DVD PRIMER

To begin with, a standard DVD disc can hold a good 90-minutes of high-quality, compressed video, and this video can be one long program or a number of individual video clips that make up the modules of a more complex presentation. Each video clip can contain Chapter Points that allow the viewer to jump to selected sections, or chapters, of the video program.

If needed, muliple language audio tracks and multilingual subtitles can be included for the video programs.

DVDs can also contain collections of still images or photographs. These images can be organized into a slide show presentation that is either controlled manually by the viewer or programmed to run automatically with an optional music track.

Computer data files can be included on the DVD disc and accessed easily by the user for use on their own computers.

If you plan to have more than one item on your DVD you'll probably need some sort of menu system and navigation structure to guide the viewer through the contents. These menus can be simple and functional, or complex and highly stylized motion menus with video and audio backgrounds and animated buttons showing short clips of the video programs to which they are linked.

Authoring is the term that's used to describe the design, organization and programming of all the elements that will go into a menu-driven interactive DVD. This is as much an art form as it is an excercise in attention to detail.
Once the master DVD disc has been created it can be duplicated or replicated into as many copies as needed. Combine it with a well-designed label (printed directly on the disc) and perhaps some printed packaging inserts and you've got a dynamite video presentation.

ZIBI Video can help you with any part of the DVD creation process (including graphic design of menus and packaging) and we can take care of any of those parts you can't or don't want to handle yourself.