Wired's MediaPress MPEG-2/DVD Real-Time Encoder
by: Jan Ozer
EMedia Professional, May 1999 Copyright © Online Inc.
At $4,999, Wired Inc.'s MediaPress for Windows 95/98 is one of the cheapest real-time hardware MPEG-2/DVD encoders around, with good output quality that ultimately proved compatible with both of our test DVD authoring systems (Daikin Scenarist and Minerva Impression). However, the card doesn't support professional-quality input formats and lacks automation tools like machine control and batch encoding, as well as Windows NT compatibility. Though Wired has aggressive plans to add these features, MediaPress is currently best-suited for low-volume production for corporate or small multimedia developers.
MediaPress is a single- board encoder based on the Sony MPEG-2 encoder, with S-Video and composite video and stereo audio inputs. On the Wintel platform, MediaPress currently only runs under Windows 95/98--a frustrating limitation given that most DVD authoring programs, including those from Daikin and Minerva, only support NT.
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