Telestream announces the latest version of its multi-format video encoding software called Episode 6.5. Scheduled for release in the second quarter of this year, 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, Telestream says Episode has the quality, filters, formats, and power to handle the entire process from camera to edit and all the way to final delivery. A company press release says Episode 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,” says Barbara DeHart, vice president of desktop business at Telestream. “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”
New features in Episode 6.5 include:
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 enable postproduction workflows to handle embedded captions easily.
Support for virtually any video and audio file format
Episode supports the widest range of formats in its class according to the press release from Telestream, allowing users to repurpose media for websites, mobile devices, television, archive, disk authoring and more. With version 6.5, Episode adds support for formats including HEVC, XAVC, VP9, and MXF AS-11.
Multi-bitrate streaming support
Multi-bitrate streaming improves a viewer's experience by letting users deliver videos in the resolution and bit rate that best matches viewers' 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 to easily map 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.
Available in 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 multi-threaded, multiple jobs can be processed in parallel, utilizing all available power from modern multi-core workstations. Episode Pro enables two concurrent jobs, while 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 any user assistance. Whether sharing encodes between processing cores on a single workstation or across a cluster of cross-platform machines, Split-and-Stitch enables the fast encoding speeds possible.
