Yesterday, we introduced LEADTOOLS Version 20 and its new development platforms to you. Today we're diving into the features.

Overall, the toolkit is faster and more efficient, and major areas of focus in this release were the Recognition Engines, Document Viewer, Document Formats, Medical Web Viewer, and Hanging Protocols.

LEAD keeps pushing the limits with LEADTOOLS Version 19 and has released another update full of speed and accuracy optimizations throughout the product line. Though speed and accuracy is a major theme throughout this update, it isn't the only notable improvement. Many completely new features, tools, and support for new specifications are also included. Check out the list below for the full run-down on what our LEADTOOLS developers have been up to, making sure you have the world's leading imaging SDK at your fingertips.

For the fourth consecutive time, LEAD Technologies has won an SD Times 100 award in recognition of its outstanding family of imaging toolkits, LEADTOOLS. This year, LEADTOOLS won in the coveted APIs, Libraries & Frameworks category. We are proud to once again be a part of this prestigious group of companies through hard work and dedication to making LEADTOOLS the World Leader in Imaging SDKs.

Each year, the editors of Software Development Times seek to pinpoint companies and products who demonstrate innovation and leadership in several key categories driving the software development markets including APIs, Libraries & Frameworks, Big Data, Database, Cloud, User Experience, and more. To see a list of all winners from all categories, read the original article from SD Times.

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.

As a part of the recent Version 19 updates, we added a new virtual document feature to the Document Viewer. The LEADTOOLS Document Composer interface makes it easy to compose a virtual document on the fly from any number of pages in any order and from multiple source documents. The document can be manipulated while being viewed and pages can be added or removed with code or interactively using drag and drop. Virtual documents created by the Document Composer can be saved on the server, shared with multiple users, and exported to any format.