QuickTime 3 Sorenson Video Developer Edition now available!

Video compression has always involved a tradeoff between bandwidth and quality-giving up quality in order to fit the video stream into the available bandwidth. We make it easy. With the Sorenson Video QuickTime codec from Sorenson Vision, you can now produce very high quality video, even with low bandwidths.

Sorenson Video is a QuickTime 3 video compressor designed for developers of applications or web sites that require compressed video segments. The Sorenson Video system includes a full compressor/decompressor for use during productions. Decompressors for playback are built into QuickTime 3.0. The efficiency of the Sorenson algorithm makes it possible to decode the video stream without the high-end processors required by other decoders.

The Sorenson Video codec is the result of over ten years research and development and delivers an unparalleled combination of image compression and image quality. The Sorenson Video codec uses new vector quantization techniques, advanced motion compensation, and precise adaptive rate control features. The result is a highly compressed, high-quality video stream for use in multimedia applications, the world-wide-web, or any other application where a high-quality, low-bandwidth video stream is required.

The Sorenson Video Compressor Developer Edition is a QuickTime 3 component. This allows users access to it's additional benefits under all QuickTime 3 applications. All content created with the Sorenson Video Developer version, will playback on all QuickTime 3 enabled platforms.

Sorenson Video Product specifications

There are currently two versions of the Sorenson Video encoder. The Basic edition encoder is included with QuickTime 3 and provides minimal controls to allow the hobbyist to create good quality video. The Basic edition, however, lacks the important control features needed by serious multimedia developers. The Developer edition contains the full control set, enabling the user to take full advantage of the Sorenson Video capabilities and quality. Complete specifications are listed below:

Basic Edition features

The Sorenson Video Basic Edition is included free in QuickTime 3. The Basic Edition features are:

Data rate control
Frame rate control
Frame size control
Fixed quality options
Supports key frame intervals

Developer Edition features

The Sorenson Video Developer Edition includes all the Basic Edition features plus:

Smart scene change detection (Auto Key Frame). Automatically detects scene changes and inserts a key frame after each scene change. Turn on the Automatic Key Frame option to improve the quality of the video at scene changes. A slider adjusts the scene change sensitivity.

Flexible data rate tracking. Adjusts the flexibility of the data rate control. Tight maintains flat frame sizes and strictly meets the target data rate. Relaxed provides more flexibility in the data rate control, allowing more data for frames with bursts of motion.

Media Key support. Encodes Sorenson Video with a playback key. During playback, if the key is registered then the video plays, otherwise Sorenson Video returns an error.

Temporal Scalability. Allows the decoder to dynamically modify the number of frames decoded and displayed based on the speed of the playback system. 30/15 allows the decoder to drop every other frame. 30/20/10 allows the decoder to drop up to two out of every three frames.

Custom "watermarks". Allows you to create and place your own watermark or trademark on your video clips to help protect your video from unauthorized use (must be supported by your video production software).

Platforms-Encoder

The Sorenson Video encoder is currently available for the following platforms (requires QuickTime 3):

Power Macintosh
Windows 95
Windows NT

Platforms-playback

The Sorenson Video decoder is currently available for the following operating platforms (decoder is part of QuickTime 3.0):

Power Macintosh
Macintosh 680x0
Windows 95
Windows NT
Windows 3.x (requires separate QuickTime 2.1.2 decoder - available soon)

How To Order

To upgrade to the Sorenson Video Developer Edition for $499.00 (USD) click here, or press the "Upgrade Now" button below.