The two most commonly used video compressions are AVC (H.264) and HEVC (H.265). The majority of HD broadcasting, video sharing, mobile streaming, and digital surveillance use either an H.264 or H.265 video compressor. We all remember saving videos to our PCs and how much disk space they would take up as well as how long they would take to upload for sharing. Converting those videos with the LEADTOOLS H.264/AVC compressor will decrease the file size by roughly 30% and converting with the LEADTOOLS H.265/HEVC compressor drops the file size by nearly 60%. You may be thinking, "Well, it's been saved at a lower bit rate, so the quality must have dropped". That is not the case though. These compressors will maintain the same visual quality as the original, so there is no need to worry. With everything being recorded at much higher resolutions - 2k and 4k - these days, the H.265 compressor is a better solution than H.264. Many of the online streaming sites have encoded their videos with H.265/HEVC compressors, which helps to greatly reduce lagging and dreaded "buffering" message.

Today, LEADTOOLS released an update to its Multimedia SDKs that enhances support for several formats and streaming capabilities. These improvements are all geared towards extending our support for various technologies as they emerge on the market, and in speeding up the overall process of streaming audio and video data to clients.

• Added support for h.265 and h.264 hardware encoders to MP4 and MKV outputs
• Added support for MP3 audio to MP4 and MKV outputs
• Added support for MPEG-2 audio encoder to MKV output
• Improved capture device support
• Added the ability to use Microsoft RTSP media source using windows media extensions, with implementation of network source authentication interfaces

This update is freely available to any existing LEADTOOLS Version 20 customers and is included in the latest Multimedia SDK download.

Today, we are pleased to announce several updates to our Multimedia SDKs. The majority focus on improvements to our support for Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and Hardware Acceleration in our H.265 and H.264 codecs.

RTSP

• Added support for new formats
  • QuickTime
  • Windows Media Player
• Added support for KLV metadata in RTSP streams
• Added support for RTSP over TCP and HTTP servers
• Added new security handler
• Improved support for cameras, seeking, and AAC audio streaming
• Added new examples for RTSP Live Streaming
• Added stream bit rates to RTSP DESCRIBE response

Codecs, Multiplexers, and Demultiplexers

• Added support for QuickSync acceleration on 6th generation and later Intel Processors to H.265 encoder and H.265 decoder
• Added support for non-asynchronous modes when using CUDA hardware acceleration on H.265 and H.264 decoders
• Added ability to select the decoding engine in the H265 decoder
• Added support for decoding 10-bit video in H.265 decoder
• Added frame seeking to MKV demultiplexer

Additional Multimedia Updates

• Added feature to help break DVR recordings into smaller complete video fragments
• Added a new Microsoft Smooth Streaming source filter that allows playback, conversion, and streaming from Microsoft Smooth Streaming servers
• Added programmatic control over automatic poster frame scrubbing in play module
• Added support for P010 format to the LEAD Color Space Converter

This update is free to existing Version 19 customers and is available in the Multimedia Download Package.

Today, we uploaded a new setup for our LEADTOOLS Multimedia products. This update adds new features and enhancements to several technologies including H.264 and Media Foundation. However, the big push for this release started with all of the positive feedback and requests we have received for the Media Streaming Server. Just a few months ago we added live streaming capabilities, and our developers have even further expanded that functionality, making it easier to create and configure, enabling a high level control over server resources and bandwidth consumption.

LEAD Technologies has added two popular feature requests which will be available to all Version 18 customers free of charge. The h.264 Encoder now supports Intel Quick Sync Video hardware acceleration. On supported processors, the video encoding time is typically cut in half, with an almost 60% reduction in CPU utilization.

For processors that do not support Intel Quick Sync video, customers can also take advantage of new High Profile capabilities (in addition to the already supported Main and Baseline) for improved video encoding onto Blu-Ray media.