FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Digigami Ships MPressionist.X 1.0 for Macintosh
2004-05-14 · Digigami announces it is now shipping Digigami MPressionist.X 1.0 for Macintosh.
The product is the first and only premastering tool for DVD video picture quality for DVD authors
and professional compressionists, and is currently available only for Macintosh.
"Digigami MPressionist.X brings intelligence and science to the art of DVD video compression".
Screenshots of the product in action are available on the Digigami MPressionist.X www site.
Digigami MPressionist.X reveals all aspects of the compressed MPEG-2 video track, including
all headers and actual bitstream data at the sequence, GOP, picture, slice and macroblock layers.
Key information is available as graphic overlays that can be superimposed over the moving picture, allowing
the compression variables to be correlated with the actual moving picture in real-time
(real-time requires 2Ghz G5 cpu).
By starting with graphical overlays derived from movie statistics such as bitrate/compression and simply dragging the
time/position slider one can easily access regions of the file where bitrate/compression is peaking. Once a selection of
interesting frames are located, navigate forward and backwards in time with the arrow keys (or mouse) to examine any picture
in greater detail. Overlay picture-specific graphs (including compression amount) over the compressed frame and click on any
16x16 pixel macroblock on the grid for increasing levels of detail.
Quickly and easily examine compressed frame sizes (and compression levels) in relation to the average for the movie and group.
Now, for the first time, DVD authors and compressionists can easily determine the objective effects of
modifying different variables in the MPEG-2 encoding process. No matter whether a video was
compressed in-house, at a service bureau, or in a professional Hollywood studio, Digigami
MPressionist.X allows full access to the details of the video compression.
Here's an abbreviated list of powerful features included in the product:
- Examine all details of encoded (compressed) frames in the bitstream, including their
relative sizes and encoded type (I-keyframe, P-predicted, B-bidirectionally predicted).
Move backwards and forwards in time with the mouse or arrow keys.
- Overlay any of twelve different movie and picture-relative graphs in any combination and
view composited over the moving picture. Zoom in any 16x16 pixel macroblock to examine the
exact values that were used in its compression.
- View frames in their actual encoded size (pixel width and height) or in any allowable MPEG-2
aspect ratio including 2.21:1 and 16:9 widescreen. 480x480 S-VCD files can be viewed at 640x480.
- View and extract intra and non-intra quantization matrices used in any authored or commercial DVD.
- Examine any ISO header from the mpeg bitstream with all values in both their numeric and symbolic values,
including sequence_header, sequence_extension, sequence_display_extension, group_of_pictures, picture_header,
picture_coding_extension, picture_header,
and MPressionist.X-generated picture_statistics.
- Works with any ISO-11172 (MPEG-1) and ISO-13818 (MPEG-2) bitstreams. Can demultiplex MPEG-1 System Streams,
MPEG-2 Program Streams and DVD VOB files.
The product works on all current Macintosh models with G3 and higher CPU, in 3 flavors:
- MPressionist.X5 (Mach-o) - optimized for Velocity Engine G4 & G5 cpu running only on 10.2 and 10.3
- MPressionist.X4 (CFM) - optimized for Velocity Engine G4 on 10.2, 10.3 and Classic 9.22.
- MPressionist.X3 (CFM) - optimized for PowerPC-G3 cpu on Classic 9.22, 10.2 and 10.3
A complete list of benefits, features and technical specifications can be found on the Digigami MPressionist.X
www site at http://www.mpressionist.com/.
A quality control/feedback and educational tool which eliminates the guesswork from the video compression process.
Compress your movies with any compressor, including Digigami MegaPEG®, Apple Compressor,
Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro,
TMPGEnc, Canopus Procoder,
and use Digigami MPressionist.X to evaluate the results and fine-tune before re-encoding.
The product is available now at a retail price of $995.00. Registered users of any version
of Digigami MegaPEG® (Mac or PC) purchased before 2004.05.15 can upgrade for $495.00 (validated by Digigami customer database).
Qualified educational institutions receive a flat 50% discount on all Digigami products, including Digigami MPressionist.X.
Educational "LAB" site licenses for up to 30 workstations are available for $4995.00. Contact sales@digigami.com.