Archive of the Video Encoding/DVD Category

Back from the show. I like taking a day or so after my last postings to look through everything I’ve collected, selecting some last items to include in a final wrapup. While that’s not a lot of time for deep reflection, I am at least far enough away from the hype of the moment to enable a bit of perspective.

At the NAB press office earlier this week I overheard an NAB official talk to the editor of one of the leading trade mags. He was asked about what he thought would be among the most exciting developments of the show. Instead, he begged off answering, stating that as far as he was concerned it was all just a rehash. He could find nothing new or interesting worth commenting on. more

Media Excel was the last company that I saw at NAB, but last was certainly not least in this instance. The company’s real time encoders for mobile, web and IP TV, recently anointed by MTV and MobiTV, looked very, very impressive.

The company targets broadcasters and other very high volume streaming producers and builds their Hera real time encoding boxes using Texas Instruments DaVinci DSP (digital signal processor). The chip is programmable, so it will support later codec updates, and reportedly scary fast. more

Video over cell phones is one of the hottest topics facing video producers, but most organizations lack the technical expertise and/or capital to make it happen. If you’d like to dip your toe in the water, check out the Mobile Video Managed Service from Vidiator.

Operationally, you upload your videos to the Vidiator site, who transcodes them and sends you a link to post on your web site. Or, you can create your own mobile-phone accessible web-site using Vidiator tools. In the booth, the company captured video from a web-cam, uploaded it to their service, and then transmitted it to a cell phone in the booth where it played with minimal latency and good quality.

I saw the Vidiator folks in a 10×10 booth in the Central Hall, which initially raised my eyebrows, but learned that they’re owned by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, a $40 billion Hong Kong company. Hutchison developed the cellular streaming technology for in-house use, and is now taking it out of house via Vidiator. Both the service and technology felt mature and well thought out, and at $99/month for 10,000 minutes of cellular viewing, it’s certainly affordable.

In my quest to identify buying momentum for Blu-ray recorders, I spoke with Alison Traxler from Primera Technology. Primera offers a range of CD/DVD/Blu-ray recorders, from the inexpensive Bravo SE (20 disc capacity, $900 street with DVD-R/$2900 street with a $500 rebate till the end of May for Blu-ray) to rack mounted, multi-burner units that are much more costly.

Primera offers Mac and Windows clients with all units and has network software for $500 that allows unlimited number of Mac and Windows clients to send record/print jobs to any of their burners.

After three days at the show, Alison reported that “people are super excited that our Blu-ray solutions work with Macs; we’re the only company shipping a Mac solution in that price range.” She also commented “we’re also seeing a lot of interest from event and wedding videographers who are producing small numbers of discs for clients willing to pay for HD quality.” more

The quality of the H.264 video produced by Ateme is near legendary, and now Anytream will make the encoder availble in its encoding product line. It’s a good deal for both companies, since it will give Ateme some mindshare in the US and improve the quality of the H.264 video produced by Anystream.

Over the past few years, Ateme has evolved their focus from licensing software to buidling their own branded hardware and software encoding products, primarily sold to telcos and broadcasters overseas. Now they’re coming to the US, targeting the same types of clients. Good to see that they’re still doing some licensing software deals.

Here’s a quickie. Sorenson Squeeze is one of my go to programs for encoding to multiple formats on both Mac and Windows computers. They’ve just launched version 5, which appears to have some useful improvements, like the ability to encode multiple files simultaneously.

There’s also VC-1 support, and the ability to create audience presets that can incorporate audio, video, filters and distribution, which should really help speed some workflow. As always, Sorenson offers a trial version, which you should definitely check out.

One of the coolest products I saw at the show came to me by chance as I was hurrying across the North Hall, that almost always deserted-as-a-ghost-town hall. Maybe it’s not something a journalist would, or should, admit to, but when walking across such halls I sometimes feel sorry for the companies that have booths there. The booth employees make longing glances at your press badge as you hurry by. I usually find myself mumbling something like “Oh boy, really late again…” as I shuffle past looking for the exit.

(Hey, it just struck me–it might be helpful to someone who has never been to the show that one way to get a sense of it is to begin by thinking of a really huge amount of enclosed space. Okay? Divide that up into three big spaces/buildings, but not evenly: have each one gaining on the next. Good. Now think of these as having personalities. Maybe something from Goldilocks and the three bears could work. For example, North Hall seems a little too quiet at times, but it really is the smallest of the three in floor space, so that fits. Next, move on to Central Hall–yes, it’s laid out right in the middle of the three halls. Central Hall usually seems just about right; whether it’s crowd size, said crowds attendant caffeine levels, or amount of shouting needed to make yourself heard in the hallways, everything comes out about average. But now walk into the last of the three, the very oversubscribed South Hall. Here, just think of those over-crowded, sweaty fairgrounds you’ve encountered, or maybe a dangerously over-packed subway platform, something you might not want to navigate on a regular basis, but with everyone running. Yes, even in Las Vegas too much, it turns out, is really sometimes too much.) more

After three days of looking at multiple enterprise encoding systems, I decided that I couldn’t meaningfully tell them apart by a features and benefits approach. I had to look at the high level product philosophy. Fortunately, I was meeting with two companies that couldn’t have been further apart. Briefly, Anystream wants to be a soup to nuts provider, while Rhozet wants to provide the best darn encoding tool available, and that’s it.

Note that neither approach is right or wrong, just more or less well suited for what you’re looking for in an enterprise encoding system. Between the two companies, you’ll see the extremes of this type of product offering.

In this post, I’ll discuss Rhozet, where I met with company president David Trescott and product marketing manager Jon Robbins. Check out Anystream’s pitch more

After three days of looking at multiple enterprise encoding systems, I decided that I couldn’t meaningfully tell them apart by a features and benefits approach. I had to look at the high level product philosophy. Fortunately, I was meeting with two companies that couldn’t have been further apart. Briefly, Anystream wants to be a soup to nuts provider, while Rhozet wants to provide the best darn encoding tool available, and that’s it.

Note that neither approach is right or wrong, just more or less well suited for what you’re looking for in an enterprise encoding system. Between the two companies, you’ll see the extremes of this type of product offering.

In this post, I’ll discuss Anystream, where I met with Russell Zack, Anystream’s VP of Product Management, and Ken Haren, a technical representative who helped me during a recent review of Anystream Agility. I started the conversation by asking Russell why a customer should choose Anystream over any other system. Check out Rhozet’s pitch more

One of the big questions I had coming into the show was how much momentum Blu-ray would accumulate after the demise of HD DVD. A key barometer for me would be the attitude of the companies selling blu-ray printer/recorders, of which Microboards is a prime example. Let me rave about their latest printer/recorder, the MX-1 Disc Publisher a bit, then I’ll get back to the Blu-ray issue.

To set the stage, I currently use a Microboards CX-1 for DVD reproduction and printing. Three things about the MX-1 that caught my eye. First, it uses separate ink cartridges, which means less waste and a reported drop in print cost to nine cents per disc.

Second is a brand new software interface shown in the figure that’s built over the Prassi software that actually runs the unit and serves as the user interface on my CX-1. To be kind, the Prassi software was plain and functional, a nice way of saying it was two or three generations behind and not all that user friendly. The new software is wizard driven, a lot more fault tolerant, yet still uses the Prassi software to drive the recording functions, which should enhance reliability. Microboards also ships Charismac with the unit for Mac users, though there are no network capabilities, you have to be connected to the unit to drive it. more