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Telestream Episode Pro 4.2
Compression and encoding suite
The folks at Telestream have been busy of late—among other things, we've seen the release of version 2 of the Flip4Mac WMV components, the update of same to run natively on Intel Macs, Telestream's acquisition of Popwire, and finally, the re-branding of the former Compression Master as the Episode series of products. Today's review specifically concerns Episode Pro 4.2 (+ Flash 8), and as a service to those of you with the attention span of a gnat (like myself) who like to get to the bottom line quickly, here it is: Episode=excellent.
A note on the Episode series
Before we begin, let me offer a brief word on what constitutes the Episode lineup and what I'll specifically be addressing today. The Episode series of products all fall under the Episode Workgroup moniker, which, in turn, is divided into two categories: the desktop products ("regular" and Pro) and the Engine products (again, "regular" and Pro). While this isn't a review of the Episode Engine, the long and short of the Engine products is that they are server-side technologies which extend the horsepower of Episode Pro to enable such things as real-time HD encoding. Episode Pro (which is the actual subject of this review), among its other features, is designed to work hand-in-hand with Engine to configure and control jobs which get sent to the Engine for processing, though that feature won't figure into today's review. Got all that?
Regular vs. Pro
I should also mention the split between the Episode desktop products (one more time: "regular" and Pro). I was provided with a review copy of Episode Pro (with the Flash 8 add-on), but that doesn't mean there won't be useful information about the regular-strength Episode product, since it's considerably less expensive than its beefier Pro sibling. In fact, there isn't a whole lot separating the $395 base product from the $895 Pro version. Here's a quick rundown on what you get by going Pro:
- Pro format support (MXF, GXF, IMX, HDV, H.264 High Profile, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 transport streams)
- 5.1/7.1 surround sound encoding
- Ability to interface with the Episode Engine solutions
- Unlimited batch processing
On that last point, the non-Pro version is limited to 25 jobs in a batch, which could present anywhere from no problem to major problems depending on what your needs are. Anyway, those are the only differences, and while a $500 price bump from regular to Pro may seem like a lot, if you absolutely need any of the features outlined above, I suspect the half-g is likely not a huge issue. So, with that out of the way, pretty much everything I mention from here on out will apply to both the regular and Pro versions, and while this review is technically for Episode Pro, you should be able to get a good sense of both products.
Media support
No review of a compression/transcoding/encoding product would be complete without a rundown on media types it imports and exports, so here's a quick rundown:
Import: MPEG-1/MPEG-2/MPEG-4, DV, QuickTime, Windows Media 9, AVI, 3GPP/3GPP2, MP3, ATSC A/52
Export: MPEG-1/MPEG-2/MPEG-4, DV, QuickTime, RealMedia (PPC only), Flash 7, Windows Media 9, WMA Pro, 3GPP/3GPP2, AMC, M4A, AIFF, VC-1, ATSC A/52
Of course, it bears repeating that the Pro version also adds support for the formats mentioned a bit earlier. There are a few other items of note here: one, keep in mind that there are often "sub-codecs" available for many of the listed formats; for example, DV support includes basic DV25 as well as both DVCPRO 25 and 50, and Episode's QuickTime implementation features several non-standard codecs such as 8/10-bit Blackmagic and Media 100 (in addition to the regular stable of QT codecs).
Additionally, while Episode includes a ton of supported formats and codecs right out of the box, it's future-proof to a certain extent by supporting whatever custom QuickTime codecs you may have access to. An example here would be if you had a QuickTime-based XviD codec (or whatever), which would enable you to create custom settings to encode to that particular format.
Also, in case you're wondering where Flash 8 Video support is, it's available, but apparently important enough to charge an extra $100 for (both Episode and Episode Pro offer Flash 8 encoding as a paid add-on). In this day and age of Flash 8 video darn near everywhere, it may only be a matter of eventuality as to whether or not you need Flash 8 support (especially if you have no other means of encoding Flash video). However, if your Flash needs are light, you may have noticed from the list that Episode does include out-of-the-box support for encoding to Flash 7 Video (the earlier Sorenson Spark codec, as opposed to the newfangled On2 VP6 codec present in Flash 8), so you're not completely left out in the cold when it comes to Flash Video.
One last item worth mentioning in the media support department concerns RealMedia. While Episode is a Universal Binary application, meaning that it runs natively on Intel Macs, you Intel folks are out of luck if you need to export RealMedia. This isn't Telestream's fault, as Intel Mac-based RealMedia encoders don't exist yet, but consider yourself warned about this limitation regardless.
Interface
OK, so we've established that Episode isn't exactly lacking when it comes to media support. The issues then become 1) how quickly and easily Episode makes it to convert content to and from the various media types and 2) how powerful and accessible various options are to achieve the results you want. That said, the easiest way to explore both is through a tour of the interface.
In a nutshell, the Episode interface is simple and streamlined. Pretty much everything you need is contained in a single window (fig. 1):
Figure 1
On the left is the Browser, which is split into three main areas—Source Bookmarks, Compression Settings, and Recently Encoded (fig. 2). If you're anything like me, you'll likely find yourself messing with compression settings more than anything else, so the twirl-down menus are a nice touch here. The Source Bookmarks area is especially useful, allowing you to add any folder on your system for quick access from within Episode.
Figure 2
I did come across with an interface inconsistency issue in the Browser, one which might cause a loss of data if you're not careful. Notice in Figure 2 that there are little icons next to each area, and while that's all fine and good, it's the little trash can that you have to watch out for, because it exhibits different behavior depending on which trash can icon you press. If you add a folder to the Source Bookmarks list, selecting it and pressing the trash can icon will simply remove the folder from the Source Bookmarks. It will not delete the folder and its contents from your hard disk. For the other two areas, the opposite is true: if you select an item either in the Compression Settings or Recently Encoded areas and then press the trash can icon, Episode will not only remove the listing from the Browser, but also delete the item from your hard disk. This is especially dangerous in the Recently Encoded area, where you can easily blow away a lot of work, but you can also lose a few core templates as well from the Compression Settings. The moral of the story here is to be warned and be careful with the trash can icons.
Moving on to the right side of the interface, you'll find that area split into two tabs: the Job Batch (fig. 3) and the Settings Editor (fig. 4).
Figure 3
Figure 4
Both areas pretty much do what their respective names say, but we'll look at each a bit closer anyway. You manage your jobs in the Job Batch, naturally, and there are many ways to operate here, but the overall workflow goes something like this:
- Add your clips to the batch.
- Apply settings.
- Start the job.
A simplistic assessment, but that's the gist. As I mentioned, there are many ways to skin this particular cat: clips can be added through drag-and-drop from either the Finder or a Source Bookmark as well as manual selection from the standard Open dialog, while settings are applied through control/right-clicks, drag-and-drop, or copy and paste. The only nit I have is that it Episode makes it a little cumbersome to add a single setting to multiple clips—you either have to copy a setting and paste it to multiple selections in the Job Batch, or make your selection in the Job Batch and apply the setting through a control/right-click. I'd like to be able to select multiple clips and simply drag a setting to apply it to all selected clips, but in the overall scheme of things it's a relatively minor issue.
Once your clips are in the batch and you've applied settings, it's just a matter of specifying a naming convention (which is fully configurable, as shown in Figure 5) and a destination for your encoded clips, clicking the Start Encoding button, and then heading out for a lovely beverage of your choice. Time for another small nit, though: while Episode gives you feedback on the currently processing clip, it does not provide a time estimate for the entire job. I realize that may not be a practical request, what with having to process part of a file before a reliable estimate becomes available, but that doesn't change the fact that it would be a nice touch.
Figure 5: Episode lets you come up with your own naming schemes, a feature that is sure to excite and amaze all who come in contact with it.
Now, you may have noticed that I mentioned the application of settings more than a few times over the previous several paragraphs, which was all in anticipation of our current stop on the tour: the Settings Editor. Before we get to that, though, a brief word on how Episode handles settings in general. Episode's settings "exist" as XML documents, which you can move around, organize, and otherwise manipulate directly in the Finder (fig. 6) as well as from within Episode itself.
Figure 6: Templates aplenty, all accessible from the Finder.
What may also be apparent in the parenthetically aforementioned Figures 2 and 6 is that Episode ships with an unholy number of preset templates. Many users will be able to just set and go with one of the included templates without ever needing to customize, but that option is, of course, available. It's also worth noting that Episode can create multiple bitrate (MBR) settings rather easily as well (fig. 7). Just create a MBR setting, drag existing settings into it, and that's it. Of course, this only works for formats that support MBR clips, such as Windows Media.
Figure 7
Anyway, the point I'm slowly leading up to here is that whether you want to use a template as a starting point for a custom setting or create one from scratch, you do so from the Settings Editor. If you remember from way back in Figure 4, you'll already know that the Settings Editor is divided up into six tabbed sections: Output, Video, Audio, Metadata, Stream, and Engine (Figure 8 shows a detail view). Cycling through each tab will, not surprisingly, let you tweak an individual setting to meet your needs. The Settings Editor is enormously comprehensive, combining settings inherent to each individual format (such as codec) with a number of processing options in the same place.
Figure 8
As one might expect, the aforementioned processing options are accessed through the various tabs, with notable features including:
- Clip size, frame rate, and data rate (obvious, but there you go anyway)
- Multiple deinterlacing types and field order swapping
- Image processing options (like brightness/contrast, gamma, HSV levels, color channel correction, etc.)
- Overlays (such as watermarking and timecode burn)
- Audio processing (balance, equalizer, a really nice channel mapper, etc.)
- Metadata and streaming options for formats that support them
You get the idea—the Settings Editor is incredibly inclusive and gives you very fine control over the final output of your clips. OK, fine. Let's move on.
While you'll be in the main window most of the time, there's one last stop on our tour of the Episode interface that takes us outside of the heretofore one-stop shop: the Preview window. This is a pretty straightforward feature which allows you to preview (duh) clips before you do anything to them. If you double-click a clip either in the Job Batch or Source Bookmarks area, the Preview window will simply act as a player. However, if you apply a setting to a clip in the Job Batch and then hit the Return key (or right-click and select "Open in Preview"), the Preview window will let you see the results of the setting on a frame-by-frame basis (fig. 9). There's even a split view which lets you compare the original clip with how it will look when compressed. All in all, pretty handy.
Figure 9
So we've toured the Episode interface, and now it's time to answer what should be everyone's burning question: how fast does Episode do its thing?
Performance
Let's get right to some numbers. Now, I have limited resources with which to test, but I do happen to have a couple of Macs at my disposal, so I set up a test which should hopefully have some real-world meat to it. I took three source clips (a :14 animation file, a :49 DV clip grabbed from a camera, and a 2:06 piece of MPEG-4 video) and output each one three times. Since I tend towards online distribution, the three output formats were WMV, FLV, and H.264. Each clip was processed twice (once on a dual 2.0 gHz G5 with 2.5 GB of RAM and once on a 2.0 gHz Core Duo-based MacBook with 2 GB of RAM) using stock settings templates. Here are the results:
| H.264 | Flash 8 FLV | Windows Media 9 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animation Clip | Intel Core Duo | :47 | :25 | :35 |
| PowerPC G5 | :50 | :24 | :27 | |
| DV Clip | Intel Core Duo | 3:20 | 2:03 | 2:34 |
| PowerPC G5 | 3:40 | 2:19 | 1:55 | |
| MPEG-4 Clip | Intel Core Duo | 6:39 | 5:34 | 5:42 |
| PowerPC G5 | 7:20 | 6:47 | 4:26 |
With the dual caveats of "this is not a comprehensive or scientific test" and "your mileage may vary" prefacing the results, what I found was somewhat surprising. As expected, the Intel version of Episode showed increasing time savings as I compressed the longer clips to Flash 8 and H.264, but when it came to Windows Media encoding, the G5 won by several lengths. No, those aren't typos, and yes, I ran the tests multiple times: the PowerPC was the (much) faster chip for encoding Windows Media content in Episode. I'm not sure why this is, or whether the gap closes at all on newer Core 2 Duo or Xeon-based Macs, but at least in this case, the results were eye-opening. So for those of you who do a lot of Windows Media and/or Real Media encoding, it might be a good idea to hang onto that spare G5 for a while to run Episode on.
As a final performance note, I ran these tests on "clean" systems, meaning that nothing else was running other than the Finder and Episode, but it's worth noting that by no means are you locked into having Episode eat up all of your system overhead—simply check the "Low CPU Priority" option in the Preferences and Episode will keep your Mac relatively free for other tasks while it does what it does.
Figure 10
Wrapping up
In a nutshell, there's a whole lot to like in Episode Pro. It's sleek, streamlined, feature-laden, and reasonably fast. While I did have some issues (the inconsistency in the behavior of the Trash icons in the Browser, the lack of Real Media support on Intel-based Macs, the comparative sluggishness of encoding to Windows Media on Intel Macs, and the fact that Flash 8 output is a $100 add-on), the few shortcomings Episode has weren't enough to keep it from earning a very solid Strong Buy rating. Episode is available now from Telestream's Flip4Mac division, with Episode priced at $395 and Episode Pro running $895. In either case (as I may have mentioned mere moments ago), the Flash 8 option will run you an additional $100. There's also a free trial available, so I definitely recommend grabbing a copy and kicking the tires for yourself.
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