Expression Encoder 2 is out

[Daniel Low]

A very nice product, such a shame it doesn’t support more output formats though.

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Please post back saying what solved your problem. It could help others, and saying ‘thanks’ is free!

[Ed Dooley]

Well, I can see why you would like it Ben, as a Microsoft employee. 🙂 And it may well be *your* favorite encoder since Cleaner 3.1, but for the rest of the real world where clients expect QT, FLV, and other output formats (not just wmvs), it doesn’t compare at all to Cleaner (or current tools like Episode). The quality of WMVs may be great, but I think most people want a tool (like Cleaner was) that will give them more than just WMVs.
My encoder’s 2 cents,
Ed

[Ben Waggoner]

Bear in mind that Cleaner 3.1 was almost exclusively a QuickTime-based tool, but i was DEEP. It did all kinds of things for the format that hadn’t been done before or sense, and I’d say was a huge part of making QuickTime a viable delvery format in the late 90’s.

Ben Waggoner
Principal Video Strategist, Silverlight
Microsoft Corporation

Compression Blog: on10.net/blogs/benwagg/
Compression Classes at Stanford and PSU: on10.net/blogs/benwagg/21622/

[Ben Waggoner]

Well, now that 2 is out, planning for 3 will commence.

What are the output formats you’d like to see, and where do you think Expression Encoder could bring unique value to those formats?

Ben Waggoner
Principal Video Strategist, Silverlight
Microsoft Corporation

Compression Blog: on10.net/blogs/benwagg/
Compression Classes at Stanford and PSU: on10.net/blogs/benwagg/21622/

[Daniel Low]

At the very minimum I’d like to see support for outputting to MPEG-4 pt 2 & pt 10, MPEG-2 upto HD and Flash.

Expression would bring value to those formats by being a low-ish cost, modern, well designed tool that included the “smart by default” wizardry.

It would be very nice to have a Mac version as well but I don’t see hell freezing over anytime soon.

Bottom line though is that Expression is a way of pushing VC1 by way of making it easier to produce good looking results, it is not a stab at making a great transcoder, sadly.

I’ll eat 4000 hats if Expression ever outputs to H.264.

__________________________________________________________________
Please post back saying what solved your problem. It could help others, and saying ‘thanks’ is free!

[Ben Waggoner]

Expression Encoder is a tool focused on Silverlight, not VC-1 per se. Version 2 was all about improving the Silverlight experience over broadening output format support.

We’re not under any illusions that people would switch to EE for anything either than WMV/Silverlight.

Ben Waggoner
Principal Video Strategist, Silverlight
Microsoft Corporation

Compression Blog: on10.net/blogs/benwagg/
Compression Classes at Stanford and PSU: on10.net/blogs/benwagg/21622/