Delivering HD Discs: Roxio DVDit Pro HD

Manifest Tech by Douglas Dixon We can shoot HD with today's pro and even consumer camcorders. And we can edit HD, as video editing tools have stepped up to the higher resolutions and new formats. But we still can't quite deliver the final production effectively -- as the ease of burning a DVD is still not quite there for high-definition discs. The first generation of tools for next-gen DVD can at least dump video to disc, and now the next generation, with Roxio DVDit Pro HD, can author Blu-ray discs with the full compliment of DVD menus and navigation.

Getting to Blue

What we want is pretty clear from the new high-definition DVD formats is pretty clear: at least the same kind of functionality and workflow as we're used to with DVD -- authoring to disc on a PC, then sharing and playing back on a set-top player. But unfortunately this was not the focus of the Blu-ray Discand HD DVD camps as they brought their competing blue-laser formats to market. Instead, they were focused on playback of store-bought movies, with set-top players first to market (but not recorders), and limited desktop burners just starting to come into the market. In addition, the actual disc formats are complicated, although they do support more limited modes designed for set-top recorders (called BDAV for Blu-ray). These are designed for recording video clips to disc, without menus or fancy DVD interfaces. The first high-def DVD authoring tools use these modes, including CyberLink, InterVideo/Ulead, and Roxio MyDVD. More DVD-like menu navigation then requires more sophisticated authoring tools, accessing Blu-ray's HDMV (Movie) mode, or beyond to more advanced interactivity with Blu-ray's BD-J Java mode and HD DVD's iHD interactive mode. Roxio DVDit Pro HD is the first tool to offer full-up DVD authoring for Blu-ray discs. (Roxio implemented Blu-ray first because burners for the format were available first.) read more...