vc 1
Latest
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.
NXP & Roku reup deal on streaming player hardware
We don't know if you ever gave any thought to the hardware behind Roku's digital video player, but the company announced it is continuing a partnership with NXP to use the PNX8935 decoder to bring all that sweet Netflix, Amazon and more to your TV. Anyway you cut it, many have found the h.264 and VC-1 decoding capabilities worthy of paying the Roku's $99 price tag, we suppose it's not up to NXP when Amazon will let us get at any HD content or Netflix adds to its high definition library, so we'll just say job well done and look forward to what these two have planned in the future.
Escient rolls out Vision version 1.1 software
If you're lucky enough to own an Escient digital media system, then the company has a new version 1.1 of its Vision software ready for your hot hands. The update is free (you did shell out some long green for the Escient system, remember) for owners of Vision VS and VC gear, and promises a more responsive UI, stability and improved video quality -- always good things for your oh-so-connected casa. Also making the cut is 2-way control for Vision Movies, Music, Rhapsody, Photos and the front panel disc drive (CD or DVD only), so your high end Crestron, Marantz RC9001, Philips Pronto and UEI remote controls and multi-room distribution gadgets get along nice and friendly-like with the Escient hardware.
Germany's CDA starts production of 3X DVD
Comin' straight outta Thuringia is the first news we've heard in a year about HD DVD's red-laser cousin, 3X DVD. CDA Datenträger Albrechts GmbH has announced its started production of 3X DVDs, which are basically HD content, compressed with VC-1 or MPEG-4 and AACS DRM, on a standard red laser DVD that is readable only by HD DVD players. The advantage is that it costs the same to produce as a regular DVD, and CDA is apparently producing dual-sided DVD-10 discs, with standard DVD content on one side, and HD on the other. Of course, with several German studios dropping HD DVD support (along with a few others you may have heard of) its hard to see who will take advantage of CDA's new capabilities. [Via EMediaLive]
MusicGiants launches VideoGiants, with HD movies from Paramount
The HD digital distribution club just got a little bigger, as lossless audio distributor MusicGiants is launching its VideoGiants service with 250 movies from Paramount, and additional content from HDNet. Available in 1080p or 1080i WMV format, users can purchase the movies in 10-packs for $159 delivered via Seagate hard drives or, in a few months, one at a time via direct download to a home media server. After that, it can be viewed via the media PC or Media Extender (including Xbox 360). MusicGiants has been selling HD audio tracks to high end home theater owners via its network of dealers and installers for about two years, with plans to make this type of service available to the mass market soon. Still think the future of HD content is on shiny discs?
Akamai launches HD content website
Akamai has launched a "proof of concept" portal for demonstrating online HD content. The site shows off their edge delivery technologies designed around HD streaming. Anyone can try out the site, but you'll need some healthy bandwidth to get the full experience. Recommended specs include 7.5Mbps for the 720 feeds, 13.5Mbps for the 1080; if your connection doesn't meet spec, expect hitches. It's a tantalizing view of the future, but those bandwidth requirements are steep! Still, we're on board with Akamai's reasons for putting this site up, especially "engage audiences with higher quality video experiences" and "show industry support and leadership around the move toward high-definition video." We've seen it and we want it, so the only question left is when will the industry players let us get it?
Akamai readying infrastructure for HD Internet delivery
Akamai is making some changes to its content distribution network (CDN) which are meant to facilitate the distribution of long-form HD content over the internet. It's more than just a simple bump up in Akamai's already huge capacity, and has enhancements designed around delivery of "bandwidth-intensive" content. Design criteria include support for files larger than 2 GB, VC-1 and MPEG-4 codecs, and 720i/1080i/1080p resolutions, which are some pretty lofty and HD-worthy specs. The goal is to provide 100-Tb/s bandwidth (that's Terabit!) using an edge-network architecture, which will hopefully keep end users happy with fast downloads and and local broadband providers happy with less traffic going through their own gateways. Sadly, no specific rollout dates are given.
300 HD DVD & Blu-ray review roundup
300 is this month's highest profile DVD/Blu-ray/HD DVD Combo release, and it appears reviewers have already found it worthy of the crown. Frank Miller's previous effort Sin City was already well-received in HD with its highly stylized green screened special effects and 300 follows in the same vein. High-Def Digest didn't exactly love the "flat" look of the movie, but found the VC-1 transfer an "accurate representation of the theatrical experience", while IGN couldn't find enough superlatives to describe the video on its way to a 10 of 10 rating. The Blu-ray version includes a PCM soundtrack alongside standard and TrueHD versions, but it didn't seem to add or detract much from a highly rated aural experience. The HD DVD exclusive features include a PiP look at the film in preproduction, as well as an option to edit together favorite scenes and post them online for other fans to download via the player. 300's groundbreaking internet features are also tied to the anchor of Warner's ringtone and other paraphernalia advertisements, but in the end, all rated it a must-buy for your format of choice when released next week. Read - 300 HD DVD review High-Def Digest Read - 300 Blu-ray review High-Def Digest Read - 300 HD DVD review IGN Read - A Few Words About...300 HD & BD
Broadcom launches new dedicated HD decoding hardware for media PCs
Getting Blu-ray or HD DVD playback on that new laptop PC might have just gotten a little easier & cheaper, as Broadcom just announced its new media PC solutions. There's no question that h.264 and VC-1 decoding can require a lot of processor power, but Broadcom will also be competing with integrated GPU solutions like ATI's Avivo technology and NVIDIA's PureVideo. These new chips will be available to OEM's as add-in cards or motherboard chipsets, bringing the same technology already used in standalone Blu-ray and HD DVD players straight to PCs. With the same tech at heart, we can expect to see HD-enabled laptop prices slide to match recent standalones, coming in as low as the $1,000 mark.
Digital Video Essentials calibration tool launches on HD DVD
We certainly can't say that this one arrived a moment too soon, as all of you early adopters of HD DVD drives have probably been frustrating yourself with manual color calibration techniques that just never turned out quite right. Thankfully, the highly-anticipated (and perpetually delayed) HD DVD version of Digital Video Essentials is finally available for sale, and interestingly, the disc will actually be of the dual-format variety for those still keeping a vanilla DVD player around the house. Users will be graced with both 1080p and 720p VC-1 encoded material, NTSC and PAL compatibility, 6.1-channel Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital True HD tracks, built-in color filters, and of course, widescreen / standard options. So if you've been yearning to get your HD DVD calibration on, the time has finally come, at least for those willing to shell out the $34.95 required to pick DVE up.
First HD DVD/DVD Twin disc hits U.S. in June, along with new HDi features
Add one more dual format disc type to the pile, as Bandai Visual will bring the HD DVD/DVD Twin disc to the U.S. June 26, with the release of its bestselling OVA Freedom, and will also be one of the first releases to include HDi network capabilities. As opposed to the combo releases so far that have HD DVD on one side, and DVD on the other, the Twin disc allows up to three layers of either HD DVD or DVD content on the same side of the disc, no flipping necessary. Your old-school DVD player might have trouble with the disc, so its been limited to Japan-only releases so far. Bandai's been working with Microsoft and Memory-Tech to tweak the VC-1 codec for Japanese anime, and the company says after this they will start releasing other HD DVD and Blu-ray titles in Japan and overseas. The SRP for Freedom Vol.1 (of 6) is $39.99 and while we don't know much about the series beyond its mix of CGI and 2D animation, it does heavily represent that most holiest of foods, ramen.
Is "3X DVD" HD DVD's secret weapon against Blu-ray?
While the Blu-ray camp is busy claiming victory, recently HD DVD supporters seem to be circling the wagons around an old friend, the -- 'til now -- unused 3X DVD technology. HD DVD has always claimed it holds a price advantage over Blu-ray, by way of offering low cost upgrades for existing DVD manufacturing processes. The 3X DVD spec takes that a step further, while it's a part of the HD DVD format and apparently only compatible with HD DVD players, the discs themselves are physically exactly the same as standard red-laser DVDs. Throw in a software upgrade to support high definition content, HD DVD's UDF 2.5 file structure and AACS and you have a way to deliver HDTV content on a 9.4 GB DVD. By using newer encoding technologies like MPEG-4 and VC-1 and/or lowering the resolution to say, 720p, full length movies easily fit on a standard DVD. Eclipse Data Technologies, a supplier of HD DVD mastering equipment just announced it is offering free upgrades to its customers in order to support 3X DVD manufacturing. This was followed today by DCA Inc. announcing it has mastered the first 3X DVD disc, and that several manufacturers are looking at it as a possible low cost path into HD video. 3X DVD's potential to allow for noticeably lower-priced HD content to come to market is definitely there, but it still remains to be seen if this, like combo DVD/HD DVDs and Total Hi-Def discs will find a home and support in the marketplace. Read - First 3X DVD-ROM Disc Cut with DCA Equipment Read - Eclipse Provides Free HD DVD Upgrade to Replication Facilities
NVIDIA vs. ATI for HD movie playback
Whether playing HD DVD and Blu-ray discs from a drive, or files obtained or stored via other means, you'll need plenty of horsepower to keep the HD flowing smoothly. Hardware Zone took a look at NVIDIA and ATI's competing platforms for hardware acceleration of h.264 and VC-1 decoding on PCs. They tested a few 1080i h.264-encoded movies from Japan and found neither solution was able reduce CPU load by more than 20-30% on their Core 2 Duo equipped test machine, with similar reductions on less CPU-intensive VC-1 discs. Overall they like the NVIDIA's PureVideo GeForce 7600 GT over the comparably priced ATI Radeon X1650 XT with Avivo, but check out the head to head for all the numbers before deciding which videocard goes in your next Media PC.[Via MPEG4.net]
Superman Returns now on Xbox Live Video Marketplace
We were wondering how long it would take to get a high definition blockbuster movie onto Xbox Live Video Marketplace, and it looks like Microsoft and Major Nelson just got in under the wire for 2006, adding Superman Returns yesterday. Weighing in at 7 GB for the 720p HD version (2 GB in 480p SD... for the masochists out there) for the 154 minute movie, it's finally time to clear off some of the Xbox 360 demos we downloaded and see if digital distribution works better in 2007 than it did last year. We'll be back with our impressions of the service, now that they've posted something we want to watch on our HDTVs.
Azureus pushes HD video sharing via BitTorrent
You're probably familiar with Azureus because of its popular BitTorrent client, now they're rolling that into a digital media platform called Zudeo. As Wired points out, like Youtube, Zudeo aims to let content providers publish and showcase material easily and freely. Unlike Youtube, Zudeo is built to support high definition video and long form content. According to the CEO, it has signed deals with 12 television film and media companies, with content, pricing and DRM details forthcoming in the next couple of weeks. The site is active today, and you can already find and download some of Engadget HD's favorite content like mariposaHD and Elephant's Dream. We tested it out and had no problems with download speed or playback of the VC-1 and h.264 encoded files, but we're not sure if they're ready to rival Youtube just yet. Since it requires additional software and doesn't just play in the browser, a lot of the convenience of other video sharing sites is lost, and as traffic increases Zudeo will need to rely on its own customers to continue to seed downloaded files. We'll see if Zudeo has what it takes as HDTV and IPTV grow closer together over the next year, and face rivals at Warner, MyTVPal, Xbox Live and others.[Via Wired & PVR Wire]
The HD DVD and Blu-ray release of Lake House suffers on both format
The Lake House was just hit the streets on Tuesday of this week but High-Def Digest already has the skinny on both releases. Thankfully, both of these titles utilize VC-1 encoding so the picture quality should be top notch but there are issues with both discs and because the releases came from the same master, both discs have the same problem. They are reporting that while the discs don't look bad, they also don't look great ether. Both the HD DVD and Blu-ray releases appear a bit soft and while there isn't any noise or defects, it just doesn't 'wow' you. So apparently, MPEG-2 had a lot to do with the original HD DVD/Blu-ray title bout that declared HD DVD the winner in terms of picture quality. Now that some Blu-ray release are opting for VC-1, the picture quality should be up to snuff.Read: Blu-ray reviewRead: HD DVD review
Blu-ray movies in VC-1: Up to par with HD DVD?
The reviewer at High-Def Digest says yes. Warner has shipped four movies on Blu-ray we already saw on HD DVD, three (Blazing Saddles, Firewall, Lethal Weapon) that use the VC-1 codec for video compression, and one (Full Metal Jacket) that doesn't, but they are all "virtually indistinguishable" from their HD DVD counterparts. The discs all contain the same extras and roughly equivalent soundtracks, even Firewall, originally released on HD DVD/DVD combo with only 15GB of space for the movie. It's hard to say if this is a positive or negative for Blu-ray, on one hand at least recent Blu-ray releases have met the standard expected of high definition DVDs and whenever dual-layer discs become prevalent will have plenty of room for extras, or we can say that despite a player that is still higher-priced and has a 1080p output the films only look the same. This could even affirm Sony's view that on a 25GB disc, MPEG-2 can look just as good as newer codecs. We'll be watching carefully to see if future releases keep the PQ level high.[Thanks, zombieflanders]
Warner Blu-ray releases may switch to VC-1 codec soon
A lot of the criticism leveled at early Blu-ray releases cited their use of the MPEG-2 video codec for compression on 25GB single-layer discs. According to Home Theater Spot, a Warner rep confirmed to them that Lethal Weapon, Blazing Saddles and Firewall will all be encoded with the Microsoft codec. Full Metal Jacket however will still ship as MPEG-2. With fixed Samsung BD-P1000 players and properly next-gen encoded titles, perhaps Blu-ray can stand up to HD DVD and show why it is worth the investment. No word on any new extras to take advantage of all that extra space however, we guess we'll just take one order of increased video quality at lower bitrates to go, thank you.[Via HDBlog]
Final VC-1 patent licensing terms set by MPEG group
Following up on some comments made in this week's podcast about licensing terms, the MPEG Licensing Administrator group has announced the final patent terms for manufacturers wishing to product equipment or content using the VC-1 video standard. By combining the patent portfolios covering VC-1 into one blanket license, the MPEG group has helped businesses license essential products using one license, which is then split up to the entities that contribute patents to the pool.Details after the break
TV calibration expert Joe Kane's take on high-def video formats
Joe Kane is one of the world's foremost expert on TV calibration (Think Digital Video Essentials) and was recently interviewed about calibration and the high-def format war. The first half of the the video interview is all about calibration and if you can sit through the somewhat European content, (and bad camera zooms) it does become worth your while. He is stating that Blu-ray is all about greed. Why? Because they are using MPEG-2. He is basing this opinion on personal experiences of demoing VC-1 and MPEG-2 where not a single person failed to see the differences. We don't know if Joe is making any money on HD DVD or VC-1 (like Major Nelson) but it doesn't seem likely. This is just a man that is expressing his personal experiences on the subject.Check it out.
