How the Magic of Beamr Beats SSIM and PSNR

Every video encoding professional faces the dilemma of how best to detect artifacts and measure video quality. If you have the luxury of dealing with high bitrate files then this becomes less of an “issue” since for many videos throwing enough bits at the problem means an acceptably high video quality is nearly guaranteed. However, […]

Connecting Virtual Reality with the History of Encoding Technology

Two fun and surprising brain factoids are revealed that connect virtual reality with the history of encoding technology. Bloomberg featured a Charlie Rose interview with Jeremy Bailenson, the founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. Not surprisingly, the lab houses the sharpest minds and insightful datasets in its discipline of focus: Virtual Reality. […]

2016 Paves the Way for a Next-Gen Video Encoding Technology Explosion in 2017

2016 has been a significant year for video compression as 4K, HDR, VR and 360 video picked up steam, paving the road for an EXPLOSION of HEVC adoption in 2017. With HEVC’s ability to reduce bitrate and file sizes up to 50% over H.264, it is no surprise that HEVC has transitioned to be the […]

Before you evaluate x265, read this!

With video consumption rising and consumer preferences shifting to 4K UHD this is contributing to an even faster adoption rate than what we saw with the move to HD TV. Consumer demand for a seamless (buffer-free) video experience is a new expectation, and with the latest announcement from HEVC Advance removing royalty uncertainties in the […]

Patent Pool HEVC Advance Responds: Announces “Royalty Free” HEVC Software

HEVC Advance Releases New Software Policy November 22nd 2016 may be shown by history as the day that wholesale adoption of HEVC as the preferred next generation codec began. For companies like Beamr who are innovating on next-generation video encoding technologies such as HEVC, the news HEVC Advance announced on to drop royalties (license fees) […]

Shows Without Safety Nets: The Lasting Appeal of Live TV

Live video streaming is certainly popular these days, but it’s not a new concept. Instead, it hearkens back to a beloved form of 20th-century entertainment: live scripted television. In fact, this type of non-news, non-sports programming endures to this day. Live TV Enthralls a Nation During the 1950s, comedies and dramas on TV were often […]

The State of Commercially Available 4K UHD Services

In a recent article we did a little investigative research on the state of 4K and four significant trends: The upgrade in picture quality is significant and will drive an increase in value to the consumer – and additional revenues for services. Competitive forces are operating at scale – Service Providers and OTT distributors will […]

We Need a Revolution of 4K!

Don’t panic or stop reading, we used the word ‘revolution’ in the title and though admittedly it’s provocative being less than a week from the US Presidential elections, we are talking about entertainment and TV, not politics. Cue the massive sigh of relief here… Our story starts with a recent article published in PC Magazine […]

Immersive VR and 360 video at streamable bitrates: Are you crazy?

There have been many high-profile experiments with VR and 360 video in the past year. Immersive video is compelling, but large and unwieldy to deliver. This area will require huge advancements in video processing – including shortcuts and tricks that border on ‘magical’. Most of us have experienced breathtaking demonstrations that provide a window into […]

4 Facts about 4K

We recently did a little investigative research on the state of 4k and here are four highlights of what we found. To start, as an industry, we’ve been anticipating 4K for a few years now, but it was just this past April that DIRECTV launched the first-ever Live 4K broadcast from the Masters Golf Tournament. […]