▼ editing Sapphire Plug-Ins Illuminate “I Advanced Believe in You” For Australian singer Kylie Minogue’s new video, “I Compression Believe in You,” The Mill in London utilized GenArts Sapphire plug-ins for Discreet flame to manipulate lighting and glow effects. The video Tools features Minogue singing and dancing inside a spherical Oliver Peters neon cage. With each verse, a any an editor codecs. The version of new light cage appears and has uttered the the codec that is includ- rotates around the singer. words, “I’m an ed with QuickTime Pro “I made extensive use of Meditor, not a offers basic encoding the Sapphire Glow and Glint compressionist!” The fact presets, plus the ability effects to enhance the light of of the matter is that to control and adjust each bar on the cages and today’s video productions are delivered in a wide more of the codec’s parameters if you purchase an create this sexy, neon, fluores- range of media formats, from tapes to DVDs to advanced upgrade from Sorenson. In recent years, cent look,” explains flame Web files. Any editor who doesn’t know how to run Sorenson has branched out to develop other Artist Adam Grint. “We also the most basic compression and encoding tools is codecs, such as for Flash, as well as to develop a risking obsolescence in the rapidly evolving postpro- comprehensive encoding suite for the whole range duction marketplace. If nothing else, standard pro- of media formats. The current version of Sorenson’s cedure for many clients is to receive “review and ap- suite is Squeeze 4, available for both Mac OS X and proval” copies of commercials and corporate videos Windows 2000/XP. The two versions are slightly dif- as multimedia files, downloaded from the post facil- ferent based on the different ways Microsoft and ity’s FTP site. For this reason alone, the basic Apple support certain formats. mechanics of creating a small QuickTime or A standard version of Squeeze has been bun- Windows Media file dled with some NLEs, should be in the reper- such as Avid’s Xpress toire of most editors. Sorenson Squeeze 4 Pro. I’ve used this basic Modern nonlinear version on a PC to com- edit systems or com- Compression Suite and press video from Adobe positing applications let Premiere Pro and Avid you export a version of Telestream Flip4Mac Xpress Pro, but this time your sequence or com- around I used the position in a variety of media formats, sizes, bit rates Squeeze 4 suite on a Mac. The first thing you’ll and frame rates; however, these internal tools fre- notice with an upgrade to Squeeze 4 is the more quently don’t give you the best quality or the most professional user interface. Previous versions of efficient workflow. You typically work with limited Squeeze sported a somewhat cartoonish interface presets that don’t provide the ability to tweak your that didn’t do the software justice. settings with more advanced parameters. That’s when Sorenson Squeeze 4 is designed to let you work used the Glow effect to add it’s time to move over to more specialized tools. For with individual media files or several at once in an radiance to the skin tones. many years those tools have consisted of Apple efficient and streamlined batch process. Video can While Glow was used very QuickTime Pro, Discreet cleaner and format-specific be imported (drag-and-drop is supported) or cap- much to enhance the look of encoders such as those from Microsoft and Real. But tured from a DV camera or VCR. The application a shot, Glint was more of a now there’s a strong new player on the block: also supports watch folders. This means that if you design tool. On the cage, for Sorenson Media. have a “job” set up, Squeeze will immediately start instance, I used the Glint Sorenson Squeeze 4 Compression Suite processing any file that is exported to the designat- effect vertically to give more Sorenson Media started out as a company that ed watch folder. A job document allows you to sheen, which helped fill the made a great video codec for QuickTime. In fact, specify any number of target formats—complete frame and give it more struc- most of the QuickTime-based movie trailers on the with applied filters—to be created from the files ture.” Web have been encoded with one of the Sorenson that have been directly imported or sent to the 46 videography www.videography.com January 2005 watch folder from another default option in Squeeze is application. For instance, to “Auto Deinterlace” all your document could specify input video—which makes that any incoming file be sense for Web files but not turned into a QuickTime, DVDs. Sorenson Media is RealMedia and MPEG-4 file. working on a free point- Simply export the final release update with special sequence from your favorite DVD filter settings in which application to the specified the deinterlacing default is watch folder and Squeeze set to OFF; for now, though, begins compressing and you have to apply a filter and encoding these three files. disable Auto Deinterlacing. Squeeze 4, which began Another thing I’ve started to shipping in late August, do is to apply a manual crop incorporates high-definition encoding for a dard—the presets that come standard with (two on the top and four on the bottom) variety of video formats, including MPEG-1, Squeeze 4 are also quite comprehensive. when going from uncompressed SD video MPEG-2, MPEG-4, QuickTime and Hands-On Encoding (486 pixels) to MPEG-2 (480 pixels). Together, RealMedia, as well as the Sorenson AVC Pro I was curious to see how Sorenson Squeeze 4 these settings—plus setting the proper field codec (also known as H.264). The Windows would work as an MPEG-2 encoder for creat- order—gives me a crisp DVD-compliant file version of the suite includes HD encoding ing DVD files. I wanted to compare it to such without any interlacing issues. options for Windows Media 9—WM9 sup- solid applications as Apple’s Compressor or Be careful with video levels. Sorenson port becomes part of the Mac package, too, Innobits’ BitVice, since Squeeze uses the Squeeze works in YUV video levels, not RGB if you purchase Telestream’s Flip4Mac WMV highly regarded Main Concept compression values. With YUV (used in Avid systems), the Export Component, which is available now. engine to create MPEG-2 files. My first video range from maximum black to maxi- Encoding and compression options in attempt seemed to be pretty dismal until I fig- mum white is set at 16-235. Final Cut Pro Squeeze 4 are highly configurable, allowing a ured out some non-standard software design uses RGB values, where the range is set to 0- user to create custom settings for nearly any issues with Squeeze. The cause of my prob- 255. But forget the numbers. What this dis- multimedia, NTSC, PAL, DVD and HD stan- lems turned out to be the fact that the tinction means is that a sequence exported January 2005 www.videography.com videography 47 ▼ editing from Avid Xpress Pro on a Mac looks right after Inside FOX’s House Squeeze has applied MPEG-2 encoding. The same With a title like House, you file exported from Final Cut Pro will have more con- might be expecting another trast and might be clipped in the shadows or high- home improvement show. In lights of the image. I found that applying a filter and fact, it’s FOX’s new medical setting the contrast to -15 worked pretty well for drama, and the title refers to Final Cut Pro sequences. Sorenson is aware of this the show’s central character, discrepancy, of course, and has plans to address it. I Dr. Greg House, played by didn’t run into this issue with a PC, but, admittedly, British actor Hugh Laurie. my testing with Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid and The show has a veteran staff Vegas software has been limited in conjunction with of two assistants and editors Squeeze. Christopher Nelson, Bill After I figured this all out, I found Squeeze 4 to Johnson and Sue Blainey. make some of the cleanest looking MPEG-2 files of Shot on 35mm, House is the bunch. The encoding times are in the middle of cut on an older version of the range. Even without applying extra noise reduc- Avid (7.2, to be precise) due tion, MPEG-2 files are free of a lot of the macro gives you Windows Media 9 support with one-pass to budgetary constraints. “It block artifacts typical of many encoders. Motion constant or variable bit rate encoding. The profes- slows us down in some holds up well, too. I also tried doing a Sorenson sional version adds HD support, two-pass encoding, ways,” says Blainey, “but we AVC Pro file. The render is fine but, for right now, surround sound and higher audio sampling rates. try to make up for it.” the standard media players can’t play it. Working with Windows Media on a Mac is a bit The show has an eight- Another inviting format is RealMedia, with its of a mixed bag. Actual playback of higher bit rate day shooting schedule; the new codecs. Real, once a staple of Web video, tends WMV files still isn’t as smooth as it is on PCs. WMV editor receives the final to be overlooked these days because the bad repu- HD files will play nicely on a fairly fast PC, yet they’ll tation earned by its older video codecs, which some- grind to a halt on all but the fastest Macs.