Telestream’s Episode 6.5 Will Support Closed Captions, New Formats, Multi-Bitrate Encoding
Telestream (Booth SL3305) will unveil the latest version of its multiformat video-encoding software Episode 6.5. Scheduled for release in the second quarter, version 6.5 will feature support for closed captions, new formats, multi-bitrate encoding, and multi-track audio.
Preserving the integrity of original content while transferring it between incompatible systems is a constant challenge for post-production professionals. Designed for the entire production workflow, Episode has the quality, filters, formats, and power to handle the entire process from camera to edit and all the way to final delivery. It produces “true to the original” results for simple transcoding jobs as well as for more-complex encoding jobs, such as standards conversion.
“With Episode 6.5, we concentrated on closed-captioning support as well as adding the newer formats, such as HEVC, VP9, and AS-11,” said Barbara DeHart, VP, desktop business. “Our continued goal is to give customers remarkable output quality in the most flexible and streamlined way possible. With versions starting just under $600, Episode is accessible anyone who is serious about video production.”
Closed-Caption Support
Episode 6.5 enables caption insertion with encoding and pass-through options and supports CEA-608 and CEA-708 captioning standards as well as MCC and SCC caption formats. With federal regulations mandating captioning, this will allow postproduction workflows to handle embedded captions easily.
Support for Virtually Any Video, Audio Format
Episode allows users to repurpose media for Websites, mobile devices, television, archive, disk authoring, and more. Version 6.5 adds support for HEVC, XAVC, VP9, and MXF AS-11.
Multi-Bitrate–Streaming Support
Multiple-bitrate streaming lets users deliver videos in the resolution and bitrate that best matches their connection speeds. With version 6.5, users will be able to easily encode and create packages for Apple HLS (HTTP Live Streaming), Microsoft Smooth Streaming, and MPEG-DASH with a click of a button.
Support for Multi-Track Audio
Featuring improved performance and stability, Episode 6.5 adds presets and filters for easy mapping of multi-track audio channels: rearrange audio tracks, change speaker assignments, and change audio formats and sample rates.
Image Sequence Support
Image sequences are now available directly from the Episode UI, which provides an easy way to manage thousands of frames for 3D animation and compositing for visual effects. Users can step through the sequence frame by frame with the highest possible quality. It’s also possible to add multiple files from different sequences for multiple encode tasks.
Three versions with incrementally increasing encoding speeds and format flexibility — Episode, Episode Pro, and Episode Engine — are all supported on Mac and PC platforms. Because Episode’s transcode engine is completely multi-threaded, multiple jobs can be processed in parallel, using all available power from modern multicore workstations. Episode Pro enables two concurrent jobs; Episode Engine supports an unlimited number of parallel jobs across multiple machines.
When encoding speed is critical, Split-and-Stitch technology, available in Episode Engine, enables distributed and segmented encoding for any supported format, across multiple clustered Mac or PC workstations. Episode’s built-in file-sharing system automatically offloads work from one machine to another without user assistance. Whether sharing encodes between processing cores on a single workstation or across a cluster of cross-platform machines, Split-and-Stitch enables fast encoding speeds.