DVD Creation within the Blu-ray Format (page 2)
Blu-ray in Adobe Encore CS5
The latest version of the Adobe Creative Suite, CS5, was announced in April 2010, with new versions of some of Adobe's tools, available in the familiar Design, Web, and Production suites. Pricing for individual tools is unchanged from CS4 (Premiere Pro is $799), and the CS5 Production Premium suite is $1699. (See Figure 2). The CS5 Production Premium suite now includes even more options for exporting your productions in HD formats. Of course, you can export files directly from Premiere Pro CS5, and via the Adobe Media Encoder, a separate shared component for automated and batch encoding, now also accelerated for native 64-bit rendering. Premiere Pro also includes Adobe Encore for authoring to DVD and Blu-ray discs. Encore imports layered Photoshop files to define the menu structure for DVD and Blu-ray discs, including pop-up menus.
Encore CS5 adds a new multipage menu format that allows you to define a series of nested menus, like the main menu and scenes menu, which would require clicking between multiple menu pages on a DVD. But on Blu-ray, these can appear as pop-up menus, so users can browse through multiple menu pages without interrupting the playback of the audio and video.
Encore further leverages your authoring work by also delivering your DVD or Blu-ray projects as interactive Web DVDs that can be viewed online, or on your computer with the Adobe Flash Player. These provide the full disc experience, with the interactive menus and subtitles, plus pop-up menus and high-resolution video for Blu-ray projects. Encore CS5 also adds a new search interface that uses keywords automatically generated from your project metadata, including menu and button names, subtitles, and speech analysis text.Then to extend your sharing online, CS5 adds a new tool, Flash Catalyst, for creating interactive Flash productions without programming. You can import layered media, add interactions, and augment with video and sound effects, with custom playback controls.
The Blu-ray Future is Now
So high-definition video is here, with fun new options for sharing your video productions. You can display your work on your computer monitor, upload to share over the Web, design interactive presentations, and burn to Blu-ray discs to enjoy on HD compatible screens.
This is a time for experimentation, as new tools introduce different options and more advanced capabilities. So go ahead and check them out - download the trial versions to see how you like the application features and workflow for your needs, and see how they work on your particular system and with your specific types of HD content.
Doug Dixon covers digital media at Manifest-Tech.com.
