In house developed seamless branching, if you wish. This is extensively tested on several players, so I can now offer this special authoring. Save valuable space* by reusing identical material for multiple cuts like theatrical cut, director's cut and extended cut. *Skipped sequences without alternative material require an overhead of about 10%.
Multi angle. Besides the audio, you can also have multiple video alternatives in certain scenes such as location subtitles, written letters, signs, book titles, etc. so you can have a true multi-lingual DVD without ugly subtitles. Of course, you also can have it very litterally and have different point of views of the same scene if you want, even with different audio per angle.
Extensive menu structures. Optionally with background audio, background video and/or transition effects between menus.
You'll get a DVD-Video of up to 200 minutes total PAL video including MPEG2 and AC3 encodings if necessary.
No artificial limits. I do up to 8 audio tracks (AC3), 32 subtitle tracks, 9 video angles* and menu pages with up to 36 buttons (4:3) or 12 buttons (16:9). *When using seamless branching at the same time, this is the total sum of all angles in all parallel branches.
Individual working on your videos. No assembly line work, no one-click-tools.
Extensive quality assurance: I'm testing the DVD on several different systems, in order to ensure universal usability. Don't worry about the price, because I only calculate on a per order basis and never per hour. Expect the work done in about a week (plus a few days more when seamless branching or multi-angles is desired).
Delivery on Taiyo Yuden (DVD-5) or MCC (DVD-9) quality DVD+R (until out of stock)
In case I have to encode the video, the bitrate (variable) will be chosen to best fit the DVD-5 (approx. 4.35 GB). I can do lower bitrates as well, if you need. If the playing time is less then about 80 minutes, the file size decreases for technical reasons.
For additional 10 Euro, I will do a DVD-9 (approx. up to 7 GB usable data), which is highly recommended for movies longer than about 100 minutes.
PAL speedup and alignment of dubbed audio tracks is included. Any further editing, I'll do just for the price of one CD audio mastering.
I scan all DVDs for errors before shipping. Only DVDs which passed the specs will be used.
What I need from you:
For a start, your PAL movie (or several ones) on DVDs, SD cards, USB memory sticks or hard drives in a format for which the necessary Codecs are freely available.
Notes on how your menus should appear.
Actual menu backdrops, still pictures, videos, fonts etc. where applicable.
The video(s) should be 720x576 (highly recommended), 704x576 or 352x576. It also has to be 50 Hz interlaced or 25 Hz progressive. In case it isn't, I offer a norm conversion separately.
Possibly notes about episode titles for foreign TV shows/movies which I can insert into the subtitle tracks, or per multi-angle, if you supply them.
Possibly notes about additional editing. If you have any wishes, please ask what I can do, and for what extra costs (if any).
Possibly notes if seamless branching and/or multi-angle is desired. It is best, to send me each desired branch and/or angle as a complete movie file separately.
Work is done with sophisticated converter algorithms and years of experience.
Your mixes keep their vitality. Only high quality resamplers are used. No sound degrading pitchshifters will be used.
Extensive quality assurance: Each conversion will be watched in full length and tweaked if necessary. I'm testing the videos on several different systems, in order to ensure universal usability. I take all the necessary time and breaks in order to be on your work with a fresh pair of ears and eyes. Don't worry about the price, because I only calculate on a per order basis and never per hour. Expect the work done in about a week.
Individual working on your videos. No assembly line work, no one-click-tools.
Delivery on Taiyo Yuden (DVD-5) or MCC (DVD-9) quality DVD+R (until out of stock)
DVD conform MPEG2 stream with a maximum of 1 video, 2 audio (AC3) and 4 subtitle streams with a total playing time of up to 200 minutes. I do additional audio (up to 8) and/or subtitle (up to 32) streams for 10 Euro each and episode titles with no extra costs.
No jerkiness or misaligned colors as often seen on cheap conversions on television.
By default, I will convert film and hybrid material with a PAL speedup. If you prefer, I can also convert without a speedup, while, unlike the regular TV conversions, keeping jerkiness to a minimum, thanks to the reliable inverse telecine techniques. The advantage in this is an unchanged audio track, which might be preferable with music focused material.
I convert the audio according to the amount of channels. 5.1 in 384 kbps, 2.0 in 192 kbps and 1.0 in 96 kbps. Other bitrates are available, if you prefer, as long as they are consistent with the DVD-Video specs. I target at -27 dB dialog level or DR14 with music.
NTSC related color problems will be fixed as good as possible.
I offer extensive DVD authoring separately, which may include seamless branching and multi-angle.
You will get a DVD Video, but if you prefer the elementary streams, that's possible too. The video bitrate (variable) will be chosen to best fit the DVD-5 (approx. 4.35 GB). I can do lower bitrates as well, if you need. If the playing time is less then about 80 minutes, the file size decreases for technical reasons.
For additional 10 Euro, I will do a DVD-9 (approx. up to 7 GB usable data), which is highly recommended for movies longer than about 100 minutes.
PAL speedup and alignment of dubbed audio tracks is included. Any further editing, I'll do just for the price of one CD audio mastering.
I scan all DVD for errors before shipping. Only DVDs which passed the specs will be used.
What I need from you:
For a start, your NTSC movie (or several ones) on DVDs, SD cards, USB memory sticks or hard drives in a format for which the necessary Codecs are freely available.
The source may be 23.976 fps progressive, 29.94 fps progressive or 59.97 fps interlaced! Also hybrids (combinations of those) are possible. Film sections with regular 3:2 pullup will be inverse telecined to reconstruct the individual film frames before converting, thus eliminating any deinterlacing artifacts or jerkiness.
Possibly notes about episode titles for foreign TV shows/movies which I can insert into the subtitle tracks.
Possibly notes about additional editing. If you have any wishes, please ask what I can do, and for what extra costs (if any).
Possibly note if you don't want a PAL speedup.
An email address for sending samples.
My current offer for a norm conversion: at Hood.de.
THE WAY TO A GOOD PRODUCT
Because the work shall be doable without unnecessary obstacles, so nothing gets in the way of the best quality.
If possible, send me lossless material. MPEG2, DivX etc. are also possible, but not the best choice for the best result.
In case, your material is taken from an analogue archive, don't use a consumer DVD recorder to digitize it. Those devices have rather suboptimal encoders, which is the reason, a standalone encoder does cost a lot more than those devices. In case, you're looking for a reasonable way to digitize your material, I recommend a graphics card with video in, and save the video in a lossless format like "Helix YV12" or "Huffyuv"
Audio tracks should stay in its native format. In case you have to convert them, or digitize them, use lossless codecs like WAV PCM, AIF, FLAC or APE and use a sample frequency which is natively supported by your soundcard. If unsure, 48000 Hz should do.
If you need to digitize your movie, use the hardware's native pixel clock. With nVidia, this is the case when using a resolution of 720 by 480 pixels. With other hardware, consult the manual. Usually, it's the horizontal maximum resolution.
If your movie is digital already, avoid editing it unnecessarily. If you have to convert it to a common format, be careful not to use noise reduction or deinterlacer, and don't change the resolution.
Whenever possible, provide uncut versions. Your customers will be grateful.
FREE TOOLS
For digitizing your videos, I recommend Virtual VCR.
To install all common Codecs at once, you can use K-Lite Codec Pack.
