Recently in Audio/Video Category

On July 2nd, 2008, I was interviewed by Karen Greenwood Henke from Nimble Press about the future of Video on Demand in public education. The interview took place at the National Educational Computing Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Here's a link to the article which is posted on the Long Tail Learners Blog.

Handbrake is a fantastic application for converting standard definition DVD's to another format. In my case, I use it to encode to AppleTV (H.264/AAC/AC3). I've followed the development of Handbrake for some time now, but until recently, it's been too buggy or incomplete for me to use. That all changed when version 0.9.2 was released.

Using Handbrake, I can decrypt, rip and convert to MPEG-4 in one simple step. One of my test videos for encoding applications has been the TV series Roswell, which aired on both the WB and Fox network about eight years ago. One of the reasons I use this as a test is that the content was originally shot on film (23.976 fps) and was telecined resulting in 29.97 frames per second. The shows typically loose cadence quite frequently resulting in a good test for IVTC filters. There are always a lot of both horizontal and vertical movement as well as dark (or black) scenes which can be quite difficult for the encoder to process.

After many tests, I'm posting what I feel like are my ultimate settings. Some people use handbrake to make smaller, transportable files. Others use it for conversion to mobile devices. I use it with the intention of playing back an exact (or very close representative) copy of my DVD's on my Apple TV device. The only things I cared about when creating these presets were:

• The content was standards-based MP4 (H.264, AAC)
• Able to play back on Apple TV
• Introduced little or no visual artifacts
  
• Provided a Dolby Digital/5.1 surround track

Currently Handbrake does not have a method to import or export presents. So for the time being, you'll have to locate the UserPresets file (~/Library/Application Support/HandBrake/UserPresets.plist on a Mac) and add the contents of the download after the last </dict> in the file. You can download my custom preset here.

Yesterday, Japan's NHK reported that Toshiba will stop manufacturing HD-DVD equiptment. This comes in light of the recent announcemets during CES by Warner Studios and by the more recent accountments of Netflix, Blockbuster and Wal-Mart to stock only Blu-ray players and titles going forward.

Alas, consumers finally have an easy choice for a physical media format; standard definition or high definition.

But does it really matter? Did Sony win the battle and lose the war?

The proliferation of online movie rental services like XBox Live, iTunes and Netflix allow consumers near instant gratification with the ability to rent both standard-def and high-def content on-demand. Not only does the Blu-ray camp have to compete with these new delivery models, they also have to compete with file sharing networks where users are able to download high-def content for free.

At a time when consumer buy-in is a priority for Sony, the electronics giant faces an uphill battle trying to convince consumers that physical media formats are still relevant.

In the era of YouTube and sub $1000 pro-sumer cameras, the need for video encoding tools is ever increasing. By in-large, the demand for such tools is no longer a job for the professional. Today, literally hundreds of encoding tools exist. Googling "Video Encoding Tools" yields just under 45,000 results. So how do you know which tool to use?

Today, I'm reviewing a product from Elecard, a little known Russian company. The product, Converter Studio 2.0, is the latest version of their not-so-popular-but-should-be encoding tool.

Converter Studio comes in four flavors depending on the features required.

• Converter Studio (consumer product)
• Converter Studio AVC HD Edition (consumer product)
• Converter Studio Pro (professional standard-definition product)
• Converter Studio ProHD (professional high-definition product)

Most consumers, amateurs and semi-pro encoders will find the features in the first product (Converter Studio) to their liking. My first complaint however is in the names. I wish software companies would standardize on a max of 2-3 versions of a single product. For example, Converter Studio actually has more features, including HD, than the AVC HD edition. The differences in the Professional product offerings is quite obvious; high-def vs. standard-def.

The Interface

Elecard has re-written the entire UI from scratch. This is a huge improvement from the previous 1.2 product. The interface is clean, well-organized and very intuitive. Elecard has done a good job creating an interface that is equally usable by professionals and beginners. It's Apple-ish styled interface reminds me of Final Cut Studio and Apple Compressor, but far simpler.

The Preview Window

As you would expect, the preview window displays the contents of the original source material being encoded. One of the things that I've always liked about the QuickTime player is that you can use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to advance the video frame by frame. So I was thrilled when I tried this in Converter Studio and it worked.

Profiles

Converter Studio comes with an assortment of pre-defined profiles for common applications and devices including Blu-ray Disk, DVD, Sony PSP and Apple iPod. Users can also create their own profiles either from scratch or by using one of the included profiles as a template. Unlike most encoding applications, users cannot overwrite or delete predefined profiles. This is a great feature for the beginner who is just starting to learn the interface. Creating profiles is just as impressive. The enhanced Profiles window shows all available profiles and a high-level overview of what specs make up the profile. This not only is an improvement over previous versions, but surpasses the usability of some of the more known encoding applications like Sorenson Squeeze. Likewise, the Task Parameters window shows all of the details about the current profile as well as the content being encoded.

 

The Main (Concept) Attraction

Like it's predecessor, Converter Studio 2.0 uses the most advanced H.264 implementation in existence. MainConcept supplies among other things, the multiplexer and the encoding engines. A household name among video professionals, MainConcept is consistently winning awards for its superior picture quality. The purpose of this article is to highlight the features of Converter Studio, so I won't get geeky with the specifics of the actual codec. Just know that it kicks some serious ass.

Direct from DVD

Finally, I can now rip directly from a DVD into the multiple formats that I require. Although other applications are available that do this, like Handbrake, no other application gives you a better balance of features, ease of use, and output quality than Converter Studio. Previously I would use DVD Decrypter to rip the DVD, store it as a VOB, Remux it to an MPEG-2 Program Stream, and convert it using Converter Studio as an MPEG-4. Version 2.0 automates a lot of this process and saves drive space because I no longer have to store the VOB/MPEG-2. I've tried this feature on multiple unprotected DVD's and it works flawlessly.

Interlacing is Evil

To quote Alex Lindsey from the Pixel Corps, 'Interlacing is Evil'. This statement is so true. However, a lot of the made-for-TV productions available on DVD are either interlaced or telecined. So it's good to know that Converter Studio has the best deinterlace and inverse-telecine filters I've seen. The inverse-telecine filter was extremely impressive as it automatically determined and adjusted for the various pull-down methods. I've tried to inverse-telecine content using Sorenson Squeeze, Apple Compressor and a boat load of open source tools with moderate to awful results. Converter Studio on the other hand has yet to fail me. In fact, every non-progressive title I've thrown at it has worked - flawlessly! This alone is worth the price of admission.

Is Converter Studio For You?

Converter Studio is ideal for anyone looking for an inexpensive ($240 USD), next generation encoding solution. It's perfect for both beginners and professionals who have existing content who want to repurpose it for use on HD-DVD, Blu-ray, DVD, portable devices, media center appliances or for online distribution. It's an ideal solution for someone who just wants a solution that works, without having to cobble together a lot of open source tools or listen to excuses from commercial vendors as to why their product doesn't work as advertised. Although there are plenty of encoding tools, many are free, this is one application that you SHOULD consider buying.

For the last several years, Blu-ray and HD-DVD have been duking it out. Blu-ray was initially far superior to HD-DVD because of the use of the blue laser whereas HD-DVD initially used red. At the present time however, there isn't much difference between the two. They both use blue lasers, both have high capacity (although Blu-ray Disk still holds more), both support 1080p and interactive features. So what's the difference and why should you care?

The answer: you shouldn't. My prediction is that neither format will win. If consumers actually adopt these high priced formats, all players will support BOTH formats. The last time competing disk formats emerged this very thing happened. Remember DVD+R and DVD-R? After the dust settled, all DVD recorders supported both formats.

Do consumers actually care about high-def? Are they willing to spend more than the $150.00 'magic price' for a high-def disc player? Is downloadable media going to kill discs formats altogether?

As an Apple fanboy, I thouroughly enjoy viewing content on my iPod and AppleTV. I enjoy purchasing media on the iTunes store. It's simplicity and elegant design saves me from searching all over the Internet for online stores that carry a particular publisher or for torrents of questionable quality. It's been over five years since I've purchased one of those 'shiny little discs' (a.k.a' Audio CD), and I'm now starting to demand the same for the video content I'm interested in. (Shame on you, NBC!)

Like most consumers, I'm holding out on purchasing a high-def player. Prices need to fall. Wal-mart needs to be selling them below $150 before you'll see any real impact. But wait! Another disk format is coming to the rescue and it debuting at, you guessed it, $150. It's called HD-VMD and it's a product of New Medium Enterprises.

HD-VMD is based on current red laser technology and relies on the same manufacturing process of traditional DVD's making it quite inexpensive to produce both disks and players. Like DVD's, HD-VMD supports up to 5GB per layer, but unlike DVD which only supports a maximum of two layers, VMD disks support up to eight layers for a total capacity of 40GB per disk. The players support the same video codecs (H.264/AVC, VC-1 and MPEG-2) as Blu-ray and HD-DVD along with Dolby Digital and DTS sound. And yes, the players all support 1080p for true high definition playback. So what's holding this technology back? One word, the Studios. Major studios have yet to release content on this format. Could it be that they're contractually obligated to Blu-ray or HD-DVD? It surely can't be due to piracy concerns as VMD disks also support AACS like their Blu-ray and HD-DVD counterparts.

Although I have not tested one of these units, the technology seems promising, the price point is excellent, and I'd like to buy one. Studios - Help me out!

When Blu-ray was originally designed, I automatically thought of it as an offline data storage medium. However, during the Blu-ray/HD-DVD war, other formats have emerged which make both of these formats look like childs play. This is the era of holographic storage and there are again, two formats looking to win. On July 28, 2007, the Holographic Versitile Disk (HVD) Forum approved and published their initial disk specifications and they're very impressive - 200GB of storage with 1TB coming soon. InPhase, another manufacture of holographic disk technology, has disks that support up to 300GB with 800GB and 1.6TB disks on the way.

With inexpensive HD-VMD players and extremely capable holographic disks on their way, is there any room for expensive and inferior Blu-ray and HD-DVD technology? Will Blu-ray and HD-DVD continue to battle it out until they both die off? Will the current format war be a topic of laughable discussion at the water cooler five years from now? I don't have the answers. But I do know, consumers have choice.

As previously rumored, Apple confirmed, late Tuesday, that they will be holding an event at the Moscone Center on September 5th, 2007. Judging from the invite sent to select members of the press, Apple may be announcing new iPods, just in time for the pre-holiday season. Rumors have been circulating that the new iPods will be nearly identical to the recently announced and highly successful iPhone, but without the phone. The invite showcases album art in Cover Flow format, a feature of iTunes and the iPhone that allows users to select albums by their cover art. Features that I hope to see:

• Landscape/Portrait rotation like iPhone
• Wide aspect ratio
• Capable of playing main profile H.264 at L3.1 or higher at 3Mbps
• Built-in WiFi and Safari browser

I've done a lot of work with Flash video over the last couple of years and have found it to be both a blessing and a curse. In one regard, a publisher doesn't have to worry too much about whether their audience can play the video or not because of the large market penetration of Flash. On the other hand, performing true streaming of content doesn't leave the developer with very many choices (Flash Media Server, Wowza Media Server, or Red5). Fortunately, Flash does something so well that it's sprouting a new 'industry' of software applications - the Flash FLV Players. Say goodbye to the boring looks of Windows Media Player, QuickTime or RealPlayer skins and say hello to the fresh new looks of Flash players. FLV players are just that - players, written in Flash, that play back Flash video files. There are too many players to mention, so forgive me if I leave one out. However, I've included my short list of players you should look at. Agriya FLV Player - This player comes in a basic, premium or elite edition depending on the features desired. It's YouTube-like functionality make it a perfect choice for commercial deployments where pre and post role advertising is required and related videos are dynamically displayed within the player. xmoov FLV Player - A minimalist approach to a player with a nice retro style buffering message that resembles a filmstrip. Completely customizable. Also on the site is xmoov-php which is a script capable of pseudo-streaming from an ordinary web server. JW FLV Player - The author, Jeroen Wijering, has spend an incredible amount of time perfecting this player. It supports every major feature you'd ever want in a player including RSS, ATOM, Playlists and an API that's accessible via Javascript.

On Monday, Adobe together with MainConcept announced details on an update to Adobe's Flash Player which will include support for H.264 (aka MPEG-4 Part 10, Advanced Video Codec, AVC). Tinic Uro, a Adobe engineer, provides details on his blog. Why is this important and how will this effect users? H.264 one of three video standards that are supported in HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disk. MPEG-2 and VC-1 are the other two standards. H.264 provides the same picture quality as MPEG-2 at less than half the bitrate. Moreover, because of it's scalable design, H.264 content is playable on anything from the smallest portable devices to the largest high-definition screens. The first major commercial media player to support H.264 was Apple's QuickTime Player. Content on the iTunes Store, and Apple's movie trailers are all encoded using H.264. The codec is supported by a number of devices including iPod, iPhone, Sony Playstation Portable and several mobile phones. Until now however, playback on a PC was limited to QuickTime and a number of lesser known players like VLC. The inclusion of H.264 into the latest Flash players due later this year is significant because it will suddenly improve a users overall video experience on sites such as YouTube which use Flash to deliver video. As a Google company, YouTube has been offering H.264 versions of it's content for several months now. The result will be less bandwidth, greater picture quality and with the inclusion of H.264 into Adobe AIR, a full-blown standalone player capable of squashing the now dominate Windows Media Player is inevitable. The Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is responsible for licensing of all the MPEG technologies including H.264. As an open industry standard, H.264 content should be playable on any number of devices. And this is where Adobe is making a terrible mistake. Most websites, YouTube included, use a technique known as progressive downloading to stream content from the servers to the client. This technique uses HTTP and therefore is quite limited in what types of interactions can take place between the server and client. Content that is progressively streamed must first be downloaded to the client before it can be played. There are techniques that provide pseudo-streaming using HTTP, but still, interaction is limited to the HTTP protocol. Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) was developed in 1998 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to overcome many of the shortcomings of using HTTP for streaming and to provide a open, standards-based way to stream content from a server to a client. The benefits of using RTSP are numerous and include the ability for a client to request a start time of a audio or video file and the ability for the server to monitor the available bandwidth of the client in real time. According to Tinic Uro's blog, Adobe will not be implementing RTSP in it's Flash player. Rather, they will be streaming H.264 (and FLV for that matter) via their own proprietary protocol, RTMP. This is quite unfortunate because even though H.264 is an industry standard, in order to benefit from true streaming technology, you'll have to use Adobe's proprietary Flash Media Server which implements RTMP. This is bad news for everyone. Because RTSP (and RTMP) implements client/server interaction, bandwidth could be drastically reduced. Imagine YouTube, or any other video sharing site, having chapters or sections of a video that could be played without having to start at the beginning or having to wait for the video to progressively download. Imagine being able to click anywhere on a videos timeline and have that video start playing , instantaneously. This is possible with a true streaming solution, but with Flash it will only be possible with Flash Media Server. Vendor lock-in seems to be the game Adobe is willing to play. To me, this is completely outrageous and I implore Adobe to reconsider this decision. I understand that Adobe is a business and must make a profit. But the decision to not support RTSP hurts education, non-profits and small business, most of whom could not afford the high price tag of Flash Media Server in the first place. By contrast, a number of open source RTSP server implementations exist which are free of charge, including Darwin Streaming Server from Apple. If Flash supported RTSP, I believe the Internet would spawn a new generation of video sites, with new functionality and even greater interactivity. Think of a JumpCut, YouTube, Digg and Pownce fusion. This process alone would help Adobe sell users on their AIR and Flex platform because of the increased interactivity. With Adobe's decision, it's unfortunate that innovation in the online video arena will crawl along at it's current rate.

There are a lot of programs out there that are capable of tagging MPEG-4 video files (.mp4, .m4v), most of which are free or open-sourced and usually based on Atomic Parsley, mpeg4ip, or mp4box. The benefits of tagging are numerous and include the ability for all associated metadata (title, season, description, ratings, actors, artwork, etc) to be embedded within the file itself in order for that asset to be properly searched on and display the titles information. Over the past several months, I have tried numerous graphical MP4 taggers including YAMB, iPodTVShow, vID Infiltr8, and the Yahoo Widget, iTags. I was less than impressed with most of these, although for a Mac only application, Infiltr8 seemed the most complete. My goals were simple. A cross platform application that was fast, easy to use, well organized, supported iTunes Music Store tags as well as artwork, podcasts, TV shows, movies and ratings. It had to properly read and write the tags and cost little to nothing. A lot to ask for? Perhaps. But there is a solution and it's called Tagger. Personally I think the name is aweful as a Google search for tagger reveals over 3 million records, none of which are relevant. Tagger is a Java based MP4 audio/video tagging application that supports both OS X and Windows and uses the open source Atomic Parsley library. There are Mac/Win versions for both Java 5 and Java 6. Being Java based solved my cross platform needs and as far as the others are concerned, Andrew, the author of Tagger has done an excellent job creating an easy to use, fast and feature-rich tagging application. The current version is 3.2b with version 4.0 being designed at the moment. If you're looking for the fast, free and flexible MP4 video tagger, check this one out.