"...Panasonic and MedioStream announced today the compatibility of MedioStream's Medio MVision real-time MPEG-2 software encoder and Panasonic's 4.7GB DVD-RAM drive. By integrating Medio MVision and the Panasonic rewritable DVD drive, OEMs, value-added resellers and system integrators can provide their customers with a cost-effective solution for DVD video encoding, decoding, high-capacity storage and exceptionally smooth video playback.
Designed to work with any standard Pentium II or III system, Medio MVision delivers the same clean, crisp DVD video quality that more expensive, hardware-based MPEG-2 encoders deliver, but at a fraction of the cost. With MedioStream's advanced algorithm, Medio MVision can compress captured video on the fly, without causing any motion artifacts and without requiring dedicated hardware. In addition to being able to process 30 fps video with up to full D1 (720x480) resolution, Medio MVision can be integrated to support all of the DVD features, including navigation, MPEG-2 and Dolby® Digital (AC-3) decoding, video/audio synchronization, decryption, 3D audio, and more. Its unique and flexible bit-rate control mechanism also makes it ideal for DVD authoring, video editing, and video streaming.
MedioStream's Medio MVision and the Panasonic DVD-RAM drive also enhance the user's DVD experience by enabling them to instantly locate and play back favorite parts of videos, use special-effect playback capabilities (such as slow-motion), and can even save a selected frame.
MedioStream's video codecs have a well-defined, modular interface for fast integration and reduced time to market. They also provide full scaleability and are programmable for a wide range of application requirements. Extremely memory efficient, Medio MVision requires less than 5 MB of DRAM. In addition to supporting constant and variable bit rates, the MedioStream software can run under I-frame only, IP- or IBP-frames and has a fully configurable GOP structure. The product provides both MPEG layer 1 and layer 2 audio support and accepts input video formats of NTSC or PAL.
Pricing, Availability
Panasonic Industrial Company's OEM DVD-RAM drive is available as an internal drive with an ATAPI interface (model LF-D211N) or as a SCSI-2 interface (model LF-D291N). The Panasonic-branded internal drive, model LF-D201U, is available from Panasonic Document Imaging Company (PDIC) and has an MSRP of $549. Double-sided 9.4GB DVD-RAM media, 4.7GB single-sided media and 4.7GB bare disc media, which is marketed under the Panasonic brand name, is also available from several other leading manufacturers. The 4.7GB bare disc DVD-RAM media can be played back on the latest Panasonic DVD-ROM drives, as well as Panasonic's new DVD Player and DVD Recorder..."