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An authoring method for creating an audiovisual product. The method has three main stages. The first stage defines components implicitly representing functional sections of audiovisual content and transitions that represent movements between components. The second stage expands the components and tr

An authoring method for creating an audiovisual product. The method has three main stages. The first stage defines components implicitly representing functional sections of audiovisual content and transitions that represent movements between components. The second stage expands the components and transitions to provide a set of explicitly realised AV assets and an expanded intermediate datastructure of nodes and links. Each node is associated with one of the AV assets and the links represent movement from one node to another. The third stage creates the audiovisual product in a predetermined output format, e.g. DVD-Video, using the AV assets and the expanded intermediate datastructure of the nodes and the links.

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What is claimed is: 1. An authoring method for use in creating an audiovisual product, comprising the steps of: defining a plurality of components, the components implicitly representing functional sections of audiovisual content with respect to one or more raw content objects to be used in an audi

What is claimed is: 1. An authoring method for use in creating an audiovisual product, comprising the steps of: defining a plurality of components, the components implicitly representing functional sections of audiovisual content with respect to one or more raw content objects to be used in an audiovisual product, and a plurality of transitions that represent movements between the plurality of components; providing to a computer platform an executable code which when executed by the computer platform enables the computer to automatically expand the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of explicitly realized AV assets and an expanded intermediate datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with an AV asset of the set, the links represent movement from one node to another and the intermediate datastructure represents a navigational structure of the audiovisual product; and creating the audiovisual product for a playback device in a predetermined output format, using the AV assets and the expanded intermediate datastructure of the nodes and the links, the created audiovisual product having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the intermediate datastructure. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the defining step comprises defining at least one information component that comprises a reference to a raw content object. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the reference denotes a file path to a location where the raw content object is stored. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the defining step comprises defining at least one choice component comprising a reference to at least one raw content object, and at least one authoring parameter. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one authoring parameter is adapted to control a selection or modification of the at least one raw content object. 6. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one authoring parameter comprises a runtime variable available during playback of the audiovisual product. 7. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one authoring parameter comprises an authoring-only parameter that will not be available during playback of the audiovisual product. 8. The method of claim 4, wherein the choice component comprises a reference to a presentation template and a reference to at least one substitutable raw content object to be placed in the template according to the at least one authoring parameter. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the defining step comprises defining at least one meta-component representing a set of components and transitions. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one meta-component is a procedurally defined representation of the set of components and transitions. 11. The method of claim 1, wherein each transition represents a permissible movement from one component to another component. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein each transition is associated with a triggering event. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the triggering event is an event occurring during playback of the audiovisual product. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the triggering event is receiving a user command, or expiry of a timer. 15. The method of claim 1, further comprising checking expected conformance of the audiovisual product with the predetermined output format, using the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the predetermined output format is a hierarchical datastructure having limitations on a number of objects that may exist in the datastructure at each level of the hierarchy, and the checking step comprises predicting an expected number of objects at a level and comparing the expected number with the limitations of the hierarchical datastructure. 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the checking step comprises predicting an expected total size of the audiovisual product, and comparing the expected total size against a storage capacity of a predetermined storage medium. 18. The method of claim 1, wherein the expanding step comprises, for each component, building one or more of the set of explicitly realised AV assets by reading and manipulating the one or more raw content objects. 19. The method of claim 1, wherein: the defining step comprises defining at least one choice component comprising a reference to a plurality of raw content objects and at least one authoring parameter; and the expanding step comprises: selecting one or more raw content objects from amongst the plurality of raw content objects using the at least one authoring parameter; and combining the selected raw content objects to form one of the AV assets. 20. The method of claim 19, comprising repeating the selecting and combining steps to automatically build a plurality of the explicitly realized AV assets from the one of the components. 21. The method of claim 1, wherein the expanding step comprises: creating from each one of the plurality of components one or more explicitly realised AV assets to generate the set of AV assets; creating the expanded intermediate datastructure wherein each node represents one AV asset of the set; and creating a set of links between the nodes. 22. The method of claim 1, wherein each transition is associated between first and second components, and creating the set of links comprises evaluating each transition to create one or more links, each of the links being between a node created from the first component and a node created from the second component. 23. The method of claim 1, wherein the expanding step comprises evaluating at least one of the transitions to create exit logic associated with at least one first node, evaluating one of the components to create entry logic associated with at least one second node, and providing a link between the first and second nodes according to the entry logic and the exit logic. 24. The method of claim 23, wherein at least one of the transitions is associated with a triggering event, and the expanding step comprises evaluating the triggering event to determine the exit logic associated with the at least first one node. 25. The method of claim 1, further comprising checking expected conformance of the audiovisual product with the predetermined output format, using the AV assets and the expanded intermediate datastructure of nodes and links. 26. The method of claim 25, wherein the predetermined output format is a hierarchical datastructure having limitations on a number of objects that may exist in the datastructure at each level of the hierarchy, and the checking step comprises predicting an expected number of objects at a level and comparing the expected number with the limitations of the hierarchical datastructure. 27. The method of claim 26, wherein the checking step comprises predicting an expected total size of the audiovisual product, and comparing the expected total size against a storage capacity of a predetermined storage medium. 28. The method of claim 1, wherein the AV assets have a data format specified according to the predetermined output format. 29. The method of claim 1, wherein the AV assets each have a data format according to the predetermined output format, whilst the raw content objects are not limited to a data format of the predetermined output format. 30. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined output format is a DVD-video specification. 31. The method of claim 1, wherein the AV assets each comprise a video object, zero or more audio objects, and zero or more sub-picture objects. 32. The method of claim 1, wherein the AV assets each comprise at least one video object, zero to eight audio objects, and zero to thirty-two sub-picture objects, according to a DVD-Video specification. 33. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating step comprises creating objects in a hierarchical datastructure defined by the predetermined output format with objects at levels of the datastructure, according to the intermediate datastructure of nodes and links, and where the objects in the hierarchical datastructure include objects derived from the explicitly realised AV assets. 34. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined output format is a DVD-Video specification and the creating step comprises creating DVD-Video structure locations from the nodes of the expanded intermediate datastructure, placing the explicitly realised AV assets at the created structure locations, and substituting the links of the expanded intermediate datastructure with explicit references to the DVD-Video structure locations. 35. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of: recording the audiovisual product onto a recording medium. 36. The method of claim 35, wherein the recording medium is an optical disk. 37. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is implemented by a computer. 38. An authoring method for use in creating a DVD-video product, comprising the steps of: creating a plurality of components representing parameterised sections of audiovisual content of a DVD-Video format datastructure, and a plurality of transitions representing movements between components; providing to a computer platform an executable code which when executed by the computer platform enables the computer to automatically expand the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of AV assets and an expanded datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with an AV asset of the set the links represent movement from one node to another and the expanded datastructure represents a navigational structure of the DVD-Video format datastructure; and creating DVD-video format datastructure from the AV assets for a playback device, using the nodes and links, the created DVD-video format datastructure having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the expanded datastructure. 39. The method of claim 38, comprising creating at least one information component comprising a reference to an item of AV content. 40. The method of claim 38, comprising creating at least one choice component comprising a reference to at least one item of AV content, and at least one parameter for modifying the item of AV content. 41. The method of claim 40, wherein the choice component comprises a reference to a presentation template and a reference to at least one item of substitutable content to be placed in the template according to the at least one parameter. 42. The method of claim 40, wherein the choice component comprises at least one runtime variable available during playback of an audiovisual product in a DVD player, and at least one authoring parameter not available during playback. 43. The method of claim 40, wherein the expanding step comprises evaluating each choice component to create a plurality of AV assets according to each value of the at least one parameter. 44. The method of claim 43, wherein evaluating each choice component comprises creating entry logic associated with at least one node and/or evaluating at least one transition to create exit logic associated with at least one node, and providing a link between a pair of nodes according to the entry logic and the exit logic. 45. The method of claim 38, comprising creating at least one meta-component representing a set of components and transitions. 46. The method of claim 38, wherein each transition represents a permissible movement from one component to another component, each transition being associated with a triggering event. 47. The method of claim 46, wherein a triggering event includes receiving a user command, or expiry of a timer. 48. The method of claim 38, wherein the expanding step comprises: creating from each one of the plurality of components one or more AV assets to generate the set of AV assets; creating the expanded data structure wherein each node represents one AV asset of the set; and creating a set of links between the nodes. 49. The method of claim 38, comprising checking expected conformance with the DVD-video format using the created components and transitions. 50. The method of claim 38, comprising checking expected conformance with the DVD-video format using the set of AV assets and the expanded datastructure of nodes and links. 51. The method of claim 38, further comprising the step of: recording the DVD-Video product onto a recording medium. 52. The method of claim 51 wherein the recording medium is an optical disk. 53. The method of claim 38, wherein the method is implemented by a computer. 54. An authoring method for use in creating an audiovisual product according to a DVD-video specification, comprising the steps of: creating a plurality of components and a plurality of transitions, where a component implicitly defines a plurality of AV assets by referring to a presentation template and to items of raw content substitutable in the presentation template, the raw content being for use in an DVD-video format datastructure, and the plurality of transitions represent navigational movements between components; and providing to a computer platform an executable code which when executed by the computer platform enables the computer to automatically expand the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of AV assets where each of the set of AV assets comprises a video object, zero or more audio objects and zero or more sub-picture objects, and to automatically generate an expanded datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with one AV asset of the set, the links represent navigational movement from one node to another and the expanded datastructure represents a navigational structure of the DVD-video format datastructure; and creating the DVD-video format datastructure from the set of AV assets for a playback device, using the nodes and links, the created DVD-video format datastructure having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the expanded datastructure. 55. The method of claim 54, further comprising the step of: recording the DVD-Video product onto a recording medium. 56. The method of claim 55 wherein the recording medium is an optical disk. 57. The method of claim 54, wherein the method is implemented by a computer. 58. A storage medium on which is stored a computer program for creating an audiovisual product, the computer program comprising instructions which when executed by a computer, perform the steps of: defining a plurality of components, the components implicitly representing functional sections of audiovisual content with respect to one or more raw content objects to be used in an audiovisual product, and a plurality of transitions that represent movements between the plurality of components; automatically expanding the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of explicitly realised AV assets and an expanded intermediate datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with an AV asset of the set, the links represent movement from one node to another and the intermediate datastructure represents a navigational structure of the audiovisual product; and creating the audiovisual product for a playback device in a predetermined output format, using the AV assets and the expanded intermediate datastructure of the nodes and the links, the created audiovisual product having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the intermediate datastructure. 59. A storage medium on which is stored a computer program for creating an audiovisual product, the computer program comprising instructions which when executed by a computer, perform the steps of: creating a plurality of components representing parameterised sections of audiovisual content of a DVD-Video format datastructure, and a plurality of transitions representing movements between components; automatically expanding the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of AV assets and an expanded datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with an AV asset of the set, the links represent movement from one node to another and the expanded datastructure represents a navigational structure of the DVD-video format datastructure; and creating the DVD-Video format datastructure from the AV assets for a playback device, using the nodes and links, the created DVD-video format datastructure having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the expanded datastructure. 60. A storage medium on which is stored a computer program for creating an audiovisual product, the computer program comprising instructions which when executed by a computer, perform the steps of: creating a plurality of components and a plurality of transitions, where a component implicitly defines a plurality of AV assets by referring to a presentation template and to items of raw content substitutable in the presentation template, the raw content being for use in a DVD-Video format datastructure, and the plurality of transitions represent navigational movements between components; and automatically expanding the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of AV assets where each of the set of AV assets comprises a video object, zero or more audio objects and zero or more sub-picture objects, and to automatically generate an expanded datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with one AV asset of the set, the links represent navigational movement from one node to another and the expanded datastructure represents a navigational structure of the DVD-video format datastructure; and creating the DVD-video format datastructure from the set of AV assets for a playback device, using the nodes and links, the created DVD-video format datastructure having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the expanded datastructure. 61. A storage medium on which is stored a computer program for creating an audiovisual product, the computer program comprising instructions which when executed by a computer, perform the steps of: defining a plurality of components, the components implicitly representing functional sections of audiovisual content with respect to one or more raw content objects for use in an audiovisual product, and a plurality of transitions that represent movements between the plurality of components; automatically expanding the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of explicitly realised AV assets and an expanded intermediate datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with an AV asset of the set and the links represent movement from one node to another and the intermediate datastructure represents a navigational structure of the audiovisual product; and creating the audiovisual product recorded on a physical recording medium for a playback device in a predetermined output format, using the AV assets and the expanded intermediate datastructure of the nodes and the links, the created audiovisual product having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the intermediate datastructure, the navigational structure structured and arranged as executable code for the playback device, which when executed by the playback device will direct the playback of the AV assets in accordance with the navigational structure. 62. An optical disk having recorded thereon an audiovisual product with a navigational structure structured and arranged as executable code for a playback device, which when executed by the playback device will direct the playback in accordance with the navigational structure, the audiovisual product authored by the steps of: creating a plurality of components representing parameterised sections of audiovisual content of a DVD-Video format datastructure, and a plurality of transitions representing movements between components; providing to a computer platform an executable code which when executed by the computer platform enables the computer to automatically expand the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of AV assets and an expanded datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with an AV asset of the set, the links represent movement from one node to another and the expanded datastructure represents a navigational structure of the DVD-Video format datastructure; and creating the DVD-Video format datastructure recorded on an optical disk from the AV assets, using the nodes and links, the created DVD-video format datastructure having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the expanded datastructure, the navigational structure structured and arranged as executable code for the playback device, which when executed by the playback device will direct the playback of the AV assets in accordance with the navigational structure. 63. An optical disk having recorded thereon an audiovisual product with a navigational structure structured and arranged as executable code for a playback device, which when executed by the playback device will direct the playback in accordance with the navigational structure, the audiovisual product authored by the steps of: creating a plurality of components and a plurality of transitions, where a component implicitly defines a plurality of AV assets by referring to a presentation template and to items of raw content substitutable in the presentation template, the raw content being for use in a DVD-Video format datastructure, and the plurality of transitions represent navigational movements between components; providing to a computer platform an executable code which when executed by the computer platform enables the computer to automatically expand the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of AV assets where each of the set of AV assets comprises a video object, zero or more audio objects and zero or more sub-picture objects, and to automatically generate an expanded datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with one AV asset of the set, the links represent navigational movement from one node to another and the expanded data structure represents a navigational structure of the DVD-Video format datastructure; and creating the DVD-Video format datastructure recorded on an optical disk from the set of AV assets, using the nodes and links, the created DVD-video format datastructure having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the expanded datastructure, the navigational structure structured and arranged as executable code for the playback device, which when executed by the playback device will direct the playback of the AV assets in accordance with the navigational structure. 64. A method of creating an optical disk product, comprising recording onto an optical disk an audiovisual product which has been created by the steps of: defining a plurality of components, the components implicitly representing functional sections of audiovisual content with respect to one or more raw content objects for use in an audiovisual product, and a plurality of transitions that represent movements between the plurality of components; providing to a computer platform an executable code which when executed by the computer platform enables the computer to automatically expand the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of explicitly realised AV assets and an expanded intermediate datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with an AV asset of the set, the links represent movement from one node to another and the intermediate datastructure represents a navigational structure of the audiovisual product; and creating the audiovisual product recorded on an optical disk in a predetermined output format, using the AV assets and the expanded intermediate datastructure of the nodes and the links, the created audiovisual product having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the intermediate datastructure, the navigational structure structured and arranged as executable code for a playback device, which when executed by the playback device will direct the playback of the AV assets in accordance with the navigational structure. 65. A method of creating an optical disk product, comprising recording onto an optical disk a DVD-Video product which has been created by the steps of: creating a plurality of components representing parameterised sections of audiovisual content of a DVD-Video format data structure, and a plurality of transitions representing movements between components; providing to a computer platform an executable code which when executed by the computer platform enables the computer to automatically expand the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of AV assets and an expanded data structure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with an AV asset of the set, the links represent movement from one node to another and the expanded data structure represents a navigational structure of the DVD-Video format datastructure; and creating the DVD-Video format datastructure recorded on an optical disk from the AV assets, using the nodes and links, the created DVD-video format datastructure having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the expanded datastructure. 66. A method of creating an optical disk product, comprising recording onto an optical disk an audiovisual product which has been created by the steps of: creating a plurality of components and a plurality of transitions, where a component implicitly defines a plurality of AV assets by referring to a presentation template and to items of raw content substitutable in the presentation template, the raw content being for use in a DVD-Video format datastructure, and the plurality of transitions represent navigational movements between components; and providing to a computer platform an executable code which when executed by the computer platform enables the computer to automatically expand the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of AV assets where each of the set of AV assets comprises a video object, zero or more audio objects and zero or more sub-picture objects, and to automatically generate an expanded data structure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with one AV asset of the set, the links represent navigational movement from one node to another and the expanded datastructure represents a navigational structure of the DVD-Video format datastructure; creating the DVD-Video format datastructure recorded on an optical disk from the set of AV assets, using the nodes and links, the created DVD-video format datastructure having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the expanded datastructure, the navigational structure structured and arranged as executable code for a playback device, which when executed by the playback device will direct the playback of the AV assets in accordance with the navigational structure. 67. A computing platform comprising a storage medium storing thereon computer executable instructions which when executed by the computing platform perform the steps of: defining a plurality of components, the components implicitly representing functional sections of audiovisual content with respect to one or more raw content objects for use in an audiovisual product, and a plurality of transitions that represent movements between the plurality of components; automatically expanding the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of explicitly realised AV assets and an expanded intermediate datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with an AV asset of the set, the links represent movement from one node to another and the intermediate datastructure represents a navigational structure of the audiovisual product; and creating the audiovisual product for a playback device in a predetermined output format, using the AV assets and the expanded intermediate datastructure of the nodes and the links, the created audiovisual product having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the intermediate datastructure. 68. A computing platform comprising a storage medium storing thereon computer executable instructions which when executed by the computing platform perform the steps of: creating a plurality of components representing parameterised sections of audiovisual content of a DVD-Video format datastructure, and a plurality of transitions representing movements between components; automatically expanding the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of AV assets and an expanded datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with an AV asset of the set, the links represent movement from one node to another and the expanded datastructure represents a navigational structure of the DVD-Video format datastructure; and creating the DVD-Video format datastructure from the AV assets for a playback device, using the node sand links, the created DVD-video format datastructure having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the expanded datastructure. 69. A computing platform comprising a storage medium storing thereon computer executable instructions which when executed by the computing platform perform the steps of: creating a plurality of components and a plurality of transitions, where a component implicitly defines a plurality of AV assets by referring to a presentation template and to items of raw content substitutable in the presentation template, the raw content being for use in a DVD-Video format datastructure, and the plurality of transitions represent navigational movements between components; and automatically expanding the plurality of components and the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a set of AV assets where each of the set of AV assets comprises a video object, zero or more audio objects and zero or more sub-picture objects, and to automatically generate an expanded datastructure of nodes and links, including expanding a component of the plurality of components to automatically generate a plurality of nodes, and expanding a transition of the plurality of transitions to automatically generate a plurality of links, where each node is associated with one AV asset of the set, the links represent navigational movement from one node to another and the expanded datastructure represents a navigational structure of the DVD-Video format datastructure; creating the DVD-Video format datastructure from the set of AV assets for a playback device, using the nodes and links, the created DVD-video format datastructure having a navigational structure corresponding to a structure represented by the expanded datastructure, the navigational structure structured and arranged as executable code for the playback device, which when executed by the playback device will direct the playback of the AV assets in accordance with the navigational structure.