9/13/02 - Windows Media 9 Series Beta: Technical Review

Other Improvements

Other interesting developments for streaming media are video smoothing technology, scalable video support, and the still image codec. The video smoothing technology smoothes out streams by inserting interpolated frames into content. This technology should be most apparent in higher bit rate material encoded at lower framer rates. The effect is extremely subtle – so subtle in fact that I’m not sure I would have noticed the difference if I had not been looking for it. It should also be noted that video smoothing is only available to Windows XP users.

Scalable video support, however, is very exciting. While it has been possible for some time to provide different streams to users with different connection speeds, the solution has never been optimal. RealNetworks SureStream technology provides some slick stream-switching capabilities when throughput is compromised, but you have to author all your streams at the same resolution. QuickTime allows you to specify different streams for users based on any number of qualifiers, but the files themselves must be encoded separately. The new Windows Media 9 Series scalable video allows you to specify different video resolutions and audio codecs for different connect speeds, and places them all in one convenient file. Not only that, but you can add or subtract streams from a scalable video file.

What this means is that you can encode a single file that contains a 176x132 version for dial-up users, a 320x240 version for broadband users, and a full screen (640x480) version for LAN users, each with different audio codecs, all contained within a single file. This is the slickest implementation of multiple bit rate files yet.

The new still image codec allows you to create slide show presentations using high quality stills. At the reviewer’s conference, a demo was shown whereby images can be zoomed into, panned across, and a slideshow easily created. Backing tracks and narration can be added, and transitions between slides can be specified. The functionality demonstrated was very similar to RealNetworks RealSlideShow. Not exactly ground breaking, but a welcome addition to the Windows Media family of codecs nonetheless.

In addition to the above mentioned new technologies, the screen codec has been improved, which can now do lossless screen encoding at 96kbps, and encode full screen captures at less than 28kbps.

Page 3: New Encoding Software And Tools >>