Streaming Media - August/September 2007 - (Page 90)

review Telestream Episode Pro Figure 1. The Episode Pro Job Batch window. By Jan Ozer When it comes to encoding, Episode Pro is a highperformance screamer that’s easy enough to use for both beginners and advanced compressionists. Still, it could use some improvements, especially in its templates and its subpar H.264 encoding. www.telestream.net Price: $895 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS • Macintosh with two 2.0 GHz dual-core Intel Xeon processors • 2GB RAM • 250GB HDD Telestream’s Episode Pro is a very good tool that will be great when the company cleans up some templaterelated issues. Ease of use is very good for experienced users, and options are comprehensive and presented very logically in most instances. The only real caveat relates to H.264 encoding, where Telestream’s in-house codec couldn’t compete with other encoding tools. Episode is available in two versions, the standard version ($395) and Episode Pro ($895), with the key differences being input-format support, unlimited batch processing, and surround-sound encoding. Both products can input MPEG-1/2/4, Windows Media, DV, and MOV, and other QuickTime codecs, to which the Pro version adds input support for MXF GXF H.264 High Profile, DVCPRO HD, , , MPEG 2/4 Transport Streams, mobile multi-bit rate, and other formats. Episode can process only 25 jobs at a time; Episode Pro can handle unlimited jobs. Both versions of Episode can output all relevant streaming formats, except that RealVideo output is limited 90 STREAMING MEDIA August/September 2007 to PowerPC Macs because RealNetworks hasn’t supplied Intel-based Mac-compatible modules for Telestream or other Mac encoding vendors. Since RealVideo encoding won’t be a critical buying criterion for Mac-based encoders until Real provides Mac-Intel support, I didn’t analyze RealVideo encoding performance. Both versions can serve as clients for the Episode encoding engine and offer the same extensive filter and template selection. The Episode Engine is a $3,500-perserver option that sits in the background, responding to encoding requests from Episode Pro and Final Cut Compressor. The Engine can access a cluster of computers for reportedly faster-than-real-time encoding, and service up to 50 input watch folders, which can have multiple settings. The Episode Engine ($7,950 per server) adds the additional high-end formats supported by Episode Pro, plus unlimited watch folders and “splitand-stitch technology,” which distributes source files over multiple cores for even faster processing. I tested Episode Pro (though not the Engine) on a Mac Pro driven by two Dual-Core Xeons running at 3GHz with 8GB of memory. The Mac Pro was equipped with two 23” Cinema LCD monitors, one driven by an ATI Radeon X1900 card, the other by a Matrox MXO. During setup, Telestream installs Episode and you can also choose to install widgets that can encode a file to a single preset. The workflow is every simple: You drag a clip into the Job Batch window (Figure 1) from either the Source Bookmarks folder on the left or from the Finder, choose a custom or supplied template from the Compression Settings group on the left, and click the arrow on the bottom right. Presets are separated into two categories, by format and workflow, as you can see in Figure 2, which also shows the Video Tab of the Settings editor. Any time you change a preset you can save it to a new preset. All presets are available in the Compression Settings section on the left in Figure 2. The overall presentation of options is very efficient. You work through the tabs shown atop the Settings Editor (from Output to Engine), with all relevant options within each category presented as subcategories that are checked when enabled. You can see this in Figure 2 where the Deinterlace and Resize categories at the bottom of the Settings Editor are checked but closed. Even better, once you start encoding, you can continue to create additional jobs. Many other programs, including http://www.telestream.net

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Streaming Media - August/September 2007

Table of Contents Sweet Sixteen Letters to the Editor Technology and Business Trends IBM Takes Webcasting to the Desktop ROI in the EDU Bank Serves Espresso, Enterprise Video Online Video Advertising: Hit or Miss MLB’s Foul Bawl A Crash Course in Flash Video Newspapers in Multimedia Metamorphosis Webcasting Large Entertainment Events: Seeing Through the Hype Webcasting With Windows Media Can’t Start A Fire . . . A WiMAX Primer Mobile Video at Last Telestream Episode Pro Grass Valley ProCoder 3 Silverlight Is No Flash Killer

Streaming Media - August/September 2007

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.