Information

Creating Blu-ray Disc compliant streams is one of the major tasks that are expected from a transcoder software. Using the new MainConcept Blu-ray Codec Bundle allows users to generate H.264/AVC video and Dolby Digital Professional audio streams, that are compliant with the Blu-ray standard.

H.264/AVC (Advanced Video Coding), also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, is one of the mandatory video codec formats for Blu-ray Disc creation. It offers amazing quality while needing as little as half the bitrate and file size than MPEG-2. MainConcept Reference Blu-ray Codec Bundle supports all standard and advanced features of the H.264 specifications including Baseline, Main and High Profiles as well as CABAC and CAVLC.

The Codec Plug-In includes a powerful capture engine* that allows you to capture from camcorders, webcams, etc. in their native or another format if available. Besides the Blu-ray Disc H.264/AVC standard, Reference Blu-ray Codec Bundle supports the following formats:

• AVCHD
• Adobe Flash F4V
• Sony PSP
• Apple iPod
• 3GP for Mobile Devices

As audio format, Blu-ray Codec Bundle includes Dolby Digital Professional. Also known as AC-3, it is the worldwide standard for Blu-ray Disc creation. Dolby Digital Professional delivers unrivaled audio in home theater systems for an exciting, enveloping surround sound experience. Dolby's surround sound technology that delivers high-quality digital audio for up to 5.1 discrete channels (L/C/R/LS/RS/ LFE), offering a wide range of parameters for optimizing your AC-3 streams, such as more coding modes and a wider range of supported bitrates.

Many powerful audio and video filters, such as color correction, timecode insertion, audio normalization, etc. make Reference 2 the perfect transcoding tool for every Blu-ray Disc production environment that requires professional quality and performance.

*Capturing is only available in Reference for Windows.

The full license codec Plug-In provides unrestricted H.264/Dolby Blu-ray support. When purchasing the full license Plug-In, you will receive a serial number to unlock the appropriate codec in the free MainConcept Reference 2 base application. The base application must be installed on your system.

Features

• Easy creation of streams that are compliant with the H.264 Blu-ray Disc standard.
• No other encoder offers so many H.264/AVC advanced settings for optimizing the streams' picture quality.
• Create suitable encoder settings with Reference that can also be used in the renowned MainConcept Codec SDK – a cost effective approach to define ready-to-use presets in your own solutions
• Numerous ready-to-use presets for the most important devices and formats currently on the market.
• H.264/AVC is the most suitable video format for streaming media content over a network in highest quality.
• Up to 5.1 level Baseline, Main and High profiles.
• Available Bitrates: up to 20 Mbps.
• I, P, B slices. One picture can comprise slices of one type only. Pyramid structure is enabled.
• Resolution: Up to 5.1 Level restriction (36864 macroblocks).
• Chroma Format: 4:2:0.
• Intra modes: 16x16 and 4x4 for luma, 8x8 for chroma.
• Inter modes: 16x16, 16x8, 8x16, 8x8, the Skip mode for P- and B-frames, Spatial Direct mode for B-frames.
• CABAC/CAVLC according to profiles restriction.
• Multi-reference Inter Prediction.
• In-loop (deblocking filter).
• Interlace support: Up to 5.1 level Baseline, Main and High Profiles.
• Multi-pass encoding.
• Capturing from many different devices in their native format and H.264/AVC (Windows only).
• Subtitle support.
• Useful Watch Folder and Batch List Encoding features.
• Configurable preset shortcuts for quick access to often used transcoding profiles.
• Many powerful video and audio filters for different production environments and occasions.
• Improved user Interface for better handling and managing of transcoding jobs and projects.
• New advanced Video/Audio Encoder and Multiplexer Settings dialogs with many useful options for optimizing your footage.
• Direct access to import modules when opening streams for transcoding.

Manual

High-Resolution Manuals:
The documentation of MainConcept Reference is included in the demo version. However, it can also be downloaded separately to give you an overview of the powerful transcoding application. The high-resolution manual is available for free downloading below, in zipped Adobe® Acrobat® format. Currently, only the English version is available.

English manual for MainConcept Reference
(8.83 MB)

Tech Specs

To use MainConcept Reference 2, you'll need to make sure that your computer system meets at least these minimum requirements:

Operating systems:

• Microsoft® Windows® 7, XP, Vista and 2000
  (we recommend to install always the current Service Pack for the used operating system), Microsoft®  DirectX 9.0®.

When you want to use MainConcept Reference within a network, please contact your local sales representative at sales(at)mainconcept.com.

Upgrade

The new version Reference 2.2 comes with the following fixes and improvements:

• Resolved crash when using a JPEG2000 DCI preset for transcoding.
• CUDA H.264/AVC Encoding now included in the Windows and Mac OS X applications from the start.
• Capturing to MPEG-2 Custom preset with Dolby Digital Professional results in audio stream only clips.
• Transcoding JPEG2000 Elementary Stream containing more than 1024 frames causes error.
• Crash of Capture module when capturing to custom VC-1 preset with MPEG TS muxing from a DV camcorder.
• Capture crash on 64-bit systems resolved.
• Sony PSP H.264/AVC file errors fixed.
• MPEG-4 Part 2 import problems (video stream) solved.
• DVCPRO 50 encoding issues resolved.
• Batch encoding issues with Custom MPEG-1 profile resolved.
• LPCM audio stream in MPEG PS import problems fixed.

Upgrade to Reference 2 – 50% Special Discount on the First Order:

For a limited time only, MainConcept is offering Reference 1.x customers a 50% discount on the first order for Reference 2 Codec Plug-Ins.
Whether you want to order just one Reference Codec Plug-in only, or you want to order the entire set of Codec Plug-Ins, you get a 50% discount on your first order.

Why upgrade? With Reference 2 you get powerful new features including:

• Capture functionality
• New preset structure for quick access to the most important presets.
• Subtitle rendering support for *.srt and *.sub files.

For details on how to get your 50% discount, e-mail your name, a copy of your invoice and the Reference 1.x serial number to sales(at)mainconcept.de. Take advantage of this limited time offer today!