M2PMCEncoderZX
Last Updated : 26th December
2004
Introduction
So I was a happy person when I got my
spanking new
Creative Zen Portable Media Center (PMC).
But my enthusiasm dulled a bit when I found out
that Windows Media Player 10 did a very poor job
of encoding videos to be synched to the PMC. The
main thing that it is guilty for is that it'll
stretch the video size to 320x240 regardless of
the source file's aspect ratio, so you'll end up
with very stretched video files if you fed it a
widescreen video. Not to mention WMP seems to
take the quantity over quality whenever it's
deciding on the target bitrate, so some files ie
PhotoStories end up looking awful when you pass
it through WMP10.
There is a tool called Windows Media Encoder
which would allow a user to fine tune the
encoding process to make video files that work
AND look good on the PMC, but it's just a
bit daunting and time consuming to use, so
necessity being the mother of invention... I
wrote a program to do the work for me! And here
it is.
Updates
26th December 2004
Well.. first of all I got asked by a user to
include crop functionality, after a quick review
of the Windows Media Encoder engine I figured I
could put the functionality easily enough. And I
did! Also I've just gotten my new XPhone 2 which
has a Windows Media Player that supports
fullscreen, and although I highly recommend
Betaplayer for all your Smartphone video
playing needs. But, I guess some people want to
feel the Windows Media Video love on the
Smartphone so I made some changes to allow quick
conversion for the Microsoft Smartphone as well.
Note, due to changes in the program any job
list you've saved previously probably won't work
anymore.
Software Requirements
Before you even download the program please
make sure you have the following programs
already installed as I'll be using functionality
from these programs. If you don't know whether
you have these installed or not my
recommendation is to download the program first,
and if it any error messages pop out when you
try to run the program then go pick up the
dependencies.
Once you have those installed, you can pick
up
M2PMCEncoderZX Here
Instructions
Once you've downloaded and installed the
program, now you'll probably be asking what the
heck should you do. It's a pretty simple
process... I hope! =P
Step 1. Creating a Job
First of all you need to setup what you want
to encode, I'll go with the easy method. Click
on the Add A Job - Simple button and
you'll be greeted with the screen below.
First click on Select Source File and
select what you'd like to encode, the player
control will then load up the file so it can be
further scanned for other attributes. You can
also drag and drop compatible files onto the
window for quicker access.
Then
select an encoding profile that fits your
taste. The descriptions should give you a good
idea of the quality and file size you'll be
getting from the chosen profile.
Next use the Output Device drop down
to select the type of device you wish to encode
for. You'll get a description of the device
which you have chosen.
If you'd like to only encode a certain
portion of the video clip, first slide the file
position slider on the Windows Media Player to
where you want to start the clip from and then
press Mark Start, then slide it to where
you want to clip to end and press Mark End.
If you need to Crop the source video
and only grab a certain region of it press the
Crop Source button and you'll be
presented with the screen below.
Use the numeric boxes to enter the amount you
wish to crop from each of the four corners of
the video, and press OK once you're done
to create the output using only the region
you've selected.
Finally press the Select Output File
to select where you want to put the destination
file. Then press OK
2. Organizing Jobs
If you've added more than one job to the
batch you can organize it in the main screen via
the Move Job Up, Down buttons, and of
course delete them with the Delete
button.
3. Start Encoding
Press on Start Working to start the
encoding process. which will bring the
Encoding Status tab up front. Nothing much
you can do here either than check up on progress
or any errors that creep up.
The log will show any important messages, and
if you feel that you need to make an emergency
stop on the encoding process just hit the
Stop Encoding button. Once all jobs are
processed the program will tell you so.
So what the heck is the Advanced button
for?
Well if you know your Windows Media files, I
shouldn't need to tell you what you're doing in
that screen. But if you don't know what any of
the textboxes mean, click on the ? button
on top, then once your cursor changes to the
? cursor click on the control in question to
get a quick description on it.
Known Issues
Due to the nature of how AVI files are just
containers for video and audio streams, and
might contain all sorts of video or audio
streams (DivX, AC3, etc. etc.) It's hard
for to say what works or what doesn't. The
general rule of thumb would be if it plays
properly in Window Media Player 10 it
*should* encode properly. The only other
additional help I can give is to install the
latest version of whatever codecs you're using
to watch the movie with. It DOESN'T however
work with DVR-MS files, sorry!
On one of my test systems every now and then
when you start encoding, it crashes for no
reason what so ever. So... if you made a job
list consisting of 50 jobs, do remember to
Save The Job List before you press the start
encoding button. =D!
Feedback
I welcome any feedback regarding the program,
I can't promise I'll fix every bug that's
reported (My day job demands a lot from me
:P) But I'll try! And of course if you want
to send me money you're welcome, ahahahahaha ;)
This page and it's contents
are © Marauderz
2004
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