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Raspberry Pi lands MPEG-2 and VC-1 decoding through personal licenses, H.264 encoding and CEC tag along
Making the Raspberry Pi affordable involved some tough calls, including the omission of MPEG-2 decoding. Licensing fees alone for the video software would have boosted the board's price by approximately 10 percent. Now, after many have made media centers with the hardware, the foundation behind the project has whipped up a solution to add the missing codec. For $3.16, users can purchase an individual MPEG-2 license for each of their boards on the organization's online store. Partial to Microsoft's VC-1 standard? Rights to using Redmond's codec can be purchased for $1.58. H.264 encoding is also in the cards since OpenMax components needed to develop applications with the functionality are now enabled by default in the device's latest firmware. With CEC support thrown into the Raspbmc, XBian and OpenELEC operating systems, a single IR remote can control a Raspberry Pi, a TV and other connected gadgets. If you're ready to load up your Pi with its newfound abilities, hit the source link below. Update: The Raspberry Pi Foundation let us know that US customers won't have to pay sales tax, which means patrons will only be set back $3.16 for MPEG-2 and $1.58 for VC-1 support, not $3.79 and $1.90 for the respective licenses. We've updated the post accordingly.
Thomson's ViBE encoders enable 50% faster HD channel changing
Look, 1.9 seconds to change the channel is way, way too long people -- we all know that. Thankfully, the bright engineers at Thomson realize it too, and that's why they've cranked out some seriously awesome advances to their ViBE encoders. The new "fast zapping solutions" enable 50% faster high-definition channel changing, and the secret is in the fancy simultaneous compression that most users won't even notice. In essence, it allows the STB to "quickly decode and display a low resolution version of the channel and transition to displaying the full HD resolution version without disrupting viewing," and if all goes well, we could see this become the de facto way of channel surfing by 2009. Gnarly, dudes.
VisualHub 1.24 brings new high-resolution settings, tons more features
I just have to come right out and say it: VisualHub is one of the best darn things to happen to video encoding since DVD Jon worked his magic. It's a fantastic app that rocks the house when it comes to encoding videos - especially in batches - and it just got a lot cooler with a v1.24 update. Along with a healthy dose of other new features and fixes, the VisualHub crew has introduced a new high-res format for getting the most out of a widescreen H.264 file that can play across multiple devices and screen sizes. All the details and a few sample videos are provided at this VisualHub product page, but the short of the long is: this new format will allow you to encode one file that looks great on small screens like iPods and PSPs, but will also look crisp and detailed when scaled up to a screen much larger like the TV your XBox or Apple TV are connected to. As anyone who has a Mac in the basement with VisualHub chugging away on a batch of DVDs can probably tell you, this new format could very well be music to one's ears. As icing on the cake, custom settings files are even provided on the afore-linked product page so you don't have to dig around and figure out this new format for yourself.This isn't the only new thing in v1.24, however. Full support has arrived for: 8-core Macs, full-res PSP videos at 480 x 272, speedbumps for certain encoding outputs and much more. As if VisualHub wasn't already more than worth its $23.32 price tag, these updates should entice both serious and curious customers to make the leap for a license. Of course, a VisualHub demo is available for a test drive.
