Microsoft Corp has announced Video for Windows, in answer to Apple’s QuickTime moviemaking program released last year. The new package incorporates Intel Corp’s Indeo system and compression decompression technology from Fremont, California-based Media Vision Inc. It contains tools for playing back, editing, creating and incorporating compressed digital video into applications running under the Windows operating system. Unlike former digital video desktop systems it does not need expensive add-in boards – although you get what you pay for, and video quality will be pretty poor without accelerator boards. For basic video, it will run on any Intel 80386 or 80486-based personal computer, under any implementation of Windows 3.1 – from the Modular system for consumer devices to Windows NT for workstations. Intel’s Indeo code makes the system scalable, automatically adjusting the quality of the video in accordance with the performance and configuration of the computer being used. Microsoft believes this also sets Video For Windows apart from other digital video products requiring users to choose between expensive hardware-assisted products, or software-only products that only play small video clips. Indeo also enables software-only playback on 80486-based personal computers or with hardware using boards based on Intel’s 80750 video processor. Video recording on the personal computer is possible by adding a video camera and a board using Intel’s video processor chips. Video for Windows includes the following components: an enhanced Media Player that enables users to cut, paste and play back digital video sequences under Windows; VidEdit, an easy-to-use video editor; VidCap, a tool for capturing digital video from videodisks, video cameras or videotapes; three compression decompression algorithms offering a range of compression ratios, frame rates and colour depths; a CD-ROM disk containing hundreds of sample video clips that users can incorporate into their documents. There is a Browser enabling users to search through and manipulate the video clips and a Video for Windows Converter that converts Apple QuickTime video for playback in the Windows environment. The Video for Windows architecture makes use of the Object Linking and Embedding and multimedia capabilities of Windows 3.1.
Inherit video capabilities
This means that over 150 Windows-based applications, like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Mail, and third-party applications, like WordPerfect and Lotus Notes will automatically inherit digital video capabilities. Video for Windows extends the Windows architecture with the following components: a common file format for video information, Audio Visual Interleaved; a standard interface for installing additional software and hardware coder-decoders; and standard interface for video capture hardware. More than 50 hardware and software vendors have announced products compatible with Video for Windows. They include hardware manufacturers Dell Computer Corp and Digital Equipment Corp; video tools developers Adobe Systems Inc and Asymetrix Inc; and media companies Brittanica and Viacom Inc. Minimum system requirements for playback are a personal computer with 16MHz 80386SX processor up running Windows 3.1; a Windows-compatible audio board; a VGA display 256-colour or greater is recommended; and a Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device. Video capture requires a personal computer with 33MHz 80386SX or higher processor running Windows 3.1; a 5.25 or 3.5 high-density disk drive; a hard disk with at least 50Mb of storage available; Windows compatible audio board; 256-colour VGA display; a video capture board and device driver; a video source, such as a camcor-der, VCR or videodisk player; and a Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device. Video for Windows is $200.
