Streaming Media - June/July 2008 - (Page 74) file look disproportionately large from a file-size standpoint, which is disconcerting. QuickTime’s Movie Properties window is the only tool that explains why the Telestream file is much larger than files produced by other encoding tools. Other than this unique capability, however, QuickTime Player falls well short of other MOV analysis tools on the Windows and Mac platforms. Probably the best alternative is MediaInfo, which is similarly available on both platforms. GSpot GSpot is a free, Windows-only file tool you can download from http://gspot.headbands.com. To get up and running, you download a zipped file containing the Gpot.exe file, which never really installs itself. Instead, you just click the EXE file when you want to analyze a file, which runs the program. I prefer not to install shareware programs, and I like this mode of operation. Once up and running, you can load files via a File > Open menu command, or via drag and drop. GSpot was originally designed as kind of a geeky diagnostic tool to help identify the codecs necessary to view a particular file. As such, it’s got some compelling features, such as the ability to display all codecs and filters on your computer and track the video and audio rendering chain that displays your media. The program also offers some great functionality for MPEG program or elementary streams, where it can show groups of pictures color coded by frame type, with overlays for B-frame redundancies and actual frame numbers in the GOP . Definitely fun stuff. As you can see in Figure 6, however, most of the Video section, including these details, remains grayed out for Windows Media files, as well as MOV and FLV files, indicating a drop in utility for streaming file analysis. There are some bright spots, such as revealing the date of file creation as well as any metadata packed with most files. You can see the latter in Figure 6, where Sorenson Squeeze 5.0 sneaks in a mention as the encoding tool. GSpot also calculates the frame quality (Qf), or bits/pixel-frame, which you can see on the far right in Figure 6. This is a nice way to compare the per-pixel data rate of files with disparate frame sizes or frame rates. For all streaming formats, you get the basics shown in Figure 6, with video data rate and frame rate calculated rather than simply reported from the file header or metadata. Strangely, the program failed to display a frame rate for all Windows Media files that I tested, though it worked for other streaming formats. Figure 6. GSpot has a logical interface comprised of six windows. 74 STREAMING MEDIA June/July 2008 http://gspot.headbands.com http://www.netstairs.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.