Rich Fiscus
7 Sep 2007 7:43
Microsoft has big hopes for the future of VC-1 video. In a press release today they highlighted some products based on their VC-1 Encoder software development kit (SDK).
VC-1 has been hailed by many early adopters of next-generation video formats (Blu-ray and HD DVD) for delivering high image quality at a small file size, the lack of third party encoding tools has limited its use beyond those two media.
The products mentioned range from Memory-Tech Digital Movie Factory Pro HD for creating HD DVDs with VC-1 video to multiple format tools to Anystream Agility to prepare video in multiple formats for nearly any format, including broadcast.
The VC-1 Codec was originally developed as Microsoft was trying to break into high definition home theater. Since then, the company has been successful in getting it included as a mandatory format (meaning every player must be capable of playing it) for HD DVD and Blu-ray. The next market they want to conquer seems to be IPTV.
Right now no single video Compression format is firmly in place for IPTV. Microsoft would be very happy if IPTV operations were to use its MediaRoom platform to deliver VC-1 video.
Also today, Microsoft announced they would provide an encoder qualification service for their MediaRoom customers. They plan to have a lab available for IPTV providers to test the performance of their equipment before deploying it in a live MediaRoom Operation.
Source: Microsoft