IBM improves Toolkit for MPEG-4

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Update: September 28, 2004

Version 1.2.3: Improved performance for XmtBatch conversion. Various minor bug fixes and minor enhancements.

What is the IBM Toolkit for MPEG-4?

The IBM Toolkit for MPEG-4 consists of a set of Java^TM classes and APIs with five sample applications: three cross-platform playback applications and two tools for generating MPEG-4 content for use with MPEG-4-compliant devices. These applications are as follows:

• AVgen: a simple, easy-to-use GUI tool for creating audio/video-only content for ISMA- or 3GPP-compliant devices
• XMTBatch: a tool for creating rich MPEG-4 content beyond simple audio and video
• M4Play: an MPEG-4 client playback application
• M4Applet for ISMA: a Java player applet for ISMA-compliant content
• M4Applet for HTTP: a Java applet for MPEG-4 content played back over HTTP.

Since the toolkit is Java-based, the client applications and the content creation applications are cross-platform and will run on any platform that supports Java.

The above applications are provided as demonstration of this toolkit. Those who experiment with these applications and are interested in creating their own applications can license the technologies.

How does it work?

AVgen and XmtBatch tools combine independently coded MPEG-4 media objects into an MPEG-4 file.

AVgen can be used to generate audio- and video-only content and optionally "hint" it for delivery over RTP/RTSP transport for both ISMA- and 3GPP-compliant devices.

XMTBatch provides more comprehensive authoring facilities using MPEG-4 Systems, including graphics, animation, and user interaction.

The XMTBatch tool creates MPEG-4 binary content from the high-level textual descriptions created in the XMT (Extensible MPEG-4 Textual Format in XML) standard. It supports content created in the high-level format XMT-O (based on the SMIL 2.0 syntax and semantics) as well as the low-level XMT-A format (based on the X3D, VRML in XML). The XMTBatch tool also provides transcoding functions for instance transforming from WMF (Windows Meta File) format to MPEG-4.

M4Play renders MPEG-4 content created by the above tools. The M4Play application can render the following file types:

MP4: ISMA-compliant
MP4: including MPEG-4 Systems
AVI: MPEG-4 Simple Profile video (such as Divx, Xvid) with MP3 audio.
MPEG-4 Simple Profile video (.cmp, .m4v, .263)
AAC Low-Complexity Profile audio (.aac, .adif, .adts)
MP3 MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 Layer 3 audio (.mp3)

IBM Toolkit for MPEG-4 consists of a set of Java classes and APIs with Five sample applications: three cross-platform playback applications and two tools for generating MPEG-4 content for use with MPEG-4-compliant devices. Version 1.2.3 contains improved performance for XmtBatch conversion, various minor bug fixes and minor enhancements.

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