Real time, professional grade, 1 RU, quick starting, standards compliant, embedded Linux® based, remotely manageable, SD or HD, MPEG-2 Encoder and Streamer relying on an HD-SDI card and a "minimal" Linux® kernel (residing in a flash memory device) that is highly reliable and coupled to a friendly GUI that can be run from anywhere. The SoftCoder MPEG-2 HD-SDI/IP™ runs on an advanced Intel® Xeon® processor. Multiple IP Streams support UDP or RTP via Unicast or Multicast. Audio output is MPEG-1 Layer II, optional MP3, and/or optional “SurCode for Dolby Digital” AC-3. We encode the primary stream to multiple resolutions at .1 to 15 Mbps at most any GOP size, frame rate, refresh rate, or aspect ratio. As mentioned we can simultaneously create high, medium, and low bitrate streams to hand off. Supports stream scheduling and optional archiving.