Tools and Resources for Authors

I'm a professional web developer interested in iHD/DVD authoring. At this point it is pretty difficult to get going due to lack of tools and resources and documentation. I am proficient in xml and javascript, but this is a slightly different bird for sure.

What I am trying to figure out is - are the lack of resources a symptom of being early to the process, or is it a symptom of the content authoring industry (proprietary thinking)

Audio and Video Development1

An Advanced Application is implemented using a combination of XML markup files and optional ECMAScript script files (.JS). The XML markup files consist of playlist files (.XPL), application manifest files (.XMF), application markup files (.XMU), and advanced subtitle files (.XAS).
You can use any of the XML editor\Notepad to create these files.Then validate them using HDDVD Validator.exe and test run in iHDSim.exe to see the display.
The process of creating HD DVD Advanced Content involves following steps.

Plan the Video Experience
Acquire and Examine the Assets
Implement the Interactive Experience
Test and Debug
Create Output

Reference:MSDN
For more information refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp url=/library/en-us/dnwmt/html/introduction_to_hd_dvd_authoring__codz.asp

Yes I've read all the *basic* documentation. But beyond that I haven't found any good resources for authoring (beyond Peter's blog).

I wonder whether you have checked a sample available on http://www.dvdforum.org/HDDVDVideo/hddvdguide-performance.htm ; this sample would need some modification in terms of path assumption before being played and is a good example of complex samples for Advanced Content creation.

Thanks for the link - I had not seen that one yet.

When I try that sample in the iHD simulator I can see the 5 buttons. But when I click on any one of those buttons I get the error:

"VCP Catostrophic Failure Occured"

G:\iHD\PerfTest 051130\HDDVD_TS\TITLE001.MAP: VCP: Missing File.

The zip file doesn't have an HDDVD_TS directory so I assume it is missing some the media.

Please use HDDVD Validator on this sample ; you are likely to find plenty of errors and lots of warning.Also it seems HDDVD Validator does not recognises .xts extension file.So for that try pasting Jump.xts code in the file where Jump.xts is being included that is in T1.xmu. For rest proceed as shown in validator.

I used the validator to fix some of the resource issues, however I'm not sure how to solve the missing content items:

ERROR: Could not find a part of the path 'G:\iHD\PerfTest 051130\HVDVD_TS\TITLE001.MAP

Are you saying to just edit out any calls to load resources in \HDDVD_TS

You can do that or you can put some video file and mention that in Playlist for example fbi.wmv.
But before that please put HVDVD_TS and ADV_OBJ in HDDVD_DISC folder so we have 'G:\iHD_TS\PerfTest 051130\HDDVD_DISC\HVDVD_TS\TITLE001.MAP'.Since future releases may not support opening from playlists; please convert your projects over to disc format. Only disc mode works on real consumer HD DVD players.

Reference:Release Notes of new IHD simulator,(page 3)

Just to make it clear -- you can just take any WMV file and rename it to .MAP and stick it in the HVDVD_TS folde and iHDSim will happily play it (although of course you can't ship a real disc with a WMV file :) )