Sonic Solutions today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Avid Technology Inc. to license Sonic’s award-winning DVD publishing technology for Avid’s editing and finishing systems. The Sonic technology, called AuthorScript, makes it possible for Avid users to directly output their video and audio content in the popular DVD-Video format. AuthorScript provides a transparent “print to DVD” function and automatically formats projects on an Avid system into DVD, much like PostScript® transparently formats text for printing. Avid expects that the first implementation of AuthorScript will be for its Symphony(TM), Media Composer® and Avid Xpress® systems, with capabilities extended to other Avid products over time.

Sonic AuthorScript includes the same DVD publishing engine that Sonic uses in its award-winning professional DVD Creator and DVD Fusion authoring systems, the leading Mac-based DVD system, and in its popular DVDit! package, the leading Windows-based DVD publishing application. Sonic AuthorScript is a cross-platform technology and runs on both PCs and Macs. When integrated into applications on Windows NT or Macintosh, AuthorScript makes it possible for Avid users to directly convert their video timelines into DVD-Video content that can be written to DVD-R recordable discs and played on standard set-top DVD players or onto CD-Rs for playback on the millions of DVD-equipped PCs.