Setting Up Your Encoding Software - A Practical Guide to Video and Audio Compression - page 492

Figure 30-5 Compression Master batch-control window.
You can see that one of the parameter-settings panels has been opened. This unfolds
rather than popping up another window, which keeps the user interface nice and sim-
ple. In this area you will find more parameter settings than I've seen in any other com-
pression tool.
Compression job control is managed through the batch window (see Figure 30-5).
There is also a preview window to see the effects of the compression settings.
Popwire Technology is strong on open-standards support and has a well-thought-
out batch and server infrastructure design. It provides a lot of powerful features. The level
of detailed control over parameters is probably more sophisticated than in any other tool
available. This fine-grain control lets you tune the preprocessing and encoding process
very precisely.
This is an area where Popwire encoders exceed the performance of many other com-
peting coding tools. Some applications have to rely on the underlying support provided
by the operating system. All of the tools that work like that provide a little more parame-
terization and some surrounding job control to add value to the foundation support. They
also provide preprocessing, but they are hostage to the quality of the encoder implemen-
tation with which they are provided.
Because Popwire Technology engineers its own encoders from the ground up, it can
provide hooks to control parameters that are inaccessible on other products.
Implementing its own encoders significantly differentiates Popwire from the rest of the
pack and allows it to extend into the enterprise-based systems more easily. The fact that
Popwire has done this without sacrificing access to the operating system-provided sup-
port is a major benefit.
The strength of this approach is that the encoders provided by the platform (via
QuickTime, for example) are still available as an alternative. This gives you two com-
pletely different encoders for a single format in some cases, which is useful when one
encoder “chokes” or underperforms on a particular piece of video. The other codec imple-
mentation may well be able to process that footage without any trouble.
Generally speaking, the encoders in Popwire Technology applications produce a
higher quality than those generically available in the QuickTime layer. They have a more
sophisticated preprocessor and many more fine-tuning parameter settings. This is not to