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Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Notes

This document provides information that supplements the Expression Encoder 4 User Guide.

© 2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

GPU Encoding

Expression Encoder 4 SP1 adds the ability to utilize your GPU to improve your encoding performance. To take advantage of this, you must encode your video using the H.264 codec and have an NVIDIA CUDA version 1.1 or later card. In addition, you should make sure that you adhere to the following guidelines and suggestions:

  • For GPU encoding, Expression Encoder supports the NVIDIA GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla cards with CUDA v1.1 or later. For more information, see the CUDA GPU website. Make sure that you install the latest drivers from the NVIDIA website.
  • Matching the GPU to the right PC will ensure best performance ratio (for example, a high-end GPU for high-end PC, low-end GPU for low-end CPU). Cards with 96 or more CUDA cores, as well as 1GB or more of memory are recommended.
  • In order to ensure that you obtain optimum performance gains when using GPU encoding, you should consider opting for the faster pre-processing options available in Expression Encoder. You can find these options on the Enhance tab, in the Pre-Processing category, in that category, select Bicubic as the Resize Quality option and Auto selective blend as the Deinterlacing option. These settings provide much better performance with little, to no quality loss compared to the current respective defaults. For information on setting the Pre-Processing options, see the Expression Encoder User Guide.
  • GPU encoding requires that your GPU and CPU operate at the peak of their performance capabilities, so you should make sure that you have proper air flow in and around your PC, as well as an adequate power supply for the system.
  • For Smooth Streaming encoding, we highly recommend:
    • 4GB or more system RAM
    • 64-bit OS (and preferably Vista, Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7)
  • While we suggest keeping the number of streams encoded by the GPU to the default (5), some higher-end PCs might benefit from a moderate increase of this number. See the Expression Encoder User Guide for more information on this setting.
  • Direct access to the GPU is required, so service-based execution or access to the PC via HyperV or RDP will disable GPU encoding in most cases.

Screen Capture

You now have the option of disabling the capture of a layered window in the Screen Capture options. A layered window is a translucent, pop-up window that appears most often when you hover over a UI element, such as a button or icon. The layer window often contains information about the UI element. For example, a tooltip is a layered window. By default, when you perform a screen capture in Expression Encoder, you will capture the layered window. However, in some instances, during the capture, the pointer may flash as a result of the layered window being captured. Depending upon the version of your operating system, and whether you are using the Screen Capture application, or performing a live screen capture, you will now have the option of disabling the option to capture the layered window, which will then eliminate the pointer flash.

The ability to disable the capture of a layered window depends upon which of the below scenarios you are working in:

  • If you are working in Windows Vista or Windows 7, and you are using the Aero theme, you will be unable to adjust this option. The application captures the layered window by default in this scenario.
  • If you are working in Windows Vista or Windows 7 with the Aero theme disabled, or if you are working in Windows XP, you will be able to adjust this option.
  • If you are working in a Live Broadcasting Project, regardless of your operating system version, you will be able to adjust this option.

To disable the Captured Layered Window option if you are working in the Screen Capture application:

  1. Click Edit options (the gear-shaped menu in the title bar).
  2. Click the Screen tab.
  3. Click the Capture Layered Window box to deselect it.

To disable the Capture Layered Window option if you are working in a Live Broadcasting Project:

  1. In the Live sources tab, click Add device source.
  2. In the Video Device menu, click Screen Capture Source.
  3. Click Configure.
  4. Click the Capture Layered Window box to deselect it.

For more information on setting Screen Capture options in the Screen Capture application, or in a Live Broadcasting Project, please see Expression Encoder 4 User Guide.

If you encounter any other issues, please report them to the Microsoft Connect Web site.

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