Sonic Brings Web, DVD Together.

Sonic Solutions this week introduced a new technology that incorporates DVD with the World Wide Web (eDVD for the Web). The product is part of the company_s DVDit! Suite which lets 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. 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.