This chapter describes new and removed features in RealProducer 10. It also discusses upgrade issues if you have used an earlier version of RealProducer or Helix Producer.
RealProducer 10 succeeds Helix Producer as the primary tool for encoding RealMedia clips and live broadcasts. The following sections describe the new features introduced in RealProducer 10.
RealVideo 10 is the default video codec for RealProducer 10. It provides significant quality advances over its predecessors, RealVideo 9 and RealVideo 8. Clips encoded with RealVideo 10 exhibit greater clarity and increased smoothness of motion, particularly in fast-action scenes. You can stream the RealVideo 10 format with RealServers version G2 through 8, as well as Helix Server. These servers do not require any plug-in updates to stream the new content.
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Tip:
The RealProducer Plus command-line application
includes a -vco option that allows you to override the video
codec selected in the audience file. For details, refer to "Video
Codec Override (-vco)".
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For More Information: See "RealVideo 10 Codec". |
RealProducer 10 introduces new codecs for stereo music and stereo surround based on AAC encoding technology. These codecs replace older codecs based on ATRAC3 technology. Within the RealProducer graphical user interface, these codecs are designated as "RealAudio 10".
Many audience templates that formerly used the ATRAC3 codecs use the new RealAudio 10 stereo codecs at the same bit rates. The new codecs can encode any input acceptable to RealProducer, and can use any audio prefilter. You can use the encoded output for clips or live broadcasts. Note, however, that the RealAudio 10 codecs are compatible only with RealOne Player (an automatic codec update is required) and RealPlayer 10. Listeners using older players are prompted to upgrade when they attempt to play the content.
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Note: Stereo music codecs that encode at rates below 96 Kbps are not based on AAC technology. They are backwards- compatible to RealPlayer G2 or RealPlayer 8, depending on the precise codec used. For more information, refer to "5.1 Multichannel Audio Codecs". |
RealProducer 10 multichannel RealAudio codecs that enhance the Surround Audio technology found in RealAudio 8. These new codecs preserve the discrete, multichannel sound data in input files. The multichannel RealAudio codecs can use any audio data that includes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 channels, up- sampling the input as necessary to 6 channels. As found on DVDs, multichannel sound typically includes six discrete channels, commonly referred to as 5.1 channels. RealProducer includes the following predefined audience templates that use multichannel RealAudio by default:
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For More Information: See "5.1 Multichannel Audio Codecs" for details about multichannel encoding. |
RealProducer 10 includes a lossless RealAudio codec that faithfully
reproduces the full dynamic frequency of the input audio file while
compressing the output. The encoded clip, which is saved in the RealMedia
variable bit rate format (.rmvb), is typically around half the size of the input
file, though the compression rate varies with different types of input.
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For More Information: See "Lossless Audio Codec" for complete information. |
The audio delay compensation prefilter corrects audio shift when audio input is out of synchronization with a video's visual track. You must specify the use of this filter manually through a job file.
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For More Information: See "Audio Delay Compensation Prefilter". |
Using a job file, you can resize a video before or after other video filters are applied. This gives you the flexibility to resize the video at any point during the prefiltering process.
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For More Information: See "Video Resizing Methods". |
RealProducer introduces encoding complexity modes of low, medium, and high
that affect the RealVideo 9 and RealVideo 10 codecs, as well as the RealAudio
lossless codec. The default value of high produces the best possible results, but
also requires the most processing, resulting in the longest encoding times.
Lowering the complexity level to medium or low results in faster encoding
times, but reduced quality (for video) or a larger file size (for lossless audio).
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For More Information: See "Encoding Complexity Modes". |
Through the RealProducer command-line application or job file, you can create multiple RealMedia files for a single output clip. This allows you to overcome limitations on the size of a single file, which is typically 2 to 4 Gigabytes, depending on the operating system. You can create a new output file based on the length of the encoding time, such as every 15 minutes, or on the size of the encoded file.
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For More Information: See "File Destinations" for information about adding file rolling to a job file. The section "Output and Destination Options" explains how to set up file rolling through the command-line application. |
Helix Producer 9 introduced the use of multiple destinations, which is the ability to write the same stream to more than one destination. This allows you to write to two separate files, for example, or to broadcast a stream to a server while simultaneously writing it to an archive file.
RealProducer 10 introduces multiple outputs, which builds on the multiple destinations feature. Using multiple outputs, you can vary the encoding properties of the various destinations during a single encoding session. There are many uses for multiple outputs, such as the following:
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For More Information: You can define multiple outputs through the job file. For more information, refer to "File and Server Outputs". |
RealProducer 10 provides enhanced load management capabilities that help to ensure that encoding processes for live streams do not lag behind the live input due to CPU constraints. It provides detailed feedback about how it has reduced the broadcast stream quality to manage the encoding load.
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For More Information: See "Broadcast Load Management". |
The syntax of the job file has changed to make the file more extensible and robust. The new job file format uses generic XML tag names for inputs, prefilters, outputs, postfilters, and streams. For example, in an older job file, the black-level prefilter section looked like the following:
<blackLevelPrefilter> |
In the new job file, the black level prefilter section looks like the following:
<prefilter xsi:type="blackLevelPrefilter"> |
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For More Information: See also "Job File Versions". |
Version 9 of Helix Producer introduced the following features, which are included in RealProducer 10:
The following features, included with previous versions of RealProducer and Helix Producer, have been removed from RealProducer 10.
The RealVideo G2 codec has been removed from RealProducer. The RealVideo 8 codec is the oldest codec available in RealProducer, providing playback compatible with RealPlayer 8 and later.
As described in "RealAudio 10 Stereo Music Codecs", AAC-based codecs have replaced ATRAC3-based codecs for streaming bit rates above 96 Kbps for stereo and stereo surround music.
The following sections explain issues with upgrading to RealProducer 10 from an earlier version of Helix Producer.
On Windows, RealProducer 10 installs by default in a new directory:
c:\\Program Files\Real\RealProducer Plus 10 |
c:\\Program Files\Real\RealProducer Basic 10 |
RealProducer 10 does not overwrite previous installations of RealProducer or Helix Producer, and you can continue to use the older versions along with RealProducer 10.
RealProducer 10 uses a new job file format. It reads older job files and saves them to the new format automatically. You can also update older job files as described in the section "Job File Syntax Update".
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