What is Sorenson Video 3?

Sorenson Video 3 Pro Edition brings you the latest in advanced compression methods delivering the very best quality and features sought after by industry professionals and enthusiasts alike.

Installation

1. QuickTime version 5.0.2 or later must be installed (see http://quicktime.apple.com).
2. Start the installer application and follow the installation instructions.
3. The user's guide, entitled SVideo3User.pdf, is found in the "Sorenson Video¨ Pro" folder.

Features Added In This Version

1. Sorenson One-pass VBR. This feature is available on the Encode tab. One-pass VBR produces video quality close to Two-Pass VBR but with the speed of non VBR compression. This feature can be used for both off-line and live compression applications because it achieves high quality without adding compression time.
2. Support for Mac OS X.
3. Multi-processor support. With the current version of Mac OS X (10.1) you will experience only a slight speed-up on multi-processor systems.
4. Full support for Sorenson Squeeze(TM).
5. Some small performance and quality optimizations.

New Features for Sorenson Video 3.0

Encode

• Bi-directional prediction
• Compression speed/quality selection
• Automatic key frames
• Minimum quality
• Allow frame dropping to maintain data rate
• Variable bit rate control
• Watermarking - alpha mask and color supported
• Compressor packetization (slice mode)

Playback

• Image Smoothing
• Media Key

Streaming

• Force block refresh frequency
• Packetizer and reassembler

Object Coding / Masking

• Binary shape coding

Download Sorenson Video 3 for Mac

Architecture

IBM PowerPC

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.5 up to Mac OS 10.5

Compatibility notes

Minimum Requirements

• Playback
  • PowerPC processor
  • 32 MB RAM
  • System 7.5.5
  • QuickTime 5.0.2
• Encoding
  • PowerPC G3 processor
  • 128 MB RAM
  • Mac OS 8.6
  • QuickTime 5.0.2

 

Known Issues

1. Bidirectional Prediction -- Bidirectional prediction is not natively supported by QuickTime. When using bidirectional prediction there is a temporal delay of one or two frames, and the last one or two frames are not displayed. End-users that enable bidirectional prediction should be aware of possible 1-2 frame audio synch problems. In most cases, this has proven unnoticeable.
    
2. Image Smoothing Performance -- To avoid slow playback, Sorenson Video 3 automatically turns off image smoothing when playing back on older computers. This decision is made based on the resolution of video being played and the CPU type:
    
   • Pre G3 Macintosh -- Image smoothing is never used.
   • G3 Macintosh -- Image smoothing is used for image sizes below 320 x 240.
   • G4 Macintosh -- Image smoothing is used for image sizes below 500 x 375.
   • Pre MMX Pentium -- Image smoothing is never used.
   • MMX Pentium and Pentium II -- Image smoothing used for sizes below 320 x 240.
   • Pentium III -- Image smoothing used for sizes below 640 x 480.
      
3. Quality Settings -- The Quality slider provides different results when using Sorenson Video 3, as opposed to Sorenson Video 2. The following list describes how Quality settings pertain to Sorenson Video 3:
    
   • 80 -- Very high quality (near lossless).
   • 60 -- High quality (recommended setting).
   • 40 -- Medium quality (this looks good with image smoothing).
   • 20 -- Low quality.

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver