Editing completed

When you make DVDs or VideoCDs there are four parts to the process [excluding the filming] which are:

1. Video editing
2. Sound editing and mixing
3. Convert files to DVD/VCD format
   
4. DVD/VCD authoring
   

Today I completed the first two parts, which are the 'artistic' parts of the process, ie deciding what to keep in and what to remove, how to add appropriate graphics and how to balance the sound.

When the editing is completed the files have to be converted to the correct format for DVD or VCD. This is called 'rendering' and take 2-6 times the duration of the programme. So for this which is a 60 minute programme in 2 parts it will take about 10 hours to render both the DVD and VCD files. It's not something you have to sit and watch [which would be very tedious] but with the problems with the video editing machine the programmes that do the conversion seem to be having problems... I have done the conversion twice on one part and have left it trying again overnight.

When the files are converted I can start the 'authoring' process, which is adding the menus and titles that you see at the beginning of DVDs and make the master DVDs from which copies can be made.