best encoder for Windows Media?

Compression Techniques

best encoder for Windows Media?

Posted by Kearney Buskirk on February 20, 2006 at 4:39 am

Hi Folks

I need to encode 720P DVCPro HD (tends to be noisy in the darker sections) to Windows Media. I’m basically on Mac OS 10.4.4 but could run in Windows XP on my laptop. What can take HD input and outputs the best Windows Media? Might want to do Flash (both regular and the new codec) also in the future, but this app doesn’t have to combine both.

Flip4Mac Studio Pro HD is relatively inexpensive and convenient but unless the filters from Compressor 2 or Cleaner 5 can be applied pre-compression, I’m concerned it won’t do an excellent job.

I need to act on this by end of the day 2/20, so timely response would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your attention.

Kearney Buskirk

Craig Seeman replied 20 years, 2 months ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
5 Replies

Charles Simonson
February 21, 2006 at 12:02 am

On the mac, you’re limited to either Flip4Mac or Compression Master 3. If you need to output HD resolution WMVs, then I would go with F4M. If you will be downconverting for the web, then I would suggest Compression Master as it has excellent pre-processing capabilities. The problem you have is mainly that you are using the DVCPRO HD codec, which isn’t uniformly available for cheap on the PC. But, if you converted your DVCPRO HD material to an uncompressed or less-lossy codec, then you have more options. On the PC, Canopus ProCoder is an excellent choice for encoding Windows Media.
Kearney Buskirk
February 21, 2006 at 1:17 am

I’ll be downcoverting for the web. Way down – from 720 to 180. Do you know if using the pre-compression filters in Compressor (and Flip4Mac as part of QuickTime within Compressor) would work? If they do work, do they not work well? Is there some particular filter missing or inadequate?

I’ve been working with the demo for Compression Master 3.2 and have read thru the manual. It outputs good-looking WMV fast from my DVCProHD files.

Just carefully considering if I need to spend $325 more for Compression Master. Otherwise I’m only outputting MPEG2 for DVDs. Don’t need all the other outputs from CM at this point.

Thanks for your response Charles.
Ben Waggoner
February 21, 2006 at 7:41 pm

Compressor 2 has pretty good (albeit glacially slow) scaling if you tweak the advanced modes. You can probably get by with F4M and Compressor 2. Compression Master is much more flexible, so it might be worth getting if you anticipate doing more with WM in the future.
Kearney Buskirk
February 21, 2006 at 7:53 pm

Thanks for your input Ben and Charles. I think I’ll go with F4M and Compressor for now and see if I run into serious limits. I don’t know that I’ll be doing much Windows Media.
Craig Seeman
February 21, 2006 at 8:34 pm

Compressor 2 and Flip4Mac work well for the most part. Cropping does not work with Flip4Mac or any other of the “Quicktime Components” though. It seems FTP (directly sends your file to an FTP site) doesn’t work either with Quicktime Components. All the Filters (such as Gamma Correction, Color Correct, etc) work though.

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