase the chances that the title will play without stuttering. Deciding Which DVD Standard to Use DVD Studio Pro 4 gives you the choice of authoring a traditional DVD using standard definition (SD) assets or a DVD using high definition (HD) assets. There are several factors to take into account when deciding which DVD format to use: · While an HD-based DVD can provide an excellent HD video output, it can only be played on devices designed to specifically support it, such as the Apple DVD Player. SD-based DVDs can be played on all DVD players, including those that play HDbased DVDs. · An HD project can be written on either a red laser disc (as is used by SD projects) or on a blue laser disc. While SD-based DVD players can read red laser discs, they cannot play HD content from them. Important: Only HD projects on special 3x DVD-ROM red laser media are officially supported in the HD DVD specification. You can burn HD projects to traditional red laser media on your system; however, the discs might not play in all HD DVD players. · Blue laser discs can hold about three times the data that a red laser disc can hold (a single-layer red laser disc can hold 4.7 GB--a single-layer blue laser disc can hold 15 GB). Since you can use SD video in your HD project, writing on a blue laser disc allows you to get much more content on the disc. · You may need to author both SD-based and HD-based DVD versions of your project. The easiest way to do this is to first author the SD-based DVD version of the project. You can then set the DVD standard to HD DVD--DVD Studio Pro automatically converts the project--and you can then choose which QuickTime assets to encode to the HD format. Alternatively, you can swap SD assets with HD assets as needed. 38 Chapter 1 Planning Your Project Deciding Which Video Standard to Use In addition to choosing the DVD standard you want to use, you must also choose the video standard to use. You can choose between NTSC and PAL. This choice affects the video resolutions and frame rates that are supported. Important: You cannot use both NTSC and PAL assets in the same project. Also, be careful not to confuse the video standard setting with the region code setting. The region code setting allows you to specify the regions that can play your DVD-- choosing a region that primarily contains PAL countries does not force you to use the PAL video standard, though in most cases you would want to. See "Video Standards of the World" on page 133 for information on which countries support each video standard. It is also useful to keep in mind that DVD players that can play both NTSC and PAL are becoming more common and are most common in PAL countries. However, in most cases, while the DVD player can output either video standard, it assumes the video monitor it is connected to can display either standard (which is less likely to be true). Deciding What Content to Include The audio, video, and still-image files used by DVD Studio Pro in authoring DVD projects are known as assets. Often you'll have a good idea of what primary assets you want to include when you start your project, but you may think of additional items once it is too late to create them. For example, providing a second language may greatly increase the value of a corporate title, but may require you to create new menus to support it. Additionally, including nontraditional items on a DVD, such as PDF files and web links, can add a great deal of value to titles that will be viewed on computers. You may also have the opposite problem--you may have too much content for a DVD title. Be sure you know which content is required and which is optional. Explore the feasibility of creating a dual-layer DVD or double-sided DVD. Some content may be suitable for encoding at lower bit rates or as MPEG-1 streams. Perhaps instead of using uncompressed AIFF audio, you can use Dolby Digital AC-3 to save space. See "Making Sure Your Content Will Fit" on page 40 for more information. Chapter 1 Planning Your Project 39 Creating a Storyboard Even simple DVD titles with only a few menus can benefit from the time you spend in the planning stages. Storyboarding includes planning the interaction between the menus, tracks, slideshows, and stories. It helps you visualize what the viewing experience will be, and ensures that there are minimal surprises during the authoring process. You'll find that storyboarding can give you the overarching view of your project needed to plan fairly complex interactivity. Designing the Menus and Buttons DVD Studio Pro provides tools that make it easy to create menus without relying heavily on outside graphics applications. For simple titles whose main focus is to provide information, you may be able to rely on the basic button-and-text capability of DVD Studio Pro to create your menus. For custom titles, you'll need to create your own graphics. Creating graphics for use with video is a bit different from creating graphics for print. Be sure to see "Creating Graphics to Use in Menus" on page 82 for information on creating graphics for your title. In either case, since menus and the buttons on them are the viewers' primary way of interacting with your title, it is important to spend time making sure that they are straightforward, with logical button navigation and clear highlights that let viewers know where they are in the menu. Making Sure Your Content Will Fit Be sure to allow time in the planning process to determine whether all of your assets will fit on the type of DVD you are using. You don't want to be surprised when you are finished authoring the title--that is a bad time to find out that the assets won't fit. What Do You Mean a 4.7 GB DVD Won't Hold 4.7 Gigabytes? With computers, memory and disk size are commonly expressed in terms such as kilobyte, megabyte, and gigabyte. Technically, a kilobyte should represent 1000 bytes, but due to the binary numbering system computers use, a kilobyte actually represents 1024 bytes. Similarly, a megabyte represents 1,048,576 bytes (and not 1,000,000 bytes) and a gigabyte represents 1,073,741,824 bytes (and not 1,000,000,000 bytes). Unfortunately, with DVD discs the terms megabyte and gigabyte do not use the same binary-based standard; they literally refer to the technically accurate 1,000,000 bytes for a megabyte and 1,000,000,000 bytes for a gigabyte. This means that a 4.7 GB DVD disc will actually hold only 4.37 binary-based gigabytes. While the difference is not large (relatively speaking), it must be accounted for if you intend to come close to filling the disc. 40 Chapter 1 Planning Your Project Important: When displaying estimated sizes, DVD Studio Pro uses the "1000 bytes equals a kilobyte" system. This means that the estimated sizes refer to the amount of space they will require on the DVD, and will be a bit larger than the file sizes shown in the Finder. Disc Options You have a variety of DVD discs to choose from. The one you choose depends on your content, your budget, and whether you intend to use a DVD replication facility. DVD sizes are typically referred to with names such as DVD-5 and DVD-9. While the number in the name is intended to provide general guidance as to the capacity of the disc, it should not be relied on too strictly. (Note that a DVD-4 disc has a higher capacity than a DVD-5 disc.) The following table lists the common sizes used. Red Laser Discs DVD name DVD-1 DVD-2 DVD-3 DVD-4 DVD-5 DVD-9 DVD-10 DVD-14 DVD-18 Disc size 8 cm 8 cm 8 cm 8 cm 12 cm 12 cm 12 cm 12 cm 12 cm Type Single-sided, single-layer Single-sided, dual-layer Dual-sided, both sides single-layer Dual-sided, both sides dual-layer Single-sided, single-layer Single-sided, dual-layer Dual-sided, both sides single-layer Dual-sided, one side dual-layer Dual-sided, both sides dual-layer Capacity 1.46 GB (1.36 binary gigabytes) 2.66 GB (2.47 binary gigabytes) 2.92 GB (2.72 binary gigabytes) 5.32 GB (4.95 binary gigabytes) 4.7 GB (4.38 binary gigabytes) 8.54 GB (7.95 binary gigabytes) 9.4 GB (8.75 binary gigabytes) 13.24 GB (12.32 binary gigabytes) 17.08 GB (15.9 binary gigabytes) If you intend to burn your own discs using your system's DVD burner, you can only use DVD-5 and DVD-9 discs. To use any of the other sizes, you must use a DVD replication facility and provide them with either DLT or Cutting Master Format (CMF) DVD-R masters. Chapter 1 Planning Your Project 41 Blue Laser Discs DVD name HD DVD-4 HD DVD-9 HD DVD-15 HD DVD-30 Disc size 8 cm 8 cm 12 cm 12 cm Type Single-sided single-layer Single-sided dual-layer Single-sided single-layer Single-sided dual-layer Capacity 4.5 GB (4.19 binary gigabytes) 9.0 GB (8.38 binary gigabytes) 15.0 GB (13.97 binary gigabytes) 30.0 GB (27.94 binary gigabytes) Estimating Whether Your Content Will Fit While you will often hear that a DVD-5 (or a 4.7 GB disc) can hold two hours of video content, this is really only a rough guideline. The actual amount of video a DVD-5 disc can hold depends on the bit rate the video is encoded at. Often overlooked is the size of audio files--if you plan to use uncompressed AIFF (PCM) audio, you must also take the additional space requirements into account when calculating whether all your content will fit. If your project needs to fit on a DVD-5 disc that you can burn on your SuperDrive, you need to choose an appropriate bit rate. There is a simple formula you can use. See "Fitting Your Project on a DVD-5 Disc," next. If you are flexible as to the DVD disc type you can use, you can experiment with different bit rates and determine the disc space required by each. This process is more detailed and includes more variables, such as taking into account additional audio streams and DVD-ROM content. See Appendix C, "Calculating Disc Space Requirements," on page 633 for details on precisely determining your disc space requirements. Fitting Your Project on a DVD-5 Disc You can use this simple formula to estimate the bit rate you should use to fit your video on a DVD-5 disc: · 560/x = bit rate The "x" represents the length of the video (in minutes) and the resulting bit rate is in megabits per second (Mbps). This formula assumes you are using compressed audio, such as AC-3. If you are using uncompressed audio, you need to subtract 1.5 Mbps (assuming you are using 16-bit stereo at a 48 kHz sample rate) from the bit rate value. For example, if you have 120 minutes of video, you get a suggested bit rate of 4.67 Mbps (560/120 = 4.67). If you are using uncompressed audio (such as the AIFF format the embedded AIFF encoder supplies), you need to reduce the bit rate to 3.17 Mbps to ensure the video and audio will fit on the disc. 42 Chapter 1 Planning Your Project Beware of Setting Your Bit Rate Too High You will find that with some DVD projects, the content easily fits on the disc, and you may be tempted to use the highest video bit rate available. While higher bit rates produce better quality, you must take into account other factors before deciding to use the maximum allowable value. The maximum video bit rate allowed on SD-based DVDs is 9.8 Mbps, but rarely is that practical to use since DVD players support combined video, audio, and subtitle bit rates of up to 10.08 Mbps. For HD-based DVDs, the maximum video bit rate is 29.4 Mbps for HD assets and 15.0 Mbps for any SD assets used in an HD project, with an overall maximum bit rate of 30.24 Mbps. In practice, you should be conservative when determining how high of a bit rate to allow for. Trying to squeeze out the highest possible bit rate for your project can lead to player compatibility and disc space issues. A general recommendation is to not exceed 9.2 Mbps for the combined video and audio bit rates when authoring SD projects, or 29 Mbps when authoring HD projects. Important: If you are building your project and DVD Studio Pro detects that the bit rate of the multiplexed stream is too high, the build stops and an error message appears. Using PCM or AC-3 Audio A single PCM audio stream using typical settings (as produced with the embedded AIFF encoder) requires 1.536 Mbps, which leaves an absolute maximum bit rate for the video in an SD project of around 8.54 Mbps. If there are two PCM audio streams, 3.07 Mbps must be allowed for the audio, leaving just 7.01 Mbps for the video. Note: Even though you can only play one audio stream at a time, the bit rates of all audio streams must be added together when determining the overall bit rate for a track. Similarly, all subtitle streams must be added together and added to the overall bit rate. Using AC-3 audio in place of the PCM audio leaves far more room for the video bit rate. Stereo AC-3 audio using typical settings requires only about 224 kbps--using two stereo AC-3 streams in place of the PCM audio leaves about 9.6 Mbps for the video. See "Calculate the audio allowances" on page 636 for more information about allowances for other audio formats. Subtitle Allowances Subtitles generally use a very small bit rate--about 10 kbps per stream. Larger subtitles that change frequently or use graphics can have a significant impact though, and can affect the maximum bit rate you can use for the video. Chapter 1 Planning Your Project 43 Multiple Video Angles Using multiple video angles in a track also affects the maximum allowable video bit rate you can use. Due to the way the DVD specification requires video streams to be multiplexed together, the number of video streams determines the maximum video bit rate you can use in SD projects. The maximum combined bit rates (highest bit rate video stream + all audio streams + all subtitle streams) you can use for each multi- and mixedangle track in an SD project is from 8.0 Mbps with two streams to 7.0 Mbps with nine streams. See "Encoding Video for Multi-Angle Tracks" on page 68 for more information. HD projects using multiple video angles in a track are limited to 24.0 Mbps for the maximum combined bit rates, regardless of the number of video angles. Transitions When you add a transition to a menu, still clip in a track, or to slides in a slideshow, you need to account for the additional video they create. · In the case of menus, the transitions become short rendered video clips stored in the same video object (VOB) file as the menus. This means that, in addition to the overall amount of disc space menu transitions require, you must also consider their impact on the 1 GB menu VOB file size limit. See "Standard SD DVD Video Zone Files" on page 566 for more information. You must also take into account that a transition video clip is rendered for each menu button that has transitions enabled--a menu with 18 buttons can require 18 transition video clips. · In the case of still clips in a track and slides in a slideshow, adding transitions increases the amount of disc space each requires even if the transition does not increase the length of the track or slideshow. This is because stills and slides use much less disc space than the motion video created by the transitions, even if the transition is from one slide to another. The amount of disc space required by each transition varies depending on their length and type. In general, for SD projects, which use a bit rate of 6 Mbps for transitions, you should allow 750 KB of disc space for every second of transition time in the project. For HD projects, which use a bit rate of 20 Mbps for transitions, you should allow 2.5 MB of disc space per second. 44 Chapter 1 Planning Your Project Using the Video Bit Rate The video bit rates you calculate can be used as the bit rate entry of your encoder, regardless of the encoding method you intend to use (one pass, one-pass variable bit rate [VBR], or two-pass VBR). When using one of the VBR encoding methods in the embedded MPEG encoder, the "Bit rate" setting affects the amount of disc space that the MPEG video file requires, while the "Max bit rate" setting sets the highest video bit rate that is allowed in the file (but does not affect the file size). See "MPEG Encoding Methods" on page 56 for more information. General DVD Limitations Following are some general limitations you may run into while authoring your DVD project with DVD Studio Pro. Most of these limitations are due to DVD-Video specification requirements. Note: With the exception of the number of buttons on a menu, the same limits apply to both SD and HD projects. Project · Maximum number of tracks, stories, and slideshows in a project: 99 · Minimum number of menus in a project: 0 · Minimum number of tracks or slideshows in a project: 1 Menus · Maximum number of menus in a project: 10,000 · Menu aspect ratio support: 4:3 and 16:9 menus can be used in the same project. · Maximum number of buttons on an SD-based DVD 4:3 menu: 36 · Maximum number of buttons on an SD-based DVD 16:9 menu: 18, unless Pan Scan & Letterbox is selected, which then sets the maximum to 12 · Maximum number of buttons on an HD-based DVD 4:3 menu: 48 · Maximum number of buttons on an HD-based DVD 16:9 menu: 24, unless Pan Scan & Letterbox is selected, which then sets the maximum to 16 Chapter 1 Planning Your Project 45 Tracks · Maximum number of video streams in a track: 9 · Minimum number of video streams in a track: 1 · Maximum number of audio streams in a track: 8 · Maximum number of subtitle streams in a track: 32 · Maximum number of cell markers in a track: 255 · Maximum number of chapter markers in a track: 99 (Each chapter marker is also a cell marker.) · Maximum combined number of chapter markers and individual chapter end jump settings in a track: 106 (See "Setting Chapter Marker End Jumps" on page 530 for more information.) · Maximum number of buttons on an SD-based DVD 4:3 track's button highlight marker: 36 · Maximum number of buttons on an SD-based DVD 16:9 track's button highlight marker: 18, unless Pan Scan & Letterbox is selected, which then sets the maximum to 12 · Maximum number of buttons on an HD-based DVD 4:3 track's button highlight marker: 48 · Maximum number of buttons on an HD-based DVD 16:9 track's button highlight marker: 24, unless Pan Scan & Letterbox is selected, which then sets the maximum to 16 Stories · Maximum number of segments: 98 (must all be from the same track) Slideshows · Maximum number of slides in a slideshow: 99 · Minimum number of slides in a slideshow: 1 Scripts · Maximum number of scripts in a project: 10,000 · Maximum number of command lines in a script: 124 · Minimum number of command lines in a script: 1 46 Chapter 1 Planning Your Project 2 Preparing Assets 2 Before you can begin building a DVD project, you must have correctly prepared source material: edited video and audio, subtitles, and graphics or video for menus. After you have captured and edited your source material, you need to encode it to make it DVD-compliant. DVD Studio Pro includes embedded MPEG and AIFF encoders for encoding QuickTime video to MPEG-2 or H.264 streams and QuickTime audio to AIFF streams. The DVD Studio Pro integration of these encoders allows you to directly import QuickTime sources into a project--the encoders work with the sources while you continue authoring the project. Included with DVD Studio Pro is Compressor, a full-featured video and audio compression application. Compressor can also be used to create DVD-compliant assets for use in DVD Studio Pro, including HD video and Dolby Digital AC-3 audio assets. It gives you more control over the encoding process, including the ability to encode several clips in one batch operation. It also integrates well with Final Cut Pro, providing exceptionally high-quality MPEG-2 streams. This chapter describes how to prepare source material for use in DVD Studio Pro and how to use the embedded MPEG encoder. For more information on DVD-compliant material, see "About MPEG Video" on page 54. 47 Preparing Video Sources Several source types are commonly used to create DVD titles: · Movies: These typically include both video and audio, and can be the primary component of the title or can be short clips used for menu backgrounds. Audio-only clips are often used along with still menus and slideshows. · Stills: These can be used either as part of a slideshow, or more commonly, as menu backgrounds. They can be simple, single-layer graphics files or multilayer Adobe Photoshop files, with layers for each element in a menu. · Buttons: DVD Studio Pro lets you use custom "iDVD-style" buttons in your menus. These button shapes are small, multilayer Photoshop files containing all of the elements that make up a DVD button--the primary graphic, the highlight, and the thumbnail image mask. The DVD-Video specification has strict requirements for several aspects of the sources used. For best results, you should create and capture your video and audio using the settings required for DVD. See "DVD Source Settings Summary" on page 104 for a complete list of settings required for a source to be DVD-compliant. NTSC or PAL? A DVD-Video title must contain either all NTSC or all PAL sources. If you intend to create a title that can be played on either NTSC or PAL DVD players, you must create two titles and two versions of the sources (including all graphics and video, which will require significant effort), one for each standard. About the Terms "NTSC" and "PAL" The terms "NTSC" and "PAL" are technically incorrect when used with respect to DVDs. These terms specify a variety of things with respect to an SD composite video signal. When you refer to a video asset as NTSC or PAL with respect to SD-based DVDs, you are defining the asset's frame rate and resolution. With most HD assets, the terms NTSC and PAL refer only to the frame rate, since the resolution is far different than an SD video asset. Dual-Standard DVD Players Many DVD players in PAL countries can also play NTSC DVD-Video titles. It's important to understand that these players do not convert NTSC video to PAL--they simply output the NTSC sources. You must connect an NTSC or dual-standard video monitor in order to view the output. Additionally, be aware that all DVD players have a region code that prevents them from playing DVD-Video titles not intended for the player's region. 48 Chapter 2 Preparing Assets Using 24 fps Video Often the video content for a DVD project originates from film shot at 24 frames per second (actually 23.976 fps). The DVD specification allows you to include 24 fps MPEG-2 assets as long as they are properly flagged so the DVD player can decode them by either using a 3:2 pulldown (for NTSC DVD players) or playing them 4% faster (for PAL DVD players). The video resolution also must match those allowed for the intended video standard. See "Choosing a Video Resolution" on page 57 for details on supported video resolutions. This means that there are NTSC and PAL versions of 24 fps MPEG-2 assets, and you can only use NTSC 24 fps assets in NTSC projects and PAL 24 fps assets in PAL projects. Encoding video that originates with a 24 fps rate as a 24 fps MPEG asset has two primary advantages: · Less time is spent on the encoding process. · Smaller files are produced. These advantages are due to fewer frames being encoded, especially when compared to NTSC frame rates. Importing 24 fps Assets How DVD Studio Pro handles your 24 fps assets depends on whether or not they are already MPEG-2 encoded: · If you import 24 fps MPEG-2 assets, they are handled correctly and remain 24 fps when you build the project. Note: 24 fps assets show as their display rate setting when viewed in the Track Editor. This makes them appear as if they were at the NTSC or PAL frame rate. You can confirm they are actually 24 fps by selecting them in the Assets tab and verifying the frame rate in the Asset Inspector. · If you import 24 fps QuickTime assets, they are encoded as either 29.97 fps or 25 fps MPEG-2 files, based on your project's video standard, and are no longer 24 fps when you build the project. To create a 24 fps MPEG-2 asset, you need to use Compressor (included with DVD Studio Pro) or a third-party encoder that supports encoding 24 fps MPEG-2 assets. Using 24 fps Video in Tracks You can use 24 fps video assets in tracks just like you would use regular 29.97 fps or 25 fps video assets, as long as they match the project's video standard (NTSC or PAL). You can also combine 24 fps assets with regular video assets within a track, as long as they use the same resolution. Chapter 2 Preparing Assets 49 Using 24 fps Video in Menus You can use 24 fps assets in menus as backgrounds or assets for buttons and drop zones. You can also combine 24 fps assets with regular video assets within a menu. If the menu must be rendered because it contains shapes, drop zones, or text objects, it is rendered at the project's frame rate, even if the menu's background is 24 fps. Choosing an Aspect Ratio The aspect ratio is the ratio of the width of the visible area of the video frame to the height of the visible area. Standard NTSC and PAL monitors have a picture aspect ratio of 4:3 (or 1.33, which is the width divided by the height). Some High Definition Television (HDTV) formats have a picture aspect ratio of 16:9, or 1.78. The DVD specification supports both 4:3 and 16:9 sources, but it does not support HD video. Most HD video formats use a combination of features to create the high definition image, including a much larger frame size than DVD-Video supports. HD-based DVDs also support both 4:3 and 16:9 sources, as well SD and HD video formats. Using 16:9 sources in your project raises a number of issues that you need to be aware of. Your main goal is to ensure that 16:9 assets play back correctly on 16:9 monitors and as expected on 4:3 monitors (and that 4:3 assets play correctly on both monitor types as well). Incorrect settings can lead to distorted video. For example, the video may appear horizontally compressed (objects look "skinny") or expanded (objects look "fat"). This illustration shows the viewing options for a 16:9 asset. 16:9 monitor 16:9 aspect ratio 16:9 video on 4:3 monitors 16:9 anamorphic (The dashed line shows the circle's original size.) 16:9 letterbox 16:9 pan-scan 50 Chapter 2 Preparing Assets