Apple, DVD Authoring and Optibase

[MacRumors]

Last minute rumors continue to roll in...

According to an anonymous report... Optibase has been collaborating with Apple on a DVD authoring tool. The product of this venture is said to be released at MacWorld Expo.

The company appears to be involved in MPEG encoding and content creation applications. How this affects Apple and their existing DVD Authoring applications (iDVD and DVD Studio Pro) is unclear.

 

[mian]

Could this product tie into the ibox rumor?

http://www.optibase.com/html/products/Software_and_Developer_Tools/SOFTWARE/QuickVideo_Archive.html

 

[Hawthorne]

I could see something that falls in between iDVD and DVD Studio Pro the same way that Final Cut Express fits into Apple's digital movie software lineup.

 

[appleface]

dreaming

this is just a dream, but it would be sweet if the ipods release at macworld would include mini ipods geared towards audio and "regular" ipods geared towards audio and video with a built-in video S connection. that way, you could download movies from the apple video store and could carry them in your pocket to your friend's house.

 

[Freg3000]

Originally posted by mian
Could this product tie into the ibox rumor?

http://www.optibase.com/html/products/Software_and_Developer_Tools/SOFTWARE/QuickVideo_Archive.html

Took the words out of my mouth....

We'll see if this "iBox" is released on Tuesday....

 

[mk_in_mke]

Very interesting

One of Optibase's areas of expertise:

"Applications for video streaming over DSL and Fiber

Carrier grade solutions for the deployment of "triple play" services, TV broadcasting to the home over IP and ATM broadband networks and webcasting"

Somthing to follow up!

 

[Rod Rod]

probably not "iBox" related

my guess is as good as yours, but I this Optibase rumor may not turn out to be a set-top box.

this company also makes hardware MPEG encoders. as far as I know, there are no hardware-based MPEG encoding boards available for Macs, unless you count ADS Technologies' USB Instant DVD for Mac. The ADS Tech device isn't as nice as a PCI [or PCI-X ] card would be, because the latter would have software integration that handles video from files rather than just handling video as a pass-through / capture device.

something like this but with Panther drivers and DVD Studio Pro / Compressor integration would be just what a lot of us need. Software MPEG encoding is nice, and there is one advantage to it (two-pass VBR encoding; hardware encoders all go single-pass AFAIK). However, hardware encoding is way faster and doesn't tie up your system or make you schedule all your encodings for overnight or lunch / dinner hours, especially when you have only one fast Mac.

Optibase has software that works with the above hardware to stream video over a network. So maybe we're all correct in our guessing.

[edit: grammar]

 

[Nermal]

Re: Very interesting

Originally posted by mk_in_mke
One of Optibase's areas of expertise:

"Applications for video streaming over DSL and Fiber

Carrier grade solutions for the deployment of "triple play" services, TV broadcasting to the home over IP and ATM broadband networks and webcasting"

Somthing to follow up!

My DSL provider tried offering streaming TV over DSL a few months ago. It failed miserably, people weren't ready for it. I don't see why not, how is it any different from cable/satellite? Maybe the Alcatel decoders they were using weren't user-friendly or something?

 

[LethalWolfe]

Re: probably not "iBox" related

Originally posted by Rod Rod
my guess is as good as yours, but I this Optibase rumor may not turn out to be a set-top box.

this company also makes hardware MPEG encoders. as far as I know, there are no hardware-based MPEG encoding boards available for Macs, unless you count ADS Technologies' USB Instant DVD for Mac. The ADS Tech device isn't as nice as a PCI [or PCI-X ] card would be, because the latter would have software integration that handles video from files rather than just handling video as a pass-through / capture device.

something like this but with Panther drivers and DVD Studio Pro / Compressor integration would be just what a lot of us need. Software MPEG encoding is nice, and there is one advantage to it (two-pass VBR encoding; hardware encoders all go single-pass AFAIK). However, hardware encoding is way faster and doesn't tie up your system or make you schedule all your encodings for overnight or lunch / dinner hours, especially when you have only one fast Mac.

Optibase has software that works with the above hardware to stream video over a network. So maybe we're all correct in our guessing.

[edit: grammar]

Rod Rod,

There are MPEG encodin boards for the Mac, although they range from $1500-$2000 to $25,000 (obviously they are not targeted at the consumer level). We just got one at work, but I can't remember the name off the top of my head (heck I haven't even installed it yet). I don't know about the card we got, but I know that Sonic's line of hardware encorders (for Mac and PC) can do 1 and 2 pass CBR as well as 1 and 2 pass VBR.


Lethal

 

[Rod Rod]

Lethal,

thanks... more stuff to add to my wish-list. so I guess instead of a $1500-2000 / $25,000 encoder board, a good compromise is a DP G5 with max. ram... or two of them, because Compressor uses Shake Qmaster services to distribute work across connected machines, which would be killer considering Gigabit E. and when the two machines aren't encoding you'd have a great LAN gaming setup.

 

[748s]

mediapress is another mpeg2 encoder for the mac. cbr or vbr http://www.wiredinc.com/mediapressinfo.html

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by 748s
mediapress is another mpeg2 encoder for the mac. cbr or vbr http://www.wiredinc.com/mediapressinfo.html

Ah-ha! That's the one we're getting at my work. I can't wait to start using it.


Lethal

 

[748s]

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
Ah-ha! That's the one we're getting at my work. I can't wait to start using it.


Lethal

i haven't used it but the quicktime transcoder looks great.