DVDAfterEdit, and now BluStreak

During the tumultuous events of the past few weeks, we have been evaluating our software development efforts, the potential marketplace, and how we could best fill what is now perceived as a void in Blu-ray authoring tools for the majority of DVD authors. To do so, we intend to leverage the strong general-purpose DVD/HD database that we have already developed, and concentrate first on some of the features that we can produce quickly.

During this transition period we will continue to honor our promise to those long-time users who have paid the upgrade price from DVDAfterEdit to HDAfterEdit, and the rest of you that have purchased the combined DVDAfterEdit/HDAfterEdit products for $698, to receive the HDAfterEdit 1.0 Final Release, at no additional charge. We will continue this program and the current pricing structure for new purchasers until that release. There will be no update charges for bug fix releases, and reasonable upgrade charges for subsequent releases that will incorporate new features.

So the natural question is, what exactly will HDAfterEdit 1.0 Final Release do? Some of that answer will depend on what we learn as we move forward. But first, let us summarise what is on the plate for Standard Definition DVD, the advantages that will accrue to current users of DVDAE for post-authoring and pre-mastering, and to new users who want to improve their SD workflow and replication success rate, regardless of the what tools they currently use.

Standard Definition Features

1. HDAfterEdit 1.0 Pre-Mastering is based on the concept that a DVD "is" the DDP image, not just the VIDEO_TS folder. That is because there is no direct information about the layer break location in a VIDEO_TS folder! You will see many questions and statements in the various on-line forums that do not understand that simple fact.

When creating an HDAE project from an existing DVD or DDP image, we will preserve the layer break and the exact directory structure, even if it is out-of-spec. This information is preserved in the project as you modify it, so there is no confusion as to what you have done.

HDAE now supports parallel track path (PTP) as well as OTP. The new disc window interface provides both visual and physical views of the DDP structure, including Eclipse's arcane hexadecimal representation of sectors on the 2nd layer. Thus you have an automatic Eclipse tie-in to any failed report. The disc window also provides links back to the browser window and the logical structures, which can have multiple views of the same physical data.

HDAE now provides additional verification features, such as validating the VOBU lengths vs. the actual number of sectors in the VOBU, which are sometimes muxed incorrectly by various authoring systems, usually because of project corruption.

Few of these capabilities have been released in the current Alpha versions, because they must be complete to operate successfully. The complexity of this task has been the major cause of delays in our promised time frames.

2. HDAfterEdit 1.0 Editing will have many automatic and scriptable functions. These have also been delayed by our focus on pre-mastering first.

3. Automatically include iPod and iTV versions HDAfterEdit 1.0 Pre-Mastering will have the ability to add selected portions or all of the video and audio content to the disc, room permitting, allowing users to copy the content straight across and view it immediately, without needing to rip and convert. You will also be able to write these files to hard disk.

4. HDAfterEdit pre-mastering to DLT is now supported by the new utility DDPAfterBurner, priced separately. Though DLT is largely falling out of favor, this will allow capture of existing libraries that may only exist on DLT, even as OS X evolves and could eventually break the DVDAE DLT capabilities. (DVDAE still works on Leopard, so far).

Blu-ray Features

1. HDAfterEdit 1.0 Pre-Mastering for Blu-ray will follow the same principles as for SD. Currently there is minimal support for the logical structure of the DVD, but the physical disc window features as described for SD will be fully functional.

1a. In addition to the functions required for SD, you will be able to re-order the file sequence on the final disc by drag-and-drop to ensure best playability and a proper layer break.

1b. HDAE will generate the proper CMF 2.0 format that is similar to, but an extension of, CMF 1.0 and DDP 2.0.

1c. HDAE will support the creation of the necessary "place holder files" for AACS Copy Protection.

2. HDAfterEdit 1.0 HDMV Browsing and Editing will support browsing and editing of the HDMV structures, which are somewhat similar to but more advanced than the SD and HD DVD standard content structures. However it is expected that these features will not be available until late summer 2008.

3. HDAfterEdit 1.0 will NOT support BD Java, beyond simple cut and paste and text editing of files created by other tools.

HD DVD Features & Conversion

Yes, HD DVD still exists. After all, it is still the format put out by DVD Studio Pro for HD projects. There are many HD DVD Xbox drives and others out there that can read in existing HD DVD titles suitable for conversion, and players that can play them. We will continue to support creating HD DVD disc images, but will probably freeze our editing capabilities.

We do not expect there to be Blu-ray output of DVDSP within the next year, even for just HDMV. Apple seems too focused on internet downloads and their consumer user base. Of course we have been wrong before !

We have already developed a prototype for converting HD DVD standard content projects to HD DVD advanced content. We will continue this development, but shifting our output to converting HD DVD EVOBs to Blu-ray, and also including input of HD DVD advanced content titles. This feature will not be included in HDAfterEdit 1.0, but will be priced reasonably.

Blu-ray Authoring Application

We are already in the planning stages of a complete new authoring application strictly for Blu-ray. It will be WYSIWYG, and will depart from some of the paradigms of SD authoring since BD Java and even HDMV are so much more powerful than the original SD spec. This work will continue, initially with figuring out the user interface and how to describe the interactivity and produce BD-J without the user ever needing to see the actual code. Think of it as Dreamweaver WYSIWYG editing vs. its HTML source view. It will not be just another "abstraction layer" such as been the case with SD and the current consumer and prosumer BD tools.

One of the most important features of the new program will be multiplexing. We will make use of the knowledge we gain in the HD DVD to Blu-ray conversion development to make sure that we can produce bullet-proof multiplexed transport streams. We plan to work with existing encoders, but we will put optional wrappers around some of the encoders to simplify work flow.

We do not expect to complete the first official release of this product until summer of next year.

Other Blu-ray Tools

We are working together with the DVD Association to promote low-cost BD tools for everyone. We will do our best to accommodate these tools within HDAfterEdit, and may enter into cross-licensing agreements with other tool suppliers where practical.

Regards,

Larry Applegate
President
Rivergate Software Inc.