Matt Howes

Task 4
Additional DVD Features

Subtitles:
Most films that have been created over the many years of the film
industry have been made in English. English was known as the main
language for the film industry meaning that at least half of the world
would understand it. Because a lot of
people couldnt understand English
subtitles was invented so people that
was either deaf, or couldnt understand
English could have their language
written over the top of the film. This
came with multiple issues such as the
original audio was still being played
over the top so if you are French and
trying to understand the French
subtitles it would be hard as you would
be listening to the original English over
the top. Subtitles are added into most films now, to turn them on or off
you can select them on the main home page of when you load up the
DVD. For example, in Mrs. Browns Boys, on their main home screen
where the selection buttons are, they have put the subtitle button on the
right-hand side so that it is clear to the user that they can have subtitles.
The only problem with Mrs. Browns Boys though is that you can only have
the subtitles in English as there is nowhere to change the language of
them.

Different Languages:
Since that most films are created in
English, there should be an option to be
able to change the language of it for other
people to understand. Although English is
one of the bigger languages spoken in the world, for places like Japan,
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Germany etc. may not understand English. So, for this some films have a
language option when loading up the film for you to set your present
language. However, in the TV Series Mrs.
Browns Boys because it is a TV Series filmed in
Ireland it was only ever recorded in English,
and no other language options was put into
consideration. So even on the DVD`s there is
nowhere to change the language but only to
have it in English. This was because when they
filmed the show their main target audience was British people as it was
going to be aired over British TV.
In other films that was made to go worldwide there is usually a high
chance of there being an option to change the language. For example, the
film fast and furious which was a worldwide film,
has the option to change the language. Being
able the change the language of the film really
helps the producers of the film because this
means that they wont have a limited target
audience, and by adding this feature they could
sell a much larger quantity.

Text:
The use of text can be used in multiple ways in films and TV Series. The
main one that it is used for is usually the disclaimers at the beginning of
them. This disclaimer is usually in white text over a black background so
that it stands out a lot to the person reading it. The only problem with
this page is that it is often skipped by the user as they never read it (but
its there as a legal requiring). For example, in the harry potter films at
the beginning of each of their films there is always this disclaimer
showing what you can and cannot do with the DVD.
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Easter Eggs:
An Easter egg in films or games etc., are hidden messages or jokes that
are placed in the film by the developers. These can be found by the
hardcore fans. When the developers put these
Easter eggs into the films the idea of them is
that they are hidden and only the hardcore
people will find them, this is because they
dont want to drag away the main attention
from the film. For example, an example of an
Easter egg will be at the end of finding nemo instead of a fish swimming
past mike from Monsters Inc does. This is placed at the end so that it is
hard for the audience to watch it. Placing it at the credits is also a place in
the film where people skip past and dont watch. The terminology Easter
Egg comes from the idea of Easter egg hunt. This is because there are
usually two or three Easter eggs in the films and it is your mission to try
and locate them, like an Easter egg hunt.

Animations:
Animations are used in a lot of films; multiple animations can be used at
multiple times to keep the audience engaged into the films. These types
of animations can vary from things such as GIF images or cartoon moving
images. For example, in some films on the scene
selection ages they usually have GIF images as
the button so that the user can watch it and
check if the had seen that little bit yet. Other
animations that are used can be shown in Mrs.
Browns Boys. At the beginning on the home screen there is a cartoon
animation of her pegging up her family onto the washing line. Things like
this engage the audience as they end up watching this and sometimes
make them laugh giving them a good first impression of the film.
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Digital Theatre Systems:

Digital theatre systems first started to maintain the
high quality of the sound in movies. There biggest
benefactor was Steven Spielberg who wanted to a
have a much higher standard of quality sound for
his films. DTS works by having an LED reader san the time code data from
the film and then sends the data to the DTS processor which synchronises
the sound to the film.

Dolby:
Dolby Digital is uses compressed audio. The audio compression that they
used is lossy. This means that some of the data is
lost during the compression. Dolby Digital
Technology was first used for the film Batman
returns. Digital Theatre Systems have a higher quality and more
expensive sound then that of Dolby, but Dolby digital is the standard and
has easier more accessible DVD software.

Printable Discs:
A printable disc is where someone that has created a disk full of data can
label it with ink. These printable disks have a thin layer of a sticky paper
on top which can withstand someone either writing on it or outing it in a
printer to have art put onto it. Using this means that the disc looks more
professional for when you go to sell them. The benefit of having printable
discs means that the actual disc which is being used to burn all the data
on wont be affected by any ink which could corrupt it.
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Regional Codes:
Regional codes is a way that allows the developer of their film to control
the aspect that is released in, when it is released, such as the trailer dates
and final released dates etc. Deepening on what are of the world you are
on will depend on which part of the
encoded disc will play. This is because
regional coded are different all over the
world. Regional locked DVD players achieve
this by being programmed to only read
certain information which can all be
dependent on your religion, race, age,
location etc. All the regional coded work on a basic number system of 1-8.
Deepening on your location will depend on which one you are. For
example, here in the United Kingdom and Europe we run on the regional
code 2. Across in America they run on the code 1. This basically means
that some of the things that we might see they might not see.

Copyright Protection:
DVD ripping is a process used by people to import video/audio onto a
DVD. When these people place these things onto a disc they must pay
attention to all the laws they must follow when doing
this. All companies that release DVD`s all have a
license agreement stating when can be done with their
DVD after sale, weather it is private distribution or
weather it cannot be copied at all. All this is told at the
beginning of a film on the big Warning Page. The DRM
(Digital rights management) are the company that check behind all the
releases to check the laws are being abided by. They also control all
modifications made by the companies and any changes that need to be
made will be made straight away so that infringement isnt put upon the
company.
Matt Howes

Parental Controls:
Depending on what rating the film is to start with will depend on the
limits parents controls will have. For al films over 12 they have limits in
which the parent can set a BD`s or DVD password limiting the film from
being played. Other things the parent control features have are the
power to skip scenes in the films that may
not be appropriate even know the age
rating may be right. Depening on the
location of where the film is being
distributed may also depend o nthe lock
feature that the parents have. The demand
for parental controls over internet was
extremely high as chidren under the age of about 12 was being exposed
to imature and vile graphics which they should not be seeing. This then
meant that the film indudstry had to step there game up and also include
these fetures as all clips that was banned from the internet could be
found on the DVD vice verser.
Functions and Elements
Buttons:
In 90% of DVD`s that are made, the home screen usually has physical buttons
on it. These buttons can change depending on how long the DVD is and what
it. The buttons that usually appear are a play button, scene selection, setting
and special features. Once the button is clicked by the user, depending on
which one was pressed will depend on the next action that happens. For
example, if you press the play button then the
DVD will begin to play, but if you press the
scene selection button you will be taken to
another page where there will be more buttons
for you to press. These buttons can be used by
the remote control if you are on a DVD player,
or if youre on a computer you can use your arrow keys or mouse. The way
that some films work is that it usually goes straight into the film and you must
skip through the film to find where you were last up to, and the special
features are usually left to the end, so by having things such as the pages at the
Matt Howes

beginning that the user should press the buttons on keeps the, engaged into
using the DVD.

Still Images:
Having still images at the beginning of films
can change how long the user is on the home
page for, and how interested into the film
they are going to be. Having a still image in
some people eyes could make them think
that no effort was put into making this as having an animation such as a
moving image will that time has been put into it etc. Still images can come in
the multiple different ways such as an image screenshot from the film, or a
custom graphic which could show the main character at the beginning. Having
still images means that the user spends less time on the home screen and
pressed the play button faster, getting them into the film instead of sitting
watching a animation at the beginning. Some still images could have a small
animation where the image is on a cycle graphic and changes through different
images every 30 seconds. For example, a film that contains still images through
the pages of the home menu, scene selection etc. Fast and Furious 6. This film
has one image of Dom who is walking past his car on a bridge. This image is an
open image meaning that it has him on the left-hand side and a lot of open
space around the outside of it so that the user can clearly see the text and
boxes that is over it. By using this till image it shows the audience that Dom is
going to clearly be in the film which could Hype them up, but at the same
time not give any spoilers away of the film, which can be done by including a
moving image.

Moving Images:
The use of Moving image can reflect better on the overall product than what
still images would. This is because by using a moving image as the main home
creen animation it shows the audience
that you as the creator has put time into
creating the DVD. These types of moving
images can come in different foirmats.
They could be placed as cartoon
animations which have been premade
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but are not part of the film, or there could be a short clip from the film which is
being used as the main animation. The problem with having a clip from the film
is if you include a part which someone is going to recognize clearrly it could
spoil parts of the film, where as including an basic animaiton which isnt to do
with the film wouldnt. Having A moving image could make the audaicne go
through all of the pages that are on the home screen to look at other
animations. As an example of using moving images as an animations, in the
seires Mrs. Browns Boys, on the home page of all the DVD `s there is an
animation of Agnas Brown pegging up on the washing line all of the main cast
then turning round. This enages the auidance as it is a short and slighty
humerous clip as her laugh is placed at the end. Also the clip is only around 30
seconds long with a slight background music so it dosnt drag on boring the
audaicne either. Since the animation is cartoon aswell it dosnt spoil anything
from theat episode as it is repeated on every disc that is released.

Sound:
Throughout the DVD menus that are made, most of them usually contain
some kind of backgroud music. This music could be a snippit of sound taken
from the movie/series. The sound that is played is used to add some emphasis
onto the home pages and engage the audience. The sound
that is played is placed on a loop so that it wont stop playing
which could make the audiacne loose interest. On some of the
scene selection pages on some films they contain little GIF`s
which show small sections with the background sound of that
clip. During the transitions between the pages on the DVD menu, some films
have sound between these so that they arnt plain and boring. These transistion
sound could sound like the nones from Powerpoint with the whoosh, bell
sound etc.

Text:
In the DVD menus on films or seires, text is used near enough stratight as it is
started. For example in all films they contain a paragraph about opyright and
what you can do with the DVD. Other things are that when you engage the
subtitles, the text used is all clear and in white writing so that you as the
audience can read it all clearly. At the end of all films credits are shown, these
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credits are made upp of a lot of text showing who was in the films, creadit to
the producers, directors etc. An exapmle of this could be the film Hot Fuz. At
the end of this film there is the credits that show the cast etc.

Uses and Applications

Interactive Media:
The interactive side of a DVD would be the sound or animation images. These
could include rollover images, cycle graphic, small sound effect etc. These can
be triggered by the user, by pressing the buttons on the DVD menu for
example if the user hovered over one of the buttons, a rollover example could
be that the image changes shade of colour (go from a light to dark colour or
vice versa). Animations can be classed as interactive as they could be triggered
when the user changes page on the menu.
For example, they could change to the
scene selection page from the home page
and an animation video could play, such as
a GIF image. Depending on how the
layout/look of the product is could decide how interactive the user is with it.
This could change from the way that the colour scheme is, to the font or the
layout of the menu. If the colour scheme with the font and colour doesnt go
together it could make it hard for the user to see what they are doing. This
could have meant that they end up skipping past the rest of the menu and
jump straight into watching the film.

Text Based Files:

DVD`s are not only just used for video. They can also be used to store book
style documents. These are called Text based files. These types of DVD only
used text and when they are imported
into the correct format, can be used
through a DVD player. This type of DVD
would be used in a more serious manor,
and would be used for a more
educational use. Because this is played
on a DVD player the user doesnt have
as much control of it then what they
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would have on a computer. Because of this it is more common to use them on

computers, as you would be able to have more control in the speed, zoom
controls etc.

Image Based Files:

An image file is kind of the same way that a text base file
works, apart from it being an image instead of text. For
this type of file, it would have meant that there could be
loads of images on the disc but no control commands have been added to it
meaning that it would be all down the the user of the disc to control it. For
example, once the disc is loaded up, it may direct the user directly to the fist
image, however for the image to change they may be required to press the
right or left arrow key depending on which way through the images they want
to go. For the images to work they would have to be placed into a certain file
format that the disc can read. The most common image format is JPEG file, this
is because it can be exported into a small file but with high quality, and can be
read by 95% of devices.

Image Slideshows:
Image slideshows are basically the more improved
version of the basic image based file. The
difference between these are that the file that is
originally placed onto the disc is all ready to go.
This could be from the images being set onto a
timed loop so that without the user being needed to go to the next image, it
will already do that. Timings could also be placed into it for the sound behind
some of the images at certain times. This style is better for the public
demonstrations as then the speaker can focus more into delivering what they
are talking about without having to worry about changing images, playing
sounds etc.

Additional Features:
Additional features which could be added to a DVD, could include music. Music
isnt usually considered normal on a menu because the point of that is to add a
little animation and the basic buttons to direct the user into watching the film.
Matt Howes

Any music that could be added could be songs out of the film to engage the
audience. For example, in the pirates of the
Caribbean films on every one of their DVD menus
they have the one main intro song that is played
through each film. This song could be used as it is
the most known one from the film, so it will
engage the audience into using it. Other additional
features would be bonus clips. These can be found
either on the main menu under bonus, but some film companys like to put
them at the end of the film, making you watch it first before looking at the
bonus stuff. Before films are going to be released 99% of the companys
release a film trailer about 3 months before the film is expected to be released.
This is to build up the attention of the film and should make more people
aware to go and watch it. After the film has been released to the public, a lot
of the behind the scenes clips begin to get released out. This all shows the
making of the films.

Moving Images:
The use of Moving image can reflect better on the overall product than what
still images would. This is because by using a moving image as the main home
creen animation it shows the audience that you as the creator has put time
into creating the DVD. These types of moving images can come in different
foirmats. They could be placed as cartoon animations which have been
premade but are not part of the film, or there could be a short clip from the
film which is being used as the main
animation. The problem with having a
clip from the film is if you include a part
which someone is going to recognize
clearrly it could spoil parts of the film,
where as including an basic animaiton
which isnt to do with the film wouldnt.
Having A moving image could make the
audaicne go through all of the pages that are on the home screen to look at
other animations. As an example of using moving images as an animations, in
the seires Mrs. Browns Boys, on the home page of all the DVD `s there is an
animation of Agnas Brown pegging up on the washing line all of the main cast
then turning round. This enages the auidance as it is a short and slighty
Matt Howes

humerous clip as her laugh is placed at the end. Also the clip is only around 30
seconds long with a slight background music so it dosnt drag on boring the
audaicne either. Since the animation is cartoon aswell it dosnt spoil anything
from theat episode as it is repeated on every disc that is released.