Affordable HD is coming fast for video professionals, thanks to HDV gear and a new profusion of tools for editing HD. It's feasible to shoot and capture and edit in HD, but how do you distribute HD productions? HD VCR and DVD players are the next step, but what about right now?

Higher-capacity DVDs could be available by late 2005 (for more on that information, see the "Blu-ray and HD DVD" sidebar). No one wants to wait for a format war to resolve, so let's talk about how to distribute HD on a shiny disc today.

Microsoft has a solution you've been able to use for a while now: Microsoft Windows Media Video (WMV) High Definition format (www.wmvhd.com). And now, brand-new tools from Sonic now let you author it.

The Special Features menu of the Step Into Liquid WMV HD DVD. Because the menu is based on HTML, it can directly launch a Web browser to display Web links and run other Windows applications, including installers.

WMV HD lets you encode HD video and surround-sound audio when exporting from an NLE, then play (project) HD content from high-end PCs-after all, PC displays these days already reach HD video resolutions.

A key to this workflow has been missing: the authoring tools. Sonic has expanded its DVD Producer authoring tool to create WMV HD DVDs, providing the ability to author HD productions to disc with a DVD-like interface (www.sonic.com).

With the release of Windows Media 9 Series in January 2003, Microsoft added DRM (digital rights management) support, expanding Windows Media to encompass more than desktop playback and Internet streaming. As of January 2004, Windows Media formats were supported by more than 500 devices, including Windows Media Audio (WMA) on portable music players, and now WMV on some DVD players.

Windows Media also scales up to HD for display on PCs or shiny discs, and has been accepted by both upcoming HD-on-DVD specifications: HD DVD and Blu-ray. This version of Windows Media Video (as proposed for standardization by SMPTE) is now known as VC-1.

Windows Media 9 codecs support HD video and surround-sound audio. WMV can be encoded at a variety of HD resolutions, while WMA Professional has support for multichannel audio at bitrates of 128 Kbps to 768 Kbps, up to 24-bit 96 kHz. It allows six (5.1) or eight (7.1) channels, at 16 or 24 bits per sample, with sampling rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2, or 96 kHz.

The main Step Into Liquid movie plays in Windows Media Player in full-screen mode, at up to full 1280x692 resolution.

Microsoft has been experimenting with the movie studios by releasing alternate versions of films on DVD-ROM in Windows Media format. The Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Extreme Edition) DVD, released in 2003 by Artisan Entertainment, included a full copy of the movie as a 6.5 GB file in WM9 format on the second disc. The disc used InterActual Player (now owned by Sonic; http://player.interactual.com) as an interface to access the movie.

The Standing In The Shadows of Motown DVD, released in 2003 also from Artisan (www.standingintheshadowsofmotown.com), again contained a copy of the film in WMV format on the second disc, stored as DVD-ROM content along with extras in DVD-Video format. This disc used a custom HTML interface to provide simple menus for navigating the disc within the Windows Internet Explorer engine. See "Making The Funk Brothers Digital" (Nov. '03 DV) for technical information about the movie, including digitizing and WM9 encoding.

More recently, Microsoft collaborated on the release of 10 WMV HD DVDs of films originally made for IMAX, including Coral Reef Adventure and Step Into Liquid, a surfing documentary from Lions Gate and Artisan.

These discs demonstrate the next step in the evolution of WMV HD DVDs, suggesting the final interface that will be provided with the future release of the Sonic DVD Producer HD authoring tool.

The second disc provided with Step Into Liquid is an entire WMV HD DVD production, which makes an excellent case study. Let's take a closer look at how this DVD is constructed. (Note: The WMV HD DVD format used on this disc is preliminary, and will change by the time the format is finalized.)

The disc starts up using the standard Windows AutoRun process. This AutoRun launches an HTML-based application (.hta), which loads the splash screen and preloads images.

The application is written in _JavaScript and DHTML, which allows it to run off the disc and start the experience in a matter of seconds without needing an installation routine. The disc experience is defined by an XML data file that is rendered by the DHTML application. The menu content is defined as HTML files plus CSS style sheets.

Step Into Liquid makes for a good case study in putting WMV HD on a DVD. The main menu and high-lighted button graphics emulate a traditional DVD menu, but the Windows close box at upper right reveals the disc's underlying structure.

Once the disc is launched, the viewer enters a full-screen DVD-like presentation, complete with an FBI warning and traditional Scene Selection and Special Features menus. Menu buttons respond to the mouse/ cursor much like DVDs, including highlighting, but a thorough DVD feel is spoiled by a red "X" close box in the top-right corner. When video plays, however, the interface launches Media Player in full-screen mode, with play controls at the bottom of the screen.

The startup process also runs a license check using Windows Media DRM. The license permits viewing for free, but the distributor for this disc has specified that it must be renewed over the Internet every 7 days (www.synccast.com/faq/stepintoliquid).

For more control over the playback, viewers can also browse the disc and play the StepIntoLiquid.wmv file directly in Windows Media Player, although this means they would lose the menu interface, and the movie would have no chapter points.

The Step Into Liquid WMV file is 5.4 GB, for a duration of 1 hour, 28 minutes. The file has a data rate of 8,440 kbps, playing 1280 x 692-resolution video (in a 1:85:1 aspect ratio), and 5.1-channel audio encoded at 440 kbps, 48 kHz, 24 bit.

Because WMV HD DVD productions are driven by HTML, the disc's structure looks more like a Web site than a DVD-Video. Web pages are composited on the fly in the Web browser, whereas DVD authoring requires flattening all of the menu elements into a single composite image and then multiplexing all of the content into monolithic IFO and VOB files. As a result, all of the DVD's menu elements, buttons, and other art are stored as individual files on the disc. For example, the Step Into Liquid disc contains a Metadata folder with all of these art elements, a Sounds folder with miscellaneous button-pressing sound effects, and a Video folder with the main StepIntoLiquid.wmv file, plus other trailers and extras. (Again, this structure probably will be reorganized for the final release of DVD Producer HD.)

As Microsoft has refined the playback mechanism and interface for WMV HD DVDs, it also has been working with Sonic to create a version of the DVD Producer authoring tool for authoring DVDs in WMV HD format (www.sonic.com/products/dvdproducer). This new product, DVD Producer HD, is due to be released before the end of 2004. It's built on Sonic's new authoring user interface, which was first unveiled with DVDit version 5 in June 2004 (see Nov. '04 DV). The new version 5 of the base DVD Producer product (for DVD-Video authoring) will then be released early in 2005.

The design of the WMV HD DVD specification provides a generic DVD design template supporting DVD-like interface features for menu interaction and content playback.

It also provides supporting components, such as license management, verification of the system configuration and display format for HD playback, and a sound control panel for testing surround sound. An authoring tool then only needs to create a disc-specific script file to define and manage the menus and interaction based on this template.

As described by Matt Palmer, Sonic's senior product manager for professional DVD products, Sonic has been working with Microsoft to add additional interface features from the DVD-Video format into the Windows Media HD DVD playback interface, as well as adding some of the additional flexibility of a Web interface in the DVD authoring tool.

Sonic's DVD Producer HD should be available by the time you read this and authors DVDs in Windows Media HD format Because the video is displayed in high definition on a computer monitor as opposed to a TV monitor, DVD authors can fit more text and buttons on the menu, and don't need to worry about title-safe areas.

When designing menus, DVD Producer HD needs to account for the significantly higher resolution of HD displays, which will be an issue for designers, who will need to rethink the size of menu elements like button graphics. The Web interface provides button highlighting by swapping in new graphics instead of using a limited overlay plane, as with DVD-Video. DVD Producer HD provides the ability to define button graphics files and associated highlights through a file naming convention (i.e., as alpha-blended PNG graphics files). Because the underlying design is a Web page, the WMV HD DVD interface doesn't support motion menu backgrounds or motion video in buttons.

Another issue regarding computer display flexibility is support for multiple aspect ratios; i.e., alternate menus, graphics, and video prepared for either standard or widescreen display. The initial version of Sonic DVD Producer HD supports menu design for 16:9 display at 1920 x 1080.

The actual clips used for the DVD content must be prepared in a separate tool and then imported into DVD Producer HD in WMV format. The video and audio clips are simply passed through to the build directories-no format converting, resizing, or transcoding required. The WMV and WMA clips are displayed directly by the Windows Media architecture, just as when played directly in the Windows Media Player. They're dynamically reformatted as needed to fit the current display format and window resolution.

Once authoring is completed, the simulation and build steps are totally different when authoring WMV HD DVDs. Authors can simulate the playback experience within DVD Producer, and then build the WMV HD DVD volume to hard disk. DVD Producer HD exports the menu definitions and elements in the WMV HD DVD directory structure.

Depending on the support in the WMV HD DVD template, Sonic expects that the first release of DVD Producer HD will be able to use many of the DVD-Video features not demonstrated in current WMV HD DVD titles, including navigation end actions (instead of just returning to the original menu when the clip is done) and button routing (to control movement between buttons with the remote control for complex menu layouts). Sonic expects it won't support user operations (e.g., skipping past the FBI warning) in the first release.

Other DVD-Video and Web-like features planned for future releases of DVD Producer HD include support for multiple language menus, multiple-language audio and subtitles, mouse-over roll-over effects (so moving the cursor over a button causes not only the button to change, but also other parts of the interface to update as well), Web links, and access to built-in Windows components, such as the surround-sound control panel.

Sonic is in the middle of a significant upgrade of its code base for DVD authoring applications in an effort to unify all of its authoring tools. Sonic's goal for authoring WMV HD content is to have a format-agnostic user interface and authoring process, so the experience is similar whether authoring DVD-Video with standard-definition assets or WMV HD DVD with high-definition assets.

Sonic will also release an HD encoder companion product for DVD Producer HD, a PCI card that will provide real-time hardware encoding of WMV HD video and WMA surround-sound audio, which will be accessed by Sonic's existing SD encoder user interface.

Just as Microsoft developed an embedded version of Windows Media Audio for portable devices, CD audio players, and DVD players, the company is also beginning to license WMV 9 playback for use in chipsets from Sigma Designs and in set-top DVD players from Apex Digital and KiSS Technology. In the absence of a broadly available common HD playback and viewing platform, Microsoft has positioned Windows Media Video HD format as the de facto delivery format for HD content.

The chapters menu of the Step Into Liquid WMV HD DVD belies its HTML-based structure.

For the present, Microsoft's strategy for WMV HD is to provide bonus materials that accompany traditional MPEG-2 DVDs. These discs are all authored specifically for PC playback (i.e., with HTML menus and DRM license transfer). Support for HD DVD playback in set-top players will depend on the next generation of HD DVD optical disc formats.

Sonic DVD Producer HD is designed to provide an accessible authoring tool for sharing and distributing HD content on disc, with a familiar and convenient DVD-like interface. With more improvements by early 2005, it should provide the best of both worlds: full DVD interface functionality combined with Web capabilities. This combination promises to provided DVD authors with the ability to exceed the experience provided by current WMV HD DVD discs such as Step Into Liquid.

Putting Windows Media HD on a DVD is an effective interim solution for distributing HD content on a shiny disc, but you're probably also wondering how this fits with the HD-on-DVD storm that's roiling on the horizon.

The basic specs for a next-generation DVD are clear: provide a lot more storage and support HD movies.

Of course, it's not that easy. The DVD industry is splintered again among competing formats: the Blu-ray Disc format, supported by an alliance of 13 major companies deeply involved in the development of DVD (www.blu-raydisc.com); and the HD DVD format, developed by Toshiba and NEC and endorsed by the DVD Forum, the organization surrounding most existing DVD formats (www.dvdforum.com).

The clearest difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD is capacity. HD DVD is a more incremental technology enhancement that supports a 15 GB single-layer disc or a 30 GB dual-layer disc. Blu-ray supports 25 GB on a single-layer disc and 50 GB for dual-layer discs. These figures are for read-only discs; recordable formats will have different capacities.

Supporters of HD DVD argue that the more conservative design makes the product easier to manufacture (thus cheaper) and simpler to provide backward compatibility, but the Blu-ray camp predicts that the format will follow the same kind of price reduction curve as previous technologies.

Some good news for professionals is that both formats at least have adopted the same basic video formats: MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and Windows Media. However, details including audio formats, and authoring and navigation data structures are still being resolved.

The key unresolved issue for market success is actually content protection and DRM (digital rights management)-no high-def format can be launched until the motion picture industry blesses the content protection technology and permits its content to be distributed in that format.

Do not expect a quick resolution of this format war. Both formats are actively in development, including the associated manufacturing and replicating equipment. The industry already has produced hundreds of thousands of test discs at a variety of sites. Meanwhile, Sony and Panasonic in particular are driving forward with Blu-ray-based products, including high-end data archiving systems, and consumer HD recorders are available in Japan. If all the pieces come together as expected, U.S. customers could see high-def DVD players and recorders by late 2005.

Blu-ray Disc Founders

Dell
Hewlett-Packard
Hitachi
LG Electronics
Mitsubishi Electric
Panasonic (Matsushita Electric)
Pioneer
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics
Sharp
Sony
TDK
Thomson

HD-DVD Founders
NEC
Toshiba

TOOLS:

InterActual Player
http://player.interactual.com

Microsoft
Windows Media 9 Series
www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia

Microsoft
Windows Media : High
Definition Video: WMV HD
www.wmvhd.com

Microsoft
Windows Media: Professional AV
www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/proav

Sonic Solutions
DVD Producer
www.sonic.com/products/dvdproducer

TITLES:

Standing In The Shadows of Motown: Site
www.standingintheshadowsofmotown.com

Step Into Liquid: Support FAQ
www.synccast.com/faq/stepintoliquid

BOOKS:

Windows Media 9 by Example, by Nels Johnson
(CMP Books, 2003)
www.cmpbooks.com

For the moment, WMV HD DVD productions can be played only on higher-end PCs.

As a minimum configuration for 720p playback, Microsoft recommends a 2.4 GHz processor and 384 MB RAM. But a configuration to play 1080p video with 5.1 surround sound calls for a 3.0 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 1920 x 1440 display, AGP4x-based Nvidia or ATI video adapter card, and 24-bit 96 kHz multichannel sound card.