Harmonic Improves Video Encoding at Low Resolutions for Mobile Video

Harmonic introduced a new approach to low resolution encoding for mobile video on DiviCom Electra MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) compression platform. Harmonic is now supporting ultra-low bit-rates in formats including QVGA and SIF with the Electra 5400 standard definition (SD) H.264 encoders. This solution is designed for lower resolution applications such as video delivery to automobiles via satellite transmission or IP-based streaming to the PC and handheld devices.


Harmonic's Electra H.264 encoding platform employs a number of technologies, including video pre-processing, dynamic noise reduction, full multi-pass hierarchical "LookAhead" compression and IP-based statistical multiplexing to deliver video quality at very low bit-rates. The multi-pass LookAhead process was pioneered by Harmonic and uses a dedicated H.264 compression processor to fully analyze incoming video content and proactively apply highly efficient encoding strategies.


Harmonic said that by exploiting its multi-pass architecture and noise reduction processing, mobile resolutions on the Electra platform offer significantly improved video quality in comparison with the DSP-based alternatives utilized for QVGA encoding today. In addition to SIF and QVGA, Harmonic's compression platform will be able to scale to support a number of additional resolutions, including QCIF and SQCIF.http://www.harmonicinc.com