Marvell Technology Integrates Sorenson Spark Video Decoder into Platform Solutions

Posted by Derrick on August 5, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

Sorenson Media announced that the Sorenson Spark Software Developers Kit (SDK) has been licensed by Marvell Technology to incorporate the Sorenson Spark decoder in Marvell products. Sorenson Spark will be included in the company’s platform solutions designed to scale with set-top boxes, media players, e-readers, netbooks, smart phones, high-performance tablets and other advanced mobile devices.

Sorenson Spark is the industry’s most ubiquitous video codec and was the first codec used in Macromedia Flash, now Adobe Flash. The decoder exclusively enables the playback of hundreds of millions of videos on the Internet, including those on YouTube, the single largest online video destination today. The Sorenson Spark SDK allows developers to integrate the Sorenson Spark decoder into a wide array of programmable chipsets and semiconductors. The kit is designed to provide Sorenson Spark decoding on any platform, including custom silicon.

Marvell is a leading fabless semiconductor company with expertise in microprocessor architecture.   Marvell’s multiple platforms included networked Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, media players, mobile and wireless, and high volume storage solutions. These are used to power the complete value chain of mobile and wireless devices.

“Marvell is a technology leader, driving highly efficient and scalable platform solutions for consumers worldwide,” said Douglas Cebik, director of business development of Sorenson Media.  “Now, the company’s high performance mobile platforms will be able to play Internet video using the industry’s most common codec and consumers will enjoy more complete access to the full world of online video.”

ViewCast Announces Support for WebM Project Niagara SCX streaming media software to utilize open-source VP8 video codec

Posted by Derrick on May 22, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over IP and mobile networks, announced support of the WebM open web media project and the open sourcing of the VP8 video codec. Starting the third quarter of this year, Niagara SCX will enable users to capture and stream video utilizing VP8 – the high performance, open-source video codec that contributes to the WebM project under a royalty free license.

WebM gives developers the ability to innovate with and deploy high-quality video compression technology without the constraints of title-based royalty fees or other license fees. Device manufacturers can also integrate successive generations of video technology without additional royalties. End users will enjoy high-quality video and smooth video playback on all their web video devices, including low-power devices, such as netbooks and mobile phones. Mozilla, Opera, Google, YouTube, and many major software and hardware manufacturers have already expressed plans to support VP8 and WebM.

“Web-based video is the fastest-growing contributor to data usage over IP networks, and we applaud the introduction of a high-quality, open source video format option,” said ViewCast President and CEO Dave Stoner. “ViewCast always strives to enable our customers to achieve the best possible video experience on the Web. By offering support for both H.264 and WebM streaming formats, we reinforce our commitment to leverage new video technologies as they emerge, and keep pace with developments as the web continues to evolve.”

“A key factor in the web’s success is that its core technologies are open and freely implementable. Video is fundamental to the web experience, and developers and content publishers need an open video format option,” said Mike Jazayeri, Group Product Manager at Google. “We are excited ViewCast is joining a broad coalition of industry leaders supporting the WebM project to bring a new era of open innovation in web video.”

Niagara SCX software comes pre-installed on the Niagara Pro II, Niagara GoStream SURF and Niagara 7500 streaming media appliances. All ViewCast streaming media appliances are designed to deliver the quality, features and ease-of-use convenience that professional broadcasters demand. They are pre-configured, plug-and-play solutions that enable users to quickly capture and broadcast premium quality audio and video in multiple formats and at multiple bit rates – all simultaneously.

Encoding Flash Linked Downloadable Streaming Videos with Squeeze 6

Posted by Derrick on February 5, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | 2 Comments to Read

Encoding Flash Linked Downloadable Streaming videos with Sorenson Media’s Sorenson Squeeze 6 is enhanced.  This tutorial will help you if you’ve upgraded to Sorenson Squeeze 6 or purchased the new version and new Squeeze 6 license.  This workflow in this tutorial is helpful if you need to encode Flash Linked .SWF and .FLV using the Sorenson Media player skins for Download Streaming.    We’ll show you how to create a Flash Linked Downloadable Streaming video that is geared for high broadband users.   The video that we’re encoding is a 720 x 480 DV progressive source with PCM audio and black edges.

Now, let’s get started.

Navigate to the Formats tab located in the Presets section.  Twirl down the Adobe Flash Movie (.swf) templates and navigate to the F8 SWF 360p (4×3) compression preset.  Now copy the preset to create a version you can customize.  Select the preset and Right-click your mouse and select Copy Audience Preset from the Contextual Menu.  You can also select the Creates a Copy button below the presets.  Locate your new preset which should have copy at the end of the Preset name.  Double-click the preset to open it for editing.

Once your preset opens you can adjust your settings but first you need to name your new preset.  For this tutorial name your preset F8_flashlinked_DL_360.  Remember it’s best to make sure you don’t have any spaces in your preset names as they are included in the name of your output file.  Removing spaces mainly helps in the web authoring process.

OK.  Now move to the Codec settings within the Video Tab. You’ll adjust our preset for Downloadable Streaming video for high broadband users.  Keep in mind this is general preset.  You might have to do some additional tweaking to get your desired quality for output.  In your preset the On2 VP6 Pro Codec should be selected along with 2-Pass VBR.  Since the video frame rate is 29.97 frames per second adjust your output frame rate to 15 fps.  By doing this you’re cutting the frame rate in half which will give you smooth motion.  For your target Data Rate adjust it to 600Kbps.  You can keep VP6-E for the Profile with Auto Key Frames Enabled with an Auto Key Frame Threshold of 70.

For Frame Size select 480 x 360.  You can select Maintain Aspect Ratio with Key Frames set to Key Frame Every 90 frames.  So in this case the codec will ad a new key frame at least every 6 seconds since 15 fps is our output frame rate.

Moving onto the Audio settings within the Audio tab.  The Fraunhofer MP3 Codec should be selected.  Adjust your datarate to 40Kbps, Sample Rate set to 22050,  Channels to Stereo and 16 bit for your Sample Size.

Next move to the Player Options Tab.  At this point you’re going to determine the Player/Skin that you want to surround your video for playback on the web.  For this tutorial select the Aluminum Player.

For the Video location you can leave the default value of http:// for the URL/Path and make sure Play Automatically is selected.

A new feature in Squeeze 6 is you can actually attach Filter presets within your compression presets.  However, in this tutorial you want to create a filter that we can apply to other videos as well.  Moving on, navigate to the Filters section on the left hand side within Squeeze 6.

Move down to the Web Generic Filter and select it then click the Creates a Copy button.  Now double-click the Web Generic copy Filter you just created.  When the Filter preset opens change your filter name to SD_Cropping_NoDeinterlace.  You’re giving your Filter this name because you’re making a Filter preset for encoding Progressive SD sources that have blacking edges.

In the Filter preset settings you can check on uncheck items you don’t want to include.  For this Filter uncheck Deinterlace since the source is progressive.  Now check Crop, Brightness, Contrast and Audio Volume.  For Brightness adjust to your setting to 10.  For contrast adjust your setting to 15,  and for Audio Choose Normalize and adjust to 90.  Keep in mind if your source file is really bright you might need to deselect the Contrast and Brightness values.

For cropping off our black edges you’ll multiply the aspect ratio of 4:3 times 8 in which you’ll crop 32 pixels off the left and right and 24 pixels off the top and bottom.  So for the Top input 12 pixels, for Bottom input 12 pixels, for the Left 16 pixels and for the Right input 16 pixels.  Click OK once you’ve made all of your adjustments.

Now onto compressing your video.  Drag your source file into the Batch Tree.  You can also choose Import File from the Input Options and navigate to your desired video and click Open.

Next Select your F8_flashlinked_DL_360 Compression preset and drag it onto your video.  In my case, I’ll drag the F8_flashlinked_DL_360 preset on top of my video called Car02 in the Batch Tree.   Then drag your Filter preset over top of your Compression Preset in the Batch Tree.  Looking at the image above you would drag your Filter preset over top of F8_flashlinked_DL_360 located under Source Settings.  You’ll know your filter is applied when you see Filter : SD_Cropping_NoDeinterlace display within your applied Compression preset.

To select a custom output for you file you can adjust this within the Squeeze Preferences.  Click the Edit Pull-down menu and choose Preferences.

When the dialog opens click the Output Tab and the Browse button to create an output location for all of your encodes.  If you don’t select a custom output for your video Squeeze will put your output videos in the same location as your source.  Click OK on the Preferences tab once you’re done.

Now you’re all set to encode your video.  Click the Squeeze It! button.

Once your video is finished encoding you will have 3 files in your output location.  All files will have the same name except for the file extension.  One file is the .SWF file, another if the Flash .FLV file and the final file is an .HTML file.  You will need these files when you author your video for your Web Page. For details on the authoring process for Flash Linked .SWF and .FLV files view the tutorial Authoring a Web Page for Flash Linked Downloadable Streaming with Dreamweaver CS4. Other tutorials are available on our blog as well.

Wowza Media Server Consulting

Posted by Derrick on January 21, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Read the First Comment

Wowza Media Server 2 consulting is available from Freeman Compression Inc.  If you’re launching on-line video and you desire to implement Flash Video streaming, you can utilize the Wowza Media Server 2 for delivering your content. Freeman Compression Inc. can set up your Wowza Streaming Server either the PC or Mac platform. We can train you and your staff on how to use the server and how to configure the settings. Let us assist you both with Live Streaming and On-Demand streaming with Wowza Media Server 2.

Freeman Compression is available for the following services:

• Wowza Media Server 2 Set-up
• Configuring On-demand streaming
• Configure Flash Live Streaming
• Instruction on Flash .FLV encoding using the On2 VP6 codec
• Instruction on H.264 .MP4 encoding using the H.264 codec
• Live Streaming Set-up with Wirecast, or Adobe Flash Media Encoder
• Live Encoding from RTSP-based encoders
• Live Streaming to iPhone and iPod Touch
• On-demand Streaming to iPhone and iPod Touch
• Analyzing Wowza Media Server 2 and Wowza Media Server Pro logs with Sawmill Professional
• Authoring of Flash Streaming Content with Dreamweaver, JW Player, Flash Professional

Give us a call at 407.477.5837 for more information or E-mail us at info@freemancompression.com.

Winwap and On2 Enter Into Joint Marketing Agreement

Posted by Derrick on January 3, 2010 under Video Streaming and Compression | Be the First to Comment

Winwap Technologies Oy, specialists in providing web browser, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) and e-mail technology for embedded wireless devices, and On2 Technologies Finland Oy, specialists in software and hardware video codec designs, have entered into a joint marketing agreement to provide Winwap customers with a quick and simple way to build complete multimedia solutions for wireless devices.

On2 Finland is the leading provider of optimized video codecs for ARM9, ARM11 and ARM Cortex A8/A9 microprocessor platforms. By integrating On2’s video codecs, the Winwap application portfolio is able to use all versions of On2’s video codecs, delivering time-to-market advantages for deploying fully functional, highly optimized wireless video solutions.

Through the agreement, Winwap customers will be able to embed multimedia messaging and multimedia codecs into their devices at very competitive pricing. ‘It is among our high priority goals to keep improving and adding total value to our product portfolio for device manufacturers,’ said Mikael Krogius, CEO, Winwap Technologies. ‘We already provide most of the typical applications needed on any wireless networked device and now we are adding codecs to our offerings through On2. Our researchers have performed extensive pre-integration testing to make sure using On2 software codecs with any Winwap product is simple and straightforward.’

‘We are very pleased to have Winwap as our partner. On2’s video codecs together with Winwap product portfolio definitely open new channels for our highly optimized products in the device manufacture markets,’ said Jani Huoponen, General Manager, On2 Technologies Finland Oy.