Happy Machines releases the first 3ivx public preview decoder New 3ivx codec makes higher quality video through 56k modems possible December 19, 2000- Happy Machines released on December 15, a test decoder of their new video compression technology, called 3ivx. With this codec it is possible to use the existing networks to deliver higher quality video. Possible uses such as news reports and live events are now viewable on low speed connections. "Innovation is our motivation. Because there are so many 56k modem users today, we want to give them a real television experience instead of those flickering images you can see today. On the other hand we see the broadband users waiting for video on demand and other high quality video services. Our product gives content owners and network providers the tools to deliver." said Dirk Laureyssens CEO of Happy Machines Since the start of the project 3 months ago the 3ivx.com web-site received millions of visitors looking for information on the development of the product. The 3ivx advantages are: - Great compression - Great quality - Available on all major platforms very soon (Windows, Macintosh, *nix (including Linux), BeOS and Amiga) - Can be streamed, progressively downloaded, or downloaded On the technical side this translates into: - Adaptive Quantization Artifact Reducation - Automatic Keyframe Detection and Insertion - Variable Keyframe Detection Thresholding - Variable Maximum Delta Spans - Variable Motion Search Range - Advanced Coding Efficiency - Variable Quality Rates - Variable Frame Rates - Variable Size - High Quality Colour Space Conversion - Full, Half and Quarter Pel Motion Compensation - N-dimensional HyperVop Architecture - Based on the MPEG4v3 ISO standard - QuickTime Compatible, able to be used in any QuickTime Application Availablilty: The public previews of the 3ivx decoder for windows and for macintosh are available immediately for download from http://www.3ivx.com/ or the mirror site http://www.hollywood.org/mirror/. Test movies can be found on our content site http://www.hollywood.org/3ivx/. Happy Machines also referred to as the Think-Tank is a small Belgian company with an extremely creative team and an international network of inventors, software and hardware developers, designers in various fields such as imaging, satellite communications, artificial intelligence, machinery etc., which has contacts with top-manufacturers worldwide. The company is also member of the MPEG-group and is an Immarsat partner. It is orientated on project development and related intellectual properties. 3ivx Site: http://www.3ivx.com/ Mirror site: http://www.hollywood.org/mirror/ 3ivx content: http://www.hollywood.org/3ivx/ Press Contacts: Jan Devos Happy Machines +32-3-2816858 jan@3ivx.com http://www.3ivx.com/pr/ © 2000 Happy Machines n.v.