PC Magazine -- April 9, 1996

Philips Media OptImage: Video CD 2.0 Toolkit

Jon Hill

Video CD 2.0 Toolkit 1.0 ($1,500), from Philips Media OptImage, is a Video-CD multimedia authoring tool, not a pre-mastering package, but it is a key ingredient if you need to create a Video-CD on your PC. The product contains everything you need to merge disparate data into a coherent multimedia presentation, and it can build the complex image files that your premastering software needs to burn a valid Video-CD.

Video-CD: What is it?

Video-CD 2.0 is a format designed to create CDs that play in both dedicated Video-CD players and CD-I players equipped with a Digital Video cartridge. To play a Video-CD on your PC, you need a CD-ROM reader capable of reading CD-ROM XA disks, an MPEG-1 decoder (hardware or software), and a playback application.

Video-CD provides a means of distributing interactive video to devices with wide-ranging capabilities. Video-CD shows up anywhere from interactive video games to the kiosks that let you preview albums before you buy them at your local CD outlet. Video CD 2.0 Toolkit lets you create an interactive video presentation complete with hot spots and multiple audio/video sequences that is not limited to the PC market.

Each Video CD 2.0 Toolkit project begins with a skeletal sequence, which is a time line you create for the information flow through the interactive application. To flesh out the sequence, you define basic objects like menus and events, drag and drop them into the main sequence, and tie assets (audio, video, and still pictures) to each event. You can walk through your presentation to test the on-screen hot spots and keyboard events you've defined and connect sequences across multiple volumes (or disks).

When you're satisfied with your work, use the Build pull-down menu to reconcile the files, convert to Video CD 2.0-compatible formats, and output the .TOC (CD-I table of contents) and .CD (image) files that OptImage's CD-It!All product uses to burn the actual disk. Video-CD disks use a multitrack CD-I Bridge structure. The first track is a special data track that contains the CD-I player application, .TOC information, and any MPEG still pictures, MPEG motion sequences, or MPEG audio. Subsequent tracks are reserved for interleaved MPEG audio/video, followed by CD-DA (Red Book audio). Video CD 2.0 Toolkit's Build procedure handles the details of this complex structure and boils it down to a single click from a pull-down menu. Structural errors and other relevant messages are logged, so little is actually hidden from the end user. The result is a full-blown Video-CD image that you can send directly to an appropriate service bureau or feed into a premastering package such as CD-It!All.

If your target audience is PC-bound, you can create a multimedia presentation with any of the authoring packages reviewed in this issue's feature on multimedia authoring tools and burn your own CD-ROM XA disk with any premastering software that can interleave XA streams. But Video CD 2.0 Toolkit takes the next giant step, opening up the lucrative consumer electronics market while maintaining PC compatibility.

Video CD 2.0 Toolkit 1.0. List price: $1,500. Philips Media OptImage, West Des Moines, IA; 800-234-5484; fax, 515-225-0252; info@optimage.com.