From Issue #3 , Page #88 | By Chris Arndt

High-definition hits the home computer realm thanks to Mircosoft's Window's Media 9.

Windows Media 9—it's a floor wax and it's a dessert topping. Well really, it's neither. Windows Media 9 is Microsoft's all-in-one audio/video encoder/decoder/player suite that's easy enough for the casual computer user, but packs the power that the big-gun companies need to stream movies over the Internet and via satellite to your home entertainment center's set-top box.

THE WM9 DIFFERENCE

WM9 is the latest super-sized incarnation of Windows Media Player, the staple included with the Windows operating system or available for a free download from Microsoft, and used for watching videos or playing music on your PC.

From the PC user's point of view, what's new in WM9 is digital rights management (DRM) in a fairly transparent fashion. DRM is a way for content providers to inhibit casual pirating of their material, while still allowing qualified users to watch or listen to it.

When you try to play something protected by DRM, whether downloaded or played off your hard disk or a CD, WM9 will check your computer for a license to do so. If you don't have the correct one, WM9 will go to the Internet and try to secure it. In some cases, the license is free, or you may be asked to register or pay a fee. DRM also has viewing options, from only once, to time-limited, or a number of plays.

Thus, not only does DRM give content providers a way to protect their product, it can give them a continuing revenue stream from it, and provide feedback on users.

But WM9 isn't just the player that runs on your computer; it's much more than that. WM9 includes the encoding or compression specification and software as well as the decoder spec and software. Combined, these two are sometimes called a "codec" for CODer/DECoder. Codecs are used to compress a video or audio stream so that less bandwidth is needed to transport it. In TV terms, that means that more channels can be fit into the same space.

WHERE IS WM9?

The WM9 codec is making its way from the desktop PC world to mainstream entertainment like television. Rainbow DBS, LLC has selected the WM9 codec as one of its suite of encoders for it's new Voom satellite-delivered high-definition television (HDTV) service. Currrently, Voom is delivering 36 channels of HDTV and 80 standard channels via satellite. The WM9 codec wasn't ready for action when Voom launched in October 2003, so they are currently using an older compression standard called MPEG-2 for their broadcasts.

If Voom already has a codec working, why switch? Marc Tayer, technology strategy for Voom, explains that WM9 will allow Voom to increase their compression efficiency by a factor of two. This means that more channels could be sent over the same satellite, or that one channel could be transmitted at higher quality, or a combination of both. Either way, the viewer benefits from more choices and/or better pictures and sound. Current Voom subscribers won't be left out either. Tayer points out that the Voom receiver has a slot for future upgrades, which will be provided via a hardware card or cartridge. This way, Voom can employ the latest in decoder technology chips without obsolescing existing equipment.

Akimbo is another big proponent of the WM9 codec. Akimbo is one of the first content providers to stream high-quality video over the Web for viewing on your regular TV. Even with high-speed broadband connections, most people don't have enough connection speed to view the stream "live" as it's sent over the Net. With Akimbo, the stream is sent to your set-top box where it is recorded to be watched later.

Neither Voom or Akimbo are using WM9 to send HDTV quality shows—yet. The technology is still too new, and appropriate hardware decoder chips are still not widely available. Even though they might be using or planning to use the WM9 codec for their transmissions, that doesn't mean than you as a PC user will be able to watch them on your PCs. The decoder is built into the set-top box or satellite receiver, where the actual codec used is transparent to you as the subscriber. In fact, WM9 is only one of at least three codecs Voom is using, the others being the older MPEG-2 and newer MPEG-4 AVC.

MICROSOFT OPENS UP

In order to capture the attention of companies like Voom and Akimbo, Micrsoft has made the WM9 codec an open standard. Open standards are publicly published and easily licensed ways for companies to use something like a codec.

And don't think that WM9 is so complex that only big companies and high-tech wizards can use it. The Windows Media 9 Encoder is available as a free download from the Microsoft Web site. It will run on current personal computers and Windows operating systems like Windows 2000 and Windows XP. And running it is really pretty easy; a home operator can use the WM9 encoder to record and/or stream video and sound from his or her desktop with little trouble.

WM9 MEASURES UP

We live in a part of California in danger from wildfires. In the past, I have used a streaming audio program called ShoutCast to send fire traffic audio from a radio scanner in our home on to the Internet. Setting it up was not intuitive, and it took me several hours of experimentation to get it all running so that someone could connect to it over the Internet and listen in.

Recently I tried the same hardware setup that I used with ShoutCast with WM9. From the time I started the download until the time I was listening to the scanner on a different computer took well less than an hour. While I haven't used the video portion of the encoder yet, other scanner streamers on the Net do use that feature of WM9 to transmit the image of their computer's scanner control program which actually shows the channel and frequency to which the connected radio is tuned.

Microsoft's WM9 looks like a winner. They seem to have covered the based with DRM, and done the right thing by making the WM9 codec an open standard. The more users, the merrier!

Compression Confusion

Codecs are a way of compressing pictures, video and sound. Just like an air compressor stores more air in a smaller space, compressed computer files take up less storage space and less bandwidth when transmitted, while still maintaining their overall original look or sound. This is done by removing redundant or repetitive information, or by removing detail that would otherwise be unnoticed anyway. Imagine a scanned photograph of a landscape scene, with lots of sky and grass. One way to compress that picture would be, rather than record every blue pixel in the sky, record it once per scanned line in which it appears, then make a note in the file to repeat that color again X number of times.

For the grass, which has more detail, but is overall a mix of greenish shades, reducing the number of shades of green used to recreate the picture would also reduce the picture size. Now, imagine doing this 30 times per second, for each frame of a TV show or movie.