Scenarist SD DVD Authoring Software

Sonic® Scenarist SD is the worldwide standard for professional DVD authoring software. Combining industry-leading power with field-proven player compatibility, this DVD authoring software frees you to take full creative advantage of all that DVD has to offer. Intuitive DVD interface design and a productivity-oriented workflow make everyday tasks easy, while deep specification support gives you complete cell-level control over your title's interactive experience. Packed with exclusive features and backed-up with expert support, Scenarist is the true professional authoring software for DVD business success.

Number 1 for Professional DVD Authoring
Since the dawn of DVD, Scenarist has been relied on by leading authoring facilities around the globe to handle their DVD authoring needs. Used to create over 90% of the world's commercial DVD releases, Scenarist delivers the power, reliability, and workflow efficiency that professional DVD authoring businesses need to succeed.

Integrated Hollywood-Quality Encoding
With integrated encoding provided by Sonic CineVision, the Scenarist workgroup offers a streamlined DVD encoding/authoring workflow that keeps production fast and efficient. CineVision maintains every nuance of your source picture, delivering the brilliant visuals that make for a truly cinematic experience. And with CineVision's exclusive stream legalization technology, your encodes are guaranteed to be DVD-compliant.

Powerful Specification-level Control
Professional DVDs demand professional capabilities. Beneath its elegant, intuitive interface, Scenarist SD is the only DVD authoring software that lets you exert cell-level control over every detail of your titles. For authors intent on realizing the full interactive potential of the DVD specification, with features such as games and advanced navigation, nothing else will do.

Unsurpassed Player Compatibility
Successful DVD authoring isn't only about what you put on the disc but also what you can play back. Scenarist's reputation for player compatibility is built on our 15-year history of making DVDs that play across all platforms, from set-tops to game consoles and PCs. We work with all major player manufacturers to ensure compatibility so that you can deliver your masters with complete confidence.

Efficient Photoshop® Menu Workflow
Efficient production requires tools that speed you from step to step by streamlining everyday tasks. Scenarist delivers with intelligent importing of menu graphics from layered Photoshop menu designs. By painlessly assigning each background and button to its designated position, this DVD authoring software makes menu creation quick, easy, and error-free.

Exclusive Professional Feature Set
When your clients ask what you can do, there's only one correct answer: "Everything". Scenarist's full complement of capabilities takes DVD where no other authoring software can go, providing exclusive support for features such as subpicture effects, Line 21 captioning, DTS® audio, text data, and video angles with auto-switching audio and subtitle streams.

Tapeless Premastering with PlantDirect™
Scenarist's exclusive PlantDirect technology lets you securely deliver DVD masters over the Internet, or using a removable hard drive, complete with the Disc Description Protocol (DDP) data that is required by replicators (and missing from standard disc images). Eliminating the need for cumbersome DLT tape, PlantDirect dramatically speeds the workflow between authoring and replication, buying you precious time to meet your clients' deadlines.

Built-In DVD Production Efficiency
When the pressure's on, nobody wants to waste time recreating what they've already built. That's why Scenarist is designed to maximize productivity through repurposing and templating. You can copy-and-paste elements including command scripts and sequences, re-use existing projects as templates, and distribute large projects across multiple authoring stations - all designed to free up your time for more creative work and increased productivity.

Ready Your Business for Blu-ray Disc
Scenarist is more than an authoring application, it's a production platform designed to serve your business in the long term. Our commitment to your business includes seamless upgrades to additional formats and services you may wish to provide including upgrades to our market leading Blu-ray Disc production systems.

High-Throughput Professional Workflow

All-in-one DVD Production Workstation
The Scenarist workgroup combines encoding, authoring, and formatting into a single integrated package, providing a seamless, field-proven workflow for the entire DVD production process.

Adobe® Photoshop® Menu Workflow
Import menu backgrounds and buttons directly from layered Photoshop files, making DVD menu creation quick and easy while letting your designers work in their favorite graphics environment.

PlantDirect™ Tapeless Premastering
PlantDirect delivers your DVD masters - complete with the required DDP data - directly to replicators over a secure network connection or removable hard drive. Bypassing the DLT format, PlantDirect cuts your expenses and gives you added leeway to meet tight deadlines.

Built-in Productivity Tools

Advanced Copy-and-Paste
Any title element you create in Scenarist can be copied and pasted, saving you hours of work on every project. Menus and movies, menu buttons, menu properties, and navigation commands (pre-, post-, and cell) can all be copied at will and modified as needed.

Professional Template Management
A project at any stage of the authoring process can be saved as a template for later re-use on other projects. Templates can include placeholders for assets, making them ideal for titles in a series such as episodic box sets. No other authoring system can match Scenarist's templating capabilities.

Integrated Dolby® Digital Transcoding
Built-in transcoding lets you convert audio source files to Dolby Digital (AC3) without leaving Scenarist.

Import/Export of Video Title Sets
With VTS import and export, Scenarist gives your business the option of accelerating throughput by using multiple workstations in parallel to author different parts of the same project, before combining those parts into a single title prior to outputting your DVD master.

Intuitive Interface with Advanced Features

Cell-level Control
With access to the inner details of every title element, Scenarist is the one DVD authoring environment that empowers expert authors to fully exploit the format's most advanced capabilities. Control every aspect of DVD playback for your titles, including addressing all 16 GPRM registers and defining command sequences for sophisticated navigation and games.

Sync Audio/Subtitle Changes to Video Angles
Scenarist is the only authoring program that lets you set audio and subtitle streams to change depending on the viewer's choice of video angle, and also to "hide" streams depending on which angle is being viewed.

Subpicture Effects
Add effects such as fade, wipe, and scroll to any menu subpicture or movie subtitle.

Professional Timeline Interface
Scenarist's timeline-based interface offers an intuitive authoring environment that will be instantly familiar to anyone that has experience with non-linear video editors (NLEs) or digital audio workstations (DAWs). Drag-and-drop stream editing, chapter point placement, and subtitle editing are all available via Scenarist's professional timeline.

Comprehensive Specification Support

Copy Protection Support
Scenarist's Copy Generation Management System supports CSS (digital) and APS (analog) copy protection.

Region Coding Support
Control the timing of title distribution around the world with Scenarist SD's support for the DVD format's region coding system.

Hybrid DVD Support
Author interactive DVD titles combining DVD-Video content with a DVD-ROM zone containing bonus content such as games and multimedia for PC.

DTS® Audio Support
With Scenarist's support for the DVD format's DTS audio option, your titles can take advantage of high-quality DTS Digital Surround.

Text Data Support
Text data uses the playback device's display (e.g. front-panel LCD) to present information such as title and chapter names (must be supported by player).

Jacket Picture Support
Scenarist lets you specify an image to serve as a title's "jacket picture," which will be displayed as a screensaver when players are in Stop mode.

Specifications

Video Support

  • MPEG-1: NTSC, 29.97 fps, 352 x 240, 4:3, GOP: 18 Max, Bit rate: 1.856 Max.
  • MPEG-1: PAL, 25 fps, 352 x 288, 4:3, GOP: 15 Max, Bit rate: 1.856 Max.
  • MPEG-2: NTSC, 29.97 fps, 720 x 480, 4:3/16:9, GOP: 18 Max, Bit rate: 9.800 Max.
  • MPEG-2: PAL, 25 fps, 720 x 576, 4:3/16:9, GOP: 15 Max, Bit rate: 9.800 Max.

Audio Support

  • Dolby® Digital (up to 5.1 channels)
  • WAVE/AIFF (PCM) 16/20/24-bit, 48 kHz (up to 5.1 channels)
  • MPEG-1 Layer 2 (up to 8 channels)
  • DTS (up to 6.1 channels)
  • DVD-compliant bit streams

Still Image Support

  • Layered Photoshop® files
  • BMP
  • GIF
  • PICT
  • PCD (Photo CD)
  • SGI
  • TGA (Targa)
  • TIFF
  • YUV

User Interface Features

  • Graphical storyboard layout with zoom view controls
  • Graphical drag-and-drop DVD-Video authoring
  • Graphical menu editor for menu compilation
  • Customizable interface for workflow optimization
  • Integrated movie timeline for chapter point editing and audio/subtitle placement
  • Movie/Menu property inspector
  • Log window for detailed feedback on all processes - importing, exporting, simulating, and building

DVD Specification Support

  • 99 Video Title Sets
  • 99 Titles per Video Title Set
  • 128 commands per movie
  • 16 General Parameter Registers (GPRMs)
  • Full access to all System Parameters (SPRMs)
  • Unlimited scripting access to all available commands
  • Complete user operation control (enable/disable remote control buttons)
  • Mix 4:3 and 16:9 menus and movies
  • Slideshow and Stillshow support

Advanced Authoring Support

  • Advanced Copy-and-Paste - Copy-and-Paste anything in your project
  • Template Manager - Create new projects in the Template Manager or Project Wizard
  • Import and export Video Title Sets for distributed project production
  • Text Data support
  • Multi-angle video with auto-switching audio/subtitle streams
  • Full Karaoke support
  • Audio application mode - Surround/Karaoke
  • Scenarist SGI script import

Subtitle Support

  • Built-in subtitle generator with full control over position, font, size etc.
  • Import multiple .SST subtitle files with still image files
  • Subpicture effects - Fade, Wipe, or Scroll
  • Line 21 support for Closed Captioning (NTSC)
  • Include up to 288 subtitle streams (32 streams per video angle)
  • Drag-and-edit individual subtitle units within the movie timeline
  • Include graphics with buttons over video

Menu Support

  • Support for motion and static menus
  • Include up to 198,000 menus
  • Unlimited Menu Language Support - assign the language ID of DVD menus to any supported language in the DVD specification
  • Create still menus from layered Photoshop files
  • 36 buttons per menu
  • Manual and automatic button routing
  • Access to four overlay channel colors
  • Built-in text and picture safe areas
  • Color palette control

Movie Support

  • Include up to 999 movies per disc
  • Access to 9 Video Angles
  • Video angles with simultaneous audio/subtitle switching
  • Mix 4:3 and 16:9 video material
  • Support for 72 audio streams (8 streams per video angle)
  • Support for up to 288 subtitle streams (32 streams per video angle)
  • Movie playback mode - Random/Shuffle/Sequential
  • Add and remove chapter markers within video timeline
  • Timeline editing of video and audio streams
  • Scrub video timeline for accurate chapter placement

Asset Management

  • Join unlimited video assets
  • Asset place holders for powerful template creation, prior to delivery of assets
  • Organize assets into folders
  • View assets in Windows Explorer-style view
  • View asset details in property browser - resolution, length, file path, and encoding parameters
  • Easily replace assets within the project
  • Export all project assets and scripts to a TAR archive

Simulation and Emulation

  • Real-time simulation of DVD navigation
  • Analog audio output via PC loudspeakers
  • Simulate project in real-time on VGA display
  • Simulate project in real-time on external PAL/NTSC monitor (with additional hardware)
  • Simulate DVD navigation in real-time using virtual DVD remote control
  • View all DVD player parameters (GRPMs & SPRMs) in real-time
  • Manually set all DVD player parameters for troubleshooting (GPRMs, SPRMs, and language/region settings)
  • DVD Volume playback from DVD-ROM or hard drive
  • Direct playback of elementary or multiplexed streams

Video Encoding Support¹

  • PAL/NTSC Support
  • 4:3 and 16:9 encoding support
  • MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding
  • One and two-pass CBR encoding
  • Two-pass VBR encoding

Video Encoding Features¹

  • Multiple segment-based re-encoding
  • Advanced ConstantQ™ VBR optimization for the best low bit rate encoding quality
  • AutoCadence™ Inverse Telecine support (IVT)
  • Auto scene detection
  • Adjustable GOP structure
  • Frame accurate chapter point insertion
  • Low-pass video filtering
  • Synchronous source encoded movie preview for A/B switching

Audio Transcoding

  • Dolby Digital professional transcoding
  • Full control of all Dolby Digital parameters
  • Support for mono, stereo, and surround transcoding
  • Use .AIFF, .WAV, .PCM, or .MPA audio files (mono or stereo interleaved)
  • Built-in audio preview
  • Transcoding template support

Copy Protection

  • Analog Copy Protection (APS) - Macrovision Type I, II, and III
  • Digital Copy Protection (CSS)

Output Options

  • DVD-Video/DVD-ROM Hybrid support - include data (images, PDFs etc.) for access on any DVD-equipped PC
  • Dual-Layer support - Parallel and Opposite Track Path
  • Layer break positioning (for Dual-Layer projects)
  • Support for 8cm and 12cm discs
  • Support for DVD-5, DVD-9, DVD-10, and DVD-18 creation
  • Region Coding
  • Parental Blocking support
  • Volume Information support
  • UDF/ISO 9660 formatting

Device Support

  • PlantDirect™ - write DDP files to hard drive and transfer DVD masters directly to replicator
  • CD-R support
  • CD-RW support
  • DVD-R support
  • DVD-RW support
  • DVD+R support
  • DVD+RW support
  • DLT support
  • DVD Folder (VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS Folders)
  • Disc Image
  • Format previous builds to output device

¹ Scenarist SD workstation only

System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements:

  • Windows® XP Professional (Service Pack 3, 32-bit), Windows Vista® (32-bit), and Windows 7 (32-bit)
  • 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 Series
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
  • Microsoft DirectX 9.0c
  • CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
  • Monitor with minimum 1600x1200 screen resolution (1920x1200 recommended) and 32-bit color support
  • 300 MB of hard drive space on system drive for Sonic application and related files
  • USB port for security dongle

Scenarist SD Datasheet   
Scenarist - The Professional Authoring Standard
 
 

What is a Video Title Set?
A Video Title Set (VTS) is simply a subsection of a DVD title. Each VTS has its own aspect ratio, menu areas, and settings for video, audio, and subtitle streams. A title may contain just one VTS or many. A common application of multiple Video Titles Sets would be a feature film with a main movie and a special features section. Special features content (e.g. a "Making of..." documentary) frequently has a different aspect ratio, audio settings, and menu, so it would be housed in a separate VTS. Scenarist lets you use all 99 Video Titles Sets available in the DVD-Video specification, which is vital if you plan to take full advantage of the format's capabilities. You can also distribute title production over multiple Scenarist systems using Scenarist's VTS import/export feature.

Why do I need 'Cell-level control'?
Cell-level access gives DVD authors precise control over navigation and interactivity at every possible scripting point (e.g. before, during, and after movies). It also allows you to speed title playback by positioning your assets (VOB files) on the disc where they can be accessed most quickly by the player. No other authoring tool lets you get deeper into the inner workings of the DVD specification than Scenarist, which is why it's the primary authoring application in nearly every professional authoring facility in the world.

What are General Parameter Registers and why do I need access to all 16?
General Parameter Registers (GPRMs) are designated locations in the memory (RAM) of every DVD player that a DVD author can use to store the values of numerical variables. Most of the DVD format's interactive capabilities are enabled by manipulating these variables. Possible uses for GPRMs are nearly limitless, but here are a couple of examples of how they are commonly used:

  • Making navigation logic conditional based on the value of a GPRM. For example, if a given GPRM equals 1 at the end of a movie then play bonus footage, but if it equals 2 then return to the menu.
  • Creating DVD quizzes and games in which GPRMs are used to keep track of a viewer's input (e.g. selected difficulty of play) and scores (e.g. number of correct answers) as well as to determine conditionally where the viewer goes at a given point in the game.

Each GPRM is 16-bits long and is capable of storing a decimal value between 0 and 65535. It's also possible to divide GPRMs into smaller registers. For example, instead of using 16 x 16-bit registers, you could use 64 x 4-bit registers. Scenarist gives you full access to all 16 GPRMs, which is vital if you're looking to unlock DVD's rich interactive potential.

What's the difference between a Slideshow and a Stillshow?
Both stillshows and slideshows display a sequence of still images, but they differ in the way that the display of the images is timed:

  • In Slideshows, each image is displayed for a set duration that is defined during authoring. Slideshows may contain audio and subtitle streams whose timing is synchronized with the images.
  • In Stillshows, each image displays until the viewer manually advances to the next image with the DVD player's remote control.

What is a Jacket Picture?
A Jacket Picture is a still image that displays whenever a set-top player is in Stop mode with a DVD loaded in the tray. If the disc does not contain a Jacket Picture, the majority of DVD players will display a default image such as the player manufacturer's logo. Scenarist SD lets you to replace this default image with an image of your choice, such as a graphic representing the DVD title itself or a marketing communication.

If your question is unanswered contact us now with your questions and we will be happy to help.

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