•DVD authoring describes the process of creating a DVD video that can be played on a DVD player. DVD authoring software must conform to the specifications set by the DVD Forum group in 1995. The specifications are complicated due to the number of companies that were involved in creating them.

You may find that you are unable to play clips from the timeline without rendering, even though it may be a cuts only edit with no filters or audio mixing applied. This is because the Sequence Settings are incorrectly set. This article discusses how to correct this in the Sequence Settings Panel.

A mistake that new users frequently make is to load a number of video clips into a new sequence which use a codec, frame rate, or frame size that does not match the preset Sequence Settings. For example, if you install Final Cut Pro and select DV as the default setting, then try to go through the tutorial using the supplied clips, you will find that Final Cut Pro will want to render every clip in the sequence before playing from the timeline. This is because the clips in the tutorial are compressed using the Software Preset, while in this situation the Sequence Settings by default are set to DV-NTSC.

The Sequence Settings define which clips will play from the Timeline without rendering. Since you can mix and match virtually any sort of Quicktime video clip in any sequence you choose, (for example, Animation clips with DV clips) it is important to tell Final Cut Pro which clips do not need rendering and which clips do.

You can  find out if your clip settings do not match your sequence settings in one of two ways :

1. Select that clip in the Browser and choose Clip from the Analyze Movie sub-menu under the Tools menu shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 The Tools>Analyze Movie>Clip menu

2. Use the contextual menu in the Browser (Control+click) to select the Item Properties command shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 The Browser contextual menu showing the Item Properties command

Figure 3 The resulting Item Properties window. Properties used in the Sequence Settings box are highlighted in red.

If the clip settings do not match the currently applied Sequence Settings, then you need only open the Sequence Settings panel, select the preset that matches the type of video material you will be editing from the lower left-hand pop-up menu, and press the Load Preset button.

Figure 4 Selecting the Software Preset in order to go through the Tutorial

If you wish to edit using custom material, perhaps with a different frame size or Quicktime codec, you can easily create a new preset by following these steps:

1. Open Sequence Settings from the Sequence menu.

2. Set the Video Codec, Audio Sample Rate, Frame Size, Field Dominance, and Pixel Aspect Ratio that match those of your video clips.

3. Click the Save as New Preset button.

Figure 5 The Save as New Preset button

4. Give your new preset a name and click Save.

The Sequence Settings box will close. To actually use this new setting, you must reopen the Sequence Settings box, select the new setting from the lower left-hand pop-up menu, and click the Load Preset button.

Note: The timebase can not be changed once a sequence has been created. To change the timebase, you must first delete all sequences currently in the browser.

Live webcasting is the ability to deliver a live video signal in real-time to Web viewers. Video-on-demand is the ability for Web users to view archived material at any time. Often webcasts are recorded and also made available as video-on-demand files later.

The term "streaming" is often used loosely to describe both streaming and progressive downloading (also called "FastStart" or "pseudo-streaming") of media. Progressive downloading is usually used for video-on-demand (this way, viewers don't have to download an entire video before they can begin watching).

Progressive downloading allows media files to be served through a Web (HTTP) server. Once the viewing application (e.g. Windows Media Player, QuickTime Player) has enough data, the video plays. The viewer does not have to wait for the entire file to download. Progressive downloads do not require special server software and can be hosted by most Web servers.

The big advantage to progressive downloading is that the quality of the playback is often higher than true streaming quality and once the entire clip is downloaded, the quality remains high since the file is stored locally. The disadvantage is that media files can remain locally stored and therefore can be copied or stored by the viewer.

Because progressive downloading does not sacrifice quality, it may take longer for viewers to watch the clip the first time if their connection speed is not fast enough. Viewers may also experience short breaks in viewing as the player waits for additional data.

True streaming delivers time-dependent media files, such as live broadcasts, using special streaming server software. Using a streaming server is the only way to deliver live broadcasts since they are able to sacrifice quality in order to ensure that video is delivered in real-time. A 30-minute broadcast of a show will take exactly 30 minutes to broadcast regardless of viewers' bandwidth or the load on the servers. If the viewer's connection is slow, quality will be sacrificed to ensure timely delivery of media.

Streaming media does not remain on the viewer's computer, so content is better protected. But streaming media requires more intensive resources and additional server software licenses. However, using a Streaming Media ISP (see below) may eliminate some of these problems.