Appendix A. About DVDs

Unless you have been living in a closet for the past few years, you know what a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) looks like. You probably have rented, purchased, or at least seen a movie or presentation on a DVD within the past few months. A DVD is just another medium for saving and storing digital media used for playback or archiving. In general, a DVD is physically the same size as a CD-ROM but can hold a far greater number of files because of its increased storage capacity. The average CD-ROM has 700 MB of disc space, compared to a single-sided, single-layer DVD, which has 4.7 GB of space. Some double-sided, dual-layered DVDs can hold upwards of 19 GB on a single disc. That's a lot of media.

One way to take advantage of this large amount of storage space is to put better-quality digital audio and video files on the disc. Digital media files can become quite large, and CD-ROMs can't store high-quality, long-duration files. With DVD technology, up to two hours of high-quality full-screen video can be stored with the highest-quality stereo or even 5.1 surround sound.

DVD technology takes advantage of the MPEG-2 video file format. MPEG-2 video compresses the signal while maintaining broadcast-quality images, running full-screen, 60 fields-a-second video (NTSC Standards). DVD audio files are some of the best-sounding files you will hear from any digital system (as long as you start with high-quality source materials).

One of the most intriguing aspects of authoring or using a DVD is its interactive capabilities. As you begin to author or build your DVD, you can determine whether you want only a single video file to play on the disc or whether you want to add interactive menu controls and links that allow the end user to control what he sees and in which order he sees it. DVD's biggest splash has come through consumer rental markets, your local video store where you can rent your favorite movie and watch it at home on your couch while wrapped in a cozy blanket. But DVDs are becoming more popular in many other venues. You might not even be aware that you are using a DVD. Most of the information from touchscreen kiosks is accessed from DVDs. Many corporate sales and training programs, complete with quizzes, might be developed and distributed on DVDs. The interactive capabilities of the DVD authoring environment allow you to create links or "jumps" to just about any other area of the disc you want, resulting in complete nonlinear interaction for the end user.

DVDit is a great application for Premiere users to enter the world of DVD authoring. Although DVDit is a powerful tool, the version that is shipped with Premiere is not a full-blown version. Depending on the type of project you are working on, you might encounter some limitations with DVDit. For what you can do with this software, that shouldn't matter too much. DVDit does not allow you to work with subtitles or multiple audio or video tracks simultaneously; it lets you work with only one track at a time. Even though these features would be nice to have, DVDit still allows you to create and build a complete DVD. Just add content and a burner, and you're in business. Overall, if you have never authored a DVD, this is a great way to get your feet wet and begin producing DVD projects for a fraction of the cost of many other systems.