Streaming Media - June/July 2008 - (Page 88) review Sorenson Squeeze 5 By Jan Ozer With Squeeze 5, Sorenson took baby steps in some critical new directions. Unfortunately, unless it’s your child, baby steps are seldom graceful or particularly effective, and that’s the case here. If users are looking for a dramatic increase in encoding speed from previous Squeeze versions, they’ll see it only if they are encoding many files with different codecs and not if they run a single-codec shop. Soon-to-be released updates should fix most of the issues, so there’s no need to upgrade quite yet. Price (Full Version): $500 (Windows)/$799 (Mac) For more information, contact: Sorenson Media www.sorensonmedia.com updates to the MainConcept codec that should cure potential incompatibility issues with playback on Apple’s iPod as well as the flaws we uncovered. We’ll review the update when it becomes available and publish the results on StreamingMedia.com. As before, Sorenson is releasing multiple product versions with pricing that varies by feature and operating system. For example, the full-blown, any-codec-you-everdreamed-of version (Squeeze 5 Pro) costs $500 for Windows and $779 for Macintosh, and includes VP6 output and BIAS SoundSoap, a useful audio noise reduction program. There are also versions with every codec but Flash (Squeeze 5) and only Flash (Squeeze 5 for Flash). A great table that displays the price and features of each of the versions can be viewed at http://secure.sorenson media.com/products/?pageID=1. The page also contains a link for upgrade pricing, which varies based on operating system, the user’s current product, and the product he or she wants to acquire. For this review, I’ll start with changes to the interface, then discuss encoding performance, then look at deinterlacing quality, and finish with codec features and compressed output quality. Interface Tweaks Sorenson has a useful video tutorial explaining the new features available on its website at http://secure.sorenson media.com/pages/?pageID=143. If users are not familiar with Squeeze, I would recommend that they view at least the initial minute or two to get a feel for the workflow. Briefly, as before, users click the Import File button on the upper left (Figure 1) to load a file or files into the batch window, then drag one or more encoding presets from the Audience Presets menu onto the files. Click the Squeeze It! button on the bottom right, and Squeeze starts encoding. One nice feature about Squeeze is that users can add additional source files and encoding presets after they start encoding. They can even edit and add presets and the like. This means that they don’t have to batch up all their encodes before they start encoding. They can add them as they go along. Sorenson added many useful interface tweaks to the new version, most of them evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but helpful nonetheless. For example, users now have multiple views of the encoding presets, including the format view, which sorts all output presets by codec. The workflow view is a new feature. The view displays presets by output type—including devices, discs, presentation, set-top and web, format and workflow, and favorites—which is nice. There’s also a favorites folder Sorenson Squeeze has always been one of my favorite batch-encoding programs, offering broad output format support, straightforward (if not copious) encoding parameters, and good encoding quality. It’s also the only batch-encoding tool available on both the Mac and Windows platforms, a nice bonus for those who work with both operating systems. In version 5, Sorenson added the ability to simultaneously encode multiple files, switched from the Apple to the MainConcept H.264 codec, added support for Microsoft’s VC-1 codec, and made several interface tweaks, most of them very beneficial. The results are generally positive, though the performance boost the program gets from the ability to encode multiple files simultaneously is less than expected, and performance from the MainConcept codec is flawed in some instances. Note that Sorenson plans to quickly release an update for several targeted features, including workflow improvements for those publishing on YouTube and 88 STREAMING MEDIA June/July 2008 http://StreamingMedia.com http://secure.sorensonmedia.com/products/?pageID=1 http://secure.sorensonmedia.com/products/?pageID=1 http://secure.sorensonmedia.com/pages/?pageID=143 http://secure.sorensonmedia.com/pages/?pageID=143 http://www.sorensonmedia.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.