Why no Panasonic MPEG-2 encoder? Now we know....

[Dr Mordrid]

It appears the reason Panasonic is not developing their own MPEG-2 is that they in bed with MediaStream's Medio MVision MPEG-2 technology;

http://www.digitalproducer.com/aHTM/...nic_dvdram.htm

"Panasonic and MedioStream announced today the compatibility of MedioStream's Medio MVision real-time MPEG-2 software encoder and Panasonic's 4.7GB DVD-RAM drive. By integrating Medio MVision and the Panasonic rewritable DVD drive, OEMs, value-added resellers and system integrators can provide their customers with a cost-effective solution for DVD video encoding, decoding, high-capacity storage and exceptionally smooth video playback."

Dr. Mordrid

[dchip]

With new encoders appearing every week, I would guess Panasonic figured there was no point in continuing to play tic-tac-toe and decided it was time to play hardware ball. I like the sound of this. I dont know a thing about MedioStream, though. Anybody know if they are known for producing good software?
If it's solid, this would tempt me to step into the DVD world. I would have to assume that some sort of authouring tool is would be included with the combo so I can make DVD's with professional interactivity. Interesting.

[cjyo~]

And of course, Panasonic has been making their own high-end hardware MPEG-2 encoders for Hollywood DVD production since the prototype stages of consumer DVD. I have been working with them for 3 years...

[Dr Mordrid]

Medio first appeared on my radar a few months ago in connection to betaing their encoding technology. It turned out that they were working on an SDK and I didn't have time to play with testing that kind of thing.

It appears their products are first being targeted to OEM's with retail coming later. The closest thing to a consumer product is a notice on their site that CAMpeg is coming soon as a download. CAMpeg can capture realtime MPEG-2 from a DV cam.

http://www.mediosys.com/

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 25 October 2000).]

[dchip]

I did some more reading on the Medio site and I really like the sound of this CAMpeg package. I can't wait to see the reviews on it. If I can load this on my P-III and then get a DVD-R drive I might shelve MPEG1 and this iffy VCD stuff I am messing with now, forever. No more praying that my VCD will play in various DVD players. Maybe I will soon be making real DVD's! That would be great.

[Dr Mordrid]

The affordable option would be DVD-RAM. "regular" DVD recorders still cost waytotomuch.

Rumor mill stuff:

Read the other day that some upcoming DVD players will be DVD-RAM compatable!!

Dr. Mordrid

[Jkun]

The most interesting bit is at the end...

Panasonic, Hitachi, Toshiba are in the DVDram camp. They have released DVDram DVDrecorders, and their future line of DVD players will support playback of ram discs. Some other companies have pledged support such as Samsung. The format has been accepted by the DVD forum. Current format has 4.7 GB on a single sided disc, or twice that on a double sided disc.

Sony and Philips have an RW format, nothing more than prototypes sofar.

Pioneer has its own DVD-RW format and of course DVD-R. They have just released their second gen DVD recorder which can record on RW and on R discs. 4.7 GB per disc. The R compatibility, which was added on this second gen recorder, seems interesting if the longivity of the discs is comparable to that of current HQ CDR discs (phtalocyanine gold discs, 100+ years when stored properly, or so the manufacturers claim)

The nice thing is that these discs can play on standard DVD players.

At the IBC in Holland, Pioneer announced they'd release a PC drive version for 'consumer' use by April next year, price tag appr. 1000 Euro.

J-kun

[cjyo~]

I think I read in Emedia that a market research group did a study that said set-top DVD-RAM recorders should be under $500 in 2-3 years...

Wait for it...

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup, things are a changin'.

Just for recording times sake...I wonder if you would be able to create an SVCD on a DVD-RAM disk. Talk about a long playback at decent quality.

Now all DVD players need is MPEG-4 capability

Dr. Mordrid

[Frankie G]

The media price has to come down as well.
Of course, whod've thought that CD-R media would be free
after rebate just 5 years ago or so...

[I'm going through my old computer magazines now saving
good articles and throwing out the rest. I can't believe
I paid US$3.20 apiece for 400K SSDD (Mac) floppy disks, and]
thought I was getting a bargain!]

[Aryko]

Perhaps this isn't the best place for this, but it just occurred to me.

I think a zillion-dollar idea would be if a next-generation DVD disc technology could be made backward-compatible with current CD technology. Ie., you have your DVD with the movie on it, but if you toss it into your CD player, you get the movie's sound track.

I guess to make it work you'd have to have a CD track first off, and then secondary layers with the DVD information... probably technically impossible, but it'd sure be neat.

- Aryko

[Technoid]

I have seen CD's that has a DVD glued to it.
it's heavier and thicker than a normal cd.
And they claime it cant be used in slot in devices!

[Dr Mordrid]

The next-big-thing may be something called the FMD: Flourescent Multilayered Disk.

This device holds up to 140 gigs on a transparent disk. No metallic layer with pits in it. The data is stored in up to 10 layers of a flourescent dye. The research shows up to 100 layers are possible in a 3D storage matrix.

FMD also supports parallel access of multiple layers at once. The potential for speed is enormous.

Playback systems would be backwards compatable with CD and DVD.

It'll be shown at this years Comdex.

http://www.c-3d.net/tech_frameset.html

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 27 October 2000).]