SuperAuthor

User Manual

Version 3.0

Philips
Intellectual Property & Standards - ProTECH
 Version

SuperAuthor - User Manual

Published by: Royal Philips Electronics N.V. 2004

Philips Intellectual Property & Standards
Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Title:

SuperAuthor, User Manual

DSE-166025BV C09S00P00Date: 2004-04-19

For comment, questions or copies of this document, please contact:

Philips Intellectual Property & Standards - ProTECH

Glaslaan 2, Building SFF-8
P.O. Box 80002
5600 JB Eindhoven
The Netherlands

E- Mail: [email protected]

DISCLAIMER

Whereas Philips has taken care to ensure that the information contained in this document is
accurate, this information is provided on an “as is” basis, without any warranty as to its
completeness or accuracy. Royal Philips Electronics shall not be liable in any manner
whatsoever for any damages, including direct, indirect or consequential, resulting from the
use of this document or reliance on the accuracy of its contents.

Supply of this document does not confer any license under any intellectual property right of
Royal Philips Electronics to use any of those rights in any apparatus, system or any
components, subassemblies or software for such apparatus or system.

© Royal Philips Electronics N.V. 2004

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without the written consent of the
copyright owner.

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Contents

1 Glossary 2

2 Starting point 4
2.1 S UPER A UDIO CD FEATURES 4
2.2 S UPERA UTHOR INPUT 5

3 SA-CD creation process 6

3.1 NEW ALBUM 6
3.2 NEW DISC 7
3.3 NEW AREA 8
3.4 NEW TRACK 8
3.4.1 Entering text 9
3.4.2 Entering track times 12
3.4.3 File Parameters 12
3.5 V ERIFYING THE ALBUM INFO 12
3.6 CREATING THE DISC IMA GE 13

4 SuperAuthor features 15
4.1 E DITOR V IEWS 15
4.1.1 Album Edit View 15
4.1.2 Track Properties View 16
4.2 P ROPERTIES WINDOWS 18
4.2.1 Album Properties 18
4.2.2 Disc Properties 18
4.2.3 Area Properties 19
4.2.4 Copy Management Properties 19
4.2.5 File Parameters 20
4.2.6 User Preferences 20
4.3 T OOLBARS 21
4.3.1 Main 21
4.3.2 Tools 21
4.3.3 Actions / Properties 22
4.4 OTHER FEATURES 22
4.4.1 Print and Print Preview 22
4.4.2 Project Templates 23

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4.4.3 Specifying Fonts 23

Appendix A. Troubleshooting guide 24

Appendix B. Keyboard Shortcuts 25

Appendix C. Character Sets 25

Appendix D. References 27

Appendix E. Index 28

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Introduction
The creation of an SA-CD title follows these steps:
1. Audio content authoring: the audio content is recorded and mixed, resulting in
2-channel stereo and, optionally, multi-channel audio data.
2. Textual content generation for disc and track information.
3. Album authoring: the audio data and textual information are organised and
combined into a disc image.
4. Disc replication: the disc images from the previous stage are used to
manufacture the actual SA-CD media.
SuperAuthor is the authoring tool for the second and third stages. It allows the user to
create an SA-CD disc structure combining the audio and other assets (track text, track
times etc.), verify that it complies with the SA-CD standard and finally create the disc
image.
SuperAuthor TOC Editor is a limited version of SuperAuthor that is intended
specifically for entering text items. Disc building is not enabled in this version, neither
is editing of track times. This version can be used by content providers to enter the
required text directly. This avoids task replication and the possible introduction of
errors at the album authoring stage. It is therefore a good idea to use SuperAuthor
TOC Editor for the second stage.
This manual first describes the main features of SA-CD. Then it shows how to use
SuperAuthor to create SA-CD titles. Finally it includes a full reference section
explaining all the features of the application and a troubleshooting guide.

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1 Glossary

Area
A continuous piece of audio that contains all the audio tracks of an SA-CD
disc in succession. The area is divided into tracks by specifying the track time-
codes. There are two types of area: stereo and multi-channel. The audio data
for each area is contained in a file with the extension .DFF.
Asset
Any of the input elements needed by SuperAuthor for the design of an SA-CD
album. These include audio data files, time-codes and textual information.
Catalog number
A 16 character string that uniquely identifies an album or disc. It is
recommended to use the UPC/EAN format.
CD
Compact Disc Digital Audio, as defined by the “Red Book”[3] specification.
CD-text
A format that is frequently used in the authoring process for CD’s. Only a
limited amount of information can be stored.
Dongle
Security device that must be attached to the computer’s USB port in order to
allow SuperAuthor to build disc images. Without the correct dongle,
SuperAuthor will run as SuperAuthor TOC Editor.
DSD
Direct Stream Digital: encoding method used for the high quality SA-CD
audio.
DST
Direct Stream Transfer: lossless compression algorithm applied to DSD data
for storage on an SA-CD disc.
HD layer
High Density layer: data layer of the disc where the SA-CD data is stored. The
physical specification of this layer is that defined in the DVD standard [4],
with a capacity of 4.7 gigabytes. An SA-CD can have one or two HD layers, or
one HD layer and one standard CD layer (hybrid disc).

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Hybrid disc
Disc consisting of an HD layer containing the high quality SA-CD audio and a
second layer containing CD quality audio. This type of disc can be played in
regular CD players as well as SA-CD players, thus providing backwards
compatibility.
ISRC
The ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is the international
identification system for sound recordings and music video recordings. Each
ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording that can be
permanently encoded into a product as its digital fingerprint. Encoded ISRC
provide the means to automatically identify recordings for royalty payments.
PCM
Pulse Code Modulation: encoding method used for CD audio.
Philips SA-CD Verifier
The SA-CD Verifier is a verification tool that is developed independently of
SuperAuthor. A version of the SA-CD verifier is installed with SuperAuthor.
Red Book
Specification of the format for CD Digital Audio [3].
SA-CD
Super Audio Compact Disc, as defined by the “Scarlet Book” specification
[1], [2].
Scarlet Book
Specification of the format for SA-CD [1], [2].
Sony STT file
Sony SA-CD TOC Text File, Sony’s format to specify an SA-CD album
containing one disc.
Text channel
A group of text items all conforming to the same character set and language
code. An SA-CD player will search available text channels on a disc to
determine the most appropriate language to display given the players settings.
Time-code
Time values detailing the length of a track on an SA-CD disc, its start time
within the audio area, and the duration of the pause between it and the
previous track. Time-codes for SA-CD have the format mmm:ss:ff, where
mmm is the number of minutes between 0 and 255, ss is the number of
seconds between 0 and 59, and ff is the number of frames between 0 and 74.
TOC
Table Of Contents. Used as a description of what is on a disc.

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2 Starting point

SuperAuthor allows the user to define the structure of an SA-CD, and create a disc
image that can be used to manufacture the actual SA-CD discs.

2.1 SUPER AUDIO CD FEATURES

The High Density (HD) data layer of an SA-CD can contain one 2-channel stereo area,
one multi-channel surround area, or both. The multi-channel audio contains 5 separate
full quality channels, plus an optional Low Frequency Enhancement channel.
An area is one continuous piece of audio that contains all the audio tracks in
succession. The area is divided into tracks by specifying the track time-codes.
The choice of audio type for a particular disc will depend on the number of channels
used to record the original sound. Typically, the HD layer of an SA-CD will contain 2-
channel stereo audio only, or stereo plus multi-channel surround.
Depending on the type and number of data layers, SA-CD defines three disc types:
Hybrid Disc: combines a single HD layer of high quality audio with a conventional
layer of CD quality audio. This type of SA-CD complies fully with the “Red Book”[3]
CD standard, making it compatible with all existing audio CD players. The consumer
can play a Hybrid SA-CD disc on a standard CD player, or enjoy the higher quality
SA-CD features by playing it on an SA-CD player.
Dual Layer disc: contains two HD layers of high quality audio, allowing longer playing
time.
Single Layer disc containing one HD layer only.
SuperAuthor can be us ed for authoring all aspects of the HD layers. A subset of this
information can then be used by SuperAuthor to automatically generate the text for the
CD layer, if required.
As well as audio data, SA-CD allows the inclusion of textual information describing
the contents of the disc, such as catalogue numbers, ISRC codes, artist names, track
titles, track composers, etc.
Textual information can be provided in up to 8 separate text channels. Each channel is
defined with a particular character set and language. The text can have a phonetic
version, intended for non-western languages such as Katakana or Hiragana.
CD-Text, the text format for the standard CD layer, only supports a small number of
these text items and only one text channel. The appropriate text items will be used by
SuperAuthor when generating the text for the CD layer.
SA-CD also implements techniques against illegal copying of material.

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2.2 SUPER AUTHOR INPUT

The following assets are needed as input to SuperAuthor in order to design an SA-CD
album:
• SA-CD audio data: the audio recording and pre-mastering stages result in one or
more DSD or DST data files with the extension .dff containing the high quality
audio material. For each disc within an album there will be one 2-channel file, one
multi-channel file, or both.
• Track times: each .dff file contains the full length of audio for a disc. The track
lengths, start times, and pause lengths for each track are used to partition the audio
into tracks.
• Textual information: the SA-CD format allows for a number of different
information fields. At the album level, it can store a catalogue number, up to four
musical genres, and text information in up to 8 languages. At the disc level
contains a catalogue number, date, another four genres and text in 8 languages.
Each area can have more text information, and each track can have up to 10 text
fields in 8 languages.
SuperAuthor is intended for use on a Windows 2000 or Windows XP machine with a
high capacity hard disc and an AIT tape drive, or a network arrangement suitable to
transfer large amounts of data. The audio data files will typically have a size of up to
4.7 gigabytes. The user of SuperAuthor will have access to the audio data files on the
computer, and will be given the track times and textual information in a computer file
or on paper.

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3 SA-CD creation process

This section describes the process that a user can follow to create a complete SA-CD
title, using the main features of the SuperAuthor tool.
It shows the creation process in the order that the user would typically follow, from
starting up the application to obtaining the final disc image.

3.1 NEW ALBUM

In the context of SA-CD, an album is defined as a set of one or more SA-CD discs that
will be released together as one title. For example, an album could be a single disc by a
particular author, or a three-disc compilation of a style of music.
Start up the SuperAuthor tool and select File→New Album from the menu bar or click
on the New icon in the Main Toolbar to create a new project.

Figure 1: New Album dialog

A dialog appears, in which you can choose from four options:

• Create an empty project, to completely define the album yourself.
• Create a project based on the last album that you edited, if you want to use and
modify that definition.
• Create a project based on a template, if you want to use and modify album
properties from a set of common definitions that you have collected in the template
folder.

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• Create a project based on a Sony STT file that already contains some or all of the
SA-CD text data.
• Create a project based on a CD-text file This feature is only included in the full
version of SuperAuthor.
After selecting a project folder, the Album properties will be displayed. Here you can
set the basic properties for the album: the catalog number, number of discs on this
album, up to four different musical genres and the album’s textual information.
Entering textual information is explained in section 3.4.1.

When you close the properties the Album Edit View appears. You can enter the album
properties when you first create an album or at a later time by double-clicking on

in the Album Edit View.

3.2 NEW DISC

Initially the album contains no discs. In the Album Edit View, double-click on
to add one. The New Disc dialog appears.

New Disc Dialog

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You can either create an empty disc or create a new disc by importing a Sony STT file
or, if you have the full version of SuperAuthor, by importing a CD-text file .
For an empty disc you select Empty Disc and enter a disc number for this disc. The
default will be the next available number.
After selecting the disc number, the Disc Properties window appears. Here you can set
the specific details for this disc. You will only be able to set the textual information if
you have defined one or more text channels in the album properties. Entering textual
information is explained in section 3.4.1.
Sony STT files contain the definition of one single disc. To import a Sony STT file you
select Import an STT file. You either enter the name of the file or you can browse for
it with the button next to the file name field. STT files contain a disc sequence number.
You can override this number by checking Override disc number and entering the
desired disc number.
Importing from a CD-text file is similar to importing a Sony STT file but since CD-text
files do not contain a sequence number you have to enter the disc number for this disc.
Once you’ve added a new disc to the album, it will appear
in the tree view on the top left of the Album Edit View.

When a new disc is created, default copyright options are

specified. Audio encryption and SA-CD Mark must be
used and will be selected by default. Copy Management is described in section 4.2.4.

3.3 NEW AREA

As explained in section 2.1, an SA-CD disc can contain one 2-channel stereo area, one
multi-channel (5 or 6 channels) area, or both.

You can create a new area by double-clicking on or

.
When you create a new area, the Properties for that area are displayed. Select the type
of area you want – stereo, stereo with extra data, or multi-channel with 5 or 6 channels.
See section 4.2.3 for details.
You can also create up to 8 text channels. Each text channel is defined by a character
set and a language.
After creating an area, the right-hand side of the Album Edit View becomes enabled
and you can start adding tracks.

3.4 NEW TRACK

New tracks can be created and edited using the right-hand side of the Album Edit
View or the Track Properties View.

In the Album Edit View, double-click on or press F5 to add the tracks

for this area. A new track can be insterted before the active track by pressing the Insert
key with the Album Edit View open.
There are two groups of properties to be entered for a track:

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• Textual information: text in various languages such as titles, composers and

performers, but also genres, catalog numbers etc.
• Audio related parameters: track times, and how these times correspond to the
actual audio files.
Because it is likely that these two sets of details will be entered at different times, the
two activities will be described separately in the following two sections.

3.4.1 Entering text

There are many ways of entering track text and related properties in SuperAuthor. The
most efficient one will depend on the format and order in which you are given the text
information to start with.

ALBUM AND DISC TEXT

Open the Album Properties window by double-clicking on in

the Album Edit View. Select up to 4 genres for each album. Under the Master Text tab
you can create up to 8 text channels. Each text channel contains text for the album
Title, Artist, Publisher and Copyright notice, with phonetic versions if required. This
information is common to all the discs in the album.
Once you’ve entered the master text for the whole album, close the Properties window.
Now open the Disc Properties windows for each disc by double-clicking on
in the Album Edit View. Select up to 4 genres for each disc. Under the
Master Text tab you can enter different text information for each disc. However, you
will notice that you can only use text channels that you have previously defined for this
album.

AREA AND TRACK TEXT

Open the Area Propertie s window for each area by double-clicking on

or in the Album Edit View. Create
the necessary text channels for the area and enter the area text. These text channels
will also be used for the track text later.
The right-hand pane of the Album Edit View provides a customisable spreadsheet
interface to enter the track text. The bottom left pane of this view lets you select which
track properties are displayed in the spreadsheet. Clicking on a cell edits its contents,
and hitting <enter> accepts the current contents and moves to the next cell.

The icon in the right-hand pane toggles between vertical and horizontal edit
modes. Select the vertical edit mode to view the information for each track separately.

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Using vertical edit mode to enter the text track by track

In horizontal edit mode you can toggle the edit flow direction by clicking on .
With this button pressed down, hitting <enter> in a text cell moves to the cell to its
right.

horizontal edit flow direction

Using horizontal flow direction to enter the text track by track

With vertical flow direction, hitting <enter> moves to the cell below, allowing you to
fill in all the text for a particular field.

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vertical edit flow direction

Using vertical flow direction to enter the text by field

You can resize the fields by dragging the divider lin e between the titles, and change the
order in which the fields appear in the spreadsheet by dragging the column titles.

The button toggles the gridlines for the spreadsheet on and off.
Once you’ve given the spreadsheet the most appropriate layout for your input text, you
can start typing it in. At the top of the pane you can select the text channel you want to
work with. This channel selection won’t be available if you haven’t created any text
channels for the current area.

If the tracks have information fields in common, you can create the first track and fill
in these fields; when you create successive tracks, a window will appear where you can
specify that new tracks will inherit the fields from the active track. Alternatively, use
the auto-complete text feature – by typing the first few characters of an already entered
value, SuperAuthor will fill in the rest for you.

New tracks can inherit details from existing ones

As well as textual information, you can specify an ISRC code and genre for each track.
Do this from the Track Properties View, which you can open by double-clicking on a

track number or clicking on in the tools toolbar.

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3.4.2 Entering track times1

You can enter the Pause Duration, Start Time and Duration for each track in the
Album Edit View in the same way as the text information (see above). The times are
displayed in minutes : seconds : frames.
You will notice that the tool can fill in some values for you (for example, it will
calculate the track start times from the given Pause Durations and track Durations).

Filling in the time values

3.4.3 File Parameters

After entering the times, specify the audio files for the areas from the File Parameters

window. Open this window by selecting the disc and clicking on in the top
toolbar. The top two text boxes specify the files for the audio areas. You can enter the

full file names or browse for them by clic king on .

In the bottom half two text boxes let you specify where the intermediate files and the
disc image should be written. Both paths should provide enough free storage for the
complete disc, i.e. for a single layer disc both the intermediate folder and the output
folder should have at least 4.7 GB free.

3.5 VERIFYING THE ALBUM INFO

After you’ve designed your album and entered all the details you must verify that these
texts complie with the SA-CD specification. You won’t be able to build the disc
images until it is fully compliant.

Click on the icon in the top toolbar to verify all aspects of your album. A new
window will appear at the bottom of SuperAuthor with the results of the verification.
This window can contain three types of message:
Information about the verification process.

1 The features described in this section are only available in the full version of SuperAuthor, the
TOC Editor does not allow times to be entered, files to be specified or audio to be viewed.

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Warning of a (potential) problem that won’t prevent the disc image from being
generated.
Error in the structure of the album that means it doesn’t comply with the SA-CD
specification. All errors must be resolved before a disc image can be generated.
The Verification Results window has three tick boxes to select which types of
message to display. When verifying a large disc definition, a lot of information
messages are generated so it is advisable to turn off information messages so that the
errors and warnings can be viewed more easily.
Clicking on a Warning or Error message in the results window will open the
appropriate editor view or properties window where you can fix the problem.
As well as completely verifying the album, you can verify one or more particular

aspects of the album by clicking on . This displays the Verifier Options window.
Select the options you want to verify and hit “Start Verifier”. An album must pass all
the verifier tests before it can be built.

3.6 CREATING THE DISC IMAGE2

Once you’ve designed and verified the album, hit to bring up the Build Disc
window. Select the discs that you want to create the images for and then click Build.
The bottom of the dialog shows the progress of the build operation.
After the build operation, the separately developed Philips SA-CD Verifier will start,
which verifies the disc image produced by SuperAuthor. If no errors are found you can
write the disc image to tape in the SA-CD Cutting Master Format (CMF). This is the
final output of SuperAuthor.

2
Building cannot be done using SuperAuthor TOC Editor

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4 SuperAuthor features

This section contains and in-depth reference of all the features provided by the
SuperAuthor tool.

4.1 EDITOR VIEWS

The design of an SA-CD album in SuperAuthor is done using a combination of two

views: the Album Edit View and the Track Properties View.

4.1.1 Album Edit View

This is the main view of SuperAuthor. From this view you can add, modify and remove
discs and audio areas from the album. You can also visualise and edit the text
information and time-codes for the tracks within each area.

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The view appears when you first create a project. You can also open this view by

clicking on in the tools toolbar or selecting View→Album Edit View from the
menu.
The top left pane is a representation of the current album
as a tree structure. The root of the tree is the current SA-
CD album, and contains zero or more discs. Each disc
can contain a stereo audio area and a multi-channel audio
area. Double-click on a entry to create a new disc or
area. Double-clicking on the album or an existing area or
disc opens the properties window for that item, and
right-clicking opens a menu of related options.
When you create a new disc, a window prompts you to
enter the disc number. The disc number doesn’t have to
be the next available number. For example, you can have a project with disc numbers
3, 4 and 6 and a different project with numbers 1, 2 and 5 of the same album.
The rest of this view allows you to enter the track times and information for the text
channels. This is described in section 0. In the right-hand side pane, left-click on a cell
to edit its contents, and hit <enter> to accept the changes. Right-click on a cell
belonging to a track to open an options menu for that track, and double-click on a track
number to open the Track Properties View.

4.1.2 Track Prope rties View

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This view displays and allows you to modify all the information about a track.

Open this view by clicking on in the tools toolbar, or selecting View→Track View
from the menu.
At the top left of the view you can select which track to display the information for,

and you can use to create a new track or to delete the current one.
Down the left of the view you can edit the track information, genre and index start
times. The first editable index number is 2, because index 1 represents the trac k start
time and is editable elsewhere. Double-click on --new-– and type in the time to
create a new index, or select one and hit <delete> to remove it.
On the right of the view you can edit the track text for each text channel. Select which
text channel to display at the top. You can see all the possible text fields for the
selected text channel. Because a track can only use a maximum of 10 text fields, there
is a counter at the bottom indicating how many have already been used. Once 10 fields
are in use, you won’t be able to fill in any more until you clear one.

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4.2 PROPERTIES WINDOWS

4.2.1 Album Properties

From this window you can view and modify the global properties for the current
album.

You can access this window by double-clicking on the album or by clicking on in

the actions toolbar.
From the Properties tab you can enter the album’s catalog number and set size. The
set size will increase automatically as you add new discs to the
album. You can also select up to 4 album genres, consisting of a
genre table and index.

In the Master Text tab you can define up to 8 text channels. A text
channel is defined by a character set and a language. At the album
level, each channel contains Title, Artist, Publisher and Copyright
information, in normal and phonetic versions. The text channels
you define here will also be used for disc information for all the
discs in the album.
You must define the text channels in ascending order with no gaps.
For example, if you want to define 3 text channels for an album,
they must be Channel 1, Channel 2 and Channel 3.

4.2.2 Disc Properties

This window contains the general properties for a disc. This

window appears automatically when you create a new disc, and you
can open it at any time by double-clicking on the disc, or clicking

on in the toolbar.
From the Properties tab you can enter the disc’s Catalog Number,
Date and Type. You can also set up to 4 disc genres, which may
or may not be the same as the album’s.
If you want SuperAuthor to generate the CD layer of a hybrid disc
and you wish to include CD-Text, you must specify which text
channel is to be used as the source. Bear in mind that CD-Text
can only support ASCII and Latin characters.
When you create a new disc within an album, a prompt appears
asking you if you want the disc to inherit the album’s genres, so
that you don’t have to enter the genres again. If this box doesn’t

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appear, it has been disabled and the default option will be used. (To enable the message
box or to change the default option, see User Preferences 4.2.6)
In the Master Text tab you can enter the text for the different text channels. You can’t
define new text channels or modify the existing ones from this window, because the
available channels are defined at the album level. To modify the channels, open the
Album Properties window (see 4.2.1).

4.2.3 Area Properties

This window contains the properties and textual information for an

audio area. It appears automatically when you create a new stereo or
multi-channel audio area, and you can access it at any time by

double-clicking on the area, or clicking on in the toolbar.

From this window you can select the type of area you want:
• For a stereo area, the option to reserve space for extra data is
given. If you choose this option, the audio length is limited to
around 95 minutes for a single layer disc.
• For a multi-channel area, choose between five and six channels.
The extra channel will be used for Low Frequency
Enhancement.
The Track Offset is used to indicate that the first track on this disc
isn’t track 1 in the album. For example, if an album has two discs,
disc 1 with 5 tracks and disc 2 with the following 7 tracks, set the
Track Offset for disc 2 to 5. That way the player will refer to the
tracks on disc 2 as tracks 6 - 12.
The text channel to use for CD-Text must also be specified here, if required, as it is
possible that the text channels are defined differently between the album and the areas,
although this is not advisable.
In this window you can also define the text channels and their text information for this
area. You can define up to 8 channels. These channels are independent from the
album/disc ones. When you create a new area, a prompt appears asking you if you want
the area to inherit the disc’s text channels, so that you don’t have to define them again
(if this prompt doesn’t appear, it has been disabled in the User Preferences, see 4.2.6)

4.2.4 Copy Management Properties

Three Copy Management settings can be viewed/modified from this

window:
• Audio encryption
• Using the SA-CD Mark will make the disc DVD-ROM
incompatible, therefore preventing piracy using a PC.
• A Visible Watermark gives a visible print on the disc. If this
method is used then a watermark bitmap must be specified, as described in the
following section.
Note that the top two settings must be turned on and can therefore not be modified.

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4.2.5 File Parameters

The File Parameters window contains all the file-related options for the active disc.
Open this window by hitting Ctrl+F with a disc selected, or selecting
Properties→File Parameters from the menu bar.

In the input section you can specify the data files for the stereo and multi-channel audio
areas. These files have the extension .dff. At least one of these files is mandatory.
You can also specify a bitmap (.bmp ) to be used as the Visible Watermark. This file is
optional. Please check with your replicator first if Visible Watermarks are supported.
In the output section you can select the directory where the final disc image will be
saved and an intermediate directory for SuperAuthor to use during the build process.

4.2.6 User Preferences

This window contains automation features and properties that define how SuperAuthor
behaves. Open this window by selecting Options→User Preferences from the menu
bar.
Here you can select whether the program loads the last used project when it starts up,
and a directory where the project template files are located (for more information on
project templates, see 4.4.2).
In the Automatic Properties section you can select which fields are automatically filled
in when you create new discs, areas and tracks. If Show prompt when new items are
created is enabled, SuperAuthor will ask you every time you create a new item.

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4.3 TOOLBARS

SuperAuthor has a set of toolbars from which you can access the program’s main
features. These toolbars can be hidden or made visible from the View menu.

4.3.1 Main

The Main Toolbar contains the standard Windows file-related options:

New Album: creates a new album design.

Open Album: opens an existing album design.

Save Album: saves the current album design.

Cut: cuts the currently selected item into the Windows clipboard.

Copy: copies the currently selected item into the Windows clipboard.

Paste: pastes the contents of the Windows clipboard into the current selection.

Print: opens a window where you can select which details to print for the
currently selected disc, and then prints them using the current printer settings. For more
details about printing and print preview see 4.4.1.

Print preview: opens a window where you can select which album details to
preview, and then shows you how the printout would look. For more details about
printing and print preview see 4.4.1.

Help: opens the About SuperAuthor window (interactive help is not currently
supported by SuperAuthor).

4.3.2 Tools

The Tools Toolbar contains verification and disc image building options and allows
you to choose which Views are visible.

Toggle Verifier Results: displays/hides the Verifier Results window. For more
information about this window see section 3.5, “Verifying the album”.

Verifier Options: opens a window where you can select which aspects of the
album to verify.

Verify: runs the verifier using the current Verifier Options. If the Verifier
Results window is hidden, it will be made visible.

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Build Disc(s): opens the window allowing you to build the final disc image. If
the design hasn’t verified without errors, it will force you to run the verifier before
allowing you to build. This option is not available in SuperAuthor TOC Editor.

Album Edit View: toggles the Album Edit View between hidden and visible.

Track Properties View: toggles the Track Properties View between hidden and
visible.

4.3.3 Actions / Properties

From this toolbar you can create, delete and access the properties of various items.

New Disc: adds a disc to the current album.

New Area: adds an area to the currently selected disc. It will let you choose
between stereo and multi-channel, providing they haven’t already been created.

New Track: adds a track to the currently selected area.

Delete Disc: deletes the currently selected disc.

Delete Area: deletes the currently selected area.

Delete Track: deletes the currently selected track.

Album Properties: opens the Album Properties window.

Disc Properties: opens the Disc Properties window.

Area Properties: opens the Area Properties window.

Track Properties: opens the Track Properties window.

Copy Management: opens the Copy Management options for the currently
selected disc.

File Parameters: opens the File Parameters window for the currently selected
disc.

4.4 OTHER FEATURES

4.4.1 Print and Print Preview

SuperAuthor allows you to generate and print a report detailing the contents of an SA-
CD disc.

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When you click on in the toolbar, select File→Print… in the menu or hit Ctrl-P, a
window appears allowing you to select which details of the currently selected disc will
be included in the report. Select the details you require and click on “Print”.

You can also see a preview of the report by clicking on in the toolbar or selecting
File→Print Preview in the menu.

4.4.2 Project Templates

Project templates are album designs that can be used to author many albums of a
similar structure. For example, if the tool is going to be used to create many music
albums by the same classical composer, with one disc and textual information in
English and German, you can create a Template with these details and use it as a
starting point for each album.
To create a template, start a new album and design it as required. Then select
File→Save as Template…from the menu. The template will be saved in the folder
specified in the User Preferences window.
When you want to design an album based on one of your templates, create a new
album by selecting File→New Album from the menu bar or clicking on the New icon
in the toolbar. If there are any templates in the template folder, a window will
appear letting you select one to base your album on. From this window you can also
remove unwanted templates.

4.4.3 Specifying Fonts

The file font.ini stored in the same folder as the SuperAuthor executable contains
a list of fonts that will be used for each character set. Each character set is assigned a
number as follows:

ASCII (ISO 646) 1

Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1) 2
Japanese (RIS 506) 3
Korean KSC 5601-1987(149) 4
Traditional Chinese (GB 2312) 5
Modern Chinese (Big5) 6
The font.ini file pairs each of these numbers to a font, one pair per line, for example:
1 Arial
2 Arial
3 Ms Gothic
4 GulimChe
5 MS Song
6 MingLiu

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Appendix A. Troubleshooting guide

This appendix contains a list of common problems the user may encounter when using
SuperAuthor and their solutions.

Problem Cause Solution References

Can’t edit track times. You are using Purchase a dongle.

SuperAuthor TOC
Disc build option is not Editor, or SuperAuthor Make sure the dongle is
available. is in TOC Editor mode securely connected to
because of some the USB port.
problem with the dongle
that is required to use Make sure the dongle
these features. drivers are installed.

Clicking on a cell in the You haven’t defined any Define a text channel 3.3 New area
Album View doesn’t text channels for that from the Area Properties
allow me to enter text. Area. window. 4.2.3 Area Properties

When I create a new Show prompt when new Enable Show prompt 4.2.6 User Preferences
item I no longer see the items are created has when new items are
window asking whether been disabled in the created.
I want to inherit existing User Preferences.
information.

When I hit “Verify” the The Results window has Ensure that at least 3.5 Verifying the album
Verifier Results window been set not to display Information messages
remains empty. information. are enabled at the top of
the Verifier Results
window.

Opening a project file The file is not a valid Load a valid version of
fails with an SuperAuthor project file the file.
“Unexpected character” or it is corrupted.
error.

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Appendix B. Keyboard Shortcuts

This section lists the available keyboard shortcuts for SuperAuthor.
• Global shortcuts
Key Action
Ctrl + N New project
Ctrl + O Open project
Ctrl + S Save project
Ctrl + A Save project to different file name
Ctrl + B Build
F7 Verify (without options)
F4 Open properties for active object
F5 New Track
Alt + ? Activate previous track
Alt + ? Activate next track

Ctrl + F File parameters

Ctrl + M Copy management settings
Ctrl + T Open track view / bring to front
F3 Open album view / bring to front

• Album View shortcuts

Key Where Action
Ctrl + X Album Tree (when an area is Cut Area
active)
Ctrl + C Album Tree (when an area is Copy Area
active)
Ctrl + V Album Tree (when an area is Paste Area
active)
Del Album Tree Delete selected item (with a warning prompt)
Del Track List Delete active track
Insert Track List Insert a new track just before the active track
Escape Edit controls Cancel current edit and reset the text to how
it was before
F3 Album view Switch between panes in this view

Appendix C. Character Sets

ASCII (ISO-646):

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Latin 1 (ISO-8859-1) extends ASCII with the following characters:

Each Asian character set includes the Cyrillic alphabet – this includes the
present Russian, Ukrainian, White Russian, Serbian, and Bulgarian alphabets.
The Japanese character set also includes the Latin characters.

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Appendix D. References
[1] Super Audio CD System Specification (“Scarlet Book”)
Part 1 – Physical Specification
Version 1.2
May 2001

[2] Super Audio CD System Specification (“Scarlet Book”)

Part 2 – Audio Specification
Version 1.2
May 2001

[3] System Description Compact Disc Digital Audio (“Red Book”)

Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corporation

[4] DVD Specifications for Read-Only Disc

Part 1 – Physical Specifications
Version 1.01
February 1998

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Appendix E. Index
horizontal edit mode................................................12
2
Hybrid Layer Disc................................................ 4, 6
2-channel stereo audio ..............................................6
I
5
Information messages .............................................15
5-channel surround....................................................6 Introduction................................................................2
ISRC ............................................................................4
A
M
album...........................................................................8
Album Edit View....................................... 8, 11, 14 Master Text ...............................................................11
Album properties.....................................................8 minutes..................................................................14
Album Properties ..................................................11
N
Album text ................................................................11
Area...................................................................3, 6, 10 New Disc dialog ........................................................9
Area Properties ...............................................10, 11
P
Area text ....................................................................11
Asset ............................................................................3 Pause Duration.........................................................14
B PCM .............................................................................4
Philips SA-CD Verifier ............................................4
Build Disc.................................................................16 phonetic text ...............................................................7
C R
CD ................................................................................3 Red Book ....................................................................4
CD-text ........................................................................3
S
CD-text file .................................................................8
cell ..............................................................................11 SA-CD .........................................................................4
D Scarlet Book ...............................................................4
seconds..................................................................14
data files ....................................................................23 Single Layer disc.......................................................6
disc...............................................................................9 Sony STT file ....................................................4, 8, 9
disc image ..........................................................16, 23 Start Time .................................................................14
Disc Properties ..................................................9, 11 stereo audio.................................................................6
Disc text ....................................................................11 surround audio............................................................6
Dongle .........................................................................3
DSD .............................................................................3 T
DST ..............................................................................3 Text Channel........................................4, 5, 6, 11, 13
Dual Layer disc..........................................................6 text entry ...................................................................11
Duration.....................................................................14 textual information ....................................................6
E Timecodes...................................................................4
track ...........................................................................10
edit flow direction....................................................12 Track Properties View..................................10, 14
edit modes.................................................................12 Track text ..................................................................11
Error messages .........................................................15 track times.................................................................14
F V
File Parameters ......................................................15 Verification Results...............................................15
frames ....................................................................14 Verifier Options .....................................................15
G
genre ..........................................................................11
H
High Density (HD) layer..................................... 3, 6

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