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Discusses the integration of digital video editing and DVD authoring software. Difference of DVD authoring tools and DVD authoring applications; Description of the DVD Builder application software from Roxio; Integration of the Video Studio and Media Studio Pro software from Ulead Systems.

Offers a look at the competition brought about by high definition (HD) DVD. Increase in the number of consumers with access to high definition television; Features of an HD DVD; Firms that provide consumer electronics support to Blu-ray.

Evaluates the Apple Final Cut Pro 4 digital video duplication and publishing equipment. Cost of the unit; Design; Features.

Reviews the DVD authoring computer software Adobe Encore DVD.

This article focuses on the high digital video (HDV). If one is not that familiar with HDV, it would be both a little surprising and completely understandable. HDV is nothing more than a format a future format at that and so it is perhaps not all that interesting to the active videographer or designer. But HDV is arguably the most intriguing format to come along since MPEG-2. The promise of HDV and, thus, the anticipation is very much like that of early DV nearly a decade ago. DV brought professional-quality digital acquisition to handheld camcorders and immediately shook up the high-end versus low-end industry caste system. The basics of HDV are actually remarkably straightforward. Instead of the 25Mb/sec intraframe compression of standard-definition DV, HDV uses the temporal, interframe compression of MPEG-2 to squeeze higher resolution into the same 25Mb/sec bitstream of standard DV. The second reason MPEG and other interframe codecs often get scoffed at for professional editing has to do with the potential loss of quality through the concatenated artifacts and errors that arise from the decompression-recompression cycles of rebuilding frames.

Evaluates Sonic Solutions Inc.'s DVDit! version 5 DVD authoring program. Enhancements; Redesign of user interface; Features and functions.

Focuses on the development of high definition (HD) technology for producing DVD. Efforts to create a standard deliverable HD media format; Potentials for putting HD on disc; Problems facing a future HD DVD standard; Technical solutions for HD-DVD.

It's not an apples-to-apples comparison, of course, considering one is hardware and one is software. But, imagine, in a two-year span from 1999 to 2001, DVD authoring software went from a high of $10,000 to free with the purchase of a new Apple Mac OS computer. A general move toward the "abstraction layer" was the trigger for, and major outgrowth from, dramatic changes in the DVD industry. Job One for any DVD authoring software is simply building and organizing a set of files that a very simple consumer DVD player can read. The most affordable DVD authoring software available today including InterVideo's WinDVD Creator, MedioStream's neoDVD, Pinnacle's DVD Express, Roxio's DVD Builder Sonic's MyDVD, Ulead's DVD Movie Factory, and Apple's iDVD4, is designed to offer users a very straightforward working environment for creating simple titles, essentially just a couple of video clips with a menu in front, in a very accessible way.

Evaluates the PRV LX1 DVD recorder from Pioneer. Features and capabilities; Overview of how it works; Quality of encoding from the recorder.

Reports on DVD technologies showcased at the Digital Video Expo in New York City in July 2003. Premiere Pro from Adobe; Xtreme card from Matrox; Video Toaster from Pinnacle Systems.

Describes Encore, the DVD authoring technology from Adobe. Features; Main creation tools of Encore; Benefits to users.