A new sub-€60 DVD player, the 8815 MP4 from German outfit elta, is among the first to support playback of video compressed using Nero Digital technology – the high-efficiency Codec and authoring system provided in the Nero 7 Premium disc-burning suite.
Nero Digital - co-developed by Nero AG and ATEME, a company that specialises in multimedia algorithms - is reckoned to make it quick and easy to create high-quality videos on Windows PCs and burn them to DVD for use in home cinemas.
It's good to be able to report that the Codec is a non-proprietary enhancement of MPEG4 that's said to compress files down to as little as one-fifth of their original size, allowing a single DVD to hold many hours of movies. Better still, it offers DVD-like features such as AAC audio tracks, surround-sound, chapters, and subtitles.
The elta player, due in store next month, comes with a CD containing test versions of three Nero programs provided in the Premium 7 suite. Nero Recode is for transcoding non-copy-protected videos into Nero Digital format, while Nero ShowTime is a player applet. Last of the bunch is the UpnP-compatible Nero MediaHome, for streaming video, music and pictures around the home.
Nero Digital is rather appealing. The honour of being the first certified player in the USA went to Avayon’s DXP-1000 – unveiled earlier this month at CES. This, too, comes with that trio of Nero trial apps.
For more about elta player – which carries a two-year guarantee - check out this link. As for Nero Digital and Nero generally, dive over here. And, if you'll like to know more about ATEME, just click on the name.
