CD & DVD-ROM Authoring

CD-ROM and DVD-ROM are practically the definition of Multimedia. This is a computer-only format and will not play in home DVD players at all. That said, this format is especially good at making presentations and products specifically for computer viewing and for adding internet connectivity. This is the main tool that businesses are using to distribute their literature or products on CD and DVD.

These sessions tend to be authored in programs like Director or Flash. In them you can listen to a choice of audio tracks, a choice of video tracks and practically limitless navigation around the disc (like you might expect from one of those fancy Hollywood DVDs). They are completely fluent with connecting to a website for registration or further product investigation.

The truly budget "poor man's" CD-ROM Authoring might be able get away with some simple HTML presentation.

Director
A Director-based DVD-ROM presentation is a self-contained multimedia show. The disc is inserted into the computer and it automatically launches the program and takes over the entire screen. Essentially from this moment on the presentation has turned the monitor into a TV screen - there are no menu bars or sign of the desktop til the show is over. Once the menu screen has launched the viewer is either led through the show linearly, like a video, or in any manner designed into the show. A Director project can incorporate photo-quality images, full-screen or long-form digital video, sounds, animation, 3D models, text, hypertext, bitmaps, and Flash content. Director also provides a rich suite of tools to control how and when these elements appear, move, sound, and change while the movie plays. This is the corporation's presentation format of choice as it is practically bulletproof, except for one thing: Director shows are produced specifically for Mac and PC performance, so a cross platform disc has to get additional authoring.

Flash
A Flash presentation can be very similar to the Director-based show, if it's not complicated and can conform to the limited file types supported by Flash. As a vector-based t handles animation well and is easily authored once to play on both Macs and PCs. It is generally used to design content for the web but it looks good coming off a CD-ROM so if you like the animated look of Flash authoring then this can be a very cost effective presentation.

HTML
Yes, this is the web page. The internet browser as multimedia platform. In practice, this is only likely to be used at the end of an audio CD - it's not really up to the task of multimedia presentations. The genius thing about this is that no special authoring tools are required than for making a basic web page. The user does NOT need to log onto the internet to view the show and all audio and video in the production can be of the highest quality possible. No data is downloaded off the web - all the media is on the CD, making the viewing experience quick and high quality. The disc can autorun the users web browser of choice and set the show up for the viewer to take it from there.

It has it's drawbacks. Font choices are limited to what the user's browser defaults to. The window can be resized on the viewer's whim, so there is no standard layout. Any show designed to use specific codecs, like Windows Media, Quicktime, Flash or Real, is a mistake; the user's computer must have the right plug-ins preinstalled or the show is a bust. But when done correctly, these play flawlessly without any necessary plug-ins. This is the punk rock way to get into the world of Enhanced CDs.