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 Since Sorenson entered the Flash video market with Squeeze for Flash MX, competition has been fierce between Sorenson and Wildform. Scottmanning.com was able to talk to Ammen Harper, a product director for Sorenson, about Squeeze's acceptance in the Flash community, competition with Wildform's Flix, and what's in the future for Squeeze.
| Q: | How do you feel the Flash community's response to Squeeze for Flash MX has been? Negative? Positive?
 | | A: | Positive. We've had an overwhelming and a very positive response to Sorenson Squeeze for Macromedia Flash MX from the Flash community. We are in the process of traveling with Macromedia to various cities around the world on road shows to promote Studio MX and Sorenson Squeeze.
| | Q: | When Flash MX was released, Wildform released an article answering the question "What do we need Flix for?" This question has been asked by a lot of Flash developers especially on message boards and Wildform has spent a lot of time answering these questions. What do you think of the article and how it answers this question?
| | A: | I believe the article does a good job of promoting Wildform's Flix product, which I think was the intention of the article.
| | Q: | Other than that article, has there been any type of correspondence between Wildform and Sorenson?
| | A: | I'm not aware of any correspondence with Wildform in relation to this article. I'm also not aware of any correspondence with them in regards to them wanting to license the Spark SDK or work directly with us.
| | Q: | The areas in which Flix seems to be ahead of Squeeze are in its ability to encode video in SWF 3, 4 and 5 formats, and vectorize video. Squeeze seems to beat out Flix with its ability to actually add video effects to the SWF file when encoding (Contrast adjustment, fade in/outs, etc) and its ability to export to QuickTime. From a developer's perspective, one would prefer the best of both worlds. Is there a possibility for Sorenson and Wildform to work together in the future? Maybe a potential partnership?
| | A: | | "We've had an overwhelming and a very positive response to Sorenson Squeeze for Macromedia Flash MX from the Flash community." |
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I wouldn't agree that Flix's ability to support legacy SFW formats and vector video would place it "ahead" of Squeeze in relation to comparing what both product can do for Flash MX. While both products can export video to Flash MX, the two products are vastly different. As you know Flix has specialized in Vector Video, and has been doing this since 2000 for earlier versions of Flash. Sorenson Media on the other hand is the author of the Sorenson Spark video codec that has been integrated into Macromedia's Flash MX authoring tools and in the Flash Player 6. Sorenson has been focused for years at creating high-quality video codecs with the features that video professionals demand. Squeeze with Sorenson Spark Pro is a professional level video compression application with the functions and features conducive to professional quality video. It produces fewer compression artifacts, more vibrant colors, and cleaner high-motion playback. Below are some of the key differentiating features included with Sorenson Squeeze for Flash MX that enable you to achieve the best possible quality video for your Flash MX SWF or FLV video. - Sorenson Spark Pro - includes advanced motion detection and prediction to give you the highest quality for both low and high motion video scenes along with the smallest possible file size.
- Inverse Telecine - removes duplicate frames and interlaced artifacts from Telecined video source.
- De-interlacing - removes interlaced artifacts from NTSC and PAL video sources.
- Cropping - removes unwanted edges and/or borders which will also help reduce the overall file size.
- Normalize Audio - helps maintain consistent playback with audio that has a broad range of highs and lows.
- Video Noise Reduction - reduces video noise or film grain that may be present in video source material.
- Contrast Adjustments - makes the shadows darker, brightens highlights
- Brightness Adjustments - controls the lightness or darkness of the entire picture
- Gamma Adjustments - modifies mid range color tones leaving the extreme tones untouched
- Image Smoothing - removes and evens out blocky edges of the compressed video
- White Restore - selects the level at which all pixels will be set to white
- Black Restore - selects the level at which all pixels will be set to black
- Video Fade in/out - gracefully opens and closes the compressed video
- DV Capture - capture video files directly from you DV camera
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As for partnerships or potential partnerships with Wildform, no we haven't considered it a need at this time.
| | Q: | What's in the future for Squeeze for MX?
| | A: | Greater penetration! As our sales people travel with Macromedia on the road shows, seminars and events, we continue to hear that the Flash developers love the presentations, the ease of use of the product, and the quality they can get. However, the number "1" request we get for Squeeze for Flash MX, "can you lower the price?" These folks are on limited budgets and the $299 price is a little high for their wallets. We do our best to be a customer-oriented company. Effective today, we have changed our suggested retail pricing on Sorenson Squeeze for Macromedia Flash MX from $299 US to $119 US. Sorenson Squeeze for QuickTime will remain the same -- $299 US. We hope this pricing change will address the needs of our Flash MX customers and drive more people to use Squeeze and integrate their video into Flash MX.
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Related Links:
Interview: Wildform's Jonathan Blank |
