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Repurposing TV shows for DVD: working with television content often means following the same rules for authoring feature films in DVD

Post, Jan, 2003 by Edmond M. Rosenthal

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Whether it's a recent Ken Burns documentary miniseries or 50-year-old episodes off I Love Lucy, repurposing TV programming for DVD has become a significant growth area for authoring facilities and others figuring into the DVD equation. Those involved in the process say the act they have to follow is I that of feature films. They're providing all the same bells and whistles but point out that things like menus and bonus materials are secondary to quality when the input material dates back as much as half a century.

The advice to program suppliers from Al Gavin, VP of sales and marketing at Audio Plus Video International (www.apvi.com), an Ascent Media company based in Northvale, NJ, is, "if you have a budget to work with, focus on the quality of the program. The bonus materials are nice, but people tend to watch them just once. So the most important thing is the program itself."

Gavin estimates there are probably tens of thousands of hours of TV that have gone onto DVD. This aspect of APVI's DVD department has grown about 50 percent over the last year, he estimates. Projects have ranged from five five-episode volumes so far of I Love Lucy for Columbia House to such Discovery Channel miniseries as The Real Eve and Engineering the Impossible.

"It's similar to working on a feature film." he holds, "because our clients require us to do audio and video restoration prior to authoring." As a video post production facility, APVI has an advantage in attracting authoring work because it offers such additional services as restoration.

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