Telestream, the leading provider of video transcoding and workflow solutions announced major Episode 6.3 product enhancements. Support for the x264 video codec brings higher-quality H.264 encoding to all Episode software products. In addition, Telestream makes it easier for post-production companies, artists and operators to access Episode’s extensive range of high-quality encoding capabilities by providing direct integration with Autodesk finishing systems, such as Smoke and Flame. Direct export from Adobe Premiere Pro provides access to Episode’s vast range of formats and enables centralization of encoding functions.

“Episode is well suited for post-production environments with its high-quality format support and ability to easily create file-based deliverables, including distribution and mezzanine formats, as well as digital masters,” said Barbara DeHart, vice president of marketing at Telestream.

Telestream continues Episode’s tradition of high-quality encoding by bringing the x264 codec to all Episode users. x264 is widely recognized in the industry for producing the best H.264 video quality.
Deep system integration with Autodesk makes Episode the only encoder in its class to enable browsing, monitoring and transcoding directly from the Autodesk Stone file system. Direct integration makes it easier for Autodesk users to access the powerful, scalable encoding capabilities of Episode products.

Direct export from the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline will greatly benefit Adobe Creative Suite users by providing easy access to Episode encoding functions. For creative facilities, Episode provides an easy way to offload encoding tasks to other systems or to centralize functions on an encoding cluster – and freeing up production systems to do what they do best.

Episode provides the highest-quality video transcoding in its class for the entire digital post-production workflow, from camera to delivery, with remarkable speed, powerful controls and cross-platform scalability at an affordable price. Best-in-class video processing, 10-bit encoding, and fine-tuning compression combine to maintain pristine picture quality throughout the production process. Optimized codecs, multi-thread processing, parallel and distributed encoding enable ultra-fast encoding speeds. Collaboration and clustering are at the core of Episode's design, allowing users to easily join Mac and PC computers together to share encoding work among workstations.

With today's media consumers requiring access to media at any time and on any device, Episode can help you provide your media in any form requested, whether it is for a mobile phone, an iPod, a PSP or any other common digital media device available on the market. Use a standard template if you are new to encoding, or tailor your settings specifically for your needs with Episode Encoder's rich feature set.

Need to convert your media from NTSC to PAL or vice versa? Want to have a cost effective solution? Episode includes a world-class standards-conversion/up-conversion algorithm that provides quality comparable to expensive high-end hardware solutions.

Episode Pro adds support for high-end professional formats and processes two concurrent encoding jobs; perfect for workstation systems.

• Extensive format support: new media, web, post-production, DVD/Blu-ray, and more – plus support for high-end professional formats
• Ease of use: ships with an extensive collection of professionally designed workflows and encoder presets
• One Click Clustering™ - join systems together to share the work. Create workgroups that range from a single system to multiple machine clusters.
• Integrated file-sharing: takes the complexity out of distributing work across multiple systems.
• Precise control: extensive set of high-quality filters to fine tune media encoding
• Delivery: FTP, SMB, automatic publishing to YouTube
• Unlimited batch processing
• Fully automated workflows
• Parallel encoding: enables parallel encoding of two encoding jobs

Input Formats

Web

• Flash 8 (VP6s, VP6e)
• Flash 9 (H.264)
• Windows Media 9 (VC-1, WMA Pro, WMV)
• MPEG-1
• H.264
• QuickTime

Streaming / Mobile

• 3GPP, 3GPP2, MP4 (MPEG-4, H.264, AAC)
• Windows Media 9
• MP4

IPTV / Video On Demand

• H.264, MPEG-2 Transport Streams Production
• ProRes
• DNxHD
• XDCAM HD
• IMX
• AVC-Intra
• DV, DVCPRO HD
• QuickTime
• AVI
• HDV
• Motion JPEG

DVD and Blu-ray

• VOB

Audio only

• AAC
• MP3
• WMA
• M4A
• AC-3 (optional)
• AIFF
• MPEG-2 Audio
• PCM
• WAVE

Broadcast

• GXF
• MXF
• MPEG-2 Program Streams
• MPEG-2 Transport Streams
• AES
• BWF



Output Formats

Web

• Flash 8 (VP6s, VP6e)
• Flash 9 (H.264)
• Windows Media 9 (VC-1, WMA Pro, WMV)
• WebM
• MPEG-1
• H.264
• QuickTime

Streaming / Mobile

• 3GPP, 3GPP2, MP4 (MPEG-4, H.264, AAC)
• Windows Media 9
• MP4

IPTV / Video On Demand

• H.264, MPEG-2 Transport Streams

Production

• ProRes (Mac only)
• XDCAM HD
• IMX
• AVC-Intra (MXF & MOV)
• DV (25, 50)
• QuickTime
• AVI
• HDV
• Motion JPEG

Apple Devices

Apple TV

• H.264

iPad, iPod, iPhone

• H.264, MPEG-4, AAC

DVD and Blu-ray

• MPEG-2
• H.264/AAC Transport Streams

Audio only

• AAC
• MP3
• WMA
• M4A
• AC-3 (optional)
• AIFF
• MPEG-2 Audio
• PCM
• WAVE
• OGG Vorbis

Broadcast

• GXF
• MXF
• MPEG-2 Program Streams
• MPEG-2 Transport Streams
• AES
• BWF



Conclusions

We tested Episode Pro during the production of the new TV series Travel Secrets Mexico. We needed to encode more than 50 hours of footage to four different formats. It took us less than fifteen minutes to find the best settings for our project. The presets make it really easy. This kind of toolset was always a dream for media producers in training departments. Now, with Episode Pro 6.3 this dream became a reality. The program is not only fast, but also intuitive and fun to use. Creative producers can customize the presets to their needs. The majority of trainings departments will utilize the extensive presets without any changes, because the developers covered most of the necessary settings and workflows. In short, Episode and Episode Pro are power tools and worth every penny. The time savings and the top quality output make it a must-have tool.

Telestream provides world-class live and on-demand digital video tools and workflow solutions that allow consumers and businesses to transform video on the desktop and across the enterprise. Many of the world's most demanding media and entertainment companies as well as a growing number of users in a broad range of business environments, rely on Telestream products to streamline operations, reach broader audiences and generate more revenue from their media. Telestream products span the entire digital media lifecycle, including video capture and ingest; live and on-demand encoding and transcoding; playout, delivery, and live streaming; as well as management and automation of the entire workflow. Telestream corporate headquarters are located in Nevada City, California. The company is privately held.