In 2001, Sonic Solutions acquired the DVD authoring business, including ReelDVD and Scenarist, from Daikin and now sells Scenarist. Like the other high-end and very expensive systems, it conforms to the DVD specifications more closely than other software.
The software was translated to English and has since become the standard for DVD production in Hollywood. Daikin has partnered with Sonic Solutions for development and marketing in the United States.
Such companies strictly forbid the sale of their systems outside each company: internal and DVD laboratories or movie studio partners use them to produce DVDs for customers.ĭaikin, a large Japanese air conditioning and refrigeration contracting company, developed Scenarist, a high-end DVD authoring software package. Many high-end authoring applications evolve in-house in companies such as Matsushita, Philips, Sony, and Toshiba. Many different DVD authoring applications have been created.
This is the primary reason DVD players from different manufacturers do not always behave identically. This process has resulted in text that can be difficult to interpret, and to this day, many companies interpret various parts of the specifications in different ways. The DVD specifications were written in Japanese and then translated to other languages such as English. Without becoming a licensee, the book can be used only for reference, not for actual creation of DVD applications. After obtaining this license, the developer must become a licensee, which requires an additional fee. Each book contains hundreds of pages and costs approximately $5000. The different DVD formats have different books.
To develop a DVD application (software or hardware), one must first license the particular book of DVD specifications from DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation. Stand-alone DVD recorder units generally have basic authoring functions, though the creator of the DVD has little or no control over the layout of the DVD menus, which generally differ between models and brands. Most DVD-authoring applications focus exclusively on video DVDs and do not support the authoring of DVD-Audio discs. Strictly speaking, DVD authoring differs from the process of MPEG encoding, but as of 2009 most DVD authoring software has a built-in encoder, although separate encoders are still used when better quality or finer control over compression settings are required. The final step is the manufacturing (replication) process to mass-produce finished DVDs. The first step is the creation of the movie (or programme) and the second, the authoring, is the creation of artwork, user menus, insertion of chapter points, overdubs/commentaries, setting autoplay and/or repeat options, etc. DVD authoring software must conform to the specifications set by the DVD Forum.ĭVD authoring is the second step in the process of producing finished DVDs.