Alright DB, enough is enough! Here I am, already!
Yes, the disk will not be region-limited, so there'll be no drive-RPC-lock
issues to contend with. And there'll be no CSS/Macrovision encoding or
anything so anally retentive either. We're not making a Hollywood
blockbuster after all! (- though the thought of Q-Celt subliminal
advertising has been considered ;)
PAL/NTSC is an issue however. Yes, if you're using a computer system to
play the material back, then the television standard isn't normally a
problem. All good software DVD players and decoder cards should be able to
switch quite happily for an unrestricted disk. But it is for those who
might want to play the disk in their set-top boxes, outputting to their
domestic televisions, that we must produce two versions. Wouldn't help
Phoebus, Dave, Al, et al (pardon the pun) if all we did was a PAL disk now,
would it?
We're shooting in PAL, on a mini DV camcorder - even at the US event in DC,
if all goes to plan. And we'll still have to standards-convert to produce a
DVD for the people over there, OF the people over there! It's not a problem
however, as it will be handled as part of the MPEG-2 encoding process.
As far as QL playback is concerned..... you're all more qualified than I am
to say how it can be done. Without dedicated MPEG-2 decoding hardware, I
have grave doubts as to the ability of anything other than a Q40/60 or rapid
QPC-based system to handle the MPEG-2 throughput. And as for the
programming...! I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, the right
person to answer this. However, there is one good point as far as video
playback on a QL-platform is concerned - the 15.625kHz scan rate of the
default QL modes is ideal for PAL video, though a high-colour mode will be
required (If I'm shouting down from cloud-cuckoo land on the tech of this
then please correct me!)
Any enquiries about the DVDs should be made to myself or Darren. Any
suggestions on features, menu-design, imagery and stuff you might want to
see included, then let us know and we'll see what we can do. The main
editing/authoring push will start just after Manchester, though we hope to
have the layout finalised, and menus/included software prepared before then.
A long post... so if you've made it this far, thanks for reading ;)
Steve Reyal
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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