Sorenson Squeeze 6 Reviewed

Videomaker by Douglas Dixon

Stand-alone compression tool to automate your work and package projects with advanced options - now with integrated delivery online, notifications, and review and approval process.

Compression used to be just the final step in video editing - you'd export each clip from your video editing software to the final delivery format, and then go off to bed as your machine was tied up crunching away. These days, compression has been decoupled from editing with components like Apple Compressor with Final Cut Studio and Adobe Media Encoder with Premiere Pro, which provide more control over managing and scheduling your compression work.

Today, compression is more of a separate process, focused on readying clips for delivery, in multiple formats to multiple destinations. And there's another step beyond outputting files-actually delivering the resulting clips to their final destination.

This is the model for Sorenson Squeeze 6, released in November 2009, with expanded support for automating the encoding process, plus a new end-to-end workflow for delivery, even including a review and approval cycle. Squeeze is still available in multiple versions: Squeeze 6 for Flash is $499, based on Sorenson's background in online delivery formats (FLV, SWF, MPEG-4), and the full Squeeze 6 is $799 (adding MPEG-1 and 2, MOV, WMV, and variants).

As an encoding engine, the new version of Squeeze supports additional compression formats including AVC-Intra, WMV with VC-1 for Blu-ray Disc and Microsoft Silverlight, and QuickTime export formats, and boasts five times faster encoding for On2 VP6 and H.264. It also adds new video enhancement filters including RGB, Tint, White Balance, and Timecode. read more...