Squeeze Pro 9 transcodes faster, spits out HTML5 page

IT Enquirer by Erik Vlietnick

A week ago Sorenson Media released Squeeze 9, a new version of their transcoding app. Squeeze 9 has several new features, a new interface design, and should be much faster. I tested it and got some unexpected results.

You can’t accuse Sorenson Media of standing still. They’ve updated Squeeze 8 on a regular basis, introduced a server and an inexpensive Windows server-based solution and with every copy of Squeeze you’ll also get access to their 360 service.

But Squeeze 9 is a big leap forward in more than one way. When I read the press release on the new interface and then got to actually see it, it didn’t exactly correspond to what I expected — the changes are much smaller than the wordings would make you think. Based on that press release alone, I anticipated to see same small changes throughout the rest of the application, but luckily for those who need to use this program on a daily basis, I was wrong.

Yes, the interface has changed, yes it has become more efficient, more logical, but it’s not new. OK, so Sorenson Media told me they didn’t want to drastically throw away the old as too many people would be lost. Makes sense, but being a Mac user my initial understanding of “new interface design” automatically made me think of a breach between the old and the new — sort of like what you saw with OS X pre-Lion and post-Lion. read more...