BD-HDMV vs BD-J Menus

Transcription

1 BD-HDMV vs BD-J Menus and the winner is... Paul Masters A Wasting Time Production

2 Table of Contents Introduction...3 Comparison Charts...4 General...4 BD-HDMV pages vs BD-J looping chapters...5 Discussion...6 Software...6 Full screen backgrounds...6 Animated buttons...6 In / Out effects...7 Conclusion...7 Aside notes...7 Bibliography...8 Acknowledgments and Credits...9 Page 2 of 9

3 Introduction Many have asked; What's the difference between BD-HDMV and BD-J? I asked that some time ago before starting to work with HDMV. I, and others, have apparently not received much of an answer. 'Blu-ray Disc Demystified' discusses both types of menus. However, it doesn't say what the differences are. It's up to the reader to read both sections and determine the differences, if any. Following is information I have gathered about and my impression of the difference between BD-HDMV and BD-J menus. The main part of BD authoring using DSA is the same. Video and audio have the same requirements. Video and audio are placed in segments. Segments are placed in playlists. Chapters are added to segments in playlists. Secondary video / audio (PIP) are the same. Sub titles are the same. The menu is shown 'over' playing video. I have found the following main differences that are outside of the menus relating to HDMV: The color buttons on the remote are not available. Commands are not allowed at chapter points in playlist / segments. DSA Actions / Conditions at playlist Start / End will be ignored. They are BD-J and not BD-HDMV commands. The commands are similar to DVD commands and are placed either with buttons in the menu or in a Movie Object which is like a DVD script. As the menu design and implementation is the biggest difference, this document will concentrate mostly on menus. The information in this document was obtained by reading and testing and trial and error. There may be more information and differences than presented here. Page 3 of 9

4 Comparison Charts General General: Bytes per pixel for all menu elements BD-HDMV 1 BD-J 4 Implemented Taken from a 256 entry table (palette). Each transparent pixel takes 1 entry. One palette for all elements in a menu. 1 byte for each: red, blue, green 1 byte for transparency Number of colors Maximum of 256 'colors' per palette. Millions of colors Image buffer 16MB 32.5MB (DSA limit) all images, all pages in a menu all images, all menus on a disc Pages All related pages in same menu. N/A 5 Controlled with commands. Each with own video background? No Yes 5 Each with own audio track(s)? No Yes 5 Creation PhotoShop PSD PhotoShop PSD Use DSA or Scenarist format. Use DSA format Processing IGEdit DSA / Mosaic Implementation Each menu has one or more pages. Show any menu over any playlist. Assign menu to one or more playlists. Always on mode, menu displays from start of playlist until playlist is exited. Popup mode for popup menus. Menu appearance, disappearance controlled with actions / conditions. All menus are popup menus. Each menu page is shown separately. More than one menu may be shown at the same time. 3 In / Out Effects Yes 4 Limited 1 Buttons: Default selected Yes Selected in a menu action. Auto action Yes No. Use actions / conditions. Animation Yes 4 No 2 Command execution At button Enter (Activate state) only. At button Enter (Activate State). Left, Right, Up, Down specified for button navigation only. 6 Left, Right, Up, Down may be used for button navigation. Or May be used for any valid action allowing for complex menu design. 1 DSA provides moving the menu on or off the screen from top, bottom, left or right. Custom effects may be created by putting menu elements in the background and using looping chapters. 2 Button animation may be created by putting button images in the background video and using looping chapters. 3 Menus and buttons shown at the same time may not overlap. 4 Requires Scenarist format PSD. 5 Pages emulated using looping chapters. Controlled with actions / conditions. 6 Dummy buttons on the page may be 'navigated' to emulating the BD-J function. However, that requires more complex menus and programming. Page 4 of 9

5 BD-HDMV pages vs BD-J looping chapters BD-HDMV Pages BD-J looping chapters Display All show over the same video / audio Each may have own video / audio Switch response Quick Video freeze, no audio for about 1 second when using looping chapters. Otherwise see End of playlist response. End of playlist response 1 to 2 second black screen, no audio no way to avoid 1 to 2 second black screen, no audio when switching playlists. To avoid, use looping chapters. Controlled by Commands in menu Actions at chapters Control page entry / exit Speed Implemented Yes - some what limited. See Switch response. Using In/Out effects. May require complicated programming. 1 DSA provides moving the menu on or off the screen from top, bottom, left or right. Using background video and chapters for entry / exit points provide flexibility. Yes 1 See Switch response. Using actions at chapters. Fairly simple - depending on design. Page 5 of 9

6 Discussion Software BD-J may be authored using DoStudio Authoring edition and above. BD-HDMV may be authored using DoStudio EX edition and above with the included IGEdit application. BD-J uses a JAVA program that is 'written' by DSA using the information entered by the author. That program is run by the JAVA Virtual Machine (JVM) in the player. It controls the player according to the authors 'instructions'. JAVA is multithreaded, that is, it may perform more than one operation at a time. A menu is 'created' as required using the images in the image buffer. BD-HDMV uses commands written by the author. Those commands are compiled into a binary form by DSA (the Movie Object) or IGEdit (the menu). The execution of those commands is a very simple, one at a time process. The commands and the processing method are similar to those for a DVD. A menu is embedded into the data stream of the playlist it is assigned to by the author. Full screen backgrounds Full screen backgrounds are generally not viable for HD using either BD-HDMV or BD-J due to the large amount of image buffer they require. BD-HDMV: 1920 x 1080 x 1 = 2,073,600 = about 7 pages BD-J: 1920 x 1080 x 4 = 8,294,400 = about 3 pages The above does not include the space required for buttons with one to three state images each. There may be additional space used per button state with HDMV depending on IGEdit processing. BD-J looping chapters take more work to setup. BD-HDMV page control may become complex depending on the design. BD-J has the advantage because with looping chapters, each menu (page) may have it's own motion background and audio. All BD-HDMV pages in a menu show over the same background. Timing video / audio to a viewer selection is not possible. Animated buttons BD-HDMV has the advantage primarily because DSA BD-J does not have animated buttons. Although button images may be small, they do take space in the image buffer. If there are a lot of images (frames) in the animation, or a number of buttons with different images or animation, the image buffer size could be exceeded. All images in a menu use the same palette of 256 colors. Using a number of different colors may result in unexpected values. This is not to say that it isn't possible to have animated buttons in DSA BD-J, it is just a lot more work for the designer, the artist, the NLE editor and the author. On the other hand, using looping chapters, the possibilities are far greater with BD-J if you have the time to create the video and chapters and the needed code to tie it together and make it work. Consider with BD-J: The image is in the background video. It doesn't take up space in the image buffer. It's not in the menu definition and therefore the rule about no overlapping menus or buttons doesn't apply. Page 6 of 9

7 In / Out effects BD-HDMV with IGEdit is far more flexible than the effects provided in DSA BD-J. In DSA BD-J the menu may be moved on or off the screen from top, bottom, left or right. In BD-HDMV using IGEdit, the movement can be essentially from anywhere to anywhere. And, while it takes more work, the menu can be faded in or out. Doing all the work in IGEdit manually is a very tedious and very time consuming process. Getting the images into IGEdit is another matter entirely and can be an extremely interesting process with quite unpredictable results. Before attempting to create the simplest effect manually in IGEdit, see the script mentioned in the bibliography below. As mentioned above in animated buttons, this is not to say that it isn't possible to have In / Out effects in DSA BD-J, it is just a lot more work for everyone. Actually, as all of the menu is likely already in the video in the looping chapters, the simple slide on / off or fade in / out adds little extra work. Consider with BD-J: The image is in the background video. It doesn't take up space in the image buffer. It's not in the menu definition and therefore the rule about no overlapping menus or buttons doesn't apply. (This is so important that I thought it would bear repeating.) Conclusion And the winner is... up to you. As it always has been. For me, there is almost no choice BD-J. That is mainly due to the one biggest limitation with BD-HDMV and that is not having commands at chapters. OK, you don't need commands at chapters, or indeed chapters, to go from one HDMV menu page to another. But consider what happens when the menu playlist ends? Yes, it can loop back to the start, but there will be a 1 to 2 second blank screen while that happens. No matter how long you make the menu loop, that will happen. And, you do need commands at chapters for more advanced authoring. It sounds like I am prejudiced to BD-J. I admit am. I did try to be impartial in creating the chart. I tried to be impartial in the Discussion section and was mostly successful. If it weren't for the ease of creating simple In/Out effects and animated buttons, I wouldn't consider using HDMV at all. Aside notes The following are some important items I discovered about BD-HDMV that are not directly related to menus. A TITLE must reference a Movie Object. When a command specifies a TITLE, it is the attached Movie Object code that plays the TITLE (playlist actually). The Movie Object can do anything you want it to do. Note that in the Blu-ray Disc Titles / Blu-ray Titles Setup tab the First Play and Top Menu specify a TITLE, so those TITLEs must specify a Movie Object number in their Attached Movie Object field and those Movie Objects must have commands to play the related playlists. On the other hand, a Movie Object doesn't have to be related to anything. It can be specified in a command and then the commands in it can do anything you want them to do. Be aware: TITLEs are added starting with 1 and Movie Objects are added starting with 0 and the number is incremented by 1 for each new entry. Removing a TITLE or Movie Object from their respective list will cause the following entries in that list to be renumbered filling in the deleted number. The commands in Movie Objects or menus that reference these renumbered items are not updated! Generally you must keep track of three sets of numbers: Playlist. TITLE. Movie Object. Page 7 of 9

8 Bibliography All the following may be found on the DSA support site ( BLOG page). DVD to BD-J Transition or Going around in Circles A description of my journey from DVD to BD-J menus and what I discovered. HDMV Animated buttons an easier way A PDF, a video, a sample PSD and a complete DSA project showing how to create animated buttons in HDMV. Also included are two PhotoShop scripts to make the PSD creation easier. HDMV Animated Buttons V 2.0 Updated PhotoShop scripts with new features and better useability. HDMV InOut Effects PhotoShop Script A PDF manual explains the IGEdit process. A PhotoShop script removes all the IGEdit drudgery. Three samples and a DSA project show some of the scripts capabilities. Creating the images is up to you. HDMV InOut Effects PhotoShop Script v 1.5 Updated PhotoShop script and an addendum PDF. Included are files related to an 'impossible' menu. HDMV Menu DLIES Selective copy PhotoShop Script A PhotoShop script to copy selected items / fields / variables from a previous IGEdit DLIES file to one that contains updates made to a PSD so that the prior work can be retained without having to reenter it. DSA BD-J concept: Default / Active / Main Menu A PDF on what DSA BD-J means by Default Menu, Active Menu and Main Menu. Two sample projects are also included. Not one of mine, but a good reference when starting to work with HDMV: Experts Corner Real World 3D Example Goat Story 3D by Christoph Schmidt DVDesign GmpH, Germany Even if you are not doing 3D, it has a detailed step by step description on how to set up DSA and IGEdit for HDMV. Just ignore the 3D parts. Page 8 of 9

9 Acknowledgments and Credits If this is useful to you, you may donate using PayPal and Thank you. This document is copyright 12/2012 by Paul Masters A Wasting Time Production except when that conflicts with another products copyright. DoStudio / DSA is copyright by Sony Creative Software Inc. PhotoShop and PSD is copyright by Adobe. IGEdit is copyright by DVDLogic. Scenarist is copyright by Rovi Corp. 'Blu-ray Disc Demystified' Authors: Jim Taylor, Charles G. Crawford, Christen M. Armbrust, and Michael Zink Published and copyright 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Page 9 of 9