Many people’s perception is that there is simply a big red button marked record on the front of the DVD unit. This is only true with basic DVD-R. Some people also believe that since the video may have been produced on digital tape that it’s just simply a matter of transferring the digital media on to a DVD disc. Different digital formats are not compatable and cannot be digitally transferred without undergoing a conversion process. Currently there are more than 14 uniquely different digital tape formats. These include D-1 to D-9, Digital-8, DV, DVCPRO, DigiBeta and DVCAM. None of these digital tape formats can be directly (digitally) applied to a DVD disc. The video first must be converted to compressed MPEG-2 files . Also there are different types of DVD, such as DVD-R, DVD-RAM, just to mention a few. Home DVD players will play standard DVD and most will also play DVD-R. One of a kind DVD’s are processed as a DVD-R as opposed to mass produced DVD’s which come from a glass master disk.

There are several ways a DVD disk can be processed. A Basic DVD-R can be processed much in the same manner as recording a videotape. You push the record button and stop it when it gets to the end. This type of DVD cannot be used as a master for duplication, should you want quanity replication. This method is less expensive, does not offer custom menus nor placed chapter points as does a mastered DVD. A mastered DVD-R is burned on a different unit and containes a significate amount of labor to produce.

Here is an example of one way that a DVD-R is properly mastered at Take-2 Video Productions.

First, the video must be downloaded into our computer, a NLE system named Fast Silver, which contains a high speed In-Time RISC processor board and 130gigs of hard drive space. This video transfer process takes longer than real time, so if the movie is one hour in length, it will take more than one hour to place the video into the computer, because DVD software performs a short “digesting” or light rendering upon the completion of video transfer. Again, it doesn’t matter if it’s digital video or analog, the process still has to be performed. Once the video is transferred in to the computer, it is placed on a time line for editing. The audio track must be synchronized to the video track and also placed on the time line. At this point, chapter markers are placed on the time line at key locations within the video project, maybe at the beginning of a new scene, for example. Next, a splash screen graphic must be created in Photoshop for the TV screen menu. When you first insert the DVD it will come up to a menu that will instruct you as to what to play. You may have several short video projects on one DVD disc and you might want to allow the person playing the DVD to choose a particular project or an important area within the video. Thus, the menu screen, commonly referred to as a splash screen, must have graphics, as well as play buttons created, and software written for the remote control or mouse, in order to direct the player to the correct chapter. Now, within the Spruce authoring software, we must decide which level of quality, or compression, is to be utilized. Scenes containing fast movement or fine detail, for example, must be compressed at a very low rate, to retain image quality. Static objects can be compressed higher, which will take up less disc space. (A short video project can be instructed to play at highest quality throughout, since disc space is not a concern if the project is under one hour in length) After the software is written which routes the player to the proper chapters, the entire project must now be rendered. Rendering time can easily exceed real time, thus a one hour project may take several hours to render. Once the rendering is complete the project is then played on a hard drive to verify its accuracy and content. This is to avoid burning and wasting a DVD-R disc, should there be a bug in the program. Once the project is confirmed to play correctly, it is then burned onto a DVD-R master with a Pioneer DVR-201. This process usually takes several hours to burn a one hour DVD program.

Yes, there are simpler and cheaper ways to produce a DVD-R. Eliminating the menu screen and omitting specific chapter markers is one shortcut, although this has proven undesireable for several reasons. First, without set chapters you can not jump ahead to specific points within the DVD disc. This means that you have to fast forward or go to “near points” and find the area of concern. It is not uncommon for a one hour video project to take five to six hours, or more, to create a quality DVD-R master.

Gerry Wilson, Owner, Take-2 Video Productions
© 2001-2002 Take-2 Video Productions