ArcSoft @ CES 2013
I saw a few new applications and some cool technology demos at ArcSoft’s booth the most interesting was naturally TotalMedia Theatre 6 (TMT6) for Windows 8 “Metro” UI. Unlike CyberLink’s touch focused player, this player is x86 with ArcSoft waiting to see if RT reaches critical mass before investing in ARM ports of their codec/container technology. There is a version of TMT6 for the desktop planned, but won’t be available until much later in the year.
UDPATE
It looks like there will be a TMT6 for the desktop (coming sooner than I noted) and although the “Metro” app was sporting TMT6 branding will not be labeled this way when it arrives – more on the next page.
Click through for some galleries and a video of what ArcSoft was showing at CES 2013.
TMT6 for “Metro”
Besides the usual universal media player we expect ArcSoft really takes advantage of touch in this version of TMT6, with the ability to browse videos and scrub to very specific time points during playback.
UDPATE
The “Metro” player will not be branded with a “6” and will be focused more on the OEM channel, so it might not make it into the W8 Store. Also, there will be a TMT6 for the desktop coming “early this year” as an improved version of TMT5, offering disc playback from three interfaces: desktop, WMC & a “Metro”-ish touch UI.
Screen+
Screen+ is essentially Miracast/WiDi for devices that lack support for these technologies using transcoding and DLNA to push the screen to connected devices.
Live Presentation
Not home theater related in any way, but still very cool (why I put it here). This product lets you insert/manipulate the audio/video streams during a video call to create really slick webinar style presentations in real time or before hand, as well as record a presentation for playback later.
Magic Cut
Another not-really-home theater-releated demo, but like the previous one really slick because it enables a “green screen” experience without the need for a green screen.
Hi Andy,
Sorry, haven’t
Hi Andy,
Sorry, haven’t really had time of late to keep up with everything, so slowly digging myself out. Can I assume that TMT 6 would have Cinavia enabled (I believe at some point this was enabled in TMT 5)? If so, do you feel there is really much room for growth. In particular I can’t see TMT 6 being a viable option for tablets in that case (W8 or RT) since a physical drive won’t be present (if you assume the market for TMT 6 narrows down to just users who use physical discs in their HTPC).
If you have a BD license, you
If you have a BD license, you have to support Cinavia. There is no way around that. If that’s a concern you will need to use a BD-Lite player or some other format to avoid the issue.
TMT 6 for Metro does not supprot ODD playback, MS removed the ability to do access the ODD drive from Metro applications. The main benefit is that it supports containers(MKV) and codecs (MPEG2) that aren’t included in W8 OOTB as well as providing a single UI for managing media.
I don’t know where they will take TMT6. HEVC support is a possiblity (TBC I don’t have any specific knowledge, just making stuff up), but I agree that TMT5 is a pretty solid product so there might not be much of a delta.
From what I read from the
From what I read from the Arcsoft forums, Cinavia is already in TMT 5 latest build, and will be present in all future versions.