Authoring Blu-ray

Jerry Pentikäinen
DAP04S
 Contents
• Introduction
• The technology
• Blu-ray vs HD-DVD
• Authoring on Blu-ray
4.1 HDMV mode
4.2 BD-J mode
5. Authoring software
6. Conclusions
1. Introduction
• Blu-ray (BD) is a next-generation optical disc format
developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA)
– Apple, Dell, HP, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sony
etc.
– Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate

• The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting

and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as
storing large amounts of data.
2. The technology
• The name Blu-ray is derived from the blue-violet laser it uses to
read and write to the disc.

– The Blu-ray Disc system uses a laser operating at a wavelength of 405

nm to read and write data. DVDs and CDs use red and infrared lasers
at 650 nm and 780 nm.

– Shorter wavelength enables

larger disc capasity.
2. The technology

• The BD standard places the data recording layer closer to the

surface of the disc, making the layer easier to damage.
– Special hard-coating created for the Blu-ray Disc
3. Blu-ray vs HD-DVD
Based on the same laser technology in slightly different ways.
3. Blu-ray vs HD-DVD

BD vs HD-DVD
Capasity: 50Gb 30Gb
AV transfer rate: 54Mbps 36.55Mbps
Movie studios: 7/8 3/8

Blu-ray has bigger HD-DVD is more

hardware support. cost effective (fall 2006).
4. Authoring on Blu-ray
• Video codecs:
– MPEG-2
– MPEG-4 AVC (aka H.264)
– SMPTE VC-1 (based on Windows Media Video)

• Audio codecs:
– Linear PCM - 8 channels, uncompressed
– Dolby Digital - 5.1-channel
– Dolby Digital Plus - increased bitrates, 7.1-channel
– Dolby TrueHD - lossless, up to 8 channels
– DTS Digital Surround - 5.1-channel
– DTS-HD - lossless, up to 8 channels
4. Authoring on Blu-ray

• Two authoring modes:

– HDMV (High Definition Movie)
– BD-J (Blu-ray Disc Java)

Both massively surpass the DVD specification in use today.

4.1 HDMV mode
HDMV has been designed to support a feature set that supersedes
DVD-Video while emphasizing production continuity with existing
media formats. HDMV supports all of the well known DVD-Video
features.

”Out-of-mux” reading:
While playing the movie the system can call up menus, overlay
graphics, pictures, button sounds, etc. at user request without
stopping playback.
4.1 HDMV mode
Technology:

The HDMV decoder model is equipped with two read buffers, two
preloading buffers and two switches.

When you start to play a movie the main MPEG stream is sent to
the primary read buffer and the Out-of-Mux stream is sent to the
secondary read buffer by the switch.

The preloading buffers cache subtitles, interactive graphics and

sound effects data before movie playback begins and supplies data
for presentation even while the main MPEG stream is being
decoded.
4.1 HDMV mode
This technology enables the following:

• Graphic planes
Two individual HD resolution graphics planes are available on top of
the video plane. One plane is assigned to video-related graphics
(like subtitles) and the other plane is assigned to interactive
graphical elements such as buttons or menus.

• Button graphics
Menu buttons support 256 color graphics and animation. Buttons
can be called and removed during video playback and there is no
need to return to a separate menu screen.
4.1 HDMV mode

• Button sounds
Loaded into memory of the player. When a user highlights or selects
a menu option the sound can be played (a button click or a voice-
over explaining the highlighted menu choice). These button sounds
can even be mixed with the running audio from the movie or menu.

• Multi-page menus
A menu can consist of several pages and users will be able to
browse through the menu pages, while the audio and video remain
playing in the background.
4.2 BD-J mode
BD-J, or Blu-ray Disc Java, is the interactive platform supporting
advanced content for Blu-ray Disc. BD-J mode was designed to
offer the content provider almost unlimited functionality when
creating interactive titles. It is based on Java 2 Micro Edition.

BD-J allows bonus content on BD titles to be far more sophisticated

on DVD. Like network access, picture-in-picture and access to local
storage.

Having a full programming environment available on every Blu-ray

Disc player provides developers with an extremely flexible platform
for creating innovative new content types.
4.2 BD-J mode
Features:

• Graphical User Interface

The author has freedom in designing the user interface. It can
display up to 32-bit dynamically generated graphics and it supports
the display of pictures in standard file formats like JPEG, PNG, etc.

• Playback control
The BD-J application can act as the sole interface to the disc's
contents. The BD-J environment offers all of the playback features
of HDMV mode. Video can be scaled dynamically so that it can be
played in a small size in the corner of a menu and resume full
screen when a selection is made.
4.2 BD-J mode
• Storage
A Blu-ray Disc player can contain a small amount of non-volatile
system storage (flash memory). This system storage can be used to
store bookmarks, favorites from a disc, training course results, etc.
A Blu-ray Disc player may also be equipped with Local Storage
(hard disk, to allow large amounts of data like audio/video to be
stored).

• Internet connection
The BD-J system supports basic internet protocols like TCP/IP and
HTTP . The player may connect to the disc publisher's web site to
unlock certain content on the disc or dynamically display certain info
on the screen. The disc's program may be extended with JPEG
pictures or audio fragments downloaded from the Internet, or it can
even stream full new audio/visual content to Local Storage.
5. Authoring software

• ”Blu-print” by Sony
– Released in August 2006
– $50 000 per license

• ”Scenarist” by Sonic
– $60 000 –> $100 000 per license
6. Conclusions
The next generation optical media battle is on going. Blu-ray seems
to have the upper hand but the next two years will tell which one
wins.

The Blu-ray Disc format for movie distribution offers two profiles for
the creation of titles. It was designed to allow for the streamlined
development of Blu-ray Disc (HD) and DVD-Video (SD) titles at the
same time, if needed. Basic menus and navigation can be identical.
It also offers many new functions that will benefit the author by
offering flexible ways of creating disc content and the end users by
offering new functionality compared to DVD-Video.
Questions?

Thank you!

Sources:
• http://www.blu-ray.com/info/
• http://www.blu-raydisc.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu_ray#_note-1