In working on web design and DVD authoring, we're constantly focusing on making the user interface easy to understand and use. Every job is different, with different goals to meet and limitations to accommodate. When it comes to complexity of functionality, these two media represent opposite ends of the poles: Drupal-powered websites have much complexity, while DVDs are incredibly simple. Yet optimizing usability of these two vastly different interactive formats can be very challenging. This is because complexity in itself is not a barrier to ease of use. Complexity is not a disease.

This past year has brought about many changes. Early in 2005, when we started up pingVision, Katherine and I had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve in five years, ten years.... Those plans are still there, still in the works. But wasn't clear back then was how we ourselves would work our own ways down both the internet and television paths towards the inevitable convergence, when interactive television -- the medium combining the hyperlinking freedom of the web with the full-motion video of television -- becomes a reality.

The television path was fairly clear. DVD authoring was a natural choice, given its nascent interactivity (and the fact that our experience, equipment and training made it possible). The future of the DVD format is still uncertain, but once a format is settled, growth in the HD DVD area will explode, and give us the first glimpses of what new kinds of interactivity will be possible -- and, more important, will catch on with users. Count me as one who is really looking forward to NAB this coming year.

No medium in the world today delivers high quality, full resolution, fully interactive video better than DVD. On one disk you can put content that would take hours, if not days, to push over the internet, DSL or no. And yet DVDs contain many of the everyday interactive features we've come to expect online -- click-and-play, select from linked menu options, view images and video, even hyperlink to a website online.

What do those terms all mean?

There is a neat resource that answers questions about DVD technology and what the terms mean. Worth a look.

[Our DVD portfolio is temporarily closed while we do some revamping. It will be back up very soon!]