Encode Once, Display Anywhere
One of the more powerful featues of JPEG2000, and probably one with the least amount of awareness, is the ability to extract multiple resolutions out of a single bitstream. From a video encoding viewpoint, this is a very instrumental feature when you consider the potential change in content distribution models this can enable.
For the sake of time I need to keep this post relatively short, so I will skip the technical detail. But I will revisit this post with additional content once we get past the upcoming NAB show.
The JPEG2000 format enables you to encode content layers that can be extracted to various device geometries or varying image dimensions. This would allow a content owner to create a single source file by which to deliver content from everything to a digital cinema projector down to a cell phone. The device would only extract the content it requires, such that the datarate for a digital cinema projector would be large while the cell phone would be rather small. But the real magic is that it is able to pull this content from a single source bitstream.
If you were the owner of this content, this would considerably reduce the cost and security surrounding multiple masters and/or transcoding for various devices. It would also give the content creator ultimate control over the quality of the final product. Now how’s that for cool.
By the way, we are working on building a demonstration for this functionality for the NAB show in April. Details forthcoming!