Pyro debuts PCI Express-based video encoder

Pyro AV has unveiled Pyro Kompressor HD, a PCI Express-based accelerator solution that encodes HD MPEG-2 and HD H.264/AVC up to eight times faster than software-only video compression. The single-slot PYRO Kompressor HD board is powered by the Ambric Am2045, a parallel processor with 336 RISC processors delivering 1.2 teraOPS-class of video horsepower for consistently high throughput encoding. Pyro Kompressor HD for the Mac platform will be available this spring for $3,500.

Pyro Kompressor HD's high-quality MPEG-2 and H.264/AVC codecs enable compression for DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray Disk, Web streaming media, archival storage, IPTV, and VOD. The card is based on programmable chip technology, ensuring that PYRO Kompressor HD hardware is 'future-proofed' with the ability to update as video compression standards evolve and other types of video processing become available.

"We are excited to announce PYRO Kompressor HD, an affordable, high-quality H.264 and MPEG compression solution for video editors who need super-charged encoding speed and processing power," said Mike McCoy, president and CEO of Pyro AV. "This powerful productivity tool will save days of time in post-production, thereby providing a rapid return on investment."

The included Pyro Kompressor HD transcoding software application aims to simplify production while providing control over input, conversion, encoding, and output. Transcoding is possible from a wide variety of input formats using software decoders. The software features watch folders for job automation, up and down scaling, frame rate conversion, custom settings as well as a range of pre-defined settings, chapter support, batch encoding that allows for multiple tasks, file drag-and-drop support, control over target output file size, and 'mux'ing' streams from different input files.

Pyro Kompressor HD reads either uncompressed video input or imports compressed files. The card uses a wide range of included decoders to enable transcoding for DV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.264, AVCHD, AVC-Intra, VC-1, DVCPRO 25/50/100, DVCPRO-HD, JPEG2000, and YUV files, plus DirectShow and QuickTime import.

Designed as a flexible compression tool, the Pyro Kompressor HD hardware accelerator is also tightly integrated with Adobe's video software family. Acceleration functionality is plug-and-play in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional. The accelerator can encode whole video projects or fast iterative test-compressions while editing, compositing, or creating special-effects. Adobe integration, meanwhile, offers a familiar workflow and quick turnaround.

Filed under: software
Other story tags: video, HD, CES, power, H.264, encoding, MPEG