Should you
author your DVD in-house?
There are
many fine products that allow the casual user to author his or her own
DVD, most notably available from Avid,
Sonic Solutions, Apple and ULead. If time isn't a factor, this could
be the most economical way to deliver a master BUT be prepared to learn
everything you need to know to be able to create a DVD at a master level
- and the learning curve can be quite steep. Add to that editing (and
MPEG2 encoding and rendering) time, the creation of a suitable interface,
testing and review, a typical short-form release can run into more than
a hundred hours of preparation time - not including self-education and
trial-and-error. Specialist mixing of surround sound tracks & Dolby
Digital encoding. If you're not planning multiple releases, it's probably
best to let someone else do the preparation work lest the material becomes
stale while you put together a master! However we can pick up the authoring
task from a number of different points. The best place for us to start
though is with your finished video. We can then create an interface, assemble
the assets and prepare a "one-off" for your review.
