Media Transcoding and Analysis Version 2011.3 for Vantage 3.0 Release Notes Vantage About This Release Media Transcoding and Analysis 2011.3 (version 11.3.530.81083) is a maintenance release of the Transcoding and Analysis components for Vantage 3.0 (and later). This release includes a number of new formats and features (some of which were previously available as patches).in addition, this release includes over two hundred minor improvements, including bug fixes and responses to customer requests. Installation in a Vantage Environment Note: (March 28, 2012): There are known issues with encoding h.264 video essences in the Vantage IPTV and h.264 encoders in Media Transcoding & Analysis Version 2011.3.530.81083. An update to the Media Transcode and Analysis Engine is available to fix these issues; please contact Telestream Customer Support to obtain this update. Note (February 14, 2012): The structure of the Panasonic P2 file format has changed considerably since P2 support was introduced in Vantage, such that Vantage generated files do not play on modern P2 devices. Support for P2 file generation has been removed from this release. Support for current P2 devices will be introduced in a future release. To install this update in your Vantage environment: 1. The update should be installed on each Vantage Transcode and/or Analysis node in the cluster. 2. Ensure that no transcoding or analysis jobs are running on your Vantage server. 3. Stop the Analysis and Transcode services on the Vantage server. 4. Uninstall the current version of Telestream Media Transcoding and Analysis. 5. Install the Media Transcoding and Analysis update. 6. Reboot the Vantage server. Note: If the Vantage Transcode service fails to start, or takes a long time to start, after this upgrade, you may be seeing an issue with the WebM encoder that has been observed on a few systems. Unregistering this component from the system will rectify the problem; please contact Telestream support for assistance. Note: This upgrade will revert certain registry changes required for Caption extraction and DolbyE decoding from PitchBlue sources. Please contact Telestream support for further assistance.
Note: If your maintenance has expired and you upgrade your Vantage system, it will not function after the upgrade. Version 2011.3 requires you to obtain a new license from Telestream if your maintenance expiration date is February 10 th, 2012 or earlier. Please contact license@telestream.net to verify that your maintenance is current and to obtain the new license.
New Features in this Release Adaptive Streaming AppleHLS. Support for encoding to the Apple HLS adaptive streaming format is now available in Vantage. Microsoft Smooth Streaming DRM. Support has been added to allow Microsoft Smooth Streaming files to be generated with PlayReady DRM. Avid Support Decode of Mixed DNxHD Essence QuickTime files exported from Avid systems. QuickTime files exported from Avid systems frequently have mixed DNxHD essence types. Support has been added for decode of these files. Note: This feature requires that the Avid QuickTime codecs are installed on each transcode node. This feature is supported for Avid generated QuickTime files only and must be specifically enabled via a change to the Windows Registry(contact Telestream Support for details). MXF Stitching MXF support for TSEDL workflows. Stitching of MXF wrapped MPEG2 sources is now supported through the Vantage TSEDL feature. Note: An additional identify step is required to use MXF in an EDL workflow with the Vantage Workflow Portal. Please contact Telestream support for more details. Pipeline Support Tifo In / Out Metadata. Tifo decoding now supports IN and OUT frame metadata from Pipeline generated Tifo files. Open QuickTime decode support. Transcoding open QuickTime source being generated by Pipeline is now supported. New Video Codec Support Multi-PassH.264 Encoding. The capability to do multi-pass H.264 encoding has been added to the IPTV, H.264 and 3GP Advanced encoders. EVS New Formats. Added support for decode and encode of DNxHD and DVCProHD for EVS MXF. QuickTime AVC Intra support. Added support for encode and decode of QuickTime MOV wrapped AVC Intra.
LXF AVC Intra Support. Encoding and decoding of AVCIntra in Harris LXF is now available. MXF AVC Intra Decoding. Support has been added for decoding AVC Intra from OPAtom MXF sources. Omneon DNxHD encoding for PAL Frame rates. This is now fully supported. Audio Support R128 Loudness Analysis. Vantage Analysis now includes EBU R128 and ITU B.S.1770-2 Loudness Analysis with relative gating. HE-AAC Encode in IPTV. Encoding of HE-AAC audio is now available in the IPTV encoder. Dolby E Decode flexibility. The transcoder now supports the ability to simultaneously decode and pass-through multiple tracks of Dolby E audio from source files. Multiple AAC tracks in MP4. The H.264 encoder now supports generation of up to four tracks of AAC audio in an MP4 container. Ancillary Data and Metadata Support Timecode, AFD and ARC for Omneon AVC Intra. Insertion of Timecode, AFD and ARC data in Omneon AVC Intra MXF files is now supported. Omneon Audio Track Tagging. Support for adding Audio Track Tag data has been added to the Omneon encoder. Other itunes file support. Header data in ProRes MOV files generated by the Final Cut Pro encoder now fully supports itunes submission requirements. Improved PitchBlue support. Support for decoding of files from the PitchBlue system has been improved. This includes improved transcode speeds and better resilience to errors and discontinuities in these files. Down Convert Filter. Now available in Vantage.
Fixed in this Release Issues fixed in the 2011.3 release include: FF-8177 Fixed Reference Clock errors in Mpeg1 System Streams FF-8161 Transcodes failing on servers with certain AMD Opteron CPU s FF-7337 and FF-7101 - XDCAM compliance issues FF-6498 Improved Mpeg2 video quality when encoding HD at low bit-rates FF-5959 Improved handling of QuickTime files with Edit Lists FF-8273, FF-7926, FF-7686, FF-7684, and FF-7764 - Fixed various SCC insertion issues. FF-8536, FF-8585 Decode of ProRes from Pipeline on the MAC and Final Cut Pro was failing. FF-8429, FF-8586, FF-8759 Problems making progressive ProRes outputs.
Known Issues in this Release These are known issues present in the 2011.3 release: Encode and Analyze action RPC errors There are known issues with encode and analysis actions that occasionally fail with an RPC error but succeed when the workflow is re-run. These issues may affect only specific machines and operating systems running specific workflows. We have made a number of changes to address these issues in 2011.3, however occasional failures may still occur. FF-8452 Encoding and decoding of MPEG2 and H.264 fail on machines with 32 or more CPU cores. PitchBlue Issues We have received a very small number of PitchBlue delivered files that still have audio issues when transcoded. However, the vast majority of issues for PitchBlue sources have been fixed. Encoder Compatibility Issues There may be issues with this update and certain encode actions in Vantage. If you use the affected encode actions please verify that the actions complete successfully after this update. If any of these encode actions fail after the upgrade, please delete and re-insert the action in your workflow. There are known compatibility issues with the following encode actions: Microsoft Smooth Streaming Encoder Harris LXF (MPEG2 HD codecs only) FF-8522 R128 True Peak measurement and44.1 KHz source measurement are not working. A patch is available for true peak measurement. FF-8060 Microsoft Smooth Streaming DRM does not work on older operating systems. DRM encryption libraries from Microsoft only work on Windows Server 2008; please upgrade to this OS if you require PlayReady DRM encryption for Smooth Streaming. FF-6919 Known issues with HD encodes failing in QuickTime H.264 codec on certain machines, this is an inherent issue with the QuickTime API from Apple that we can t rectify. We recommend using the H.264 option in the Final Cut encoder in these cases. FF-7879 - Applying Video Fade -in and Fade-out Filters in Vantage causes encode actions to fail. QuickTime 7.7 Issues Issues have been reported when using the Apple 3GP and Apple MPEG-4 encoders with QuickTime version 7.7. Please verify that output files from these encoders are good if installing QuickTIme 7.7. Please also refer to the Vantage 3.0 Release Notes for additional Known Issues! NOTE: Please test before upgrading your production environment It is always advisable to run a separate copy of this new build, staging your production workflow in a test environment, before updating your Vantage production server. Telestream can provide you with a limited license in order to configure and qualify this new release in a test environment prior to upgrading your production server. For assistance email Telestream Support support@telestream.net or call our technical support team at 877-257-6245 in North America or 1 530-470-2036 outside of North America.