From greg@bottom Wed Nov 16 16:54:59 1994
From: greg@bottom (Greg Ward)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation,rec.video.desktop,comp.compression,alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: ANNOUNCE: MPEG Library Version 1.1
Date: 15 Nov 1994 02:45:18 GMT
Organization: McGill University Computing Centre
NNTP-Posting-Host: bottom.mni.mcgill.ca
Summary: New release of MPEG Library: more portable, but no added features.
Keywords: mpeg programming library video compression
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL9]

			   The MPEG Library

		   Version 1.1 - 14 November, 1994

MPEG decoding engine (c) 1992 The Regents of the University of California
Front end (c) 1994 Gregory P. Ward (greg@pet.mni.mcgill.ca)

The MPEG Library is a collection of C routines to decode MPEG movies
and optionally dither them in a variety of colour schemes.  Most of
the code in the library comes directly from the Berkely MPEG player,
an X11-specific implementation that works fine, but suffers from
minimal documentation and a lack of modularity.  A front end to the
Berkeley decoding engine was developed by Greg Ward at the Montreal
Neurological Institute in May/June 1994 to facilitate the development
of an MPEG player specifically for Silicon Graphics workstations; the
decoding engine together with the MNI front end constitute the MPEG
Library.


CHANGES
=======

This version does not add any new features, unless "reduced code size"
is a feature.  In particular, most dithering options have been made
subject to conditional compilation, so that if all you need is full
24-bit colour, you can save 60k-80k of code size.  

Also, it's now made clear that you need an ANSI compiler to build the
library itself, although non-ANSI compilers will work for building
programs that *use* the library.  I have no plans to support non-ANSI
compilers to build the library, though you're welcome to patch the
source, run unprotoize, whatever.


AVAILABILITY
============

The original Berkeley decoder is available as mpeg_play-2.0.tar.Z via
anonymous ftp from toe.cs.berkeley.edu, in the directory
/pub/multimedia/mpeg.  There is also a version with a Motif interface;
look for mpeg_play-src.tar.Z.  

Both the above-mentioned SGI-specific MPEG player (glmpeg_play-1.1.tar.gz)
and the MPEG Library itself (mpeg_lib-1.1.tar.gz) are available by
anonymous ftp from yorick.mni.mcgill.ca, in /pub/mpeg.  (Note that this
address is due to change to ftp.mni.mcgill.ca any time now, so be prepared
to try this address as well.)


FEATURES
========

The MPEG Library is essentially identical to the non-display portions
(i.e. about 95% of the code) from the Berkeley player.  The advantages
are a simple interface (consisting of five basic functions: OpenMPEG(), 
CloseMPEG(), RewindMPEG(), SetMPEGOption(), and GetMPEGFrame()) that
are well documented and easy to follow.  On the other hand, the full
range of dithering options available in the Berkeley player are 
not fully tested and in no way guaranteed to work.


--
Greg Ward - Research Assistant                    (greg@pet.mni.mcgill.ca)
Brain Imaging Centre (WB201)                         voice: (514) 398-1996
Montreal Neurological Institute                        fax: (514) 398-8948
Montreal, Quebec, Canada