“We are pleased to offer cutting-edge SpursEngine video processing technology support for our TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress software. TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress plus Toshiba’s SpursEngine technology is a hard-to-beat combination for the fastest H.264 and MPEG-2 processing available today,” commented Tak EBINE, Pegasys CEO.

Toshiba’s SpursEngine, a co-processor that uses four Synergistic Processing Element (SPE) cores based on "Cell Broadband EngineTM”, offers high-speed calculations to perform the huge number of processes to transcode/encode standard video into crystal clear 1920x1080 High Definition (HD) video. It offers high performance media streaming, with a fast clock frequency of 1.5GHz, and a low power consumption range of 10W to 20W. It can also off-load decoding and encoding of MPEG-2 and H.264 from the CPU to SpursEngine devices. Currently supported SpursEngine devices include Leadtek’s WinFast PxVC1100 transcoding card, Canopus’ FIRECODER Blu card and select Toshiba Qosmio series laptop computers.

The TMPGEnc SpursEngine Movie Plug-in for TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress allows users to take control of the encoder circuits included in the SpursEngine and experience incredible output processing speed even with CPU demanding tasks such as high-definition video processing. Furthermore, everything that the SpursEngine cannot do, such as audio encoding or video and audio multiplexing, is handled by TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress itself. Users that also have an NVIDIA CUDA graphics card can see a speed increase of up to 200% compared to using the SpursEngine and the CPU for encoding and filter processing.

In recent benchmark testing using environment type 1 below: Test 1: Compares the duration of outputting the source file to MPEG-2 format using the CPU or the SpursEngine, with CUDA filters disabled or enabled. SpursEngine processing speed increased to 130%, and with CUDA enabled, speed increased to 286% compared to CPU-only processing.

Test 2: Compares the duration of outputting the source file to H.264 format using the CPU or the SpursEngine, with CUDA filters disabled or enabled. SpursEngine processing speed increased to 262%, and with CUDA enabled, speed increased to 588% compared to CPU-only processing.

Test 3: Compares the duration of outputting the source file to MPEG-2 format using the SpursEngine Super Resolution feature, with CUDA filters disabled or enabled. With CUDA on, the processing speed increased to 260% compared to when CUDA is disabled.

In a benchmark test using environment type 2 below: Test 4: Compares the duration of outputting the source file to H.264 format using the SpursEngine Super Resolution feature. SpursEngine Super Resolution output shows processing speed increasing to 514% compared to CPU-only processing.

Testing environments: Environment Type 1: Windows XP Professional SP3, Pentium D 2.8 GHz, 2GB RAM, GeForce 9600 GT/ForceWare 181.20, 7200rpm SATA2 x2 HDD, WinFast PxVC1100.

Environment Type 2: Qosmio F50/88G, Windows Vista Home Premium SP, Core 2 Duo P8400, 2GB RAM, GeForce 9600 GT/ForceWare 179.28, 5400 rpm x 1 HDD, integrated SpursEngine. *The SpursEngine™ integrated Qosmio functionalities are currently not guaranteed, nor part of our covered technical support service functions.

Source File: MPEG-2, 720 x 480, 4:3 aspect ratio, 3 minutes, VBR 4000 kb/s

Filter Processing: Picture resize, Video noise reduction, Smart sharpness

Output Settings: MPEG-2 Output: Blu-ray (BDMV), NTSC, 1920x1080, 16:9 aspect ratio, 29.97 fps (interlaced), CBR 32000 kb/s, Dolby Digital (stereo, 256 kb/s) audio encoding.

MPEG-4 H.264 Output: Main 4.1 Profile & Level, 1920 x 1080, 16:9 aspect ratio, 29.97 fps (progressive), 1 pass VBR 10000 kb/s (max: 15000 kb/s), CABAC video entropy setting, AAC-LC (48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s) audio encoding.

The TMPGEnc SpursEngine Movie Plug-In for TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress will be available in Q2, 2009. Visit the Pegasys Inc. website http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com  for the latest news on this exciting new product.

About Us: About PEGASYS Inc. PEGASYS Inc. makes digital video easy. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, PEGASYS was established in November 2001 with the release of TMPGEnc Plus -- the world's most popular MPEG-1/2 video encoding software and at the time, was the only freeware video encoder. The company's two flagship products, the TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress video encoder and the new TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4, anchor a strong line of retail and OEM digital video editing and encoding products for home and professional users.

The recognized leaders in developing quality video encoding tools for MPEG applications, PEGASYS Inc.'s encoding technology is also incorporated into numerous commercial and professional video editing and DVD-creation software products. PEGASYS software has been bundled with quality products from top global manufacturers, including Sony (Japan) and Pioneer. For information about PEGASYS Inc. and its products, visit the company's website at www.pegasys-inc.com.

Japan Headquarters:
Pegasys, Inc. 5F Grace Building Ryogoku 3-21-1 Ryogoku Sumida-ku Tokyo 130-0026