Bit rate budgeting
While the great capacity of Blu-ray Disc leads to fewer headaches over fitting your project onto a disc, it is
still important to plot out the size and bit rate of your assets.
Will your disc be replicated?
If so, AACS is mandatory. DoStudio Authoring prepares your disc for the AACS encapsulation process that
occurs at the replication plant, but the content owner will need to execute the AACS Provider Agreement in
advance. If you are not replicating your disc then you do not need to apply AACS. For more information
about AACS, see http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/dostudio/aacs_for_independent_producers.
Graphics creation
Your menus rely heavily on graphic images, so you must create them before you begin the authoring
process. You always have the option of updating your graphics while you are in the middle of the authoring
process; however, the better prepared your graphics are at the beginning, the smoother your authoring
process will be.
If you have designed menu graphics for DVD, you will need to shift your designs conceptually from
thinking of the menu as an entire screen (720 x 480 at 72 dpi for DVD) to thinking of menus as comprised
of individual elements that can float over the video anywhere on the screen (1920 x 1080 at 72 dpi for Blu-
ray Disc). So while the entire canvas for a Blu-ray Disc is quite large, your main menu may only take up 20
percent of the screen because it pops up over the video. Of course, the actual sizes of your menu elements
are up to you and more importantly the specific requirements of the Blu-ray Disc you are authoring.
DoStudio Authoring lets you import 32 bit PNGs (24 bit + 8 bit transparency) for individual menu elements
such as the background image for your menu blocks.
DoStudio Authoring lets you import an entire menu structure as a layered PSD file. This is by far the most
efficient way to design and import your menu graphics. When you use this method, you lay out your entire
menu structure in a program such as Adobe Photoshop, then name each layer according to the DoStudio
Authoring naming convention. When you import the PSD into DoStudio Authoring, each layer is assigned
to a menu element according to the naming convention. For details about importing a layered PSD file, see
"Importing menu graphics in Mosaic" on page 77.
Video and audio encoding
DoStudio Authoring supports all three video codecs that are supported by the Blu-ray Disc specification:
MPEG-2, SMPTE VC-1, and H.264/AVC. Your video must be encoded as a valid Blu-ray Disc-compliant
elementary stream for it to mux successfully.
DoStudio Authoring does not include an encoder. DoStudio Encoder includes a Blu-ray compliant MPEG-4
AVC encoder.
For more information about encoders that work with DoStudio Authoring, see
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/dostudio/blu-ray_disc_encoding.
18CHAPTER 3