Streaming Media - June/July 2008 - (Page 68) HOOD These analysis tools let you see just what those video files are made of By Jan Ozer UNDER THE F or the most part, streaming files provide a pitiful amount of useable data, which makes programs that provide insight to the content of these files invaluable to compressionists. Depending upon your needs and operating system, there are a number of programs—most free, some at a price—that may fit the bill quite nicely. In this review, I’ll look at a several such programs, including Apple’s QuickTime Pro, Steve Greenberg’s GSpot Codec Information Appliance, Inlet Technologies’ Semaphore, Jerome Martinez’s MediaInfo, and Sliq Media’s WMSnoop. All of them let you take a look under the hood to see, to varying degrees, just what that file is made of. How I Tested Before jumping into the individual reviews, let’s take a look at the features available in each of these tools. I’ve summarized the general features in Table 1. Most of the features are self-explanatory, so I’ll run through them quickly. QuickTime Player and MediaInfo are the only cross-platform tools, though the Mac version of MediaInfo has fewer features than its Windows counterpart, including the inability to open multiple instances of the program, a useful feature that lets you compare files side by side. All the tools let you load files via Table 1 – General Characteristics of Streaming File Quality Control Tools General Features OS Cost Open multiple instances Drag and drop Export text reports Integrated viewer Visual analysis Batch process Configurable alerts QuickTime Pro Mac/Win $29.99 Yes Yes No Yes No No No Gspot Windows Free Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Inlet Semaphore Windows XP $995 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes—Multiple Yes Yes MediaInfo Mac/Win Free Win-yes/Mac-no Yes Yes No No Win-yes/Mac-No No Sliq Media’s WMSnoop Windows Free Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No 68 STREAMING MEDIA June/July 2008
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