You will need a fast connection as this full length version of "To Kill a Lawyer" is streamed at 700 kbps. After watching a bit of it on my PC at full screen 16:9, this is very impressive technology. It is a TV broadcast quality product that seemed to run along quite nicely on my very long in the tooth PC (800MHZ P3 with a Nvidia Geforce4 4600Ti). Although not HD on my rig I guess this helps support the On2 claim in this C|Net article from last May : "The new codec supports high-definition display without any compressor restrictions and supports real-time encoding at D1 resolutions. It runs on inexpensive digital signal processors without the pricey subprocessors that standards-based codecs JVT and MPEG-4 require, said On2."
On2 has teamed up with Sony and they are developing an Internet, satellite and cable ready, plasma TV, code-named Altair. Designed so it can grab streams and make it convenient for consumers to access streaming content. Microsoft is a main rival obviously and this is risky business to try streaming TV to begin with. But, to drop this on the market when Redmond is pushing Media Center 2004 and Media player 9 is really going to stir things up.
| New VP6 Codec released!
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If you have a slower connection, you can download samples of the X-Men trailer- 13 megs. Last year, ABC purchased 15 licences for the VP5 codec so they could stream news from the war in Iraq. On2 have a clip on the site that you can view. I "only" ran it at 200% but, you can see why they did it after you watch. The new VP6 they claim is 40% better quality. You will have to be the judge because VP5 is nothing to sneeze at. We have already reported that the codec will be used in the new EVD players as well. 2004 is starting to look like a good year for computer hobbyists.
Those of us that would like to play around with this a bit are in luck. On2 has finally released their VP6 encoder for VFW, free for personal use. They even have some raw AVI files there to try encoding with. You must have the latest version of the free TrueCast Player software to view VP6-encoded clips. Also, port 554 must be open on your network firewall to receive RTSP streams. If port 554 is closed, you will see a "Server Not Found" error in the Player.
Maybe
some of our better qualified members than myself (just about anybody) here can
give it a try and post their feelings in the Transcoding Forums .
Source: On2 Technologies
