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Windows Media Encoder 9 Series provides frame-accurate control while capturing and encoding from digital video (DV) cameras. The encoder also includes a New Session Wizard that makes it easy to start encoding.
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Michael Patten Microsoft Corporation December 2006
Applies to: Microsoft® Windows Media® Encoder 9 Series
Contents
IntroductionUsing Microsoft® Windows Media® Encoder 9 Series, you can control devices such as digital video (DV) cameras directly from the encoder. This enables you to control the play, pause, stop, fast-forward, rewind, seek, and eject functions of your device directly from the encoder. To enable device control, your device must be connected to an IEEE 1394 digital video port on your computer.
Device control provides frame-accurate control over the content you are encoding. Another great advantage of using device control is that you can also create an edit decision list (EDL) to arrange and encode specific sections of clips from one or more DV tapes in any order you want. An EDL enables you to save time by only encoding sections of the tape you need.
Device control supports one- or two-pass encoding. With one-pass encoding, the content passes through the encoder once, and compression is applied as the content is encountered. With two-pass encoding, the content is analyzed during the first pass, and then encoded in the second pass based on data gathered in the first pass.
Two-pass encoding can result in higher-quality content because the encoder has more information available to find the optimal combination of bit rate, frame rate, buffer size, and image quality based on the scene composition. However, two-pass encoding takes longer because the encoder goes through all of the content twice. By combining device control and two-pass encoding, you can capture and encode in one step rather than having to capture to an uncompressed file first, and then perform two-pass encoding on the file.
You can download Windows Media Encoder 9 Series from the Encoder Web site.
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Getting StartedThe first step in encoding content is to set up an encoding session that specifies the source you are encoding and how you want to distribute the content. In addition, the session specifies the encoding mode and compression settings to be used during encoding. The following procedure describes how to source from a DV camera and encode the content to a Windows Media Video (WMV) file.From the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to Windows Media, and then click Windows Media Encoder. The New Session Wizard will be displayed. Or, to display the wizard, click New Session on the encoder’s toolbar. Turn on your DV camera and set the camera to VTR mode. Check that the camera is connected to an IEEE 1394 port (sometimes called FireWire or i.LINK) on your computer. In the New Session dialog box, click Capture audio or video and click OK.  Note If the Auto Play dialog box appears after you turn on the camera, click Take no action, and then click OK.
On the Device Options page, select your DV device for both video and audio, and then click Next. On the Output File page, specify the path and file name for the file you are creating, and then click Next. Note When encoding to a file that will be saved to a computer running Windows Vista, click the Browse button, browse to the folder where you will store the file, and append the file name to the path, as shown in the following screen shot. Typing a path in the File Name text box will cause an error. For more information about the error, see Article KB929182 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
On the Content Distribution page, select File Archive, and then click Next. The wizard provides several predefined encoding settings based on common distribution scenarios. You can select the option that matches how you plan to distribute your content. The File archive setting uses quality-based variable bit rate (VBR) encoding, which is a one-pass encoding mode. On the Encoding Options page, select the quality level of both the audio and video portions of your content. Keep in mind that the higher the value you select, the higher the bit rate and file size will be. We recommend that you experiment with different levels to determine the optimal quality level for your needs. For this example, we will select VBR 75 for video and VBR 50 for audio. Click Next. On the Display Information page, enter title, author, copyright, and other information as appropriate, and then click Next. This information is optional. On the Settings Review page, clear the Begin capturing when I click Finish check box, and then click Finish.
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Setting up an EDLThe next step is to set up an EDL. An EDL enables you to specify, by time stamp, the exact place within your audio or video content that you want encoding to begin and end. You can add as many EDL entries as you want in any order—not necessarily in the order in which they occur in the tape. You can also set up an EDL that sources from multiple tapes. If you do so, the encoder will prompt you when it is time to change the tape during encoding.In the Monitor panel of the encoder, click the EDL tab, and then click Edit EDL. The Device Control Properties dialog box is displayed. In the Device area, click Play to begin playing the tape. You can also begin playing the tape at a specific point by using other playback controls on the dialog box, such as the Seek to, Fast Forward, or Rewind controls. When you find the frame at which you want the clip to begin, click Mark In. Click Play. When the tape reaches the point at which you want to stop the clip, click Mark Out. If you are using several tapes, provide a unique ID (such as 1, 2, 3, or A, B, C) in the Tape ID box for each tape. Verify that the time codes and duration of the clip are correct, and then click Add EDL Entry. Repeat steps 2 through 6 to add more clips, if necessary. When you are satisfied with the list, click OK and then, on the toolbar, click Start Encoding.
The encoder will automatically rewind the tape and locate the first clip in your EDL list. At that point, playback and encoding will start. During encoding the General, Statistics, and EDL tabs on the Monitor panel display status information.
After the encoding has finished, you can view the output file. If you decide to change some encoding settings, you can easily do so and then encode the EDL again. This makes it easy to experiment and find the optimal balance of file size and compression settings.
You may notice that, even after the DV camera has stopped, the encoder is still processing. The content is being captured at a high data rate and it is possible that the encoding process may fall behind. When this occurs, the encoder drops frames in an attempt to keep up, which reduces the quality of the encoded content. This is more likely to occur if your computer is less powerful. If you notice that frames are being dropped during encoding, we recommend that you temporarily store the captured content and then encode it to a file. Doing so prevents frames from being dropped and ensures that your content will be high-quality.
To store captured content temporarily:On the toolbar, click Properties, and then click the Advanced tab. Select the Store content to hard disk temporarily check box.
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