Kinoma has released the first major upgrade to its popular video solution for the Palm OS with Kinoma Player 2 and Kinoma Producer 2. Kinoma Player is currently bundled with handhelds from Palm, Sony, and Tapwave.

Kinoma Producer 2 allows users to take desktop video with them on their handhelds. It features a new user interface that has been streamlined and made more visual to ease the process of video encoding. It supports stereo audio, higher video bit rates, and widescreen video at up to thirty frames per second. Kinoma Producer 2 can also encode video at lower bit rates for Internet delivery directly to Palm OS 5 handhelds with an Internet connection.


Kinoma Producer 2

Kinoma Player 2 has a new high resolution user interface, adds support for interactive movies and the playback of Kinoma movies directly from the Internet. It also allows users of widescreen handhelds from Sony, Palm, Tapwave, and Garmin to hide the text input area to make more room for video. Stereo audio playback is available on all Palm OS 5 handhelds. On the Tapwave Zodiac, Kinoma Player 2 can use Tapwave's graphic acceleration to speed video playback. And on Bluetooth enabled handhelds, users can now exchange Kinoma movies over Bluetooth.


Kinoma Player 2

Kinoma Player 2 is free and is compatible with Palm OS 3.5 or later. Kinoma Producer 2 costs $30 and is available for Windows as well as Mac desktops. Current Kinoma Producer owners may upgrade to the new version for $20 until the middle of November.