The good news is that the software you already use for authoring DVDs might already be aware of Blu-ray Disc. Adobe Encore CS3, in particular, makes jumping over to Blu-ray Disc very easy - there are separate transcode settings for Blu-ray Disc, and you just have to change a couple of build settings in the menu to get the Adobe Encore CS3 program to output to a Blu-ray Disc.

The even better news is that, if your source material is already coded as MPEG-2 or H.264, only a quick reprocessing step is needed to output the video - it doesn't have to go through a full render process.

Some software requires a plug-in (at additional expense, generally no more than $30 or so) to add Blu-ray Disc-burning capabilities.

We're happy to see that Blu-ray Disc is proving to be a reasonably accessible new technology - and it helps tremendously that we all got a head start on the steps that are involved by being involved in the earlier DVD-burning revolution.

And if you can't afford it now? Don't feel too bad. We're still very much in the early-adopter phase of this technology. The early adopters will happily help work out the kinks for you in the meantime.

Using history as our guide, we are sure that the next generations of authoring software will make the process more streamlined for first-time authors and will offer more powerful features to appease hard-core authors.

Charles Fulton is Videomaker's Associate Editor.

To download a PDF of Manufacturer's list, CLICK HERE.

We have seen many HDTV-related products come and go already. While HD DVD was probably the most significant product to come and go, there were a few others worth mentioning here.

• D-VHS: A videotape format based on VHS that recorded MPEG-2 video at bitrates up to 28.2Mbps. It included provisions for an encryption system, D-Theater, to placate Hollywood studios - and some D-Theater tapes exist. There were also VCRs for use with satellite receivers that allowed the recording of satellite bitstreams for later playback, before PVRs such as TiVo became commonplace.
• Analog HDTV: Japan experimented with an analog HDTV system called MUSE in the late 1980s. Now all HDTV around the world is distributed in the digital domain. ATSC is used by the USA, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Honduras, Peru, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Japan and Brazil use a format called ISDB-T. China created its own format, DMB-T. The rest of the countries that have adopted a digital TV system use a format called DVB-T (though there are some countries that have yet to adopt a digital TV system). The interesting aspect is that ATSC, ISDB-T, DMB-T and DVB-T are purely transmission formats; the underlying video formats (e.g., 720p, 1080i) have been adopted universally, as they are a function of the common underlying MPEG-2 codec.