David Kennett
July 2nd, 2004, 11:59 AM
After condiderable travail I finally got WM9 encoder working - just a stupid mistake on my part. The WM9 encoder can be downloaded for free from Microsoft's web site, and is capable of compressing HD1-10 files to allow about one-and-a-half hours on one DVD with quite good quality. In other words, it can compress 720P as well as MPG2 can compress 480I - maybe better! The downside is you need WinXP and a 2.5 GHz P4 to play it. I think we'll soon see some inexpensive DVD players that handle WM9. This would be great!
Here are my suggested steps:
1. After opening the program, immediately close the pop-up "wizard" box. (Using the wizard was my first mistake!)
2. With ZOOM drop-down choose 25%. With DISPLAY drop-down choose OUTPUT.
3. Select PROPERTIES (just above DISPLAY drop-down). A SESSION PROPERTIES window will now occupy the left half of your screen.
4. Under the SOURCE tab (wich should already be selected) choose SOURCE FROM - FILE.
5. Click BROWSE...
6. With FILES OF TYPE drop-down choose ALL FILES. You can now see m2t files.
7. Open the file of your choice. Use a short one for trial purposes - my 3GHz P4 takes about ten times running time to encode. Once you choose the file, it will take some time for the file name to appear in the window - seems very slow for 3GHz P4!
8. Select OUTPUT tab.
9. Check ARCHIVE TO FILE. Uncheck other two options. Assign file name.
10. Select COMPRESSION tab.
11. Under DESTINATION drop=down select WINDOWS MEDIA HARDWARE PROFILES.
12. Click EDIT... button. Here in the CUSTOM ENCODING SETTINGS window is where you can define a number of encoding parameters. Notice it defaults to CBR (Constant Bit Rate) at 4105 Kbps. I prefer QUALITY VBR (Variable Bit Rate) for both AUDIO and VIDEO under the MODE drop-downs. After choosing
VARIABLE, select the QUALITY-BASED tab at the top. Check that VIDEO SIZE and FRAME RATE are OK. I find that a VIDEO QUALITY setting of 65 - 70 to be the "sweet spot" for both quality and file size. Click OK.
While the rest of the tabs should be OK, I'd like to mention the PLUG-INS tab. It appears that not much is available, but if you click the REGISTER... button at the bottom you can add a number of plug-ins to the left column. (Notice this must be done separately for audio and video.) Plug-ins can then be activated and configured by shifting them to the right column. I like to add a little detail gain with the INTERVIDEO SHARPNESS (with my HD-10). The TV is fine, but I thought this helped the PC monitor.
13. Click the APPLY button at the bottom. (Then wait awhile!)
14. Click the START ENCODING button at the top.
15. Sit back and watch the (slow) progress.
Hope this helps someone.
Here are my suggested steps:
1. After opening the program, immediately close the pop-up "wizard" box. (Using the wizard was my first mistake!)
2. With ZOOM drop-down choose 25%. With DISPLAY drop-down choose OUTPUT.
3. Select PROPERTIES (just above DISPLAY drop-down). A SESSION PROPERTIES window will now occupy the left half of your screen.
4. Under the SOURCE tab (wich should already be selected) choose SOURCE FROM - FILE.
5. Click BROWSE...
6. With FILES OF TYPE drop-down choose ALL FILES. You can now see m2t files.
7. Open the file of your choice. Use a short one for trial purposes - my 3GHz P4 takes about ten times running time to encode. Once you choose the file, it will take some time for the file name to appear in the window - seems very slow for 3GHz P4!
8. Select OUTPUT tab.
9. Check ARCHIVE TO FILE. Uncheck other two options. Assign file name.
10. Select COMPRESSION tab.
11. Under DESTINATION drop=down select WINDOWS MEDIA HARDWARE PROFILES.
12. Click EDIT... button. Here in the CUSTOM ENCODING SETTINGS window is where you can define a number of encoding parameters. Notice it defaults to CBR (Constant Bit Rate) at 4105 Kbps. I prefer QUALITY VBR (Variable Bit Rate) for both AUDIO and VIDEO under the MODE drop-downs. After choosing
VARIABLE, select the QUALITY-BASED tab at the top. Check that VIDEO SIZE and FRAME RATE are OK. I find that a VIDEO QUALITY setting of 65 - 70 to be the "sweet spot" for both quality and file size. Click OK.
While the rest of the tabs should be OK, I'd like to mention the PLUG-INS tab. It appears that not much is available, but if you click the REGISTER... button at the bottom you can add a number of plug-ins to the left column. (Notice this must be done separately for audio and video.) Plug-ins can then be activated and configured by shifting them to the right column. I like to add a little detail gain with the INTERVIDEO SHARPNESS (with my HD-10). The TV is fine, but I thought this helped the PC monitor.
13. Click the APPLY button at the bottom. (Then wait awhile!)
14. Click the START ENCODING button at the top.
15. Sit back and watch the (slow) progress.
Hope this helps someone.