New DVD authoring software offers limitless creativity

A new DVD authoring software program for both professional and aspiring videographers, Ulead DVD Workshop, provides precise control over DVD menu design while presenting limitless creative options as well as leading-edge technologies.

According to Square One Solutions Group, the JSE-listed sole distributor in SA for Ulead Systems Inc, a leading developer of video editing, image editing and Web graphics software, Ulead DVD Workshop is now available at IT resellers and other major retailers.

"Ulead DVD Workshop addresses the needs of a higher-level videographer looking to distribute projects on DVD," said Lisa Jackson, Square One's divisional manager responsible for Ulead products. "It allows content creators to author DVD menus that match their vision without requiring them to spend hundreds of hours and many thousands of rands."

The heart of Ulead DVD Workshop lies in the advanced, flexible menu authoring features. Full of professional design tools, DVD Workshop offers high-end effects such as motion backgrounds, buttons and scene thumbnails. Authors can create dynamic, Hollywood-style DVDs that contain customised video-scene buttons and specified actions and highlight colours. The software's "power menus" will produce menus using one of three processes (Blank, Template or Wizard) and merge them all into a project. It also offers more than 60 theme-based, convenient menu templates to produce fast results or jump-start the creative process.

Jackson said Ulead DVD Workshop supplies more than 300 high-quality background images, buttons, arrows, frames and other objects for swift creation of customised menus. It also supports objects produced in Ulead PhotoImpact, Ulead' s award-winning image-editing software. DVD Workshop also makes text and captions stand out by offering wrap, neon, emboss and three-dimensional effects.

"Instant DVD slideshows can be created within DVD Workshop by dragging a selection of still images directly into the workspace. The duration of each image can be specified, and background music can be added. Users can also add an introductory video, image or slideshow to their projects that will play before the first menu appears. The software also includes title playback controls allowing users to program the playback behaviour of the DVD. Thus a video might repeat, playback or jump to another target title or menu upon completion."

Over and above its complex menu design capabilities, Ulead DVD Workshop includes convenient capture and conversion tools. Ulead's MPEG-Direct capture saves conversion time and hard-disc space by capturing video directly to the MPEG format using FireWire (IEEE 1394) and analogue capture boards.

Direct DV-to-MPEG capture is one of the features supported by Ulead's encoding-decoding (codec) engine, Ulead MPEG.Now. DVD Workshop also supports continuous DV video stream captures beyond 4GB in size -- even when using the FAT32 file system (present in many Windows operating systems), which imposes a 4GB capture ceiling.

For fast menu making, DVD Workshop will automatically create chapter thumbnails based on the captured video's timecode. It also imports existing AVI video and automatically converts the files into high-quality, DVD/VCD/SVCD-ready MPEG files when users are ready to burn discs.

The software also includes variable bit-rate (VBR) encoding, a feature that varies the bit rate depending on the amount of information needed to support the image being presented. VBR encoding results in better picture quality as well as smaller files sizes. Finally, DVD Workshop offers field-based compression to help ensure the highest-quality playback of discs when played on TV.

DVD Workshop will output video to VCD, SVCD, MiniDVD and DVD for playback on set-top DVD players and CD or DVD drives on personal computers. VCD, SVCD and MiniDVD are video formats that can be recorded onto CD media and then be played on home set-top DVD players with navigation menus like those found on studio-produced DVD movies. Both VCD and SVCD are cost-effective ways for people to create a DVD experience using a CD-R or CD-RW recording device.

To simplify the recording process, Ulead DVD Workshop interfaces directly with the newest DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW recorders as well as most CD-R and CD-RW devices without the need for additional burning software. Users can preview the DVD in real-time before recording to ensure that the project plays as expected before committing the file to CD or DVD disc. Finally, a disc image of the DVD project can be saved for future burning.