DVS Creative Blog

Useful Utilities: MPEG Streamclip from Squared 5 software

We were recently at an event where this piece of software was mentioned and were surprised that more people haven’t heard of it.  MPEG Streamclip is one of the most useful and time saving utilities we have. It reads different MPEG streams and allows you to convert them to other formats, or simply extract the individual streams for use in other programs.  Did we mention the program is free? It requires the QuickTime MPEG plugin, which comes with Final Cut Studio, or is $20 if you need to buy it separately for your Mac or Windows computer.

 

The main thing we use MPEG Streamclip for is working with DVDs. You can open the VOB files (Video Object files that make up the structure of a Video DVD) from non-copy protected DVDs in MPEG Streamclip, and demux, or separate, them back into video and audio streams or convert them to a transport or program stream for playback off of a computer. You can also select in and out points to extract just segments of an MPEG Stream, but note that it will not be exactly frame accurate, as it will have to split  the stream at the start of a GOP (Group of Pictures, a segment of the MPEG video stream structure), so it should be accurate to within half a second or so. 

 

This is extremely handy for those times when a client has a couple of DVDs and they want to combine them into one disc, or make a DVD of just one of a series of TV spots. You can simply demux the streams back to the original video and audio files and build the new DVD without having to re-encode the videos, which will degrade the quality of the footage.

 

Another handy feature of MPEG Streamclip is working with QuickTime movies. It will let you do the same things with QuickTime movies as it can do with MPEG Streams, so you can extract segments and encode them to other formats for use on your computer. When working with QuickTime movies, Streamclip is frame accurate, so you can extract the exact segment you want and convert it to a proof for a client. It doesn’t have quite as many features for editing as QuickTime Pro does but it is free and works on both Mac and Windows.

 

MPEG Streamclip also works with streams from many video cameras, from consumer grade all the way up to DSLRs, that shoot MPEG-4 video clips.  Streamclip can open those clips and convert them to Quicktime movies or AVIs in many codecs your computer can handle (DV, H.264, even Uncompressed 10 bit) so you can edit with them or play them back on your computer. It can also export stills from any stream it can read.

 

MPEG Streamclip is available for both Mac and Windows from http://www.squared5.com/

 

 

TDK Unveils 320GB 10 layer Super-Multiplayer BD-R optical disc at CEATEC

As reported by CDrInfo: TDK developed a new optical disc with a capacity of 320GB, using 10 recording layers. 

TDK's latest prototype disc features 10 layers, each capable of holding 32GB of data. The disc can be burned using a 405nm blue-violet semiconductor laser and an objective lens with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.85 - a configuration currently met in Blu-ray players/recorders. Of course, this does not mean that the disc would be compatible with the available Blu-ray recorders, since the laser power needed to burn data in 10 layers varies from 13 ~ 28mW, according to the layer.

On the other hand, the disc could be readable with BD equipment. TDK claims that the transmittance of the outermost layer of the disc, which requires the highest transmittance, is more than 90%, while the symbol error rate of the stored data is less than 10-4. This means that the data could be retrieved with adequate reliability.

TDK has succeded in the development of the multi-layer disc using layers made of different materials. An inorganic Si-Cu alloy layer was used for the L0 layer. On the L1 to L9 layers, recording marks are maintained by using an inorganic material composed of bismuth peroxide and germanium dioxide. By adjusting the composition of the used materials, TDK managed to maintain adequate transmitance characteristics for each recording layer.

This is TDK's third multi-layer, high capacity disc since 2006. TDK was the first to develop a 100GB prototype recordable Blu-ray Disc in 2005. One year later, TDK a write-once recording medium having six layers, each of which has a capacity of 33.3 Gbytes (200 Gbytes in total). The transmittance of the outermost layer of the disc, which requires the highest transmittance, was 80 to 90%.

The company plans to exhibit the disc at CEATEC JAPAN 2009, which will run from Oct 6 to 10, 2009, at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.

DVS Creative Creates Complex Training DVD for Latin American Market

Here at DVS Creative we recently completed work on a complex DVD based training program for an international corporation. Looking to educate new and existing employees within their Latin America market, this corporation came to DVS Creative to solve a need that they knew was beyond the scope of many other vendors.

The DVD works in conjunction with an online course that was built simultaneously. Both the DVD and the online course consist of three different lessons and an assessment. The lessons cover everything from the introduction of the company, to selling tips and customer service scenarios. Within the lessons there are many different small quizzes, utilizing multiple choice, true/false and other learning techniques. When taking the assessment, users locally record their answers and use the SMS (text messaging) function of their cell phones to text the answers in.

Even though planning covered the better part of a year, actual development occurred in just a month and a half! Using the online course as a template, initial menus were created in English for reference and then translated to Spanish and Portuguese. Next came motion menu development, complete with audio and full interactivity. For the final step in the process, the disc was mastered and thoroughly tested by a team of eight test participants.

Different than most DVDs, this DVD contains no video, and is completely menu based. In total there are approximately 400 menus per language, with an average of 8 buttons per page. That’s roughly 6,400 buttons that needed to be authored and tested to make sure everything worked correctly.

Always up for a challenge, DVS Creative developed this unique use of two different types of media (DVD and SMS) to allow our client to reach an audience with no practical access to the internet. This is just one of several challenging DVD authoring projects that DVS has recently completed, with more on the horizon!