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Jan Ozer

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I help companies train new technical hires in streaming media-related positions; I also help companies optimize their codec selections and encoding stacks and evaluate new encoders and codecs. I am a contributing editor to Streaming Media Magazine, writing about codecs and encoding tools. I have written multiple authoritative books on video encoding, including Video Encoding by the Numbers: Eliminate the Guesswork from your Streaming Video (https://amzn.to/3kV6R1j) and Learn to Produce Video with FFmpeg: In Thirty Minutes or Less (https://amzn.to/3ZJih7e). I have multiple courses relating to streaming media production, all available at https://bit.ly/slc_courses. I currently work as www.netint.com as a Senior Director in Marketing.

Shoot Review: Panasonic AG-HPX170

Panasonic’s AG-HPX170 delivers groundbreaking new usability features in several key areas, along with excellent color and relatively noise-free video. While the lack of a tape drive makes the camcorder about 20 percent lighter than the popular AG-HVX200 that precedes it, the HPX170 thereby limits you to P2 storage. This is fine for ENG, indie films, and other similar productions, but …

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Codec Comparison: VP6, H.264, and Windows Media – StreamingMediaEast – 2008

A 45 minute presentation comparing VP6, VC1 and H.264

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How to Upload High-Quality YouTube Videos

Few people can resist uploading videos to YouTube, whether as a simple way to share their work with friends or to launch a production upon the unsuspecting world. The traditional downside, however, has been video quality that ranged from fair to, frankly, poor. However, YouTube recently launched a new option that encodes some videos to both standard and high-quality parameters. …

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Understanding your HD Formats

If you’re considering buying a new affordable HD camcorder, you should have at least three formats in mind: tried-and-true HDV, up-and-coming AVCHD, and the ever-more-affordable DVCPRO HD. By a stroke of good fortune, I have three such camcorders in hand right now, and I thought it would be a good time to discuss their relative merits. Specifically, I’ve got the …

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Beyond HDV: Using AVCHD with Panasonic’s AG-HSC1U

I’ve been a user exclusively of tape-based cameras since the analog days. So, beyond the implications of the AVCHD format, I was intrigued by the opportunity to test Panasonic‘s AG-HSC1U, because it stores all video and still images on SDHC cards. A 4GB card is included with the camera. You can find the camcorder online for well less than $2,000, …

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Choosing your Streaming Encoding Tool

Once you’ve chosen a codec, you have to choose an encoding tool. In this column, I’ll outline the codec-specific and automation-related questions you should ask before using or buying an encoding tool, and then describe the three level

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Rhozet Carbon Coder 3

"Impressive" turns out to be a good adjective for the version 3.0 update in general, which significantly improves an already highly competent product. Rhozet has made several useful streaming-codec-related improvements, enhanced watch-folder func

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Microsoft Should Adopt H.264

One of the more intriguing rumors to come out of Streaming Media East was that Microsoft was going to add H.264 playback to Silverlight and/or the Windows Media Player. The idea made so much sense that it was instantly believable, but

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Flash vs. Silverlight

http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=11290Flash and Silverlight can play multiple roles within an organization, so let's start by identifying those. First is the video-player role. For example, if you want to add video to an existing websi

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Comparing and Using Online Video Codecs – StreamingMediaEast 2008

This workshop focuses on comparing the quality, playback environment, and feature sets of the big three codecs (VP6, H.264, and Windows Media), including a comparison of the primary H.264 codecs including Apple, Main Concept, Telestream, and others. Attendees will also get an introduction to universal encoding parameters, like variable and constant bitrate encoding and I, B, and P frames, and then learn the technical requirements for producing files with each codec. During the final hour, the workshop will analyze which sub-$1,000 encoding tools do the best (and worst) jobs with each format.

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