1. Info
This FAQ was written by
Thorsten Tarrach.
Any feedback to the address above. Please do not copy this site, link to here!
2. FAQ
+
Introduction
+ Open / Source / Output
+
Compression Settings
+ Video Size
+
Attributes
+
Processing
+
Running the Encoder
+
Common error messages
The Windows Media Encoder 9 Series is in my opinion one of the best encoders around.
Be careful: This Guide applies to DVB recordings in PAL only!
Node: I used the WME 9 Release Candiate 1 to write this. The Final should be similar.
Download the encoder and player here.
Please also refer the help files included in the installation. This FAQ only gives you a quick start, and no explanation of all functions.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| - Very good image quality - Audio compression better than MP3 - Depending on the video content it can be much smaller than MPEG2 - Variable Bitrates (VBR) even with one pass |
- Won't play back on Windows
Media Player 6.4 (VBR won't even play on WMP 7.1) - Playback needs a lot of processor resources (more than 500 MHz) |
- Start the Encoder
- Use cancel to close the "New Session" dialog
- Open the Properties (Toolbar)
Source:
- Select "File" as "Source from"
- Click "Browse" and select the video file
- Use "Mark In/Out" if you want to cut the video
Output:
- Uncheck "Pull from Encoder" and "Push to Server" (this would make the encoder
use a quick compression to ensure it could stream in realtime)
- Check "Encode to File"
- Click "Browse" to select an output filename
- Check "Index file" (this will enable you to jump during playback)
On the "Compression" tab you have to make several decisions.
- Click "Edit"
- On the new window click "New"
Video and Audio should be checked. Right to the checkboxes you can select a "Mode". There are three options (Bit rate VBR (Peak) is thought for streaming an not for encoding to a file):
| CBR | Quality VBR | Bit rate VBR |
| You shouldn't choose this, because the output does not have the same quality all over the video. When there is more action quality will decrease. | This is a good choices if filesize doesn't matter. The filesize depends on the video content. And you need only one pass. That safes time. | Here you can give the encoder a bitrate and you can say exactly how large the video will be. The quality depends on the content encoded. This needs two passes that's why it takes much longer. |
In this example we choose quality VBR for the video because it needs only half the time. That's why you should use Quality for the audio stream too: If you would choose Bit rate there it would take you double the time though the video is just quality.
Node: If I only encode audio I prefer Bit rate since it allows 48 kHz even at 96 kBit.
- Use the Windows Media 9 Codecs!
- Check "Allow nonsquare pixel output"
- Click Add
- Choose an audio quality or bitrate: I would recommend "VBR Quality 50, 44 KHz,
stereo VBR" for good audio quality in music videos.
or 96 kBits for bit rate encoding
- Choose an resolution:
The higher the resolution the more details you can recognize but the file will
also be larger. For good quality use at least 576 x 432 or higher.
You may use other resolutions too, but keep the aspect ration
of 4:3 (or 16:9) for PAL Videos. 720 x 576 is not a proper resolution (this is the original PAL
resolution, but PAL pixels are not square pixels: so stick to the aspect ration
(4:3)).
A resolution higher than 768 x 576
won't make any sense for PAL recordings.
Node: Instead of
resizing the video I recommand using a pixel aspect ratio, see
below.
- Set the Frame Rate to 25 for PAL recordings.
- Choose a key frame interval:
As far as I know this does not have any effect on the quality. The longer the
distance between key frames the smaller the file is but it also takes longer to
seek in the file. I use 10 seconds
- Choose a quality or bitrate.
For the quality there are steps. The value you enter will be rounded down. The
steps are 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25, 29, 33, 36, 40, 43, 47, 50, 54, 58, 61,
65, 68, 72, 75, 79, 83, 86, 90, 93, 97, and 100. So if you enter 88 the real
quality will be 86.
86 is a good value. A 3:30 minute music video should not be larger than 70 MB, a
live performance may be up to 100 MB
A good bit rate to bit rate encoding would be 1700 kBits for a music video or
2200 kBits for a live performance.
It should look like with:
- Go back the "General" tab.
- Choose any name you like
- Export the settings for later use
Apart from the Video format it may look similar:
Preview you source video with the Windows Media Player. Are there any annoying stripes at the button or elsewhere? My MTV recordings often have stripes at the button. Then choose Method "Custom" and increase the Number for Button for example.
Be careful: You must only enter even number or you'll get an error during encoding.
Node: If you crop too much do not forget to change the resolution or the video will look stretched
For PAL recordings choose [Custom] and change the Pixel aspect ratio to
12:11. As I mentioned before PAL pixel are not square. This setting is in order
to optimise the encoding process and the output quality.
The above statement is not 100% correct: The pixel aspect ratio leads to an on the fly resize during
playback. Only use this fetrue if you don't resize the video. THe video
will only play back correctly on Windows Media Player 9, all other player can
not resize on the fly.
Unfortunatelly there is a
bug in the encoder which sometimes causes the encoder to ignore the pixel aspect
ratio. To avoid this save the file and edit it with notepad. In the XML
structure you can easily set the ratio.
Attributes
Here enter the Artist name etc.
There parameters will be shown during playback. You may alter them later using
the Advanced Tag Editor included in the Windows Media Player 9 Series.
Processing
If you followed the previous guide select "Deinterlace"
here.
If you have other sources click "Detect" to get a proposition.
If the source looks alright. Don't select anything here.
If you are interested become familiar with:
- 2:3 Pulldown
(only NTSC)
- Interlace
Running the Encoder
First you should save the project. This may take some time. Node: Take a look at the options window (Tools|Options...).
On the performance tab you can increase the quality. But the more quality you
choose the longer the encoder will need. I've chosen maximum quality. Then click
" Apply to all new sessions". Click "Start Encoding" and wait. If you want to do other things during
encoding on your computer open the taskmanager (WinXP/2k only) right click on
the Windows Media Encoder task and choose "switch to process". Right click on the process and
set the priority to low. (click here for images)
Common error messages
An operation requested for a particular time could not be carried out on
schedule. (NS_E_LATE_OPERATION / 0xC00D002EL) The input media format is invalid. (NS_E_INVALID_INPUT_FORMAT /
0xC00D0BB8L)
That means your computer is too slow. Try it again and close the preview
window immediately. This error mostly occure within the first minute of
encoding. You may also try to lower the quality (see above).
Check if the source media plays well. For me this error happened because I
entered odd numbers for Croping. See Video Size.