The Jahshaka Project has announced the release of jahplayer 0.2.0. This update bring them closer to a final release and includes a host of critical updates that will please existing users and provide a more stable and satisfying experience to those new to this open source project.

JahPlayer is a professional grade media player capable of playing uncompressed video and image sequences at resolutions as high as 2K and 4K in real-time and features a robust set of image analysis and asset management tools. Jahplayer uses a completely hardware accelerated pipeline, allowing you to maintain the aspect ratio of the source media or change it on the fly, and is capable of both disk based playback and ram based playback.

It has a variety of professional features including:

• Variable frame rate control
• Real-time aspect ratio control
• RGBA color channel views
• A & B media playback channels with both A/B & A|B playback
• Full audio support (including audio only tracks)
• Real-time hardware based pan and zoom
• Dynamic edit points stored in the database
• Dynamic thumbnail generation
• GPU based visualization tools (RGB parade)

Jahplayer supports a wide variety of media formats from AVI to Mpeg and QuickTime and has powerful image sequence management with support for JPEG, TIF, TARGA and the latest HDR formats, including EXR and DPX. It can also down sample 4k images to 1k or 2k, and includes extensive encoding functionality to allow you to transcode media  to and from a variety of different formats (including output to DV, MPG and FLV).

With its dynamic python based UI, jahplayer allows you to work at any resolution or screen size, or toggle over to full screen, 16:9 mode for HD client review sessions! Jahplayers unique reel based asset management system allows you to create and track multiple reels on the fly, and loading media is as easy as just dragging your assets straight into the timeline. You can choose between asset data views, exploded filmstrip views or even a multi-shot reel based timeline!

Along with Jahplayer you now also get jplayer, a miniature version of the jahplayer with all the same power and functionality in a sleek package! jplayers desktop integration and ease of use gives you one tool to play back all your media files, with full support for everything from DivX to QuickTime, AVI and Mpegs.

Jplayer sports real time pan and zoom, is resolution independent, can be run from the command line, has HDR sequence support, and includes a dynamic, real time video wall that can be used for the playback of multiple shots, color grading or digital dalies.

Jahplayer is designed as a professional media player with support for uncompressed video and image sequences at resolutions as high as 2K and 4K in real time. The software aims to provide a robust set of image analysis and asset management tools while allowing users to maintain or change the aspect ratio of source media on the fly. Jahplayer supports disk- or memory-based playback, and features variable frame rate control alongside RGBA color channel views. Jahplayer is available for download from the Jahshaka project website, and requires Mac OS X with versions for OS X PPC and OS X Intel.

Jahshaka - the parent application - is the worlds first OpenSource Realtime Editing and Effects System. Jahshaka takes advantage of the power of OpenGL and OpenML to give its users exceptional levels of performance. It currently supports Linux, OsX, Irix and Windows, with Solaris is on the way! Jahshaka is licenced to the public under the GNU GPL agreement.

Creative Planet's Digital Production BuZZ interviewed Karsten Becker - Chief Technology Officer/Founder, JahShaka Project in June 2006.