The new Ultra HD Blu-ray specs have been approved and new players and content are expected by the end of the year. But authoring UHD Blu-ray content is more complex than HD, so a new focus group has been formed to share information to help accelerate the learning curve to enable as much content to flow as quickly as possible. “This information exchange promotes a greater understanding of what is possible with the format, opens creative avenues, and helps to insure a great consumer experience from day-one of the new format launch”, noted Rolf Hartley, managing partner at Scenarist.
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) announced extensions to the Blu-ray Disc format at CES 2014. The new format is to be called Ultra HD Blu-ray (UHD-BD) and includes support for ultra high definition, high dynamic range 4k video, increased content storage and Digital Bridge, the ability to legitimately export contents from BD titles to other electronic formats.
The new UHDG Alliance is headed by Scenarist, a developer of Hollywood professional Blu-ray Disc authoring systems. The group is composed of high-end authoring facilities, technology companies and service providers. Members of the UHDG and the UHDG Advisory Group include the following:
- Q-TEC, Inc. in Tokyo, Japan
- Deluxe Digital Services in Burbank, California
- GLS Studios in München, Germany
- D-STUDIO Services in Diepenbeek, Belgium
- CMD – Craigman Digital in Burbank, California
- DTS, Inc. in Calabasas, California
- Dolby Laboratories Inc. in San Francisco, California
- BluFocus, Inc. in Toluca Lake, California
- Daikin Industries in Tokyo, Japan
- MediArte in Delft, Netherlands
- Buff Dubs – Australia
- ATEME – France
- Philips – Netherlands
Scenarist is developing the authoring tools that these production facilities will use, so their early access, training and feedback will be very helpful in developing robust tools.
“Last week, we released the first build of our Scenarist UHD authoring system to members of the UHDG, and our members were busy testing their first ultra-resolution streams using the system”, said Hartley.
Key features of Scenarist UHD Alpha 1 include the following:
- Import and validation of HEVC SDR/HDR video streams
- Parsing of static metadata signaling information
- Import, validation, and editing of DTS:X and Dolby Atmos object audio streams
- Simple playlist creation
- Support for BD-J and HDMV menu creation with Scenarist Designer 3.0
- Multiplex UHD-BD transport stream
