ULEAD Announces *New* MPEG Codec!

[Jerry Jones]

Right... this new MPEG.Now would replace the Ligos, but I doubt it will have the ability to do real time transcoding of DV files to MPEG... although it will probably be quite fast.

The ability to encode video being *captured* from Firewire - in real time - is exactly what the CAMpegRT product by MedioStream does:

http://www.mediostream.com/products/campegrt/index.html

But the MedioStream products have been criticized for their output quality.

Time will tell in Ulead's case.

[Dr Mordrid]

Read it again Jerry,

"capable of providing real-time features such as direct MPEG capture from 1394 (FireWire) interfaces, a feature trademarked as MPEG-Direct in future Ulead products."

Note the qualifier "such as". Parse it as if Clinton were saying it...

Dr. Mordrid

[Jerry Jones]

Doc,

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm trying to communicate here.

YES - one will be able to *capture* from Firewire to create MPEG-2 files in real time. I'm not disputing that at all.

I was merely responding to HULK's post wherein he was wondering if the FILE>CREATE command would result in real time CONVERSION to MPEG-2.

I do *not* see anything in the release that suggests one will be able to *CONVERT* or *TRANSCODE* existing DV files on the hard drive or on the TIMELINE to MPEG-2 *in real time.*

I suspect that those types of CONVERSIONS - while fast - will still require significant rendering.

Jerry

P.S. Now that I re-read Hulk's post, he wasn't really asking if the conversion would be done in *real time.* But that's what I thought he was asking.

[Hulk]

While I was chatting with Ulead tech support about my current audio dropout problem I asked about the new MPEG coding.

Here's what I got:

With a fast enough CPU, MPEG II encoding of the DV stream will be real time, kind of. The stream will be buffered in the RAM of the computer, if the RAM fills up, then the computer will instruct the DV camera to go to pause until the encoding can create enough room in RAM for more digital video.

Now, the current problem is that for really slow computers, 400MHz or so, it takes so long for the computer to encode that the camera goes from "pause" to "off!"

As a solution, I am told they may have the computer create a temp file for the digital video stream.

In addition, MPEG II encoding straight from "create" will be faster than what it currently is, but not real time. Ulead is currently testing on a 1.9Ghz P4, so I believe that's what "not real time" is based upon.

I couldn't get anything out of this tech person about the quality of the Ulead compression vs. Ligos.

I suggested that they don't code for computers slower than say 700 or 800 MHz. Maybe certain features should only be activated with appropriate processors. I understand that many people still have older computers, but MS Pro is a higher level program, and a 1GHz + processor only costs $100.

I also inquired about the instant preview exporting to the camera. I was told that the problem is the increased resolution required for such a preview. I think Ulead doesn't believe current processors are fast enough for acceptable frame rates.

Mark

[Jerry Jones]

Wow!

Great information! Thanks for passing it along. That's very interesting.

Jerry Jones