Aachen, Germany and Pinner, Middlesex, England - February 7, 2006 Bluefish444, a leader in uncompressed video cards for the Windows operating systems, and MainConcept, a leading provider of codec technology and video applications, today announced the compatibility between MainConcept's DirectShow filters for compression codecs and Bluefish444's DirectShow filters. | 
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Compatibility between Bluefish444 and MainConcept's SD and HD compression codecs include MPEG providing MPEG-1, MPEG-2 LGOP and I Frame only, H.264, DV, DVCPro, and MJPEG 2000, and cover a range of professional video, Prosumer and digital cinema applications. Numerous OEM developers utilize the range of Bluefish444 video cards for many types of OEM applications. Until recently, most of these used uncompressed media. For many OEM projects, however, it is preferable to use compressed video, as it requires reduced disk space needed for storage, particularly for HD, as well as reduced data rate across transmission paths.
Also, in the past many video cards used hardware codecs to avoid overloading the host CPU; the disadvantage of this method was the associated cost. With the increased power of host CPUs, however, the trend has been towards the use of software codecs, which both reduces cost and allows for flexibility of design. If a new codec is created, then it can be used simply be changing the software, and it is also possible to use multiple codecs in one design. MainConcept produces a variety of video compression engines; these codecs are available as DirectShow filters. Bluefish444 announced its DirectShow filters approximately 18 months ago. For example, using a tool such as Microsoft's GraphEdit, it is easy to construct a Graph using the Bluefish444 and MainConcept DirectShow filters, and enable the user to capture or output video from the Bluefish card using compressed media. This can be achieved in minutes.
The GraphEdit tool can be used as a prototyping workbench, testing different DirectShow filters and codecs, and from the results of these tests a DirectShow application can be created. Jonathan Fall, European OEM Manager, Bluefish444 Europe, states, "We're very pleased to announce compatibility between Bluefish444 products and MainConcept. This offers up numerous options to OEM developers to both meet current and develop new applications, and will be beneficial to the marketplace with new and innovative offerings."
"Bluefish444 is well known for reliable high quality products. Our high quality MainConcept software codecs perfectly complement Bluefish's hardware solutions," said Markus Moenig, founder and CEO of MainConcept. "Their products are excellent and we are happy to play a part in their success."
About Bluefish444 Europe
Headquartered in England, Bluefish444 Europe is the master distributor for all Bluefish444 and Digital Voodoo products for the European market. For further information contact: Bluefish444 Europe, Joel Street Farm, Joel Street, Pinner, Middlesex, HA5 2PD, United Kingdom Telephone +44 (0)20 8429 8345 or visit the Bluefish444 Europe website www.bluefish444europe.com
About Bluefish444
Bluefish444 is a division and brand name of Digital Voodoo (Australia) Pty Ltd. based in S. Melbourne, Australia. It is a leading supplier of uncompressed video cards for the Windows operating systems. Its video cards are used by a number of OEMs specializing in broadcast solutions. By continuing to work with workstation vendors and resellers, Bluefish444 has made it easier for end-users to purchase off the shelf Windows based editing, animation and compositing solutions making sure that the hardware is optimized for SD and HD solutions. For more information on Bluefish444, please visit the Bluefish444 website www.bluefish444.com
or www.bluefish444europe.com
About MainConcept
MainConcept is a worldwide leader in codecs and video editing technologies for personal computers, set-top boxes and various DSP-based solutions. The company offers SDKs which make it easy for companies to implement codecs and other multimedia features with minimal research and development. MainConcept also has a line of innovative end-user video editing and compositing software which is also available for OEM bundling. MainConcept AG is headquartered in Aachen, Germany, where it was founded and has operated for 12 years. The U.S. subsidiary, MainConcept LLC, was established in 2001 in Beachwood, Ohio. In 2002 Technology Joint Corporation (TJC) located in Osaka, Japan, became the exclusive MainConcept distributor for the Asian-Pacific region.
Additional information is available at www.mainconcept.com.
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