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MillimeterDistribute Review: Inlet Technologies Fathom
Oct 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Reviewer: Jan Ozer
Encoding solution for multiple ouput formats.
Inlet Technologies Fathom handles a variety of video inputs and lets you output common formats such as VC-1, On2 VP6, H.264, MPEG-2, and AVI.
Inlet Technologies Fathom is a batch-encoding and file-analysis tool with extensive automation capabilities, great support for H.264 and VC-1 advanced encoding parameters, solid Blu-ray output, and very good closed-captioning support. If you're considering an encoder for heavy-duty shared use in an enterprise, Fathom should be on your short list.
Operation
Fathom's interface has four primary windows (see Figure 1). There's one large video window for post-encoding analysis; a Session Directory, which contains jobs to be encoded; the Encoding Queue, which contains jobs currently being encoded; and the Encoding Monitor, which displays statistics about the files being encoded.
You can also set up watch folders. Those with direct or network access to the watch folder can drop files there, and Fathom automatically encodes them. This is a nice technique for automating file encoding and for sharing program usage over a network. Also valuable is the ability to support open and closed captioning for most formats, which is unusual in this class of tool.
Figure 1. Fathom’s main interface. Note the file analysis tool on the bottom, which proved very useful during my tests.
The program can input MPEG-2 elementary, program, and transport streams, as well as GXF, AVI, QuickTime, and AVISynth scripts. That's a nice range of options that can dramatically expand the input formats and filters available to Fathom users. If you need support for live capture to file, Inlet offers several capture hardware options, such as analog and SDI input. Fathom supports most common output formats — including VC-1, On2 VP6, H.264, MPEG-2, AVI, and image thumbnails.
The basic building block for the program is a job, which is a combination of a template, input file, and target output file. The program ships with about 130 templates for live and file-based encoding to Blu-ray, DVD, CableLabs, multiple devices, and all relevant web formats that you can modify and save as your own.
Once you start a job, you configure all encoding parameters by working through seven tabs on the left of the Job window (see Figures 2 and 3). This includes general, input, output, sizing, compression, processing, and captioning. To me, the options are generally plentiful and straightforward, such as the useful ability to select in and out points for files selected for encoding. The only exception was the resizing controls, which I found awkward and confusing. Specifically, when you input a file, you have to manually input the file's pixel aspect ratio, which most other programs can derive from the file itself.
Though you can access a guide by right-clicking the screen, even the guide is confusing. For example, the guide advises you to enter a pixel aspect ratio of 11:10 for 16×9 input, when the true aspect ratio of my primary 16:9 acquisition format, HDV, is 1.33. If Fathom can't derive aspect-related information from the file header or file itself, Inlet should rework this interface, perhaps by allowing users to choose the input format from a simple list box. That said, once you figure it out, you've figured it out, and it's more irritating than significant.
Filtering options include four de-interlacing methods, noise filtering, and the abilitiy to add front and rear bumper files and to insert a watermark over your video. You can also generate thumbnail frames from your video at specified intervals.
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