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Thread: Livetronix.comLaunched (SWF Scanner - SWF Convert)

  1. #1
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    LiveTronix.com Launched
    The SWF Tools once found at http://www.chironexsoftware.com, including SWF Scanner
    and SWF Convert have been moved to http://www.livetronix.com. The site has FAQ sections
    and a forum is planned to give better support for users.


    SWF Convert V1.1
    -----------------
    - Quick preview features
    - Different Memory Modes
    - High Mode, For PC's with 128+MB RAM. Very fast and uses your RAM to the fullest.
    - Low Mode, For PC's with 32+MB RAM. Slower but uses less RAM, and more temp hard
    drive space, for large movie files
    - Number of Frames not limited to 16000 (unlimited possible, but not recommended)
    - Optimised play back performance in Flash Player, Movie play back for any number of
    frames will not exceded 16MB RAM = constant, no jumping play back on all PC's
    - New interface Graphics
    - working on adding support for .wmf .asf .wmv .wma and .mov


    SWF Scanner V2.0.1
    ------------------
    - New interface Graphics
    - Easy Edit Movie Frame Rates, and internal movie width\height
    - Action script extraction engine rebuilt for better results
    and beta support for SWF Version 5 Actions, and will be finished
    in next version



    Livetronix Team
    http://www.livetronix.com

  2. #2
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    New site is a lot better. Good job.

    --Jesse

  3. #3
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    Checking Samples

    Hello,

    Everybody. We are releasing a book this summer that deals with flash video. We may be bundling XN's software if he can figure out how to incorporate the Free tag but so far the samples we have seen of all the conversion softwares (not just yours and xn's) will not hold up in the DV world.

    We can deliver high quality large screen size video comparable to DV but we fall short with memory problems.

    Can we work together to perfect a product that will have universal appeal world wide and be able to compete with the DV codecs.

    Specifically here is what we would like to see.

    A software that can
    - import a sequence of jpgs
    - set fps from 7-15
    - apply compression in the same way flash does
    - incorporate the FreeCharacter tag
    - both Windows/Mac compatable.

    If we can conspire on this our book and your softwares can help us all retire early

    Thanks,

    Jp







  4. #4
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    The makers of ASP Flash Turbine have recently released a pretty impressive piece of software.

    http://www.blue-pac.com/products/tur...eo/default.htm

    Try it out.

    --Jesse

  5. #5
    The price is probably the most impressive feature: 145 USD for a utility of that kind is a bit too much. It is possible to achieve similar results with a less futuristic delta encoding mechanism (a la IFF). When the camera or the characters on the video footage move too much, the overhead introduced by Video Turbine makes the encoded Flash movie slow as hell (on some frames I counted over 20 bitmap filled overlapping objects). They do not use the FreeCharacter tag, so memory usage skyrockets pretty soon.

    Cheers,
    Lev

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    Yes I have checked out this software as well

    I also agree that the price is a little high but they do manage to compress to very low levels. I didnt experience the slowness but I am on a very fast computer.

    As for the memory issues I read in their documentation that they had incorporated some kind of memory conservation feature though judging by their high bandwith example 212kbps
    (I dont call this high band) they are still trying hard to keep the bit rate down for memory considerations I guess.

    Regardless I have asked them if they plan on posting a higher bandwidth sample and if they have any technical reasons whey they have not.


  7. #7
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    Yah, they do have a pretty high price, but they also have a whole line of products that are pretty useful and back their reputation and help their pricing policy on this tool (I do agree it is a bit high, but they are probably in the best position to produce a full featured video encoder...this is only V1).

    I didn't experience slowness on the computer I viewed it with, and it wasn't too high end at all (Celeron/366/64 MB). Of course, it isn't low end either though...

    --Jesse


  8. #8
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    PS: "Starting on build 1.0.220, Turbine Video Encoder features the 'Optimize Player Memory' setting which minimizes the memory consumption problem by forcing the player to perform memory garbage collection. This means that memory consumption should not be a problem anymore."

    This looks like FreeCharacter to me...I can't think of any other way to force garbage collection in flash.

    --Jesse

  9. #9
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    Regarding Turbine

    Here is how Turbine Engineers responded to my questions

    Q: I was wondering if there is a technical limitation that kept you from posting a broadband (dsl/cable) sample like the samples on our site. I would download and test your software myself except we work only with Mac.

    A: Absolutely no limitation - we're however trying to show that Turbine is also very good at reducing bit rate to allow for modem/ISDN streaming on some cases.

    Q: Do you have plans to port your code to Mac?

    We certainly have the desire for a Mac port, and are working towards that, but I'm not yet able to provide you with a solid release date.


    and there statement regarding memory usage:

    Regarding player memory usage, Turbine Video now includes a "technology" that performs garbage collection on the player memory consumption - it will basically get rid of used
    bitmaps as soon as possible. This means that the player will consume about 2MB for itself + the size of the movie file + about 4 MB for the working set bitmaps. Of course it's
    possible to segment the movie in a few parts and then chain them with sequential loadMovies.



    So anyway from our point of view Turbine definately has a cool software but the limitations Leviathan mentioned with movement and price probably remove this software from consideration.

    It would be nice if there was a way to add the FreeCharacter tag to a flash generated swf. The power Flash provides with interactive and hybrid vector/video movies makes it very desireable.

  10. #10
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    The samples at the site are very basic and low quailty ment to give a basic idea of the use of the tool(SWF convert)

    here are the details about the options used in the samples.
    Jpeg encoded frames
    quality 55 (out of 100)
    normal sound encoding level(ADPCM 3bit, possible up to 5bit)

    the main issues with the tool at the moment is in the audio area, I'm adding in the LAME encoder for MP3 encoding, and then adding in streaming support.

    you can already change frame rates etc and heaps of other options and compression settings. Both JPEG and Lossless compressions for images is available and can be used to get the best result for the type of images you are using.

    A MAC version would be great, But I've never owned a mac let only written a program for the mac, but I doubt it would take to long to figure it out (the API has to be better than windows?)

    Thanks for checking out the site! I value your input.

  11. #11
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    Re: Regarding Turbine

    Originally posted by whiterabbit
    Here is how Turbine Engineers responded to my questions

    Q: I was wondering if there is a technical limitation that kept you from posting a broadband (dsl/cable) sample like the samples on our site. I would download and test your software myself except we work only with Mac.

    A: Absolutely no limitation - we're however trying to show that Turbine is also very good at reducing bit rate to allow for modem/ISDN streaming on some cases.

    Q: Do you have plans to port your code to Mac?

    We certainly have the desire for a Mac port, and are working towards that, but I'm not yet able to provide you with a solid release date.


    and there statement regarding memory usage:

    Regarding player memory usage, Turbine Video now includes a "technology" that performs garbage collection on the player memory consumption - it will basically get rid of used
    bitmaps as soon as possible. This means that the player will consume about 2MB for itself + the size of the movie file + about 4 MB for the working set bitmaps. Of course it's
    possible to segment the movie in a few parts and then chain them with sequential loadMovies.



    So anyway from our point of view Turbine definately has a cool software but the limitations Leviathan mentioned with movement and price probably remove this software from consideration.

    It would be nice if there was a way to add the FreeCharacter tag to a flash generated swf. The power Flash provides with interactive and hybrid vector/video movies makes it very desireable.
    My problem is how the program itself actually works on your machine- In one case it didn't work at all (PIII 900 mhz 128 Ram running WIN 95) and in another it dragged the machine way down (AMD K-6 II 64 Ram running Win 98 SE) . That and the price is a bit high considering that there are 4 other such tools on the market with this one being priced about over 150% of the next highest program and being priced over 200% for the market. The other tools don't have the same functionality but I don't really think that the aditional features are worth the price.

  12. #12
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    Originally posted by chironex
    The samples at the site are very basic and low quailty ment to give a basic idea of the use of the tool(SWF convert)

    here are the details about the options used in the samples.
    Jpeg encoded frames
    quality 55 (out of 100)
    normal sound encoding level(ADPCM 3bit, possible up to 5bit)

    the main issues with the tool at the moment is in the audio area, I'm adding in the LAME encoder for MP3 encoding, and then adding in streaming support.

    you can already change frame rates etc and heaps of other options and compression settings. Both JPEG and Lossless compressions for images is available and can be used to get the best result for the type of images you are using.

    A MAC version would be great, But I've never owned a mac let only written a program for the mac, but I doubt it would take to long to figure it out (the API has to be better than windows?)

    Thanks for checking out the site! I value your input.
    Oh yeah- Chironex, the site looks great. I updated my reviews to include your new URL. Love your products.

  13. #13
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    Re: Re: Regarding Turbine

    Originally posted by johnie
    My problem is how the program itself actually works on your machine- In one case it didn't work at all (PIII 900 mhz 128 Ram running WIN 95) and in another it dragged the machine way down (AMD K-6 II 64 Ram running Win 98 SE).
    Turbine Video is not supported under Windows 95, only under 98/ME/NT/2000 (as specified on the requirements) - we're currently working on 95 support.
    Regarding the CPU usage during encoding, indeed it was a problem - the last build includes an "Encoding Priority" preference that allows you to change that.

  14. #14
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    what is the problem with win 95?


  15. #15
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    Media Player 7.0 can't run on 95 either...some of the newer Win32 API calls aren't in the 95 code (like semi-transparent blitting).

    --Jesse

  16. #16
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    Originally posted by chironex
    what is the problem with win 95?
    It seems to be the Region related API functions, used for the skin transparency.

  17. #17
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    Originally posted by chironex
    The update looks great! Will be registering a couple of things in about 2 weeks.....


  18. #18
    Hi,

    Have you checked out Wildform Flix (http://www.wildform.com/flix)? It satisfies all your requirements:

    >>A software that can
    >>- import a sequence of jpgs
    >>- set fps from 7-15
    >>- apply compression in the same way flash does
    >>- incorporate the FreeCharacter tag
    >>- both Windows/Mac compatable.

    Flix supports the DV codec natively, so you don't have to export a sequence of JPGs to use it and it is available for both Mac and Windows, including Mac OS X. Wildform software is the first (and currently) the only SWF production tools available for Mac OS X. Plug in a DV camera into your firewire port and happy encoding!

    Cheers,
    Arjun

  19. #19
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    Originally posted by Arjun
    Hi,

    Have you checked out Wildform Flix (http://www.wildform.com/flix)? It satisfies all your requirements:

    >>A software that can
    >>- import a sequence of jpgs
    >>- set fps from 7-15
    >>- apply compression in the same way flash does
    >>- incorporate the FreeCharacter tag
    >>- both Windows/Mac compatable.

    Flix supports the DV codec natively, so you don't have to export a sequence of JPGs to use it and it is available for both Mac and Windows, including Mac OS X. Wildform software is the first (and currently) the only SWF production tools available for Mac OS X. Plug in a DV camera into your firewire port and happy encoding!

    Cheers,
    Arjun
    I had checked out the videos before but now that you are incorporating memory management I see you have much nicer samples. Good Job

    Lately many new conversion softwares have hit the market. At least 5. This is the only one we have seen that has a Mac version (Cheers on that one).

    They all seem to offer different degrees of functionality and price to go with that. I think we will probably end up doing a writeup on all of them and if desired bundle the trial versions of all of them with the book. Sort of a centralized source for everyone to make up their own mind.

    So for Flix and all the other conversion softwares contact us if you want to bundle your trial version with the book. We will give you space to include a writeup as well.

    jorge@mantaproductions.com

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