DVD and CD symbols from CombiNumerals Pro & CombiSymbols fonts


More Info | Deluxe Upgrade | Labels & Supplies

Here are some design ideas for using SureThing CD/DVD Labeler Deluxe. To read more about a particular topic, click one of the links below:

Circular Text Touchup Photos Keepsake Discs Photo Collage

DVD Markings Explained

There are a number of markings and symbols on professionally produced, commercial DVDs that might make you wonder what they mean and why they were included on the disc or case. Let's take a look at some of the more common ones:

This is referred to as a "sound mode icon," and this one in particular indicates the disc contains 1-channel Dolby Digital audio (mono). A mono channel is often used for DVD content such as director commentary.

Disc contains 2-channel Dolby Digital audio (stereo).

Disc contains 3-channel Dolby Digital audio (surround).

Disc contains 5.1 Dolby Digital audio, i.e., surround with a LFE (low-frequency effects) channel.

Dolby Digital Surround EX, a system co-developed by Dolby and Lucasfilm, was first used theatrically for Star Wars: Episode 1. Dolby Digital Surround EX soundtracks contain 5.1 channels of discrete audio, plus an additional matrix encoded surround channel. These DVDs are compatible with all playback systems and provide an enhanced surround effect when used with a Surround EX enabled system.

6.1 channel surround from DTS, a competitor to Dolby. This format adds a rear center speaker to the surround sound package found on selected music and movie discs.

THX EX is 7.1 channel surround from Lucasfilm. There aren't many movies encoded with 7.1 (all the new Star Wars films are), nor many preamps to play it. You'd also have to add more speakers to your system. If you have such a setup, can we come over?

DTS was developed for “Jurassic Park” in 1993 and is the main competitor to Dolby Digital in the AV market. DTS’ advantage over Dolby is its 3:1 compression versus 12:1. Most current receivers and preamps are capable of playing both Dolby 5.1 and DTS surround DVDs.

Stands for Meridian Lossless Packing, a lossless compression scheme used on DVD-Audio to get the highest resolution surround sound and stereo music from a DVD disc. DVD-Audio sounds better than the 16-bit audio on CDs.

The disc is playable only in DVD players from region 1, i.e., North America. There are eight regions (seven geographical and an eighth reserved for airlines, cruise ships, etc.).

The disc is playable in DVD players from all regions of the world.

NTSC stands for the National Television Systems Committee, and is the color video standard used in North America, Canada, Mexico, and Japan. NTSC uses 525 horizonal lines of which only 487 make up the active picture. It's an inferior video standard compared to PAL (below).

PAL stands for Phase Alternating Line, and is the TV standard used in Europe and much of Asia. It was designed to correct problems in the NTSC system. PAL uses 625 horizontal lines, of which 576 are used for the picture. In other words, it has roughly one sixth more resolution than NTSC, resulting in better color and sharper resolution.

The disc contains video content with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (or 4:3). This is the basic dimension of a television monitor.

The disc contains video content with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (or 16:9), also referred to as "anamorphic widescreen." In addition to 1.78:1, there are other anamorphic screen ratios such as 1.66:1, 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 and 2.39:1 which you might see listed on DVDs.

The disc contains closed captioning for the hearing impaired.

We're all familiar with the DVD logo, and its many variants (ROM, Video, Audio, etc.).

Blu-ray is a next-generation optical disc format that hopes to replace DVD. Blu-ray Disc allows 25GB of data on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc, more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs. The format was developed to enable recording, re-writing and playback of high-definition (HD) video, as well as storing large amounts of data, and is supported by all leading consumer electronics, personal computer and recording media companies, as well as all Hollywood studios, video game and music companies.

HD-DVD is a recently defunct format that, for awhile anyway, was a competitor to Blu-ray Disc. In some respects it was a superior format, but then so was Betamax. HD-DVD failed to garner the industry support necessary to topple Blu-ray, and support for it ceased in early-2008. There are still a lot of HD-DVD players out there, and if you happen to own one, you can still create labels and case inserts for your existing media library.

We created all of the above symbols using a font called "CombiSymbols DV." It saved us an awful lot of time searching the Internet for all the various symbols and logos, and because it's a font, the symbols can be placed on any color background or photo, making it ideal for CD/DVD labeling. The font package contains a few hundred other useful symbols as well. It's available for download here as well as from the FontSite.com.

 

CD/DVD Labeler Deluxe
only
$29.95 $24.95







Labels & Supplies...

 
CD & DVD Labels...
Jewel Cases and Inserts...
DVD Cases and Inserts...
Blank CD and DVD Media...



Customer Service
8am–5pm (PST) Mon–Fri
Email: click here
Toll-free sales line:
800-998-4555

Copyright © 2009 MicroVision Development Inc. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy | Contact Us