NEWS • SEPTEMBER 11 , 2000
Terran's Cleaner 5 To Launch in October
Media Cleaner Pro upgrade brings interactivity to video

by David Nagel
Executive Producer
dnagel@digitalmedianet.com

Terran Interactive today announced it will ship Cleaner 5, the followup to its Media Cleaner Pro 4 video encoding software. According to Terran, the next version allows designers to embed interactive instructions directly into streaming media content. It allows for capturing, authoring, encoding and publishing of video files to the Web (or other destinations).

Users can capture video content from any DV camcorder and import it directly into Cleaner 5. It can also integrate with Media 100 i systems, as well as Adobe Premiere and Apple Final Cut Pro.

The software uses EventStream technology for building streaming media that controls all elements of a Web site. Using EventStream, Web designers can embed commands into QuickTime content to trigger events like graphics, Flash animations and Java applications and synchronize the events with the QuickTime content. This functionality is akin to what we've seen of Media 100 i, which goes so far as to allow region selection within individual frames that can trigger events inside or outside the streaming content. For example, a car in a movie chase scene can act as a sort of hyperlink that can be clicked to call up information about the car on top of the QuickTime or in a separate HTML frame.

In terms of encoding, Cleaner 5 supports all major streaming media formats, including RealSystem, Windows Media, QuickTime, MP3, AVI, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2.

New publishing features, based on a technology called StreamPublisher, allow users to put content up to a Web server from directly within the Cleaner application.

Cleaner 5 will begin shipping in October 2000 for $599. Existing Media Cleaner customers can upgrade to Cleaner 5 for $179. New users that purchase Media Cleaner Pro version 4 after Sept. 11 can upgrade to Cleaner 5 for $49 until Dec. 1.

The company also announced two options for Cleaner 5—Cleaner MPEG Charger and Cleaner MPEG SuperCharger, which provide optimized media encoding options for DVD, Video CD, CD-ROM and digital broadcasting. Cleaner MPEG Charger features include:

• Enhanced MPEG-1 encoding, complete MPEG-2 encoding;
• Support for one- and two-pass variable bit rate encoding;
• Settings for all popular MPEG encoding situations;
• Customization for virtually all aspects of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoding;
• MPEG encoding directly from Cleaner 5;
• Direct export from many video editing systems.

Cleaner MPEG Supercharger's features include:

• An additional single slot PCI board for accelerated MPEG-2 encoding within Cleaner 5;
• Complete MPEG-2 encoding;
• Support for one-pass variable bit rate encoding;
• Settings for all popular MPEG encoding situations;
• Customization for virtually all aspects of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoding;
• MPEG encoding directly from Cleaner 5;
• Direct export from many video editing systems.

The Cleaner 5 MPEG options will be available some time in the fourth quarter after Cleaner 5 ships. Charger and Supercharger will be available for $499 and $999, respectively.

Further products in the line, such as a Cleaner 5 Power Suite and an EZ version of cleaner, have not been announced. For more information, visit http://www.terran.com.

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