Sonic Introduces Blu-ray Creator

By Ian Bell April 18, 2005

Sonic Blu-ray Creator, a collaboration with Panasonic, is based on a workflow that is both familiar and intuitive to professional title developers, allowing them to deliver titles in time for the upcoming format launch.

Blu-ray Creator gives title authors the ability to combine high definition video and audio with interactive menus and internet connectivity, proof their title as they work, and output fully formatted BD pre-masters for replication. A complete authoring solution, Sonic Blu-ray Creator offers:

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— Full support of the Blu-ray Disc HDMV specification

— An intuitive authoring environment based on familiar DVD authoring workflow

— Support for the latest high-definition codecs for video and audio

— Up to 32 audio tracks for multi-language titles

— Expanded interactivity, including pop-up menus, full-color subpictures, and subtitling

— Navigation capabilities beyond traditional DVDs

— Comprehensive Blu-ray Disc title verification

Publisher

I work with the best people in the world and get paid to play with gadgets. What's not to like?

Computing

Ray tracing vs. path tracing — which is the best dynamic lighting technique?

Quake 2 RTX mode.

Ray tracing and path tracing are two of the most exciting and demanding dynamic lighting techniques available to gamers and game developers in 2024. They both represent a massive leap in realism over more traditional "baked" lighting techniques and can even make older games look far more realistic than their blocky textures and geometry have any right to.

But if both ray tracing and path tracing generate more life-like lighting in games, which is better? And what is even the difference between them? Here's how ray tracing and path tracing compare, and why you might see one more than the other in your favorite games in the years to come.

Computing

Nvidia is bringing ray tracing and DLSS 3 to your car

Cyberpunk 2077 running in a Tesla.

I know it sounds crazy, but a new MediaTek chip powered by Nvidia graphics promises to bring AAA gaming, ray tracing, and the coveted DLSS 3 to your car. The chips I'm talking about are MediaTek's new Dimensity Auto Cockpit, which integrated an Nvidia GPU, along with a host of AI and gaming capabilities.

It's not clear what Nvidia graphics are packed on MediaTek's chips, but clearly, they're using some variation of the Ada Lovelace architecture we see on RTX 40-series GPUs. Those are the only GPUs that support DLSS 3's frame generation capabilities, and they're extremely efficient -- important for a chip packed into a car.

Audio / Video

How to convert your VHS tapes to DVD, Blu-ray, or digital

VHS tape lifestyle DVD burner combo deck

While DVD and Blu-ray dominate today's world, VHS tapes ruled supreme in the '80s and '90s. It wasn't uncommon for families to document birthday parties, holidays, sporting events, and other big moments in life with their handheld camcorder, recording the footage onto a trusty VHS tape. Unfortunately, playing those VHS tapes is challenging nowadays, as it's unlikely that you still have your old VHS player (or that it's even still in working condition).

That means you'll need to look into converting your VHS tapes to DVD, Blu-ray, or digital formats to take a trip down memory lane. Even if you're not interested in checking out the footage today, it makes sense to get the film converted – after all, those VHS tapes are slowly deteriorating, and if they go bad, all that footage will be forever lost.