HMAUS Signal Supporting Macintosh and Apple Users in Hawaii

Review by Frank Petrie

Product: Sorenson Squeeze 5
Author: Sorenson <www.sorensonmedia.com/>
Binary: Separate installers
Requirements: N/A
Price: $499.00
Test Rig: MacBook 1.83//4GB RAM/10.5.2

For those of you who haven’t figured it out, I am the host and producer of the bi-weekly video podcast, The Video Sandbox. The trickiest part of a video podcast is squeezing the file down to a manageable size for download. Today we look at Sorenson Squeeze 5, the watermark for codecs.

THE JUICE

Launch the application and you’re presented with a very intuitive screen. You have the simplicity of taking three steps to compress your product for publishing: import your file, chose your compression and click the “Apply Button.” But this simplicity belies the extreme customizing and power that Squeeze 5 presents you with. You can also output content in all the popular formats including: Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

You can pick from literally dozens of nested presets. You can mix and match your audio presets with your video presets. As in my case, I use the iPod large. I simply point it to the chosen file, click the apply button and then the “Squeeze It” button. A couple of hours later, my 25 minute show is ready for uploading.

Why a couple hours? Video compressions are probably the most taxing task that you can charge your computer with. At the end, some compressors output a ’soft’ picture with an OK audio. But Squeeze 5 outputs a sharp, clear picture with crisp, robust audio.

The Windows version is exactly the same, so if you use one platform at the office and a different one at home, you’ll still be working in the same environment.

THE PULP

Nada.

THE RIND

Nada.

SUMMARY

Squeeze 5 is an excellent product and worth every dollar. And if you feel limited by its choices, you can always move up to the Pro version. Either way, I recommend that you try it out for a while. There are more goodies than I can list here. I guarantee that you’ll be very impressed with its output.

Its nice to know that quality never goes out of style.

RATING : 10 of 10

©2008 Frank Petrie

Posted under Reviews