April 13 - 10:20pm EDT   Telestream on Sunday announced announced its Episode 5.0 encoding software which expands format support to a greater number of specific digital media workflows: the high-performance Episode Engine server software adds input support for RED camera, Cineon and DPX formats and for its core content repurposing to Web and mobile workflows, the entire Episode family adds support for the latest Flash 8, Flash 9 and Blu-ray formats. In addition, for Apple's new Final Cut Server media asset management and workflow automation software, Episode expands format choices beyond QuickTime and brings high-end 10-bit 4:4:4 processing. [full story]

March 31 - 6:45pm EDT   Sorensen today unveiled Sorensen Squeeze 5, a major update to its video encoding tool that introduces several speed, quality and workflow enhancements. The new version increases both video and audio quality overall, and includes multi-processor support, allowing users to encode as many fines as they have processor cores. Sorensen Squeeze 5 is available directly from the company's website for prices starting at $200. [full story]

February 14 - 10:15am EST   Techspansion has released VisualHub 1.31, an update to its universal video conversion software for Mac OS X that works with Apple TV 'Take 2.' VisualHub eases the conversion process while offering pros an advanced panel for changing all pre-set aspects of encoding. "Converting a bunch of AVI files to a DVD shouldn't require a Computer Science degree," the company writes. "Getting movies from your digital camera to your iPod shouldn't take hours." The software is priced at $24, and requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. [full story]

January 15 - 10:50am EST   On2 Technologies today introduced Flix Publisher 2.0 for Mac at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Flix Publisher is a browser-based video encoding and publishing application for Adobe Flash Player 8 and 9, offering users the ability to allow video encoding and publishing through a browser-based interface. The software is already shipping, and On2 is demonstrating Flix Publisher for Mac at booth no. W-4242 (pricing was unavailable). [full story]

January 10 - 12:30pm EST   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. [full story]

January 8 - 5:55pm EST   Morrison SoftDesign today released FontXChange for Mac 1.0, an easy to use font conversion application that supports OpenType (PS) as well as PostScript Type 1 and TrueType. The application features batch processing for converting entire font libraries, preferences to set font encodings, a font inspection window with preview functionality, and support for numerous font encodings like Adobe Standard and Unicode. FontXChange for Mac 1.0 requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later, and is priced at $60 for a single user license or $100 when bundled with FontDoctor. [full story]

December 5 - 1:20pm EST   Sorenson Media on Wednesday released Sorenson Squeeze 4.8 for Adobe Flash. On the heels of Adobe's Flash Player 9 Update 3 with H.264 video support, the company said that the upgrade enables users of Sorenson Media’s application to encode MPEG-4 video compatible with the newly-released Adobe Flash 9 Update 3 software, using the H.264/AVC, AAC and HE-AAC codecs. The "true" MPEG-4 files are also compatible with popular devices such as Apple's iPod and Sony's PSP, the company noted. Sorenson has also included other MPEG-4 variants within Squeeze 4.8 Flash, including the ability to encode into MPEG-4 Part 10 or 3GPP formats. In addition to the H.264 support, two other Flash-based ... [full story]