Glossary
A
4:3 The most common video aspect ratio, used for NTSC and PAL video standards. Also known as the 1.33 aspect ratio. See also aspect ratio.
16:9 The widescreen aspect ratio supported by the DVD-Video specification. Also known as the 1.78 aspect ratio. See also aspect ratio.
AC-3 audio Compressed audio format developed by Dolby Laboratories. Also known as Dolby Digital audio. Supports single-channel through 5.1 surround sound configurations.
action safe area An area close to the edges of the screen, which contains information that is not as important or may be cut off on some televisions.
active area Rectangular area that defines the part of the overlay graphic used for a button. Also defines a button’s “hotspot” that can be clicked when viewing the title on a computer. See also button.
aspect ratio A video frame’s width-to-height ratio on your viewing screen. The most common aspect ratio is 4:3 used for standard video. The DVD-Video specification also supports the 16:9 aspect ratio. See also 4:3; 16:9.
assets The audio, video, and still image files used by DVD-Video Studio Pro in authoring DVD projects.
AUDIO_TS folder One of two folders required on DVD-Video discs (the VIDEO_TS folder being the other). The AUDIO_TS folder is reserved for use on DVD-Audio titles, and is always created but left empty when building projects with DVD Studio Pro. See also VIDEO_TS folder.
authoring The process of creating a DVD. Authoring a DVD project requires you to use your sources to create elements, such as menus and tracks, connect the elements so that the viewer can get from one to the other, and then format the project into a DVD-compliant set of files, images, or DVD. See also elements.
B
background image All menus have a background image, over which the menu’s buttons are placed. The background can be a still image or a motion video (creating a motion menu). See also motion menu.
bit rate The number of bits per second that make up a digital video or audio asset. The higher the bit rate, the better the quality. However, higher bit rates require larger file sizes and can cause playback problems if the DVD player is unable to keep up. The DVD-Video specification places bit rate limits on assets used in DVD titles.
build Compiles the project into its DVD-compliant format, creating the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders. The streams that make up a track are multiplexed into a single video object file.
button Each DVD menu has from 1 up to 36 buttons that the viewer can activate to access areas within the DVD. You can also place buttons over a video track. DVD Studio Pro supports three button types: overlay-based using an overlay graphic, shape-based using supplied or custom shape graphics, and layer-based using layers in a Abode Photoshop format file. You can connect buttons to a wide variety of project elements, including buttons on other menus, tracks, stories, slideshows, and scripts. See also button navigation; button states; motion button.
button navigation Defines what happens when you press a remote control’s arrow buttons. You can manually configure each button’s navigation settings or use DVD Studio Pro’s auto assign feature to automatically set the navigation of all buttons on a menu at once. It is important to set the navigation so that viewers can logically get from the current button to the desired one.
button states Each button on a menu can be in one of three states: normal, selected, and activated. In the normal state, the button displays its inactive condition. All buttons on a menu except one are in the normal state. A button enters the selected state when the viewer navigates to it. Only one button at a time can be in the selected state. The selected button enters the activated state when the viewer presses the remote control’s Enter button. Depending on the button type, you use highlights or layers to indicate each button’s state.
C
chapter Used to identify places in a track that you can connect to. Commonly used to identify scenes for a chapter index menu. You can assign up to 99 chapters in each track.
clip Term used to describe a video or audio asset, especially after they have been added to a track. See also assets.
color mapping When working with overlay graphics, the process of assigning a color and opacity setting to colors used in the overlay graphic. You assign separate colors and opacities for all three button states (normal, selected, and advanced). See also overlay.
compile See build.
Compressor The advanced compression tool that ships with DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro.
constant bit rate (CBR) encoding A video MPEG encoding method that uses the same bit rate for the entire video file. Its primary advantage is that you can reliably predict the resulting file size. Its disadvantage is that all video scenes, whether still or with lots of motion, are treated the same. See also variable bit rate (VBR) encoding.
D
Dolby Digital See AC-3 audio.
droplets Active icons that provide a quick and easy way to convert video to a format such as MPEG-2 without having to open the Compressor application.
drop zone An element you can add to a menu’s background. You can assign a still image or moving video asset to the drop zone. You can size, position, and rotate the drop zone. When you build the title, the drop zone is merged with the background. Drop zones cannot be linked to other elements in the project.
dual-layer disc A DVD with two layers on a single disc side, almost doubling a single-layer disc’s capacity.
DVD-9 disc A dual layer disc that holds approximately 7.95 GB of information.
DVD@ccess A feature in DVD Studio Pro that allows you to add additional interactivity to your title when played on a computer. With DVD@ccess, you can add links to menus, tracks, and markers that can be used to open an application on the computer to display extra content. For example, you can open the system’s Web browser and direct it to a specific URL.
DVD-ROM A DVD with files in addition to those included on a standard DVD-Video disc. These files are accessed when you play the title on a computer—they are ignored by standard set-top DVD players. The files can be almost anything you can write to a disc. Examples include additional graphics, such as brochures, or software.
E
elements A DVD project consists of elements, such as menus, tracks, stories, slideshow, and scripts. Authoring a project involves creating the elements and connecting them together. See also authoring.
encoding The process of converting video or audio into a different format. For DVD projects, this means converting the video into an MPEG-2 file, and the audio into one of several DVD-compliant formats.
F
first play The element of your project that appears when you start playing the title. You can assign any of your project’s elements as the first play.
format The process of writing your build files to your output device, which can be a DVD-R drive, and DLT drive, or your system’s hard disk.
L
letterbox A method for displaying 16:9 video on a 4:3 monitor. The entire frame appears, with black bars at the top and bottom. See also pan and scan.
line 21 support In NTSC systems, the video line that can contain special data. Most often used to contain closed caption information.
M
marker An element you can add to a track to identify specific parts of the track’s content. There are several marker types, including chapter markers used to link chapter buttons, and button highlight markers used to control buttons over video. You can have up to chapter 99 markers in a track, and up to 255 total markers in a track.
menu An element of a project that provides buttons for the purpose of connecting to other elements in your project, such as tracks and slideshows. A menu can have a still or full motion background, and can have audio. See also background image; drop zone; motion button; motion menu.
motion button Button shapes that can display a thumbnail image of an assigned asset. The asset can be a still image or a video clip.
motion menu A menu that contains moving video content, either as the background, a motion button, or a drop zone. See also background; drop zone; motion button.
MPEG An group of encoding standards from the Motion Picture Encoding Group. They define the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoding standards used by DVDs.
muxing The mixing of assets and building of your DVD.
N
NTSC NTSC stands for National Television Standards Committee, the organization that defines North American broadcast standards. The term “NTSC video” refers to the video standard defined by the committee, which has a specifically limited color gamut, is interlaced, and is approximately 720 × 480 pixels, 29.97 fps.
O
overlay A still graphic that provides the highlight information for the buttons when creating menus or buttons over video. Overlays can be simple, using a single color on a white background, or advanced, using up to four predefined colors. You use color mapping to assign highlight colors to those used in the overlay, setting different colors for each button.
P
PAL PAL stands for Phase Alternating Line. A 25 fps (720 × 576 pixels) interlaced video format used by many European countries.
pan and scan A method for displaying 16:9 video on a 4:3 monitor. Content is cropped at each end so that the 4:3 monitor is filled. An MPEG-2 video clip with pan and scan can include vectors that dynamically change the part of the picture that is cropped. See also letterbox.
pixel aspect ratio The distance between a pixel, the one next to it, and the one below it defines its aspect ratio. A square pixel aspect ratio, as used on computer systems, has the same pixel distance in both directions. Video monitors do not have the same distance in both directions, and have rectangular pixels. NTSC and PAL video each have different pixel aspect ratios. This difference must be accounted for when creating graphics on a computer for use in a DVD project.
project When you author a DVD title with DVD Studio Pro, you create and work in a project.
S
scripts An advanced feature included in the DVD specifications, which uses a simple scripting language to provide interactivity and access to special functions available through a DVD player.
Simulator A tool in Digital Studio Pro that simulates a DVD player, enabling you to test your projects, or portions of your project.
slideshow An element in your project that contains up to 99 still images and accompanying audio. DVD Studio Pro allows you to convert a slideshow into a track so that you can add additional features to it, such as a subtitle or additional languages for the audio.
state (normal, selected, and activated) See also color mapping.
story An element in your project that is specific to a particular track, allowing you to create a customized playback of a track. These can be used to create alternative versions of a track that skip violent content or plays just the track’s highlights.
subtitle The DVD-Video specification provides for up to 32 subtitle streams to be included in each track. These streams can contain plain text, similar to a closed caption function. They can also be used to provide buttons over video, allowing you to have buttons appear outside of the menus. You can create the subtitles within DVD Studio Pro or import them from outside sources.
T
timecode A method of associating each frame of video in a clip with a unique, sequential unit of time. The format is hours: minutes: seconds; frames.
title safe area The area containing important text and graphics that must remain intact when viewed on a television.
track The element of a DVD Studio Pro project that contains the video, audio, and subtitle streams that provide the primary content of the DVD. Each project can have a combination of up to 99 tracks, stories, and slideshows.
V
variable bit rate (VBR) encoding A video MPEG encoding method that varies the bit rate based on the video content. Scenes with little motion use low bit rates to reduce the disc space needed; scenes with lots of motion use higher bit rates for greater quality.
VIDEO_TS folder One of two folders required on DVD-Video discs (the AUDIO_TS folder being the other). DVD Studio Pro creates the VIDEO_TS folder when you build your project. It contains all of the video, audio, subtitle, menu, and navigation files that make up your DVD-Video title.