Encoding - Page 2

One area where Microsoft has really differentiated themselves from Real has been in tools and support. Microsoft has produced some great tools for creating Windows Media and has made sure they are easily available for download. They have also posted complete libraries of technical details to their site for free access.

Real has only given away the most basic of tools and charges developers to get access to various service levels in order to get complete technical data.

This difference has allowed Microsoft to gain mindshare with streaming media developers. Let's take a look at some of the tools Microsoft has produced as well as tools from third party software developers.

Windows Media Encoder 7: WMP7 is latest version of the Windows Media Encoder, though version 8 is currently in beta. The encoder allows you to create both live and on-demand encoding.

Notice that "Convert an audio or video file into a Windows Media file" has been selected. This will allow us to convert the AVI file to Windows Media .ASF or .WMV format. It should be noted that MPEG files and other ASF files could also act as source files.

The next screen allows us to choose the source AVI and name the WMV file that will result from the encoding.

Once the files have been named the program will prompt you for how the server will be configured. Windows Media files can be streamed from an HTTP server or from the Windows Media server using the MMS protocol. Streaming from a HTTP server should be avoided as it is not as efficient and the log files are not as complete.

Now you are prompted to choose the bandwidth at which the stream will play. There are numerous pre-prepared settings for everything for 28.8 modems to T1 lines. If you would like a custom configuration this can be done also.

Once selected you will need to fill in some information regarding the video itself as well as copyright information. This will be embedded in the video and will appear in the stand alone Windows Media Player during playback.

When "Finish" is clicked the encoding will proceed and the finished WMV file is produced! The screen below is displayed during encoding that provides lots of information on the encoding and the finished product.

Microsoft also produces another tool called Windows Media On-Demand Producer that has is used exclusively for on-demand production and includes no live encoding capabilities. In addition to encoding, it also allows you to chapterize video so that users can jump around like they would on a DVD. It also allows the developer to embed URLs in the stream that make synchronized slide shows possible with Powerpoint slides.

Windows Media On-Demand Producer is a fairly robust tool that can do a lot more than just add URLs to the stream. It works with your video capture card, if you have one on your computer, to capture video directly into the program or you can load in source WAV files or AVI video files as we are doing. The scripting you create, including the Commands, can be imported and exported between files making it easy to reuse. Many templates also ship with WMOP that allow you to encode at common speeds. If you don't like the templates you can also modify them.

Windows Media Encoder 7 is a good choice for encoding single videos. WMOP is a good choice for adding interactivity such as chapterizing and slide shows, but what happens when you want to encode 100's of videos a day and doing them one at a time is too slow!

Windows Media: Encoding and Serving
Windows Media: Encoding and Serving
Third Party Software - Page 3