Viewfinder: Getting Your Video Onto a DVD

DVD players were the only category in consumer electronics hardware that showed major growth last year. At least three factors have fueled this rapid adoption. First, the quality of DVD-video is far superior to VHS. Second, most video rental stores carry a wide selection of DVD titles for rent. Third, the retail price for a DVD player has plummeted below $100. This is important to people who make video because we now have another distribution medium to use.

VHS videotape has been the standard video format for distribution for years because nearly every home has a VHS VCR connected. Now, there are enough DVD players in use for everyone making video to consider making duplicates of their videos on both VHS and DVD. The price to duplicate DVDs has dropped dramatically within the past year. Individual copies made at home might cost as little as 70 cents per disc and the cost to duplicate 1,000 copies of a DVD is about the same as 2-hour VHS tape. DVD is clearly becoming the new standard video format for distribution. But what does that mean for video producers?

The most important aspect of using DVD for video is navigation. With a VCR, the remote control is the only navigation tool available. The menu choices are crude and inaccurate: pause, stop, rewind, play and fast-forward. The content creator has no control over the navigation and, therefore, it is assumed that the viewer will simply play the video from the beginning to…