Sonic Solutions this week introduced a new technology that incorporates DVD with the World Wide Web.
Called eDVD for the Web, the product is part of the company’s DVDit! suite. It lets users create titles that combine graphics, text, video, audio, and Web links in a medium that uses playback elements from DVD and the Internet. It can output in many formats, including DVD-Video, DVD-ROM,
DVD-embedded HTML, PC runtime and Video CD. For DVD-embedded
HTML, eDVD compiles interactive menus and converts the layout into
HTML pages, the company said.
“The growth of DVD is now outpacing the Internet,” said Bob Doris, president and CEO of Sonic Solutions.
“Shipments of DVD-equipped PCs and set-top
players are growing at an unprecedented rate. Next, expect to see a merging
of the technologies, as DVD becomes the dominant high-bandwidth playback
platform for the PC, and the majority of PCs will be connected to the
Internet. Sonic DVDit! bridges the two technologies with a single, easy-to-use
application that allows users to take advantage of both.”
The vendor said that among the many applications for the new technology are
sales presentations that include high-bandwidth video content stored on DVD
with pricing and availability information served via the Web. Interactive training
is another application where the two media can be easily combined: with
locally stored video tutorials in DVD, and HTML-based course material that
is always up-to-date.
Sonic DVDit! is scheduled to be available on the vendor’s site from July 1999 and will
cost $499.