LAS VEGAS – Salt Lake City’s Sorenson Media (www.sorensonmedia.com) recently released a new version of its Mac- and PC-based Squeeze encoding software. Squeeze 5 sports improvements to speed, audio and video quality, as well as workflow.
On the speed front, Squeeze 5 allows users to process multiple files simultaneously on computers with multiple cores. As many a 1.5 files can be compressed and encoded using each processor. A quad-core workstation, for example, can encode six files simultaneously.
Video quality has been improved through support for new codecs. For Blu-ray encoding, the efficient VC-1 video encoder is now included. Improvements have also been made for MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and H.264 encoders, particularly when using HD settings. And pre-processing filters have been added for hue and saturation, sharpening, inverse telecine, deinterlacing and adding watermarks.
Audio processing improvements include AC-3 compatibility for 5.1 to 7.1 surround sound encoding. Support has also been added for VST plug-ins, which appear within the app. In addition, BIAS Soundsoap, valued at $129, is packaged with the Squeeze Pro versions, allowing users to remove noise and crackles.
In terms of workflow, new Audience presets have been added for users who regularly output to predetermined specs. They can even publish to an FTP site automatically.
Squeeze 5 ($499), Squeeze 5 Pro (Windows $599/Mac $779), Squeeze 5 for Flash ($199) and Squeeze 5 for Flash Pro ($299) are available for electronic download or on a CD.
