Premiere® Elements 8 For Dummies®

Chapter 16. Burning Your Movies to Disc

In This Chapter

• Understanding DVD standards and technologies

• Getting your movies ready for DVD and Blu-Ray

• Recording your movies onto DVD and Blu-Ray discs

In 1997, a new medium for distributing video came onto the market. That new medium was the Digital Versatile Disc, more commonly known as DVD. DVDs packed full-length, high-quality movies in digital format onto compact laser discs that were the same size as audio CDs and CD-ROMs. In 2003, DVDs surpassed VHS videotapes as the most common movie distribution method, and today DVDs are the world standard for video recording.

Standard DVDs support only standard-definition video. That brings us to the next step in video storage evolution: the high-definition DVD. You might remember the Great High Def Format War, which began in 2006 when the competing HD DVD and Blu-Ray formats were released to the public. Fortunately the only guns and explosions in this war were the ones in action movies recorded to HD DVD and Blu-Ray. HD DVD format was the casualty, and Blu-Ray the victor. Blu-Ray discs can store and play high-def movies. If you have a high-def camcorder, Blu-Ray discs allow you to easily share high-def movies with others. Blu-Ray players are increasingly affordable, and Blu-Ray disc burners are starting to appear in some PCs.

If your computer has a DVD or Blu-Ray burner, Adobe Premiere Elements is ready to put that burner to use. This chapter shows you how, with just a few mouse clicks, you can burn ...