Set Output formats

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You can use the top-level video options in Microsoft Expression Encoder to define the format and codec of your encoded media. These are the first options available in the Encode panel in all three project types.

To set top-level encoding options

  1. Click the Encode tab.

  2. Set your top-level options in the Encode panel according to the following guidelines:

    • Output Format   This setting specifies the type of file that you will create. You have a choice of Windows Media, MP4 (not available in a Live Broadcasting Project), and IIS Smooth Streaming as output formats. When you choose a format, all the other pertinent fields in the panel are automatically populated with the optimal settings for that format.

      Note

      The option of choosing MP4 or IIS Smooth Streaming as an output format is not available in the trial version of Expression Encoder.

    • Video   This setting specifies the codec to be used for encoding. Select this option to include video in your encoded file. Depending on your format choice, you will have a choice of either VC-1 or H.264 codecs. H.264 codecs are not available in Live Broadcasting projects.

      For the Windows Media output format, you have four choices of VC-1 codec types. A Live Broadcasting Project offers only the first three choices below:

      • VC-1 Advanced   Choose for high-bit-rate encoding (20 Mb per second and up), though this option is also effective with lower bit rates down to 2 Mb per second.

      • VC-1 Main   Choose for bit rates below 20 Mb per second. This option is the most popular WMV profile for web and local playback.

      • VC-1 Simple   Choose for bit rates below 400 kb per second. This option is the least difficult profile to decode, so it is appropriate for mobile phones and other devices that may have software-only decoders available. However, the main profile is likely as well suited for these scenarios too. Use the simple profile if you are certain that playback will generally happen in devices that require very low bit rates.

      • Source   Choose to retain the codec and settings that the source video was originally encoded with.

      For the MP4 output format, you have three choices of H.264 codec types. MP4 options are not available in a Live Broadcasting Project:

      • H.264-High   Choose for high-definition broadcasting and high-quality disc media, such as Blu-ray discs. The high profile adds such encoding improvements as 8 X 8 block support and support for monochrome video.

      • H.264-Main   Choose this high-quality profile for most web-based streaming scenarios. Before the advent of the high profile, the main profile was the standard for broadcast and disc storage.

      • H.264-Baseline   Choose for mobile devices and playback scenarios requiring very low bandwidths.

      For the IIS Smooth Streaming output format, you can choose VC-1 Advanced, or any of the H.264 codecs described in the preceding section.

    • Audio   This setting specifies the type of codec to be used for encoding your audio. Select this setting to include audio in your encoded file.

      For Windows Media output format, you have five choices. A Live Broadcasting Project offers only WMA and WMA Professional formats:

      • WMA   Choose for most situations. This is a widely used codec that provides high-quality sound at lower bit rates.

      • WMA Professional   Choose when you want to compress high-resolution, multiple-channel audio.

      • WMA Lossless   Choose when you want to retain the exact characteristics of the original file when decompressed. In general, don’t use lossless compression if you plan to distribute your files, because the resulting data rate can be very high. Microsoft Silverlight does not support media encoded in the WMA Lossless format.

      • WMA Voice   Choose when you want to compress audio that primarily contains human speech, though this option also works well with other sources such as sound effects and background music. Silverlight does not support media encoded in the WMA Voice format.

      • Source   Choose when you want to retain the codec and settings that the source audio was originally encoded with. This option will be available only if the codec or settings used in the source audio are supported by Expression Encoder

      For MP4 output format, you have two choices. A Live Broadcasting Project does not offer the MP4 output format:

      • AAC-LC   (Advanced Audio Coding-Low Complexity) Choose to achieve high efficiency and high quality audio with a wide range of bitrates and sample rates. This is currently one of the most popular codecs in use for many audio applications.

      • HE-AAC   (High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding) Choose to encode very low bitrate audio, while still obtaining optimum quality and efficiency. HE-AAC is an extension of the AAC-LC codec and you generally use this format to encode audio that you intend to be played back on mobile devices where overall bandwidth is very limited.

See also

Tasks

Set Video options
Set H.264 options
Set Pre-Processing options
Set VC-1 options

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