Author: vanevery

Will Windows Media on DVD spell the end of MPEG-4

Streamingmedia.com: Commentary: MPEG-4 is Dead
While the DVD Forum adoption seems big, I don’t think that this one win for WM will mean the death of MPEG-4. In any case, the argument given in this article is interesting.
From the article:
Given the adoption of Microsoft’s Windows Media Video 9 by the DVD Forum, there’s increasing reason to believe, to paraphrase an old Southern expression, that the MPEG-4 dog just won’t hunt. It hasn’t yet and probably never will, at least in any serious commercial way.

Real encoding on OS X

Streaming Media, Inc.
Nothing for live streaming as far as I can tell but a step in the right direction. It has been a couple of years for Real on the Mac (not including third party encoding solutions such as Cleaner).
From the article:
RealNetworks, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK), today unveiled a beta version of its new Real 10 Export Plug-in for Mac OS X. The Real 10 Export Plug-in enables video editors for the first time to export high-quality RealAudio 10 and RealVideo 10 formats directly from Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects, Avid Xpress Pro and more. Support for additional applications, including Adobe Premiere and Discreet Cleaner is expected this summer.

Air America really streams

RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter
Air America broke a couple of records for concurrent streams on it’s first day out of the gate. The article mentions some interesting metrics for internet radio.
RealNetworks said that it delivered 50,000 concurrent streams on the network’s first day of broadcasting (March 31), which the company says makes it the highest-ever usage of the Real Broadcast Network for a “non-breaking news service.”

Blind users can see with a camera and laptop

Wright State University Communications and Marketing
No not really, but this is an interesting project. From the article:
Tyflos, the Greek word for blind, is the name of the portable, wearable device Bourbakis has developed. The partnering project at ASU is called iLearn. A tiny camera is mounted to glasses and connected by a thin wire to a modified lap-top computer the individual carries on his or her back. The Tyflos system operates by identifying the images “seen” by the camera and converting this to audio information the subject hears from small wires connected from the backpack to the ear. A small microphone is attached for receiving commands or requests from the user.

Apple shows new H.264 codec at NAB

Apple demos new high-quality video codec at NAB
From the article:
In addition to the five product announcements made on Sunday and the upgrades to the notebook product line-up on Monday, Apple Computer Inc. still had a surprise for people visiting their booth at this week’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas, NV. Apple demonstrated at its booth an advanced HD video codec, dubbed H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10 by the ISO governing body.

Cell phones supporting interactive FM radio

Nokia, HP ‘Visualize’ Mobile Radio
Nokia is apparently making a couple of handsets that are capable of receiving FM broadcasts and synchronizing visuals and other media elements. Very interesting…
From the article:
“The FM radio capabilities are based on standard tuners embedded in the handset. The Visual Radio service picks up a user’s location over GPRS and is able to pinpoint which radio stations are in the area,” Reidar Wasenius, Nokia senior project manager told internetnews.com.