Elements of a New Authoring System for Digital Video Disk (DVD)

Abstract

The realization of Digital Video (Versatile) Disk (DVD) requires an authoring system to process the video, audio, subpicture, and other program material before a disk can be made. Special DVD program material such as subpicture and the functions of a new DVD authoring system are presented. The authoring system is composed of four functional elements: scenario converter, source encoder, premastering, and checker. The functions of these elements are described in the paper. The scenario converter element permits introduction of navigation data to program material so the viewer may interact with and control program playback. The source encoder element utilizes various compressed and noncompressed coding methods to encode video, audio, and subpicture. The premastering process creates a data stream conforming to compression system and DVD format standards. Data stream checking includes playback emulation and verification of the data. DVD offers new presentation display functions such as multipoint of view selection, and pan and scan picture area selection for wide screen programs. The authoring system permits these functions to be included in the DVD data. The authoring system employs a new rate control method for variable bit rate encoding that yields both best picture quality and optimal fit of all data on the DVD disk. A two-pass video encoding method has been developed to first analyze the program material and then optimize the variable bit rate (VBR) rate control during the final encoding process. The authoring system includes processes that thoroughly check and verify the data stream before it is recorded on the DVD disk.