We are a group of dedicated image processing specialists with the goal of providing video developers and animators with the highest quality video compression.

THE DREAM

We were founded in 1994 to full-fill the explosive demand for MPEG compression for the video-on-demand industry. Most video professionals at the time were impressed in the high compressiont ratio available from the nascent Mpeg-1 algorithm implementations, but felt the quality was not sufficient for Hollywood. We believed that, through careful encoding, Mpeg1 can look great and embarked on the development of Expert-1 an ultra-high quality Mpeg1 video software compressor.

THE ALGORITHM

Mpeg is a lossy compression algorithm which means that some video data is thrown away. Once the video is compressed, it can never be restored exactly to its original form. The clever part of Mpeg encoding is to throw away those parts of the original video data that will not be noticed when viewing the resultant compressed stream. Hardware Mpeg compressors have the additional burden of compressing an entire frame in about 1/30 of a second. Software encoders can spend as much time or as little time as needed on each frame to provide the best quality. The first Mpeg1 encoder we assembled produced an amazingly high quality compressed video IE we were throwing away the right parts of the video. But the encoding was rather slow. It would take 33 days (working 24 hours a day) to encode a 2 hour movie!

QUEST FOR SPEED

We re-wrote most of the code into fast assembly language modules that took advantage of the dual computation units available in all (pre MMX) Intel Pentium processors. Today, our Mpeg-1 encoder can compress a two hour move in less that two hours É faster than real time. Part of our development of fast, high quality encoding involved the assembly of visual and analytical analysis tools. Tools to highlight what parts of the video is being discarded and to visually display decisions made in the encoding process. These tools are included with all of the PixelTools encoders available today.

THE RESULTS

Our Mpeg-1 encoder, called Expert-1, was released in 1995 and quickly became known for its high quality and flexibility. Most of the Mpeg encoding parameters are available for user modification. This makes this encoder ideal for a wide variety of encoding situations, from high bit-rate, large frame size Mpeg1 (Yes, Mpeg-1 is not limited 352x240 frames sizes) through 1.5 mbps constant bit rate, and even low bit rate, small frame size internet application. In1996, we marked the release of our Mpeg-2 encoder, Expert-2, which includes all of the features of Expert-1. The product produces both Mpeg1 and Mpeg2 streams.

Our next efforts were concentrated in upgrading our encoder engine to enable it to change encoding parameters during an encoding session in response to user written edit decision list file or in response to changes detected in the source material. ExpertDvD was released in November 1997. This product, specifically tailored to the generation of variable bit-rate Mpeg files for use in DvD applications, includes all of the features of Expert-1 and Expert-2. Expert-DvD is also used for segment encoding, where a small video clip (like a movie title) is needed that will splice shamelessly into a larger Mpeg segment. Our latest product, MpegRepair, combines our Mpeg1,2 and DvD encoder with our MPEG-2 analyzer to enable our customers to analyze problem areas in Mpeg clips, decode the clips into bitmap frames, re-encode the frames into an Mpeg segment, and then seamlesly splice the resultant segment into the original Mpeg at splice points. MpegRepair includes all of the technology needed for identifying the splice points and combining the files. MpegRepair was tailored to assist the professional content developers in improving the results of their real-time encoding.

Most content, encoded with real-time hardware encoders, looks acceptable. But there are instances where the quality is not up to the standards demanded by the specific client. MpegRepair enables you to just re-encode that portion of the video that is not acceptable. This provides a much faster and direct solution than re-encoding the entire movie via a real-time encoder ... again!

THE PITCH

Much of our efforts in the past four years has been in custom products. We have done work for clients who need a special version of our encoders, decoders, or analyzers. Compressed video technology is showing a large increase in its utilization. All of us are extremely excited to be part of this new field. We are able to help clients in accomplishing specialized tasks with out extensive experience in the compression and delivery of video as well as our existing flexible an module code base and Dlls.

Let us know if we can help