Information

MVC (Multiview Video Coding) is a new amendment to the H.264/AVC standard that allows you to generate stereoscopic and multi-view 3D video streams. It is also an essential part of Free Viewpoint Video (FVV), the interactive selection of viewpoints as well as direction within an operating range (a virtual view, not an available camera view).

After the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) approved and released the new “Blu-ray 3D” specification, multiview video coding has generated a lot of interest in the content and content delivery markets. Right now more and more movies are produced in 3D for enhanced entertainment. There is also a steadily increasing number of cinemas that are able to present movies in 3D. In the near future, users will also want to watch these 3D films in their living-room or on a PC. Many companies have recently announced plans to release TVs, monitors and Blu-ray players with 3D playback capabilities. Now it is up to the content community to deliver larger amounts of compelling 3D content to satisfy the needs of the home entertainment market.

The Reference MVC transcoder includes presets to generate Blu-ray 3D compliant streams that can be played back by any Blu-ray Player and TV supporting 3D content playback. The MainConcept Blu-ray 3D / MVC Encoder is based on the current H.264/AVC Encoder implementation, and includes all of its features. Up to 10 layers are supported, i.e. the different views are encoded as different layers to provide a 3D depth impression of the current picture. In this standard, the encoder receives “N” temporally synchronized video streams and generates one bitstream out of them, i.e. two separate views are coded together. For 3D encoding, it generates one layer for the left and one for right eye.

For the overall Blu-ray 3D experience, Reference MVC now also comes with a FULL version of the Dolby Digital Professional Codec Plug-In for audio. Now you are able to generate real Blu-ray 3D compliant video as well as audio content. Customers who are already purchased the Reference MVC Beta 1, please send an e-mail with your name, copy of your invoice and Reference MVC serial number to sales(at)mainconcept.de to get the free update to Dolby Digital Professional as well.

For a limited time only, MainConcept will be selling the Beta version of this upcoming product at a special discounted price. All Beta version customers will be upgrade for FREE to the release version of the product with all the new features and functions upon launch of the product.

The Reference MVC Beta is a standalone transcoder, but can be unlocked in the familiar way by using a serial number. It does only support MVC and Blu-ray 3D, resp. All other codecs you know from the regular Reference 2 application are not included. However, you can install the current Reference 2 version on the same system, and work with it and its other codecs in parallel.

The new Reference MVC Beta 2 now also comes with a powerful set of Decoding filters allowing 3D playback with GraphEdit.

Developers please also note our MVC SDK 1.0 for creating your own applications and solutions supporting Blu-ray 3D and Multiview Video Coding, resp.

Features

Blu-ray 3D/MVC Encoder

• NEW: Now with Dolby Digital Professional Codec included.
• NEW: Complete set of Decoding DirectShow filters for 3D playback in GraphEdit.
• Ready-to-use Blu-ray 3D transcoder application
• H.264 settings structure for each view
• MVC Encoder Advanced Settings dialogs to optimize the quality of your video streams
• Ready-to-use Blu-ray 3D profile for amazing 3D experience
• Stereo and Multiview profile
• Single-/multipass encoding for each view (CBR and VBR)
• HRD model conformance
• I, P, B frames in base view
• P and B frames in dependet views
• Split views/stream capability
• Configurable offset meta data SEI
• Backward compatible to the broadly accepted H.264/AVC standard (base view)

Manual

High-Resolution Manuals:
In order to keep the file size reasonable, MainConcept Reference MVC Beta includes a user guide with low-resolution graphics only. However, we make high-resolution manuals available for free download separately below, in zipped Adobe® Acrobat® format (Currently only available in English).

English manual for Reference MVC
(1.05 MB)

Tech Specs

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

Operating System:

• Microsoft® Windows® 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7
  (We recommend to always install all current Service Packs for your operating system) // Microsoft® DirectX 9.0® is required.

Others:

• MainConcept Reference MVC is a standalone application, i.e. Reference 2.1 does not need to be installed. Both versions can work simultaneously on your system.

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

Update

Reference MVC Beta 2 comes with the following new features, improvements and fixes:

• Demo AAC/MPEG Audio Encoders have been removed, because they are not compliant with the Blu-ray 3D specs.
• Missing DirectShow filters for 3D playback in GraphEdit now included.
• The full version now includes Dolby Digital Professional encoding to guarantee Blu-ray 3D compliance from the audio side.
• Although the "Split views" checkbox in the advanced MVC settings was disabled, you always got two separate files (Base View and Dependent View).
• During multi-view input import you now have the possiblity to select which file is used for which view.
• Added feature to select the name and location of generated *.mmf file.