USA - Telestream (www.telestream.net) announced the availability of Episode 6.3 video encoding software. Support for the x264 video codec brings higher-quality H.264 encoding to all Episode software products. In addition, Telestream makes it easier for post-production companies, artists and editors to access Episode’s extensive range of high-quality encoding capabilities by providing direct integration with Autodesk editing and finishing software, such as Smoke and Flame.

“With this release, Episode continues to add value in post-production environments with its high-quality format support and ability to easily create file-based deliverables, including distribution and mezzanine formats, as well as digital masters,” said Barbara DeHart, vice president of marketing at Telestream.

The x264 codec is widely recognized in the industry for producing the best H.264 video quality. With the addition of this codec, Telestream continues the tradition of bringing high-quality video encoding to all Episode users.

Deep system integration with Smoke and Flame makes Episode the only encoder in its class to enable browsing, monitoring and transcoding directly from the Autodesk software. Direct integration makes it easier for Smoke and Flame users to access the powerful, scalable encoding capabilities of Episode products. For creative facilities, Episode allows editors and artists to easily offload encoding tasks to other systems or to centralize functions on an encoding cluster.

Episode® provides the highest-quality video transcoding in its class for the entire digital post-production workflow, from camera to delivery, with remarkable speed, powerful controls and cross-platform scalability at an affordable price. Best-in-class video processing, 10-bit encoding, and fine-tuning compression combine to maintain pristine picture quality throughout the production process. Optimized codecs, multi-thread processing, parallel and distributed encoding enable ultra-fast encoding speeds. Collaboration and clustering are at the core of Episode's design, allowing users to easily join Mac and PC computers together to share encoding work among workstations.