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Richard Diercks, president, The Richard Diercks Co., who has already authored numerous projects says, the format offers a lot of features, and tools are being created and improved every day. He suspects that “we’re going to go through what we did early on in DVD. Once Wal-Mart starts its national push, companies with tools are going to pop up all over the place, then many will disappear.” Experience is key when looking for a company to author a tile. Diercks recommends researching a company’s experience and even perhaps finding out what authoring tools they are using. “Time constraints and budget are perhaps the biggest pitfalls to getting out a title. You don’t want mistakes." All of the sources we interviewed echoed these sentiments. To begin to understand Blu-ray Disc authoring, it’s crucial to understand the difference between the two modes that exist for BD players: HDMV and BD-J. In BD-J mode a majority of BD’s advanced features become available, including BD-Live, which requires the use of the player’s network connection, explains Simon James, senior marketing manager, Sonic Solutions professional products group. This adds significantly more complexity on the authoring end, and Java knowledge that didn't come into play in the DVD authoring world. BD-Jive
“BD-J, and Java in general, requires an understanding of object oriented programming,” says Brian Rowe, manager of operations, Sony DADC Digital Works Americas. “This has presented a challenge to some authoring houses that are more used to ‘what you see is what you get’-type authoring software packages that allow drag-and-drop assembly of features. Most of the DVD authoring software packages are like this,” he says. The model for BD-J is much more capable, which means that some of the players have been challenged in how they play back BD content. From the beginning, all players played BD-J, but there wasn’t much content. The BD-J specification is based on three or four layers of specifications that it has adopted from set-top cable and satellite boxes that are prevalent in Europe. The problem is that there may be three different ways to accomplish the same function, and not all of the players implemented it the same way. The other problem is that there are not a lot of Java programmers available to work on these titles, which means companies like Technicolor that want to cultivate BD-J development have had to come up with templates that allow authors to create BD titles with BD-J features with a minimum of time-intensive Java programming. A lot of the prototypes for DVDs and even Blu-ray discs are done in Flash or they are done in After Effects; the idea was to develop a framework that presented a Flash or After Effects-like look. The framework the company developed is called BD-JIVE (Java Interactive Visual Environment or Java Interpretative Visual Environment) The complexity is that every player’s implementation of BD-J is different, and there are many players available in the marketplace. Technicolor came up with a JIVE player which is optimized for animating timelines and menus for the different players. BD-Live
Why all the fuss about BD-Live, and what is it exactly? “The easiest way to get your head around BD-Live is to start thinking of content as either ‘on-disc’ or on-line,’" says Sonic's James. "BD-live enables facilities to merge both media sources into a seamless experience for the consumer." So many possibilities exist for BD-Live. For example, extra video/audio menus can be downloaded, as can subtitles and games. Exclusive web content can also be accessed. “From the consumer’s perspective," James continues, "it should be a seamless experience so they don’t know what’s on-disc and what’s online. Our customers demand the ability to do everything the format is capable of, so we deliver on that promise with Scenarist.” Scenarist has a drag-and-drop BD-J design environment. Additionally, Sonic is also planning more extensive BD-J/BD-Live development, he says. “Blu-ray encoding can vary greatly depending on the compression needs and the mix of HD and SD elements," says Sony's Rowe. "There are so many codecs available to encode the various audio and video streams. Now, multiply this by two in cases where two layers of graphics over video in real time can be called for. Contrast this with the single video codec, and the fewer choices for audio that are used for DVD.” Rowe gives the example of video overlays in pop-up menus, video composites used in transitions, multiple commentary and feature streams, and streams being downloaded from a BD-Live server. BD-Live and Menu Design
Blu-ray menu design can initially follow the same processes as DVD design to begin with in terms of the way that the information is organized, “but it often spirals into channels of ‘what ifs’ for various areas that have potential for deeper user immersion,” says Rowe. Consideration must be given to time and budget constraints that can limit the scope of implementation to affect a given level of interactivity. If combined with BD-Live content, design considerations must account for many of the same issues that complicated computer software applications, such as network availability, network handshaking, latency, and the design of dialogs that make the user experience seamless with the overall application being played from the disc, according to Rowe. “To avoid these issues, we have established systems for prototyping communication and testing functionality of titles prior to release.” 3D
That brings me to 3D. Two Technicolor Creative Services VPs--vice president for DVD Bob Michaels and vice president of technology Chuck Null--took a few minutes to explain what 3D technology means for Blu-ray authoring. “Blu-ray is just another delivery channel,” they say. However, several different technologies exist for 3D, including polarized (used for Digital Cinema), anaglyph, and multiplexed 3D. The biggest issue facing authoring companies is knowing what type of glasses the studio will attribute, then they will know what type of encoding to process and put on the disc, says Null. The method of 3D doesn’t change the encoder type, but rather how image enhancements are applied. After It’s All Said And Done
After all is said and done, Blu-ray titles that are BD-Live-capable and/or 3D are truly an entertaining experience and if the given the chance, I truly believe this format can keep the physical format around for a long time. The key word is “chance.” With titles like Sleeping Beauty and Best of Both Worlds hitting the market, I’m betting kids will push their parents to give the format a try! Debbie Galante Block (debgalante at aol.com) is a freelance writer based in Mahopac, N.Y.
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