DVD Authoring is the process of collecting various content assets such as video,audio, photographs, subtitles, and menus, connecting them together and burningthem to a master dvd disc.

The assets themselves are generated in a variety of applications such as videoediting, post-production, image editing and subtitling. They are then compiled in aDVD authoring application such as Ulead DVD Movie Factory on the PC or DVDStudio Pro on the Mac. The process of authoring is very much like building awebsite. The menu screen on a DVD is analgous to the homepage of a website inthat it contains links to all the content on the DVD.

Menu screens usually link to the main feature, chapters within the feature,additional scenes not contained in the feature, photographic slideshows, andadditional audio content. The main menu screen can also contain links to sub- menus, which helps avoid cluttering the main menu with too many options.

In addition to setting up menu selections on the main menu, the DVD authoringapplication allows the producer to set-up additional features such as subtitles.Within the authoring application, each item is given the metaphor of a container. Acontainer can hold any type of supported content and is linked to a menu selection,either on the main menu or a sub-menu.

DVD authoring applications also usually support the creation of multi-angle content(where viewers can decide to watch a different passage of video with the samesoundtrack and subtitles) and Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound

Using this method it is very easy for even a comparitive novice to create a fairlysophisticated DVD disc with most of the features found on a commercial disc.Indeed the biggest challenge for the prospective DVD author is the aesthetic designitself. Getting all the bits to work properly is one thing, but making it look good andintuitive to use is another.

Once the content of the disc has been laid out in the authoring application, it is thenpreviewed to make sure everything works properly. It is then 'multiplexed' (thecontent is linked together) and the master disc can be burned.

It's worth noting that the affordable DVD writers and authoring applications onlysupport writing to DVD for General media which doesn't have the necessary lead-intracks required by mass duplicators. Therefore this type os solution is not reallysuitable for producing DVDs which need to be mass-duplicated.

Robert Armstrong is a contributor to The HDTV Tuner - a guide to the kit, the content and theissues related to HDTV.