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User
sGui
de5.
0
Episode 5.0.1 User’s Guide
Note on License
The accompanying Software is licensed and may not be distributed without written permission.
Disclaimer
The contents of this document are subject to revision without notice due to continued progress in methodology, design, and manufacturing. Telestream shall have
no liability for any error or damages of any kind resulting from the use of this
document and/or software.
The Software may contain errors and is not designed or intended for use in on-line
facilities, aircraft navigation or communications systems, air traffic control, direct
life support machines, or weapons systems (“High Risk Activities”) in which the
failure of the Software would lead directly to death, personal injury or severe
physical or environmental damage. You represent and warrant to Telestream that
you will not use, distribute, or license the Software for High Risk Activities.
Export Regulations. Software, including technical data, is subject to Swedish
export control laws, and its associated regulations, and may be subject to export
or import regulations in other countries. You agree to comply strictly with all such
regulations and acknowledge that you have the responsibility to obtain licenses to
export, re-export, or import Software.
Copyright Statement
©Telestream, Inc, 2008
All rights reserved.
No part of this document may be copied or distributed.
This document is part of the software product and, as such, is part of the license
agreement governing the software. So are any other parts of the software product,
such as packaging and distribution media.
The information in this document may be changed without prior notice and does
not represent a commitment on the part of Telestream.
Trademarks and Patents
• Episode is a registered trademark of Telestream, Inc.
• UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.
• Apple is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and
other countries.
• QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S.
and other countries.
Telestream
i
Episode 5.0.1 User’s Guide
• Windows Media is a trademark of Microsoft Inc., registered in the U.S. and
other countries.
• RealNetworks, RealAudio, and RealVideo are either registered trademarks
or trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
MPEG-4 AAC
“Supply of this Implementation of MPEG-4 AAC technology does not convey a
license nor imply any right to use this Implementation in any finished end-user or
ready-to-use final product. An independent license for such use is required.”
MP3
This software contains code from LAME, http://lame.sourceforge.net/.
“Supply of this product does not convey a license nor imply any right to distribute
content created with this product in revenue-generating broadcast systems (terrestrial, satellite, cable and/or other networks.), streaming applications (via Internet,
Intranets, and/or other networks), other content distribution systems (pay audio or
audio-on-demand applications and the like) or on physical media (compact discs,
digital versatile discs, semiconductor chips, hard drives, memory cards and the
like). An independent license for such use is required. For details, please visit
http://mp3licensing.com/.”
OGG Vorbis
This software contains code that is ©2008, Xiph.Org Foundation. “THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY,
OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED
AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.”
PCRE
PCRE is a library of functions to support regular expressions whose syntax and
semantics are as close as possible to those of the Perl 5 language.
Telestream
ii
Episode 5.0.1 User’s Guide
Release 7 of PCRE is distributed under the terms of the “BSD” licence, as specified below. The documentation for PCRE, supplied in the “doc” directory, is
distributed under the same terms as the software itself.
The basic library functions are written in C and are freestanding. Also included
in the distribution is a set of C++ wrapper functions.
The basic library functions
Written by:
Email local part:
Email domain:
Philip Hazel
ph10
cam.ac.uk
University of Cambridge Computing Service, Cambridge, England.
Copyright ©1997–2008 University of Cambridge. All rights reserved.
The C++ wrapper functions
Contributed by: Google Inc.
Copyright ©2007–2008, Google Inc. All rights reserved.
The “BSD” licence
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
• Neither the name of the University of Cambridge nor the name of Google
Inc. nor the names of their contributors may be used to endorse or promote
products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND
CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR
CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
Telestream
iii
Episode 5.0.1 User’s Guide
NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
Disclaimer of Warranty on Software
You expressly acknowledge and agree that use of the Software is at your sole risk.
The Software and related documentation are provided “AS IS” and without warranty of any kind and Licensor and the third party suppliers EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT
NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NEITHER LICENSOR NOR
ANY THIRD PARTY SUPPLIER WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, OR
THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED
OR ERROR-FREE. FURTHERMORE, THE TERMS OF THIS DISCLAIMER
AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY BELOW DO NOT AFFECT OR PREJUDICE THE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A CONSUMER ACQUIRING THE
SOFTWARE OTHERWISE THAN IN THE COURSE OF A BUSINESS, NEITHER DO THEY LIMIT OR EXCLUDE ANY LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR
PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE.
Limitation of Liability
LICENSOR AND THE THIRD PARTY SUPPLIERS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS
ALL LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, WHATEVER THEIR CAUSE, INCLUDING DIRECT OR INDIRECT DAMAGE, SUCH AS CONSEQUENTIAL OR
BUSINESS DAMAGE, AMONGST OTHERS CAUSED BY THE NON-FUNCTIONING OR MALFUNCTIONING OF THE SOFTWARE. SHOULD LICENSOR OR THE THIRD PARTY SUPPLIERS IN ANY WAY BE LIABLE FOR
DAMAGES, EITHER AS PER THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE OR OTHERWISE, THEN THIS LIABILITY WILL IN NO EVENT EXCEED THE AMOUNT
PAID BY YOU FOR THE SOFTWARE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT
ALLOW THE LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES SO THIS LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
Telestream
iv
Contents
1
2
About Episode
1
1.1
1.2
1
2
Manual scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Document conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Before you install
3
2.1
Hardware requirements . . . . . . . .
2.1.1 Minimum hardware configuration . .
2.1.2 Recommended hardware configuration
2.2 Software requirements . . . . . . . .
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3.2
3.3
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Before installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Installing the software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Installing a license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introduction to Episode
Interface overview . . . .
4.1.1 Source Bookmarks. .
4.1.2 Compression Settings
4.1.3 Recently Encoded . .
4.1.4 Job Batch . . . . .
4.1.5 Settings Editor . . .
4.2 Getting started . . . . .
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Episode in detail
5.1
Managing source files. . . . . . . . .
5.1.1 Source Bookmarks. . . . . . . .
5.1.2 File extensions . . . . . . . . .
5.2 Managing settings . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.1 Using template settings . . . . . .
5.2.2 Creating new settings . . . . . . .
5.2.3 Saving settings . . . . . . . . .
5.2.4 Creating new folders . . . . . . .
5.2.5 Deleting folders and settings . . . .
5.2.6 Exporting settings . . . . . . . .
5.2.7 Uploading settings to Episode Engine
5.2.8 Duplicating settings . . . . . . .
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Installing Episode
4.1
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Episode 5.0.1 User’s Guide
5.2.9 Closing settings . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3 Working with settings. . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3.1 Editing settings in the batch . . . . . . . .
5.3.2 Choosing output format and codecs. . . . . .
5.3.3 Choosing video filters . . . . . . . . . .
5.3.4 Choosing audio filters . . . . . . . . . .
5.3.5 Other properties. . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.4 Multi Bit Rate (MBR) settings . . . . . . . . .
5.4.1 Creating an MBR setting in Compression Settings
5.4.2 Creating an MBR setting in the Job Batch . . .
5.5 Transcoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.5.1 One-off transcoding . . . . . . . . . . .
5.5.2 Adding source files to the Job Batch . . . . .
5.5.3 Adding settings to the Job Batch. . . . . . .
5.5.4 Running and pausing . . . . . . . . . . .
5.5.5 Stopping encoding . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.6 Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.6.1 In and out points . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.7 Output Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.8 Action column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.9 Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.9.1 General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.9.2 Job Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.9.3 Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.9.4 License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.10 Control buttons and keyboard shortcuts . . . . . .
5.10.1 Job Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.10.2 Settings Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.10.3 Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . .
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Output tab
6.1
Output Format . . . .
6.1.1 3GPP (3gp) . . .
6.1.2 3GPP2 (EZMovie).
6.1.3 AMC (EZMovie) .
6.1.4 AVI . . . . . .
6.1.5 MOV . . . . .
6.1.6 MP3 . . . . . .
6.1.7 MPEG-PS . . . .
6.1.8 MPEG-TS. . . .
6.1.9 Real Media . . .
6.1.10 WAV. . . . . .
6.1.11 Windows Media .
6.2 Video . . . . . . .
6.3 Audio . . . . . . .
6.4 Hint . . . . . . . .
6.5 In/Out Points . . . . .
6.6 Timecode . . . . . .
6.7 Bumper/trailer . . . .
6.8 QuickTime . . . . .
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Episode 5.0.1 User’s Guide
7
Video tab—codecs
49
7.1
Video codec concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.1 Colour formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.2 Frame types—I-, P- and B-frames . . . . . . . .
7.1.3 CBR, VBR and Quality Based VBR . . . . . . .
7.1.4 VBV—Video Buffer Verifier . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.5 Frame skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image
7.1.6 Video scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.7 Picture resolution and aspect ratio . . . . . . . .
7.2 Blackmagic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.3 D-10/IMX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.4 DV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.5 Flash Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.6 Flash 8 Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.7 H.263 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.8 H.264 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.9 HDV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.10 MJPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.11 MPEG-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.12 MPEG-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.13 MPEG-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.14 QuickTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.15 RealVideo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.16 RGB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.17 Targa Cine YUV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.18 Windows Media Video 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.19 Windows Media Video VC-1 . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.20 Windows RGB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.21 XDCam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.22 YCbCr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Video tab—filters
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
8.5
8.6
8.7
8.8
8.9
8.10
8.11
8.12
8.13
8.14
8.15
8.16
8.17
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RGB 10bit to 8bit by using LUT files
Field Order . . . . . . . . .
Frame Rate . . . . . . . . .
Deinterlace . . . . . . . . .
Advanced Frame Rate . . . . .
Resize . . . . . . . . . . .
HSV Levels . . . . . . . . .
Sharpen. . . . . . . . . . .
Matte extractor . . . . . . . .
Noise Reduction . . . . . . .
RGB . . . . . . . . . . . .
Black and White Restoration . . .
Smoothing. . . . . . . . . .
Contrast . . . . . . . . . .
Fade . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gamma . . . . . . . . . . .
Interlace . . . . . . . . . .
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Episode 5.0.1 User’s Guide
8.18 Burn Timecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
8.19 Watermark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
9
Audio tab—codecs
9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
9.6
9.7
9.8
9.9
9.10
9.11
9.12
9.13
9.14
104
AAC . . . . . . . .
AES . . . . . . . .
AMR Narrowband . . .
ATSC A/52 . . . . .
DV audio . . . . . .
EVRC . . . . . . .
Lame MP3 . . . . .
MPEG Audio. . . . .
PCM . . . . . . . .
QCELP . . . . . . .
QuickTime . . . . .
RealAudio . . . . . .
Vorbis . . . . . . .
Windows Media Audio 9
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10 Audio tab—filters
10.1 Channel Mapper .
10.2 Channels . . . .
10.3 Sample Rate . . .
10.4 Audio Speed . . .
10.5 Offset . . . . .
10.6 Fade . . . . . .
10.7 Balance . . . . .
10.8 Equalizer . . . .
10.9 High Pass/Low Pass
10.10Volume . . . . .
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. 114
. 115
. 115
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. 116
. 117
. 117
. 117
. 118
. 118
11 Metadata tab
119
12 Stream tab
120
12.1
12.2
12.3
12.4
12.5
12.6
12.7
12.8
Telestream
. 104
. 106
. 106
. 106
. 107
. 107
. 108
. 109
. 110
. 110
. 111
. 112
. 112
. 113
Streamable file formats
AAC Low Complexity
AMR NB . . . . .
EVRC . . . . . .
H.263 . . . . . .
H.264 . . . . . .
MPEG-4 . . . . .
QCELP . . . . . .
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. 120
. 121
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. 123
. 123
13 Engine tab
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14 Description tab
126
15 Support
127
viii
Episode 5.0.1 User’s Guide
A Supported formats
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ix
1
About Episode
Episode is a transcoding tool. This means it takes media files—video and/or audio files—and converts them from one format to another. In addition to changing
the storage format, Episode can also perform various quality-enhancing operations on the media. For transcodings you can either use the many predefined
templates included with the software or define your own transcoding settings.
You can extend Episode with the Flash 8 Option which lets you output Flash 8
media files.
You can also upgrade your Episode license to Episode Pro which lets you output additional file formats, mainly useful for broadcast applications. Even with
Episode, you can test Episode Pro features, but your output is limited to half the
length of your input, up to a maximum of 30 seconds.
Episode Pro
The Episode Pro logotype in the margin indicates features that only are available
in Episode Pro.
Episode can be run standalone or as a client to Episode Podcast or Episode
Engine. Episode Podcast is an extension of Podcast Producer, Episode Engine
is a high-throughput automatic transcoding system. Unless you have a separate
license for Episode it will be in demo mode when running as a client, as the actual
encoding is intended to be done by the server product. Note that this means that
you can have an unlimited number of clients communicating with the server.
The Episode Engine logotype in the margin indicates features, topics, or procedures that are specific to working with Episode Engine and Episode together. If
Episode Engine you are not using Episode Engine, you can disregard these sections.
1.1
Manual scope
This manual provides installation procedures and operational guidelines for Episode and is intended for users of Episode who are familiar with the basics of
operating an Apple computer running Mac OS X. Basic knowledge of media encoding is strongly recommended.
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1.2
Document conventions
A note
NOTE
Paragraphs marked like this highlight items of particular importance for the
proper function of the software.
A tip
TIP
Paragraphs marked like this highlight procedures that can save time or produce particularly good results.
A caution
Paragraphs marked like this warn about features which may cause loss of data
or failed execution if used incorrectly.
Document references, both internal and external, are shown in italics. Example:
See chapter 2 Before You Install. Literature references are given as numbers in
brackets with the full reference in the Bibliography. Example: See [2].
Directory names, file names, code examples, and prompts, are shown in plain
typewriter type. Example: The file printer.ppd can be found in /etc/cups/
ppd/.
The names of interface components are given in bold. Example: Adjust the time
limit with the Time limit slider. Select Show Log from the Window drop-down
menu.
Keys to be pressed on the keyboard are displayed in bold typewriter type. Example: Press Return to select the GUI installation. Examples of extended dialogue
will include the shell prompt> .
Brackets [ ] are used to enclose an optional item in the command syntax.
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2
Before you install
Before installing, please make sure that your system meets the minimum requirements, as specified below.
2.1
2.1.1
Hardware requirements
Minimum hardware configuration
Episode is universal software and runs on both PowerPC and Intel architectures.
CPU
Memory
Hard disk
2.1.2
Recommended hardware configuration
CPU
Memory
Hard disk
Graphics
2.2
G5 or Intel Mac
512 MB RAM
100 MB free space is required to install the software
Dual 2.66 GHz G5 or Intel Mac
2 GiB RAM
250 GiB, 7200 rpm or better, with sufficient space for video production
64 MiB DDR graphics memory or more
Software requirements
Episode 5.0.1 requires Mac OS X, version 10.4 or better, and QuickTime, version 7 or better.
Episode can act as a stand-alone product or as a part of an automated workflow with Episode Engine, our server-based transcoder. With this setup, you
can export settings from Episode to be used in Episode Engine, automating
the transcoding workflow. This enables a seamless workflow between content
provider and content distributor.
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3
Installing Episode
This chapter will guide you through the installation of Episode.
3.1
Before installing
It is recommended that you uninstall any prior version of Episode on your computer. Move the Episode application from the Application folder to the trash.
Empty the trash. The settings are saved in another location than the application
and will still be there once you have installed Episode 5.0.1.
3.2
Installing the software
The Episode software is delivered in the form of an installation file on the distribution medium (CD-ROM) or via electronic distribution.
Double-click to open the CD-ROM or the Disk Image (.dmg) when it appears on
the desktop, or open the downloaded distribution package.
Drag and drop the application into your Applications folder.
This completes the installation of the software.
3.3
Installing a license
Without a license Episode will run in demo mode. This allows you to transcode
30 seconds or half the length of your input file, whichever is shorter.
To register, select Episode→Preferences. . . , choose the License tab and press
the Enter Serial Number. . . button to enter your serial number and the name
you registered under. See also section 5.9.4, License.
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4
Introduction to Episode
This chapter gives an overview of the use of Episode 5.0.1. After an introduction
to the user interface we will go through the basic workflow of encoding a source
file.
4.1
Interface overview
The Episode main window is shown below. We will briefly explain the various
components in this chapter and go into deeper detail in chapter 5, Episode in
detail.
On the left is the Browser, which contains the Source Bookmarks, Compression
Settings, and Recently Encoded file lists. The area on the right is taken up either
by the Job Batch area showing the files to be encoded or the Settings Editor
allowing encoding settings to be set or modified.
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4.1.1
Source Bookmarks
In the Source Bookmarks area you keep bookmarks for folders containing your
source material. The Movies folder in your system becomes the default bookmark folder when installing Episode. You can add or delete bookmarks to suit
your preferences. By clicking the New Bookmark. . . button ( ) you will be
able to browse to and select a folder of your choice. That folder will be added
to your Source Bookmarks list. In the example illustrated below a folder named
My Media Files has been added as a bookmark.
4.1.2
Compression Settings
The Compression Settings area is located directly below Source Bookmarks
and this is where your settings are stored. Settings are files that determine how
your input files will be encoded. The Episode installation comes with a large
number of setting templates in the Templates folder. It contains two subfolders, By format and By workflow. The By format folder contains templates
organised according to output format, so that you find templates for MPEG output, QuickTime output, Windows Media output etc. The By workflow folder
organises the templates according to the output medium instead, so that you find
templates for creating DVDs, videos for mobile phones, web video etc.
You can use the templates as they are, or edit them to fit your particular needs.
Setting creation and editing is explained in section 5.2, Managing settings.
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4.1.3
Recently Encoded
The Recently Encoded list is located below the Compression Settings and contains the clips that have been encoded during this session. You can click the Play
button ( ) to play a selected clip.
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4.1.4
Job Batch
The Job Batch tab is where the actual encoding is done. In this tab you combine
your source files with the settings you intend to use. All functions related to Job
Batch will be explained in section 5.5, Transcoding.
4.1.5
Settings Editor
The Settings Editor tab is used when you need to adjust the existing encoding
templates or create entirely new ones. We will go into further detail in section 5.2,
Managing settings.
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4.2
Getting started
To make a test encoding, follow the three steps below:
1. Drag a source clip from the Source Bookmarks area to the Job Batch. The
Status column on the right will indicate that you have to add one or more
settings to create a job.
2. Drag one or several settings from the Templates folder to the Job Batch
and drop them onto the source file. A setting that has been added to a
source file constitutes a job, and the Status column will say Pending...,
i e waiting to encode the job. If you double-click a setting in Compression
Settings the Settings Editor tab will be activated instead of Job Batch.
You can preview the two jobs you have created before you start the actual
encoding. Right-/Ctrl-click one of the settings in Job Batch to get the context menu and select Open in Preview, or click on the setting and press
Enter . You will now get the Preview window showing what your video
will look like if encoded with the selected setting. Once you have verified
that everything is to your satisfaction you can close the Preview window.
The Preview will be further discussed in section 5.6, Preview.
3. Click the Start Encoding button (
dow.
) in the lower right corner of the win-
When encoding starts the Status will change from Pending... to a progress bar
letting you see the progress of the encoding. Once the job is finished the Status
will say Done.
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Delayed starting
NOTE
While Episode can only encode one job at a time, jobs may be submitted
not only from the job batch but also from widgets or plugins in other software.
However, these latter ones are not represented in the job batch; therefore
you may see that a job in the job batch has started but seemingly makes no
progress because it is waiting for another job to finish executing.
The encoded files will be saved to the Desktop by default. How to change the
output path/location will be discussed in section 5.7, Output Options.
To locate the encoded file click the Finder button in the Action column next to
the setting and the encoded file will be shown in the Finder.
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5
Episode in detail
In chapter 4, Introduction to Episode, we discussed the basics of the user interface
and how to get started with your first encoding. In this chapter we will study the
details of Episode.
5.1
5.1.1
Managing source files
Source Bookmarks
Episode lets you collect references to your source files in a Source Bookmarks
list, to which you can add files and folders at will for later transcoding. You
add and remove bookmarks with respectively the New Bookmark. . . ( ) and
Remove ( ) buttons located next to the header Source Bookmarks.
When removing a bookmark from the Source Bookmarks list, it will only remove
the shortcut, the source folders or files will not be affected.
Right-/Ctrl-click a file in the Source Bookmarks area to bring up a context menu.
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Encode Now. . . Select a setting in the cascade menu and perform a transcoding,
see further section 5.5.1, One-off transcoding.
Open in Preview Show a preview of the source video; see section 5.6, Preview.
Alternatively, click to select the source file and press Enter .
Reveal in Finder Open the folder where your source file resides in the Finder.
Open in QuickTime Player Launch the source file in QuickTime Player.
Copy Copy a reference to the source file; you can then paste it to the Job Batch.
5.1.2
File extensions
Episode recognizes your media files by their extensions. If a file does not have a
visible extension, like a DV file exported from Apple Final Cut Pro, it will not
be visible in Source Bookmarks. If this is the case you can make the file visible
by activating Show all files in Preferences, see further section 5.9, Preferences.
The difference between file formats and codecs
Even though a source file may be in a known file format, the media may be
encoded with a codec that is not supported by Episode. Check appendix A,
Supported formats for the file formats and codecs supported by Episode.
5.2
Managing settings
The Compression Settings is located directly below the Source Bookmarks area.
This is where you store your encoding settings. You can create new settings, delete
them and arrange them in folders.
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5.2.1
Using template settings
The Episode installation comes with a large number of presets that cover most
of the usual transcoding scenarios. These settings are located in the Templates
folder. You can use the template settings to get started with encoding. They can
also be used as a starting point when you are creating your own custom settings.
Right-/Ctrl-click a setting or a whole setting folder and choose Duplicate in the
context menu to make a copy to work with, this way you will always keep the
original setting available. To edit a setting, double-click on the setting name; this
will switch the window to the Settings Editor tab showing the selected setting.
Templates
NOTE
The template settings are generic and can be tweaked to suit your specific
needs. However, when doing so, we suggest you save your copies under a
new name and/or in a new folder. This way, you can install a new template
pack later without losing your changes.
Restoring default templates
NOTE
If your template settings have been altered or removed you can always recover
the default templates with the File→Restore Templates. . . menu option.
5.2.2
Creating new settings
To create a new setting, either select File→New Setting, press Command-N, or
press the New Setting button ( ) in the Compression Settings area. The Settings Editor tab will be activated so you can edit your new setting.
You may edit multiple settings simultaneously and switch between them with the
Open Settings menu at the top left of the Settings Editor.
5.2.3
Saving settings
Having created a new setting or edited an existing setting you can save it by
either pressing the Save button ( ) at the top right of the interface, pressing
Command-S, selecting File→Save, or selecting File→Save As. . . .
5.2.4
Creating new folders
To create a new folder in the Compression Settings area, click the New Folder
button ( ). To create a sub-folder, select a folder in the Compression Settings
and click the New Folder button. To rename, select the folder and then click on it
once to activate the name field and type the folder name of your choice.
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5.2.5
Deleting folders and settings
Select a setting or folder and press Command-backspace to delete it from the
Compression Settings, or click the Delete button ( ). If you accidentally delete
a setting you can find it in the Trash. To reinstall it, simply drag the deleted
setting from the Trash back to the Compression Settings.
Reinstalling trashed folders
A whole setting folder that has been moved to the Trash cannot be copied
back to the Compression Settings by drag and drop. You need to create a
new folder in the Compression Settings and import the settings individually.
5.2.6
Exporting settings
To export settings from Episode, select individual settings or settings folders in
Compression Settings, and then either ctrl-click the setting(s) and select Export. . . in the context menu, or click the Export Setting button ( ) located at
the top right of the Settings Editor. Your setting(s) will be exported as XML
files that can be used in Episode Engine and Episode Podcast or, e g, emailed to
another Episode user.
In the Export dialogue you choose in what format you wish to export the setting(s). If you export in Episode/Episode Pro format the setting cannot reliably
be used in Episode Engine but is importable in any Episode. The receiving user
can drop this setting document directly into Compression Settings.
If you export in Episode Engine or Episode Podcast format the setting is altered
to fit Episode Engine and Episode Podcast, respectively, and cannot reliably be
used in Episode again.
5.2.7
Uploading settings to Episode Engine
If you have a running Episode Engine server on the local network, you can upload
settings files directly to the server. Select the setting(s) you want to upload and
select Upload to Episode Engine. . . in the context menu or press the Upload
Episode Engine Setting button ( ).
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Logging in on one of the Episode Engine servers will open a browser on the
templates already stored on that server. You can select one of the folders or create
a new one with the New Group button. Then press Upload to upload the settings
file to the server. It will now be available for transcodings on that server. Note
that no settings can be stored in the Templates folder, so you will have to create
at least one new group to store the settings made by you and other users of the
Episode Engine server.
5.2.8
Duplicating settings
To duplicate a setting, either ctrl-click the setting in the Browser and select Duplicate from the context menu, click the setting and select Edit→Duplicate, or
click the setting and press Command-D.
5.2.9
Closing settings
When you are done working with a setting, you can close the current setting either
by clicking the Close button ( ) at the top right of the tab, selecting File→Close
Current Document, or pressing Command-Shift-W.
5.3
Working with settings
To open a setting in the Settings Editor, double-click the setting in the Browser.
If you have opened several settings you can easily switch between them with the
drop-down menu at the top left of the Settings Editor.
Navigate through the different parts of the setting by using the tabs in the Settings
Editor. The screen shot below shows the available tabs, with the Output tab
activated.
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5.3.1
Editing settings in the batch
When you move a setting to the Job Batch a copy of the setting is created. This
means that any changes you later on make in the Settings Editor will not affect
the setting in the Job Batch. However, you can still do changes to that particular setting by editing in the Job Batch. Double-clicking the setting in the Job
Batch opens an editor sheet on top of the Job Batch and you can do your setting
alterations here.
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When you are satisfied with your setting changes click Apply. Your setting in
the Job Batch is now altered and you can view the changes in the Preview. The
original setting is not affected by the changes you have made.
However, when you have applied the changes to your job, two buttons appear in
the Action column: The Save As button ( ) lets you save the altered setting to
Compression Settings under a new name. The Revert to Saved Setting button
( ) will reload the original setting from Compression Settings if you want to
return to the starting point.
5.3.2
Choosing output format and codecs
The first step in creating a setting is to choose what file format and codecs to use
in the Output tab. Depending on which file format you select, different codecs
will be available. Here you also specify which tracks to encode—video, audio or
both. This is done by selecting Encode, Discard or Copy for the current track:
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Encode Specify which codec to use for a specific track.
Discard Exclude the selected track from the output file.
Copy Copy the existing track into the destination file format, provided that the
format of the source track is supported by the destination format.
5.3.3
Choosing video filters
In the Video tab you specify the settings for the video codec you selected in the
Output tab. For a full listing of the codecs see chapter 7, Video tab—codecs.
You can also select which video filters that are to be used in the setting. To activate
a filter check the checkbox at the top left of the filter area.
You can collapse and expand the filter as you want but it will stay activated until
you un-check the checkbox. If the box is un-checked the filter is not used and the
filter setting equals Same as Source. You can press the question mark to bring
up an Apple Help page on the relevant filter.
For more information about available filters see chapter 8, Video tab—filters.
5.3.4
Choosing audio filters
The Audio tab works like the Video tab. You specify the settings for the audio
codec you selected in the Output tab. For a full listing of codecs and filters see
chapter 9, Audio tab—codecs and chapter 10, Audio tab—filters.
5.3.5
Other properties
The Metadata, Stream, and Engine tabs have their own corresponding chapters
later in the manual: chapter 11, Metadata tab, chapter 12, Stream tab, and chapter 13, Engine tab; they will not be discussed further in this chapter.
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5.4
Multi Bit Rate (MBR) settings
A Multi Bit Rate file is a file containing several tracks of your media with individual encoder settings for bitrate, framerate and filters. In this way you can accommodate users with low bandwidth connections as well as those with medium
and high bandwidth connections in a single file. In other words, combine your
modem setting, ISDN setting and broadband setting into one MBR Setting and
encode one file instead of three. MBR is supported by the following formats:
• 3GPP
Episode Pro
• Real Media (called Sure Stream files)
• Windows Media (called Intellistream files)
Real Media MBR settings are created through the Real Media interface (see section 6.1.9, Real Media). For the other formats you create MBR settings either in
the Compression Settings or in the Job Batch.
5.4.1
Creating an MBR setting in Compression Settings
To create an MBR setting, select File→New MBR Setting. An untitled MBR
setting is created in Compression Settings. The MBR setting can be renamed the
same way as a regular setting. You can expand and collapse the MBR setting, but
until any settings are added it is merely an empty container.
In the example below the Templates/By format/WindowsMedia/Streaming
folder is opened. Command-click the settings you want to add and drag them
to the empty MBR setting. Only use settings that are intended for streaming.
Note that all the settings in an MBR setting must be for the same output format.
Windows Media Streaming Server cannot stream Variable Bit Rate-encoded files
so files intended for WMSS must use Constant Bit Rate settings only (see section 7.1.3, CBR, VBR and Quality Based VBR for a discussion of Constant and
Variable Bit Rate).
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Once the settings of your choice have been added to the MBR setting you can start
using it.
A setting is not editable if it is inside an MBR setting. If you need to edit it, drag
it outside the MBR setting, edit it, and drag it back inside the MBR setting.
To use an MBR setting, drop it on a source file in the Job Batch.
5.4.2
Creating an MBR setting in the Job Batch
Drag streamable settings from Compression Settings and drop them on a source
file in the Job Batch. In this example we use settings from Templates/By format/
WindowsMedia/Streaming.
Select the settings, ctrl-click and choose Link as MBR Setting from the context
menu, or click the Link button (
) at the top right.
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Alternatively you can click on one or more streamable settings and any other
compatible settings will show a Link button in their action column, clicking this
will create an MBR setting containing the clicked and the selected settings.
When you look at the expanded MBR setting in the Job Batch you can see an
Unlink button (
) in the action column next to the setting. Clicking the Unlink
button or just dragging the setting outside the MBR setting breaks the association.
If you change your mind you can drag the setting back into the MBR Setting.
The difference between an MBR setting created in the Job Batch and one created
in Compression Settings is that the former only exists in the Job Batch. If you
want to save it to the Compression Settings click the Save As button ( ) in the
Action column to save it under a new name.
Exported MBR settings
MBR settings that have been exported cannot be read back in with
File→Open. . . , but they can be dragged onto the Compression Settings
browser from the Finder.
5.5
Transcoding
Transcoding is the process of converting your source media into a new format.
This is done by applying one or several settings to your source. Most of the time
you will do this in the Job Batch where you can combine multiple source files
and settings files, but you can also do quick one-off transcodings.
5.5.1
One-off transcoding
You can select a file in the Source Bookmarks list, bring up its context menu and
choose a suitable setting in the submenus of Encode Now. . . . Episode will ask
you for an output file name and the directory to store the output in. As for other
transcoding jobs, the progress will be shown in the Job Batch and the output file
shown in Recently Encoded.
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5.5.2
Adding source files to the Job Batch
There are several ways to add source files to the Job Batch.
1. Drag a source file or a whole folder with source files from the Source Bookmarks area to the Job Batch.
2. Copy one or several source file(s) in the Source Bookmarks and paste them
to the Job Batch.
3. Drag a source file from the Finder to the Job Batch.
4. Click the Add Source File(s) button ( ) at the top right side of the Job
Batch. When adding a source file in this way you will also be given the
option to add the enclosing folder to the Source Bookmarks list.
5.5.3
Adding settings to the Job Batch
Adding a setting to a source file in the Job Batch completes the necessary preparations to do an encoding. As soon as you have dropped a setting on a source file
you have created a job. The ways to add settings to a source file are:
1. Drag a setting from the Compression Settings onto a source file in the Job
Batch.
2. Copy a setting in the Compression Settings and paste it onto a source file
in the Job Batch.
3. Right-/Ctrl-click the source file in the Job Batch and select Add Setting
from the context menu.
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Settings are copied
Note that a setting is copied to the Job Batch, any subsequent edits to the
original will not affect the job setting, as explained in section 5.3.1, Editing
settings in the batch.
Adding multiple settings to multiple files
TIP
You can copy and paste to add multiple settings to multiple files. Select
the settings you wish to add to the batch and press Command-C or select
Edit→Copy to copy them. Then select the specific source files in the Job
Batch to which you want to paste the settings and press Command-V or select
Edit→Paste. The copied settings will be pasted onto all the chosen source
files. If you want to add the selected settings to all files in in the Job Batch,
ctrl-click the settings and choose Add Setting(s) to Job Batch from the context menu.
5.5.4
Running and pausing
When you have added your settings and files to the Job Batch you can start
transcoding.
All files in the Job Batch tab are preceded by a checkbox. If you for some reason
do not wish to encode a given source file, uncheck its box, if you do not wish to
use a given setting, uncheck its box. If you have unchecked some of the settings
for a given source file, its checkbox will be marked with a horizontal line.
Start encoding by pressing the Start Encoding ( ) button in the lower right
corner of the Job Batch. The first job in the Job Batch will start running, the
Start Encoding button will change into a Pause button ( ) and a progress bar
will show the progress of each track being encoded and how long the encoding is
expected to take. If the progress bar does not move even if the job has started, it
may be that you have submitted a job through a widget or a plugin in some other
software, so that the job in the job batch waits for this other job to finish first.
If the transcoding finished as expected the progress bar is replaced by the message
Done. The output file can now be accessed by clicking the Finder button ( )
located in the Action column to the left of the Status column. If there on the other
hand was any problem with the transcoding, an error message will be shown in
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the Status column. If the entire message does not fit in the field, you can either
widen the field (by dragging the divider in the header) or keep the mouse over the
message to get a tooltip with the full message.
With the Pause button you can temporarily stop your current encoding if you need
the processing power of your computer for some other application. You can even
pause your job and put your computer to sleep, and then resume your encoding at
another time. Alternatively, you can press the space key to run/pause encoding.
If you decide not to continue with a particular encoding, press the Skip Current
Job button ( ) and encoding will continue with the next job in the queue; the
skipped job will go to the Stopped state.
5.5.5
Stopping encoding
To stop the encoding of the current job press the Stop Encoding button ( ). This
will stop all jobs and the files encoded so far will be left in the destination directory. Files that have been partly encoded will also remain in the output directory.
There is no way to resume encoding a stopped job. If you want to run the jobs
again you will have to click the Reset Status button ( ) at the top right of the
Job Batch first.
5.6
Preview
The Preview window lets you see the effects of your settings. To open the Preview window, select a setting in the Job Batch tab or a source file in either the
Source Bookmarks or Job Batch and select Open in Preview in the context
menu or press Enter.
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The Preview window has three tabs, Source, Preview, and Encoded. If you are
previewing a source file, only the first tab will be active. It lets you play the video
clip with the usual video controls. There is also a scrubber that lets you pull a
marker to the point in the timeline you wish to preview.
By default, the full timeline is displayed, but for long video sequences the resolution may not be enough to let you select the precise point you want. In this case
you can use the zoom slider to select a suitable scale. The zoom will be centred
around the current point.
If you had selected a setting for preview, you will get the Preview tab. This will
show what the video will look like if encoded with the selected setting. In this tab
you can only look at single frames of the video and the video controls are greyed
out. Additionally you can turn on the display of filter effects: Pressing On will
show the filtered view over the entire window, Off will turn off the filtered view.
Pressing Left or Right will show the filtered view in the left or right part of the
window; by dragging the mouse in the window you can move the separator further
left or right. Holding down the Ctrl key will show the filtered view as long as the
key is held down.
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Resize and Deinterlace always active
NOTE
In order to make it easier to compare the before/after effects, the effects of
the resize and deinterlace filters are always shown, regardless of whether you
have turned on filtered display or not.
Finally, if you select a setting that has been encoded, you can choose between
the Preview and Encoded tabs. The Encoded tab lets you play the final result
of encoding. You also get an extra window Encoded Movie Info which shows a
bar chart of the number of bits used for each frame of encoded video. If you drag
the current frame marker across the bar chart the preview will update to show
the frame you have selected, conversely, dragging the scrubber in the Preview
window will move the bar chart to centre on the relevant frame. If you enlarge
the Encoded Movie Info window, the scale bars will adjust to show more detail.
Checking the box Colour Keyframes will fill the bars representing keyframes in a
darker colour. Checking the box Draw Average Bitrate will draw a line showing
the average number of bits used over whatever averaging period has been set in
the codec (see further in section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier).
You can save the current Preview image as a file by selecting Preview→Capture
Frame to Disk. . . . You can choose to save the image as a GIF, JPEG, JPEG 2000,
PNG or TIFF image. Anamorphic images can be stretched to the correct proportions by checking the Stretch Anamorphic Frames box in the file browser.
Preview→Capture Frame to Disk Quickly will reuse the most recently used
capture filename with a default name based on the source file name if this is your
first capture.
5.6.1
In and out points
If you have an hour-long clip there is no need to encode the whole clip every time
to test encodings, so to save time you can use the Preview to select a specific part
of the source file to encode. Select the setting in Job Batch and open the Preview.
The buttons at the bottom of the Preview window let you create your In and Out
points.
Set the in point to the current time in the scrubber. You can also press i. To
remove the in point, press Alt while pressing this button, or press Alt-i.
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Set the out point to the current time in the scrubber. You can also press o. To
remove the out point, press Alt while pressing this button, or press Alt-o.
Go to In Point. Will instantly bring you to the position of your In Point. You
can also press Shift-I.
Go to the beginning of the clip.
Play the clip from the current point.
Go to the end of the clip.
Go to Out Point. Will instantly bring you to the position of your out point.
You can also press Shift-O.
The in/out points are indicated by and icons in the scrubber. They cannot
be dragged, but are set only by selecting a point in the scrubber and pressing Set
in/out point. If you have set in/out points in the Preview a clock icon ( ) will
show up in the Action column next to the setting in the Job Batch. If you have
added several settings to a source file in the Job Batch and want to apply the same
in/out points to all of them, then create in/out points in one of your settings, ctrlclick that setting to bring up the context menu and select Copy In/Out to Siblings
to copy the in/out points to all the other settings for that source file.
Saved in/out points
NOTE
If you set in and out points in the Preview they will only be saved in that job in
the batch. They will not affect the original setting. To permanently save in/out
points in a setting you have to open the setting in the Settings Editor and add
the in/out point values there, see section 6.5, In/Out Points.
5.7
Output Options
By default, encoded files will be saved to the Desktop when the encoding is
done, but you can set any location in your system to be the output destination.
The Destination Folder menu at the bottom of the Job Batch tab lets you select
an alternative destination. The option Browse. . . lets you create and/or specify
a folder where you want your encoded files to be placed when finished. The
option Reset List. . . reverts the available destinations to the default alternatives
~/Desktop and ~/Movies.
To make the general handling and management of your output files as easy as
possible, you can define file naming conventions. There are two predefined naming conventions available: Incremental Filename and Date. You can select
them in the Naming Convention menu at the bottom of the Job Batch tab.
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There are a number of tags available to dictate the naming of your encoded files.
In Incremental Filename we have used name, setting, counter and extension
to form the output name:
hnamei _ hsettingi [_ hcounteri] . hextensioni
The result of a file named sourcefile encoded with a setting named setting
would be sourcefile_setting.mov. The counter prevents previously encoded files with the same name being overwritten, instead a number will be added
to each encoded file after the first one.
The naming convention Date works like Incremental Filename but will
add the current date to the beginning of the file name.
You can create your own naming conventions to suit your own needs. From the
drop-down menu select Edit Naming Conventions. . . to access the editor.
In the editor, you can add or delete naming conventions of your own. All available
tags are shown in the scroll list at the bottom. Click the New Naming Convention
button ( ) to create a new naming convention. Then double-click New to activate
the Description field and insert a name for your naming convention:
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After entering a name click the corresponding Naming Convention to activate
that field and do the adjustments you need. Close the editor window and you
are done. You have created a new naming convention available in the drop-down
menu whenever you need it.
You can also set the naming convention for individual settings by ctrl-clicking on
a setting to bring up a context menu:
If you select Custom. . . , you get the default name of the output file and you can
edit this to what you want and this will be remembered for future encodings:
5.8
Action column
In the Action column in the Job Batch you will get information about the current
job.
The Finder icon is clickable. It will reveal the corresponding file in the
Finder. It works on both source files and encoded files.
The Clock icon indicates that In/Out Points have been set in this setting.
The Save As button indicates that the setting in the job has been edited. Clicking the Save As icon gives you the opportunity to save the setting under a
new name.
The Revert to Saved Setting icon will reload the original saved setting from
Compression Settings. This will remove all changes made in the Settings
Editor.
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The Warning icon indicates that something is wrong. Whenever the Warning
icon is displayed the error code is presented in the Status column.
The Link to MBR setting button indicates that this setting can be, but is not,
linked into an MBR Setting.
The Unlink from MBR setting button lets you unlink a selected setting from
an MBR setting.
Job queue limit
NOTE
The job queue is limited to 25 jobs in Episode. For larger capacity, upgrade
to Episode Pro or use Episode Engine.
5.9
Preferences
You can set some of the behaviour of Episode in the Preferences to suit your own
workflow. The Preferences window is divided into tabs: General, Job Batch,
Update and License. Start by selecting Episode →Preferences. . . .
5.9.1
General
The General tab is selected by default.
The different options in the General tab and their functions are:
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Show all files Show all files and not only the media files. This is the default. For
more information, see section 5.1.2, File extensions.
Show Recently Encoded files Show the list of recently encoded files, as explained
in section 4.1.3, Recently Encoded.
Preview is always on top When the box is checked the Preview window will
always be on top, regardless of any other application in use.
Hide Engine tab Hide the Engine Tab located at the right in the Settings Editor
tab list. The Engine tab is only used when exporting settings from Episode
to be used in Episode Engine.
Scratch location Set the location of the temp directory where temporary files are
placed during encoding. As these may become quite large, the size of the
selected partition is displayed.
5.9.2
Job Batch
Play sound when job is done Play sound when job is done.
Retry failed jobs Set the number of times you want Episode to retry a file that
failed to encode properly. The reasons for a job to fail can differ and are
not necessarily a result of an error in the source file or the encoding setting.
A failure can be a result of a loss of power, memory issues, intermittent
network problems, etc.
Low CPU priority You can lower the processor priority assigned to Episode.
This is very useful if you want to work in other applications while Episode
is encoding in the background. The encoding will usually be slower but
your other applications will respond better.
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5.9.3
Update
Episode can automatically check for updated versions. You can select the frequency for how often it will perform the check or start the check manually.
5.9.4
License
Even without a license you can do transcoding in Episode of half the length of
the source material, up to a maximum of 30 seconds.
Press Purchase. . . and your web browser will be directed to the webshop. When
the purchase is completed you will receive an email with your serial number and
the name you registered under. Press the Enter Serial Number. . . button, copy
your name and serial number from the email message, paste them into the window
displayed, and press Activate. Episode is now fully functional.
When you activate your license, the Enter Serial Number. . . button changes into
Change Serial Number. . . . If you later on purchase additional features, such as
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the Flash 8 Option, you can enter the new serial number here and immediately
get the benefit of the new functions.
If you need to move your license to a new computer, press Deactivate. . . to
deactivate to license on the old computer. You can then install Episode on your
new computer and enter your serial number as before.
5.10
Control buttons and keyboard shortcuts
The Episode main window has two tabs: Job Batch and Settings Editor. The
two tabs have different control buttons.
5.10.1
Job Batch
Episode is launched with the Job Batch view active by default and the row of
control buttons present at the top right of the user interface are:
Add Source File(s) lets you add source files to the Job Batch.
Link/Unlink Setting lets you connect or disconnect one or several settings
to or from an MBR Setting.
Reset Status resets the status of your jobs in the Job Batch tab allowing you
to start and run your job again. You can also use the Command-U key.
Clear Batch clears everything from the Job Batch tab—source files and settings alike. You can also use the Delete key.
Clear All Settings will only clear the settings from Job Batch, the source files
will be left untouched.
5.10.2
Settings Editor
The Settings Editor tab has the following control buttons:
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Save saves your current setting.
Export Setting exports the setting(s) of your choice in either Episode or Episode Engine format.
Close Setting closes the current setting. If this is the last setting in the Settings
Editor, you will be placed in the Job Batch after closing.
Tips
TIP
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Place your mouse over any button or window and wait for two seconds without
clicking—a tool tip with an explanation of that particular button or window will
appear.
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5.10.3
Keyboard shortcuts
Key combination
space
Command-+
Command-Command-,
Command-?
Command-0
Command-1
Command-2
Command-3
Command-Alt-1
Command-Alt-2
Command-Alt-3
Command-A
Command-C
Command-Alt-C
Command-Alt-Shift-C
Command-D
Command-I
Command-M
Command-N
Command-Shift-N
Command-O
Command-S
Command-Shift-S
Command-V
Command-W
Command-Shift-W
Command-Alt-W
Command-{
Command-}
backspace
Command-backspace
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Run or Pause the current encoding
Zoom Preview timeline in
Zoom Preview timeline out
Open the Preferences
Episode Help
Set Preview window to half size
Set Preview window to normal size
Set Preview window to double size
Fit Preview window to screen size
Switch to Source tab in Preview window
Switch to Preview tab in Preview window
Switch to Encoded tab in Preview window
Select All
Copy the selected item
Write current Preview image as file
Write current Preview image as file with
default file name
Duplicate the selected item
Show/hide Encoded Movie Info window
Minimize the application window
Create a new setting
Create a new MBR setting
Open a stored setting
Save the active setting
Save the active setting under a new name
Paste the most recently copied item
Close the application window
Close current setting
Close all settings
Display previous setting
Display next setting
Clear a file from the Browser or Job Batch
Delete selected setting
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6
Output tab
In this chapter we will go through the Output tab and its different sections: Output Format, Video, Audio, Hint, In/Out Points, Timecode, Bumper/Trailer,
and QuickTime.
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6.1
Output Format
Episode supports a large variety of file formats. The complete listing of file formats supported can be found in appendix A, Supported formats. A number of
these file formats require special settings. These file formats and their particular
settings will be explained in this chapter. File formats that do not have any special
settings will not be individually explained.
Some of the formats are only available in Episode Pro. They will be marked with
in Episode. You can still use them in demo mode.
Episode Pro
6.1.1
3GPP (3gp)
3GPP is a format intended for mobile phones. When encoding .3gp files for
download or streaming you can choose to flag this file as either 3GPP v 5 or
3GPP v 6 depending on what target clients you are encoding for. The safest way
to go in this case is with 3GPP version 5. There are older mobile phones that have
not been upgraded to handle version 6. Most version 6 phones, on the other hand,
are compatible with version 5.
Fast start adds information that allows a player to start playing the file before
all data have been downloaded (progressive download). This is an alternative to
streaming.
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Episode Pro
MBR Type lets you choose between 3GPP and Vidiator encoding for Multi Bit
Rate streams. See section 5.4, Multi Bit Rate (MBR) settings for further information on Multi Bit Rate streams, see http://www.vidiator.com/ for additional information on the Vidiator codecs.
6.1.2
3GPP2 (EZMovie)
Episode Pro
3GPP2 is a format for mobile phones. It is similar, but not identical to the 3GPP
format. It comes in two flavours: the EZMovie version lets you Restrict distribution of a downloaded file by limiting the Playback Count to a chosen number
of times and/or set the Expiration Time of the file to a specified number of days.
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6.1.3
AMC (EZMovie)
Episode Pro
AMC (Adaptive Modulation and Coding) is a 3GPP variant mainly used in Japan.
AMC lets you Restrict distribution of a downloaded file by limiting the Playback Count to a chosen number of times and/or set the Expiration Time of the
file to a specified number of days.
6.1.4
AVI
AVI is a wrapper format that comes in two versions: Version 1 (regular AVI)
and Version 2 (large files). Version 2 is not supported by all players but allows
encoding of source files larger than 4 GiB.
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6.1.5
MOV
QuickTime is a wrapper format for many codecs.
Create QuickTime Timecode Track together with the Timecode option (see
section 6.6, Timecode), creates a QuickTime timecode track. This track can then
be toggled on or off in QuickTime Player.
Disable Save prevents any transcoding of your file to other formats.
Fast start adds information that allows a player to start playing the file before
all data have been downloaded (progressive download). This is an alternative to
streaming.
Episode Pro
In Episode Pro, you can use all third-party QuickTime codec plugins in your system, so you can quickly extend the encoding abilities of Episode by downloading and installing plugins. You access the QuickTime-specific codecs by using
the QuickTime video and audio codecs (see section 7.14, QuickTime and section 9.11, QuickTime).
6.1.6
MP3
Episode supports ID3 v1.1 and v2.3 metadata tags for MP3 files. Check Use ID3
tag v 1.1 and Use ID3 tag v 2.3 as needed. See chapter 11, Metadata tab for more
information on metadata and http://www.id3.org/ for more information on
valid values for ID3 tags.
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6.1.7
MPEG-PS
An MPEG Elementary Stream (MPEG-ES) contains only a single medium, video
or audio. A Program Stream (MPEG-PS) interleaves (multiplexes) video and audio data. The Mux Packet Size can be set in the range 300 to 5000 bytes.
6.1.8
MPEG-TS
Episode Pro
An MPEG Elementary Stream contains only a single medium: video or audio. A
Transport Stream (MPEG-TS) is intended for broadcast media, so it interleaves
(multiplexes) video and audio data with headers that let receivers pick up an ongoing transmission.
PID assignment For the receiver to know which video or audio stream a packet
belongs to, each packet contains a PID (Packet IDentifier). The default
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values are 68 for the Video PID and 69 for the Audio PID, but different
applications may require you to use other values. A PID can be set in the
range 16 to 8190.
The timing of media is controlled by sending Program Clock Reference
(PCR) packets. The PCR field specifies the PID of these packets. The PID
can either be identical to that of a media track (typically the Video PID) or
have a separate value. The PCR PID cannot be the same as the PMT PID.
The structure of the tracks within a program in the transport stream is described by sending Program Map Tables (PMTs) for each program. Since
Episode creates single program transport streams only one PMT needs to
be specified. The PID for these packets is set with the PMT field.
Transport rate control The transport rate determines the bit rate of the resulting
stream and can be set to either of two values:
Automatic The automatic rate is the sum of the rates of the contained media tracks plus some overhead for system packets. This is the lowest
possible rate for the stream.
Manual The manual rate lets you specify any bit rate for the stream. If the
sum of the rates of the contained media tracks and system packets is
lower than the specified bit rate, the stream will be padded up to the
specified bit rate. If the total rate is higher than the specified rate, the
rate will be silently adjusted up to the lowest possible rate as for the
automatic rate.
PES packet control Packetized Elementary Stream (PES) describes how the media tracks (elementary streams) are stored within the transport stream. Episode provides three ways for controlling the size of the PES packages:
Automatic Max Size The maximum size of the PES packets is set automatically.
Manual Max Size The maximum size of the PES packets is set manually
in the range 1024–65535.
One PES per frame Each frame of video is stored in exactly one PES
packet. Storing the video in this way is required in order to be compatible with some video-on-demand services.
Language Description If a language is selected, an ISO-639 (Part 2) language
descriptor is added to the audio track of the stream. If None is selected, no
language descriptor will be added to the stream.
Program number The number for the single program stream within this transport stream in the range 1–65535.
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6.1.9
Real Media
The RealVideo codec is used in the RealMedia format, a proprietary file format
only playable in RealPlayer. The RealVideo codec can only be used with the
RealAudio codec.
Filetype Select Download or SureStream™.
Audio mode Select Music or Voice.
Video Codec Choose between RealVideo 8, RealVideo 9 or RealVideo 10.
Creating RealVideo settings requires the use of RealMedia proprietary interface
which you reach by clicking the Select/Edit Templates button.
We can only shortly explain the most important features of RealVideo here, for a
more in-depth description, see [2].
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When you select a template setting in the left part of the window the corresponding
data for that template is displayed in the right part of the window. These data are
not editable, but you can select a template and click Duplicate to create an editable
setting, which then will be shown at the top of the list. The parameters you can
edit are the following:
Bit Rate You can set the maximum constant or variable bitrates in kbit/s. For
Variable Bit Rate you can also set the Target Average Bit Rate in kbit/s
and the Target Video Quality. The Target Video Quality takes an integer
value between 0 and 100, where 100 is the best possible reproduction and
0 is a low quality reproduction. Note that neither the target average bitrate
nor the target video quality may actually be achieved if the maximum bitrate
is too low. VBR should be used for progressive download only, never for
streaming.
Codecs You can choose from a large number of video and audio codecs. Which
to choose is beyond the scope of this manual.
Advanced Video Options Pressing the button will open a new dialogue window
letting you specify the following:
Encoding Complexity This can take the values High, Medium and Low;
high encoding complexity requiring more processing time but giving
better-looking video.
Maximum Startup Latency The startup latency is a value between 4 and
60 s. The longer the latency, the better the video quality can be, but
causes a corresponding delay for streaming presentations. For downloaded video, the maximum value is recommended.
Maximum Time Between Key Frames The time is a value between 0 and
60 s. The longer the time the more compression can be achieved, but
the more likely it is that frames lost in transmission will cause visible
errors.
Loss Protection Enabling loss protection adds data to the stream to minimise the effects of lost frames and thus requires higher bit rates.
When you are done, select the settings you want to include and you have created
a RealVideo setting.
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6.1.10
WAV
Wave format files are uncompressed audio. Checking the Include Broadcast
Wave Header adds a BWF header that supports adding metadata to the output
file (cf chapter 11, Metadata tab).
6.1.11
Windows Media
Windows Media Video and Audio files can be indexed, which is necessary for
random access of MBR files.
6.2
Video
In the Video section you can choose between three basic settings:
Encode Choose Encode and then select a video codec for the video track in the
drop-down list. Video codecs that are incompatible with the chosen file
format will be greyed out in the list.
Discard Choose Discard to ignore the source video track in the encoding. No
video track will be encoded.
Copy Choose Copy and the video track will be copied, without transcoding, as
long as the input source format is compatible with the output format.
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6.3
Audio
In the Audio section you can choose between three basic settings:
Encode Choose Encode and then select an audio codec for the audio track in
the drop-down list. Audio codecs that are incompatible with the chosen file
format will be greyed out in the list.
Discard Choose Discard to ignore the source audio track in the encoding. No
audio track will be encoded.
Copy Choose Copy and the audio track will be copied, without transcoding, as
long as the input source format is compatible with the output format.
6.4
Hint
If you want to stream a file from a streaming server you first have to hint the
file. Hinting the file means that you packetize the tracks of the file in a way that
enables a streaming server to send the information as a viewable stream in real
time. Streaming cannot be done with the original video and audio tracks of the
file and therefore a set of two hinted tracks has to be created. These hinted tracks
are based on the original video and audio tracks of the file.
Accordingly, a hinted file contains up to four different tracks: 1. video track,
2. hinted video track, 3. audio track, and 4. hinted audio track
The file size of a hinted file is therefore twice as big as the original file without
containing any more information. Thus, a file should never be hinted unless it is
intended to be streamed from a streaming server, otherwise the user has to download twice the amount of data of the original file without any extra information.
Note that Apple QuickTime Streaming Server version 10.4.8 and later requires all
streaming media to be hinted.
The Prepare For Streaming option adds packetizer(s) and prepares the file for
streaming. If hinting is enabled, only encoders that can be hinted are enabled in
the codec list.
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If you select Prepare For Streaming you will activate the Stream tab where
you can choose what packetizers you want for your video and audio tracks, see
chapter 12, Stream tab.
6.5
In/Out Points
If you only want to encode a segment of your source file you can specify In/Out
Points in your setting. This can be a very helpful feature, if you tweak a setting
and want to do several quick test encodings to evaluate filter settings etc.
The in and out points are given as hhoursi : hminutesi : hsecondsi , hhundrethsi.
If you give a value without colons, the number will be parsed as if there was a
colon between each digit pair, e g 125 will be interpreted as 00:00:01:25,00;
175 will be interpreted as 00:00:02:15,00, the “excess” seconds turned into
an extra minute.
In/out points are not available in demo mode.
6.6
Timecode
Episode writes a timecode track to those output formats that support it: GXF,
QuickTime and Windows Media. (QuickTime requires you to explicitly select the
creation of a timecode track, see section 6.1.5, MOV.)
Checking Same As Source transfers the timecode from the source material. If
you enter a time in the Timecode field this will be used as the starting time for a
new timecode track.
For output formats that do not support a timecode track you can combine Timecode with the Burn Timecode filter (see section 8.18, Burn Timecode) in which
case the timecode is added directly to the picture rather than saved as a separate
timecode track. This way you can use timecodes in any file format. Note that the
Burn Timecode filter is destructive—once the timecode has been added to the
picture there is no way of removing it.
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6.7
Bumper/trailer
Bumpers and trailers are clips you can add respectively before and after your
source media. Bumpers and trailers are set to the same format, size and frame
rate as the output file but will not be otherwise transformed, in particular they will
not be deinterlaced if the output is to be progressive and vice versa. Bumpers and
trailers must have video and audio tracks corresponding to the video and audio
tracks of the output file, i e output with both video and audio requires bumpers
and trailers with both video and audio, but video-only output does not require
audio tracks in the bumper and trailer.
6.8
QuickTime
Occasionally there may be conflicts between the file import functions in Episode
and those included in QuickTime. Checking the Force QuickTime Importer box
forces file import to happen only through QuickTime. Formats normally supported
by Episode but not by QuickTime will then be unavailable.
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7
Video tab—codecs
Episode supports a variety of video codecs suitable for everything from very low
bitrate encoding to uncompressed material. This chapter covers these codecs and
their individual settings and parameters.
Some of the codecs are only available in Episode Pro. They will be marked with
a
in Episode. You can still use them in demo mode.
Episode Pro
The Flash 8 codec requires the Flash 8 Option. You can still use it in demo mode,
where it is marked with
.
7.1
Video codec concepts
Before going into detail with the options available for the video codecs, we will
explain a couple of the more common concepts in video encoding, since they
appear as options in several of our encoders. This will help you to get a better
understanding of the implications these options have for the encoded video and
hopefully help you produce better-looking video material.
7.1.1
Colour formats
The most common way to represent colour in digital images is to use the RGB
colour space. In RGB each pixel has three values: red, green and blue, and this is
the way computer screens display colour.
However, this is not how colour is represented in most video codecs, due to the
way television emerged, at first with only black and white images and later with
colour images. The colour format was designed to contain all the black and white
information in one channel, and the colour information in two additional channels.
The black and white channel is called luma (light), and the two colour channels
are called chroma (colour). The separation of luma and chroma made it possible
for the older television sets to still work, only picking up the black and white
image, while the newer ones could benefit from the colour information.
This colour space is called YUV, or YCbCr, and has several advantages over RGB
in terms of video compression. Note that most of the image information ends up
in the luma channel and that the chroma channels hold much less information for
most video material. This, in combination with the fact that human visual perception is less sensitive to colour than to brightness, makes it possible to sample
the colour more sparsely, thereby reducing the amount of data required to store an
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image.
7.1.2
Frame types—I-, P- and B-frames
Except for raw data formats and editing formats, such as DV or Motion JPEG,
most video formats do not simply consist of a sequence of frames, allowing
them to be decoded independently. Since a video frame often looks a lot like
its neighbouring frames, the video codec searches for differences between frames
to achieve a good compression ratio (temporal compression). Only the differences
are stored in the encoded video file. However, for the encoded stream to be decodable, independent frames, which can be decoded directly, must appear throughout
the clip. These frames are called keyframes, or I-frames. To decode a frame at a
certain time in the movie the decoder must therefore begin the decoding process
at the nearest previous key-frame and decode to the desired frame. Keyframes
spaced far apart will make the clip hard to search, but will result in a good compression ratio. Accordingly they are good for streaming material in which searching is not usually done. The setting Natural and Forced Keyframes which limits
the distance between keyframes to some maximum distance is the most useful for
most material.
A frame that predicts data from a previous frame is called a P-frame (“Predictive
Frame”). A frame that predicts data from both a previous and a subsequent frame
is called a B-frame (“Bi-Predictive Frame”). The use of B-frames will give a
somewhat better compression ratio, but is also more CPU intensive.
7.1.3
CBR, VBR and Quality Based VBR
Constant Bit Rate (CBR), Variable Bit Rate (VBR) and Quality Based VBR are
coding options available in several of the video encoders. A clip encoded in CBR
mode will have a relatively constant bitrate throughout its duration. CBR encoding
is necessary when the content will be distributed over networks or from devices
that cannot handle peaks that are higher than the average bitrate. However, the
use of true CBR, also called Flat Rate, is difficult since it requires every encoded
video frame to be exactly equal in size. This is not good for quality. I-frames, for
example, must be allowed to be larger in size for the overall quality to be good.
Different segments of a movie need different bitrates in order to maintain constant
quality. The quality delivered by most modern video encoders partly depends
on the amount of motion and fine detail in the material. For this reason it is
a good idea to allow VBR, while keeping the average rate at the desired level.
VBR is suitable for playback on devices with less limited bandwidth. Since the
average rate is known, it is still possible to predict the resulting file size with good
accuracy.
When quality is of outmost importance, Quality Based VBR is the best encoding
mode. Using this mode you only specify the desired quality of the encoded material. For each part of the clip the encoder will use the bitrate required to reach
the specified quality. The size of the resulting file cannot be predicted, since it
depends on how difficult the clip is to compress. For example, for the same visual
quality, a clip with a newsreader will yield a small file while a clip of a football
game will be quite large.
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7.1.4
VBV—Video Buffer Verifier
To control how large the variations in bitrate are allowed to be when encoding,
a Video Buffer Verifier (VBV) is used. The buffer size determines within which
time region the bitrate must be kept constant. The VBV is measured in seconds
and anything from 0 to 5 seconds is considered CBR. Everything over 5 seconds
is considered to be VBR. During the specified VBV period of time the bitrate
may vary, without limits, as long as the average rate in the region is correct. This
allows the codec to use higher bitrates for difficult passages and vice versa. A
larger VBV will enable the codec to encode difficult passages better, since the
bitrate is allowed to peak for a longer period of time.
Since the buffer size determines how much the bitrate may vary, it sets a constraint
on how long a player must buffer before starting playback, to ensure smooth playback without need for re-buffering. In practice the size of the VBV is a trade-off.
A large VBV lets the encoder vary the bitrate more freely depending on the difficulty of the current part of the material, still keeping the correct average bitrate.
However, the player will have to buffer a larger portion of the clip before playback can be started safely. A small VBV will force the codec to encode at a more
constant bitrate throughout the clip. This results in lower quality for difficult passages, but the buffer time for the viewer will be low.
When encoding a clip with Quality Based VBR there is no constraint on the size
of the VBV, it is simply ignored. For every part of the movie, the encoder will use
the bitrate required to reach the desired quality.
7.1.5
Frame skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image
In order to keep the specified bitrate most video encoders vary the quality of the
encoded clip. Another alternative supported by some encoders is to skip frames
when the bitrate gets too high. This allows the encoder to keep a higher quality for
each encoded frame, but the motion of the video will not be as smooth. Depending
on the material being encoded, smooth motion may be more important than crisp
image and vice versa. The frame skip probability controls the tradeoff between
skipping frames and lowering quality. A frame skip probability of 1 means that
when the encoder has to choose between lowering the quality or skipping a frame,
it will skip a frame. A probability of 0 does not mean frames will never be skipped,
but that this will only happen when image quality cannot be lowered more.
Frame skip probability is also important to use when creating content for networks
with extreme bandwidth limitations such as GPRS, 3G or when streaming over
modem. These networks sometimes cannot handle even the slightest peaks over
the specified bitrate, and frames can be skipped to avoid this. When streaming
to such a device, set the priority towards sustaining the bitrate and sacrificing
the frame rate if necessary. When encoding for a less bandwidth limited target
platform, such as local playback on a computer, the frame skip probability value
can be set lower. This is possible since the data rate from the computer’s hard
drive is sufficient to handle quite large bitrate peaks.
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7.1.6
Video scan
Video material can be rendered either a full frame at a time, progressive scan or
with every second line of the frame at a time, interlaced scan.
The two half-frames in interlaced material are known as the top and the bottom
fields. One of the fields is dominant and contains the majority of data. The dominant field should always be played back first. When encoding material to be burnt
on a DVD and played back on a TV it is important that the dominant field is set as
the first field. If you have not edited the material you are going to encode, it can
be difficult to know whether the dominance lies in the top or bottom field. The
normal field dominances of the more common formats are:
Format
DV 25, DVCPRO 25/50
DVCPRO 100 HD
IMX
Apple Intermediate Codec
Uncompressed 4:2:2
Field dominance
Bottom field
Top field
Top field
Top field
Top field
Much video material is generated from non-interlaced film material, where a single film frame may be sampled several times to generate video fields. This is
known as telecine. For NTSC material this is typically done by taking 3 fields
from one frame and 2 from the next, known as “3-2 pulldown”; for PAL “2-2
pulldown” is the normal. Making use of knowing this sequence of fields, the “cadence”, can greatly improve the quality of deinterlacing. Typically subsequent
editing breaks up the cadence, but Episode will detect broken cadences and immediately adapt. The interested reader is referred to [3] for an extended discussion
of deinterlacing methods.
Best practice
TIP
The preferred way of working with interlaced material in Episode is to deinterlace any interlaced source material to double-frame rate progressive material,
apply video filters to that and then, if needed, reinterlace the material before
output. See section 8.2, Field Order, section 8.3, Frame Rate, section 8.4,
Deinterlace, section 8.5, Advanced Frame Rate, and section 8.17, Interlace
for further information. You can also study the included settings templates.
7.1.7
Picture resolution and aspect ratio
A digital video frame is a two-dimensional lattice of pixels, where each pixel has
a given colour.
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In the diagram above we have an image lattice of m × n pixels. We can call this
the pixel resolution of the image. The aspect ratio of the display is width : height.
While computer displays normally have an aspect ratio which is identical to m : n,
this is often not true for TV sets. In these cases the pixels on the screen are not
square, the pixel aspect ratio = pixel width : pixel height 6= 1 : 1.
For example, PAL is defined to be 720 × 576 pixels with a display aspect ratio of
4 : 3. Since 720 : 576 = 5 : 4 this means the pixel aspect ratio is 16 : 15.
SVCD is a video format that is stored on CDs and often played on computers.
SVCD stores NTSC video in 480×480 pixels with a pixel aspect ratio of 4 : 3. The
consequent display aspect ratio of 4 : 3 requires the player software to “stretch” the
pixels, interpolating along the horizontal axis to show them on 640 × 480 square
pixels. Compressing dimensions in this way is known as anamorphic video.
Some codecs (D-10/IMX, DV, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4) allow the user to set a
display aspect ratio for the output video in order to inform a player of the desired
aspect ratio for viewing. However, this field is inconsistently used—in particular
its 1 : 1 setting does not mean that the display is square, but rather that the pixels
have a square aspect ratio. Often this field is also labelled as “pixel aspect ratio”.
There is a risk that different equipment will interpret this field in different ways.
In Episode, you can use the Resize filter (section 8.6, Resize) and the codec settings to manage pixel resolution and aspect ratio.
For example, to create an SVCD video: Use the Resize filter and set both Width
and Height to 480 in order to get the desired pixel resolution. Set the Aspect
ratio to 4:3 in the MPEG-2 codec settings to get the desired display aspect ratio.
If the input data have a non-square aspect ratio and this is not indicated in the input
file (or if you wish to override this setting) you can tell the Resize filter so with
the Source display aspect ratio menu. Continuing with the example of SVCD
video, we convert it to PAL output. The m : n ratio is not same for SVCD and
PAL, so we select Cut in the Maintain proportion with menu and set Source
display aspect ratio to Assume 4:3. In the codec we set Aspect ratio to 4:3 or
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Same as Input.
Finally, to convert from one pixel resolution to another, you have two options:
either to scale the smallest dimension to fit the output format and cut off parts of
the largest dimension, or to scale the largest dimension to fit and pad the smallest
dimension with black.
Example: You start with an HD video of 1280 × 720 pixels and wish to encode
it as a PAL video at 720 × 576 pixels while retaining as much of the picture as
possible. You use the Resize filter and set the Maintain proportion with menu
to Letterbox (Pad), scaling down the width of the picture until it fits. This will
shrink the vertical dimension to 324 pixels and the picture will get 126-pixel black
borders along the top and bottom as shown in the picture below.
The other alternative is to select Cut, where the vertical dimension will be scaled
to 576 pixels and the horisontal to 1024 pixels, of which 152 are cut off at both
the left and right sides as shown below:
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For more precise control you can use the Initial crop values to crop parts of the
picture before scaling with either cutting or padding.
7.2
Blackmagic
The Blackmagic codec is uncompressed video and is used by Decklink and Aja
products. You have the option to store the video with either 8 or 10 bits per pixel
and channel. Note that 10-bit encoding cannot increase the quality of 8-bit source
data.
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7.3
D-10/IMX
Episode Pro
The D-10 or IMX codec is defined by the SMPTE 356M standard. It is a derivative
of MPEG-2 4:2:2 I-frames-only video.
You can select a Bit Rate of 30 MBit/s, 40 MBit/s or 50 MBit/s.
You can choose a Display Aspect Ratio of 1:1 (square pixels), 4:3, 16:9 or
2.21:1.
7.4
DV
DV is one of the most widespread editing formats in use today. The DV codec
does not use prediction between frames (all frames are keyframes), which makes
every frame decodable separately. This is what makes the codec suitable for editing, and gives the video an even quality, even in parts of the video that are typically
difficult to encode for other video encoders.
The format is restricted to the NTSC and PAL frame sizes and frame rates. Other
frame sizes or frame rates cannot be encoded.
Audio sample rate
NOTE
The DV type setting will automatically set the audio sample rate filter (section 10.3, Sample Rate) to the appropriate value.
DV Type Episode supports the following DV formats:
DV The DV (25) format is specified by the ISO IEC 61834 standard:
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• Frame size must be 720 × 576 (PAL) or 720 × 480 (NTSC) at a
frame rate of 25 and 29.97 frames per second, respectively.
• The bitrate is fixed at 25 Mbit/s.
• The image sampling structure is 4:2:0 for PAL and 4:1:1 for
NTSC clips.
• 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz audio sample rates are supported.
DVCPRO DVCPRO is specified by the SMPTE 314M standard:
• Frame size must be 720 × 576 (PAL) or 720 × 480 (NTSC) at a
rate of 25 and 29.97 frames per second, respectively.
Episode Pro
• bitrate is fixed at 25 Mbit/s.
• The image sampling structure is 4:1:1 for both PAL and NTSC.
• Only 32 and 48 kHz audio sample rates are supported.
DVCPRO50 The DVCPRO50 format has a bitrate of 50 Mbit/s and an
image sampling structure of 4:2:2, but is otherwise the same as the
Episode Pro DVCPRO format.
Display aspect ratio The display aspect ratio informs the device playing the DV
file whether it should be displayed at an aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9.
7.5
Flash Video
The Flash 7 Video format is often used for video content on the Web and is stored
in either the Adobe Flash (SWF) or Flash Video (FLV) file format.
Average rate The desired bandwidth of the video track in kilobits per second.
The range is 0 kbit/s to 100 000 kbit/s.
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Frame skip probability The value 0.0 is least likely to cause frame skipping,
while the value 1.0 is most likely to skip frames when bitrate cannot be
sustained. For more information about this option, please read section 7.1.5,
Frame skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image.
VBV buffer size The VBV buffer size can be set between 0 and 60 seconds.
Please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
Keyframe control Keyframes can be set in these modes:
Keyframes Only Makes all frames keyframes. This option should only be
used for very high bitrates.
Forced Keyframes Only Creates a keyframe after the specified number of
frames.
Natural and Forced Keyframes Lets the codec choose keyframe, but also
ensures that there is at least one keyframe within the specified interval.
If Keyframe distance is set to zero, keyframes will only be created
when a scene change is detected, making this the same as Natural
Keyframes Only.
Natural Keyframes Only Lets the codec decide when it is appropriate to
insert a keyframe. The codec automatically detects a scene change
and inserts a keyframe.
Intra Block Refresh When choosing Intra Block Refresh (IBR), the Infra refresh distance must be set. This differs from the other keyframe
options in that the codec does not update the whole frame. The codec
updates the different areas in the image in blocks instead of the whole
frame. This is extremely useful when encoding for very low bitrates
and streaming, since it makes the bitrate more constant.
Keyframe distance The maximum distance between any keyframes regardless
of scene changes. With long clips with much redundant data such as news
clips (talking head), setting a maximum distance will ensure that the stream
can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 0 to 10 000 frames.
Use 2-pass encoding Encoding will be performed in two passes. In pass one, the
codec will analyze the frames and collect data. In the second pass it will
use the collected data as the basis for how to best distribute the bits. 2-pass
encoding improves the quality, but slows down the encoding. The 2-pass
interval value sets the number of frames the codec will analyze in the first
pass before encoding the second pass. Using a higher 2-pass interval will
increase the quality, but the encoding will be slower. It is possible to set a
2-pass value between 200 to 500 frames.
Flash audio sample rates
NOTE
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7.6
Flash 8 Video
With the Flash 8 Option you can create video in the Flash 8 Video format and
store it in either the Adobe Flash (SWF) or the Flash Video (FLV) file format.
Peak rate The maximum allowed bitrate. The range is 15 kbit/s to 100 000 kbit/s.
Average rate The desired bandwidth of the video track in kilobits per second.
The range is 15 kbit/s to 100 000 kbit/s.
Frame skip probability The value 0.0 is least likely to cause frame skipping,
while the value 1.0 is most likely to skip frames when bitrate cannot be
sustained. For more information about this option, please read section 7.1.5,
Frame skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image.
VBV buffer size The VBV buffer size can be set between 0 and 60 seconds.
Please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
VBR Strength If the 2-pass mode is set to VBR, you can set the amount of
variability allowed; 0 corresponds to CBR.
Keyframe control Keyframes can be set in these modes:
Keyframes Only Makes all frames keyframes. This option should only be
used for very high bitrates.
Forced Keyframes Only Creates a keyframe after the specified number of
frames.
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Natural and Forced Keyframes Lets the codec choose keyframe, but also
ensures that there is at least one keyframe within the specified interval.
If Keyframe distance is set to zero, keyframes will only be created
when a scene change is detected, making this the same as Natural
Keyframes Only.
Natural Keyframes Only Lets the codec decide when it is appropriate to
insert a keyframe. The codec automatically detects a scene change
and inserts a keyframe.
Keyframe distance The maximum distance between any keyframes regardless
of scene changes. With long clips with much redundant data such as news
clips (talking head), setting a maximum distance will ensure that the stream
can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 1 to 200 frames.
Minimum distance The minimum allowed distance between keyframes. If this
setting is larger than the Keyframe distance setting, Minimum distance
will be set equal to Keyframe distance. The range is 0 to 50 frames.
Profile The profile can be set to either Vp6-E or Vp6-S. The Vp6-S profile is
easier to decode and therefore suited for larger image sizes, but it does not
allow 2-pass encoding.
Error resilient mode If checked, error correction codes will be added to the output. This improves the quality on lossy networks, but adds approximately
5% overhead to the material.
Input material is interlaced If the source material is interlaced you should check
this box, to let the encoder make use of this. You should not use the Deinterlace filter (section 8.4, Deinterlace) in combination with this option.
Encode alpha channel If the source material contains an alpha (transparency)
channel, you can choose to include it in the output.
Quality You can set the image quality to Normal Quality, High Quality or Best
Quality. Higher quality requires more encoding time.
Use 2-pass encoding Encoding will be performed in two passes. In pass one, the
codec will analyze the frames and collect data. In the second pass it will
use the collected data as the basis for how to best distribute the bits. 2-pass
encoding improves the quality, but slows down the encoding.
2-pass mode The 2-pass mode kan be set to CBR, Constant Bit Rate (default) or
VBR, Variable Bit Rate.
Sharpness A low sharpness setting blurs the image slightly, a high sharpness
setting enhances edges but may also cause image artefacts.
2-pass requires extra disk space
2-pass encoding requires intermediate storage of the first pass results on disk
in raw format, which means that your available scratch disk space should be
at least 1.5 · output width · output height · framerate · duration bytes.
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Video/audio dependencies
Storing Flash 8 video in the SWF format restricts the possible the image
frame rates depending on the audio sample rates. For audio sample rates of
11025 Hz the maximum allowed frame rate is 9 fps. For audio samples rates
of 22050 Hz and 44100 Hz the maximum allowed frame rate is 38 fps. Storing
in the FLV format has no such limitations.
7.7
H.263
H.263 is a video codec mainly designed for lower bitrates. The format is suitable
for applications such as video conferencing and streaming to handheld devices.
Average rate The desired bandwidth of the video track in kilobits per second.
The range is 0 kbit/s to 30 000 kbit/s.
Frame skip probability The value 0.0 is least likely to cause frame skipping,
while the value 1.0 is most likely to skip frames when bitrate cannot be
sustained. For more information about this option, please read section 7.1.5,
Frame skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image.
VBV buffer size The VBV buffer size can be set between 0 and 60 seconds.
Please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
Keyframe control Keyframes can be set in these modes:
Keyframes Only Makes all frames keyframes. This option should only be
used for very high bitrates.
Forced Keyframes Only Creates a keyframe after the specified number of
frames.
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Natural and Forced Keyframes Lets the codec choose keyframe, but also
ensures that there is at least one keyframe within the specified interval.
If Keyframe distance is set to zero, keyframes will only be created
when a scene change is detected, making this the same as Natural
Keyframes Only.
Natural Keyframes Only Lets the codec decide when it is appropriate to
insert a keyframe. The codec automatically detects a scene change
and inserts a keyframe.
Intra Block Refresh When choosing Intra Block Refresh (IBR), the Infra refresh distance must be set. This differs from the other keyframe
options in that the codec does not update the whole frame. The codec
updates the different areas in the image in blocks instead of the whole
frame. This is extremely useful when encoding for very low bitrates
and streaming, since it makes the bitrate more constant.
Keyframe distance The maximum distance between any keyframes regardless
of scene changes. With long clips with much redundant data such as news
clips (talking head), setting a maximum distance will ensure that the stream
can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 0 to 10 000 frames.
Profile The H.263 codec has two different profiles: Baseline and Profile 3. Baseline only supports the picture sizes QCIF (176×144) and Sub-QCIF (128×
96). Profile 3 supports all picture sizes and enables four added encoding
options:
Advanced intra coding The codec uses an advanced algorithm for the coding of intra blocks.
Deblocking filter The codec adds a deblocking filter to prevent blocking
due to hard quantization.
Slice structure The codec uses a different method for dividing the picture
into smaller units.
Modified quantization The codec uses a different method for quantization
to add flexibility and decrease computational load for the encoder.
Use 2-pass encoding Encoding will be performed in two passes. In pass one, the
codec will analyze the frames and collect data. In the second pass it will
use the collected data as the basis for how to best distribute the bits. 2-pass
encoding improves the quality, but slows down the encoding. The 2-pass
interval value sets the number of frames the codec will analyze in the first
pass before encoding the second pass. Using a higher 2-pass interval will
increase the quality, but the encoding will be slower. It is possible to set a
2-pass value between 200 and 500 frames.
7.8
H.264
H.264, also called AVC or MPEG-4 part 10, represents the state of the art of
video compression. It uses many different techniques to achieve a good video
compression ratio for bitrates ranging from very low levels for hand-held devices
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to high levels for HD television. Due to the large number of controls, the settings
have been split into three tabs.
Bandwidth control The bandwidth control menu determines which parameters
will be used to determine the bandwidth allocation: VBR using VBV, set
the average bitrate over the period set by VBV buffer size. VBR using
Peak Rate, set the average bitrate and the allowed maximum bitrate. CBR,
set constant bitrate with Average rate. Padded CBR, set the constant bitrate with Average rate. If the video does not need the full bandwidth,
the frames are padded with “Stuffing SEI Messages”. Quality Based VBR
uses the VBR Quality alone.
Peak rate The maximum allowed bitrate. The range is 15 kbit/s to 50 000 kbit/s.
Average rate The desired bandwidth of the video track in kilobits per second.
The range is 15 kbit/s to 50 000 kbit/s.
VBV buffer size The VBV buffer size can be set between 0 and 60 seconds.
Please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
VBR quality The image quality for a video frame is set from 0% (most compression but lowest quality) to 100% (least compressed but highest quality).
Keyframe control Keyframes can be set in these modes:
Keyframes Only Makes all frames keyframes. This option should only be
used for very high bitrates.
Forced Keyframes Only Creates a keyframe after the specified number of
frames.
Natural and Forced Keyframes Lets the codec choose keyframe, but also
ensures that there is at least one keyframe within the specified interval.
Keyframe distance is the maximum distance between any keyframes
regardless of scene changes. With long clips with much redundant
data such as news clips (talking head), setting a maximum distance
will ensure that the stream can recover more rapidly if losing packets.
If the value is set to zero, keyframes will only be created when a scene
change is detected, making it the same as Natural Keyframes Only.
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Natural Keyframes Only Lets the codec decide when it is appropriate to
insert a keyframe. The codec automatically detects a scene change
and inserts a keyframe.
Keyframe distance The maximum distance between any keyframes regardless
of scene changes. With long clips with much redundant data such as news
clips (talking head), setting a maximum distance will ensure that the stream
can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 1 frames and upwards.
Number of reference frames Sets the number of reference frames that P-frames
search for prediction. In general, using more than 3 reference frames will
improve the quality only for sequences with a large amount of movement.
Number of B-frames You can set the number of B-frames in a GOP from 0 to 4,
a higher number giving more efficient encoding but requiring more complex
processing.
Encoding profile Baseline is the fastest-encodable profile while Main can give
better compression.
High will give higher quality encoding, useful primarily for HDTV applications and editing.
Episode Pro
Entropy coding Choice of entropy coding is only possible for the Main and High
profiles. CAVLC (Context-adaptive variable-length coding) is the simpler
and faster coding method and the one used by the Baseline Profile; CABAC
(Context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding) is the more efficient method.
Colour space The High profile allows you to set the colour encoding of the output video to either Same as Source, 4:2:0 or 4:2:2. The other profiles will
use 4:2:0.
Display Aspect Ratio The Display aspect ratio menu makes it possible to create stretched widescreen anamorphic material. To do this you encode your
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clip at the usual size, for example PAL (720 × 576) or NTSC (720 × 480).
Then select the desired display aspect ratio. When viewing the clip, the
player will stretch the image to the selected aspect ratio. Selecting Same
as Input will use whatever display aspect ratio has been indicated in the
source material.
Use 2-pass encoding Encoding will be performed in two passes. In pass one, the
codec will analyze the frames and collect data. In the second pass it will
use the collected data as the basis for how to best distribute the bits. 2-pass
encoding improves the quality, but slows down the encoding. The 2-pass
interval value sets the number of frames the codec will analyze in the first
pass before encoding the second pass. Using a higher 2-pass interval will
increase the quality, but the encoding will be slower. It is possible to set a
2-pass value between 50 and 500 frames.
Use de-blocking filter The de-blocking filter smoothens out block artefacts which
may occur in the image when using lower bitrates. Using the de-blocking
filter may increase image quality considerably.
Encoding speed vs quality The H.264 encoder has a wide range of encoding
methods to use, which may result in a very time consuming encoding process. The Encoding speed vs quality setting determines the complexity
of the encoding by switching on or off different tools. Encoding speed vs
quality can be set between 10 and 100, 10 represents the fastest speed, with
most of the advanced features turned off, 100 represents the most advanced
coding mode, yielding the best quality, but also taking a considerably longer
time. In general, values over 50 will yield very small improvements in visible image quality.
Use adaptive interlacing mode Set the H.264 encoder to generate more efficient
interlaced output. Increases coding time.
Number of Slices On a multi-core computer one can speed up processing by
transcoding parts, slices, of the same frame in parallel. Using more slices
may however decrease image quality somewhat as redundancies between
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parts of the frame cannot be fully utilised. The number of parallel slices
can be set to Automatic (One per CPU), 1 Slice, 2 Slices, 3 Slices, or 4
Slices.
Initial buffer fullness When encoding starts, the encoder assumes a certain level
of bits in the buffer, to get an even bitrate right from the beginning. How
full the buffer is assumed to be affects how large the first frames will be.
Lower fullness means there are fewer bits available and the first frames will
be smaller. This is good when you want to limit the size of the first frame
which typically can be very large, especially if there is little motion in the
material (because then it makes sense to spend a lot of bits on the quality of
the first frame). Setting this value low will decrease the quality slightly for
the first frames of the movie. The default value is 50%.
Limit frame size Even if the average bitrate stays below the set limit, individual
frames may become larger than a decoder can handle in real time, thus you
can set limits on how large frames can get. This may reduce image quality
considerably, so you should not use this setting unless you have definite
problems.
Frame size The maximum value of any single frame is limited to be 2–10 times
the average size of frames.
Force headers for every GOP Insert a header before every GOP, a requirement
for Blu-ray material.
Add Picture Timing SEI Supplemental Enhancement Information adds fields indicating the global time for each frame, and suitable decoder settings. They
add a small overhead to the file size, but can help a decoder play out the
video more efficiently.
Signal fixed framerate Indicate that this clip is to be played out with fixed framerate.
7.9
HDV
Episode Pro
HDV is a High Definition Video codec, using MPEG-2 compression. HDV Type
lets you choose between HDV 720p (1280x720 24, 25, 29.97 or 30 fps), HDV
1080i (1440x1080 25, 29.97 or 30 fps) and HDV 1080p (1440x1080 24 or 25
fps).
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7.10
MJPEG
Motion JPEG is simply a sequence of JPEG still images, and is suitable to use as
an editing format.
Profile The available profiles are Mjpeg A, Mjpeg B and Photo Jpeg. The actual
encoding is identical for all versions, but the headers are different.
Colour space The colour space can be set to Same as Source, 4:2:0 or 4:2:2.
Interlacing The video scan can be set to Progressive, Interlaced or Same As
Source. If Interlaced is selected you can set the field dominance to either
Bottom First or Top First.
Encoding quality The image quality for a video frame is set from 0 (most compression but lowest quality) to 100 (least compressed but highest quality).
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7.11
MPEG-1
Video encoded with the MPEG-1 codec is accepted by most video players. This
format is suitable when it is important to reach a large audience on different platforms. MPEG-1 is recommended for use with sizes up to CIF (352 × 288) and
bitrates up to 1500 kbit/s, above these levels we suggest that you use MPEG-2
instead.
Coding type You can choose to base the encoding on keeping to a given bitrate
(Bitrate-based) or to a certain level of quality (Quality-based).
Average rate The desired bandwidth of the video track in kilobits per second.
The range is 16 kbit/s and upwards.
Encoding quality The image quality for a video frame is set from 0 (most compression but lowest quality) to 100 (least compressed but highest quality).
GOP format Different frame types (I-, P-, and B-frames) are encoded in the
same order throughout a clip. This repeating group of frame types is called
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a Group Of Pictures (GOP). For an explanation of frame types, please see
section 7.1.2, Frame types—I-, P- and B-frames. You can select one of
a number of predefined GOP structures, or select Custom. . . to specify
some other GOP structure with the fields P-frames between I-frames and
B-frames between P-frames.
Force sequence header for every GOP Insert a Sequence Header before every
GOP, a requirement when creating MPEG files for editing.
7.12
MPEG-2
The MPEG-2 codec is similar to the MPEG-1 codec, but is more suitable for larger
frame sizes and higher bitrates. MPEG-2 is the standard format for DVDs and for
digital television.
Coding type You can choose to base the encoding on keeping to a given bitrate
(Bitrate-based) or to a certain level of quality (Quality-based).
Bitrate control This menu determines how the bitrate should be maintained. It
has the following options:
CBR The video will be encoded with a constant bitrate. The VBV buffer
size will be adjusted so that the output conforms to Main Profile at
Main Level. If you encode the video as I-frames only, frames will be
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padded to reach the set bitrate. This is best suited for high bitrates,
30 Mib/s and upwards.
VBV Size This option lets you enter a buffer time value in the VBV buffer
size field. The VBV buffer size field controls the variation in bitrate.
A larger buffer size will make room for bigger variations in bitrate.
For more information about the impact on bitrate by the buffer size,
please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier.
Peak Rate The variation in bitrate is controlled by entering a maximum
bitrate value in the Peak rate field. This value represents the highest
allowed bitrate in the clip.
Peak rate The maximum allowed bitrate. The range is 16 kbit/s to 50 000 kbit/s.
Average rate The desired bandwidth of the video track in kilobits per second.
The range is 16 kbit/s to 100 000 kbit/s.
VBV buffer size The VBV buffer size can be set between 0 and 60 seconds.
Please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
Encoding quality The image quality for a video frame is set from 0 (most compression but lowest quality) to 100 (least compressed but highest quality).
GOP type This menu lets you specify Open GOP or Closed GOP. In a file using
an Open GOP structure, frames are allowed to predict data from frames
outside the GOP. This gives better compression but is not accepted by all
applications and will not work well when using MPEG-2 as an editing format. When using Closed GOP each frame in the GOP is independent of the
frames outside of the GOP. Hence all the predictive coding is done inside
each GOP.
GOP format Different frame types (I-, P-, and B-frames) are encoded in the
same order throughout a clip. This repeating group of frame types is called
a Group Of Pictures (GOP). For an explanation of frame types, please see
section 7.1.2, Frame types—I-, P- and B-frames. You can select one of
a number of predefined GOP structures, or select Custom. . . to specify
some other GOP structure with the fields P-frames between I-frames and
B-frames between P-frames.
Force sequence header for every GOP Insert a Sequence Header before every
GOP, a requirement when creating MPEG files for editing.
Colour space The colour space can be set to Same as Source, 4:2:0 or 4:2:2.
Note that not all MPEG-2 players support the 4:2:2 colour space. If you
have problems with 4:2:2-encoded video, try 4:2:0 instead.
Display aspect ratio The Display aspect ratio menu makes it possible to create
stretched widescreen anamorphic material. To do this you encode your clip
at the usual size, for example PAL (720 × 576) or NTSC (720 × 480). Then
select the desired display aspect ratio. When viewing the clip, the player
will stretch the image to the selected aspect ratio. Selecting Same as Input will use whatever display aspect ratio has been indicated in the source
material.
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Intra DC Precision The DC component of the encoded signal determines the
base level of each encoded block. This can be encoded with from 8 bits to
10 bits.
Frame Encoding Type Even if the output is intended to be displayed as interlaced video, the two fields can be processed and stored as progressive frames,
from which the even and odd fields are then extracted by the player. This
is the normal behaviour for most MPEG-2 players. Processing and storing interlace fields independently may give slightly better compression, but
transcoding is slower and the format is not supported by most players. Accordingly, the frame type of the output can be set to either Progressive or
Interlaced. In either case, Field Order can be set to Bottom First, Top
First or Same as Input, which will be ignored by the player for actual
progressive material.
Signal progressive sequence in bitstream If Frame Type is set to Progressive,
a flag indicating this can be set in the output stream.
Add empty VBI space The Vertical Blanking Interval can be used to store information such as time codes, teletext, etc. This space is not always included
in digital versions of NTSC and PAL video. Checking this box pads the
height of the image so that there is space for VBI lines. Images from 480
to 511 lines high are assumed to be NTSC and are padded up to 512 lines;
images from 576 to 607 lines high are assumed to be PAL and are padded
up to 608 lines.
Use 2-pass encoding Encoding will be performed in two passes. In pass one, the
codec will analyze the frames and collect data. In the second pass it will
use the collected data as the basis for how to best distribute the bits. 2-pass
encoding improves the quality, but slows down the encoding.
Use scene change detection If scene change detection is used, keyframes (I-frames)
will be inserted in the stream when two consecutive frames differ more than
a given threshold.
ATSC A/53 closed captioning information will be retained in MPEG-2 to MPEG-2
conversions at the same frame rate.
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7.13
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is rapidly becoming the most common format for downloadable video
and audio material.
Average rate The desired bandwidth of the video track in kilobits per second.
The range is 0 kbit/s to 100 000 kbit/s.
Frame skip probability The value 0.0 is least likely to cause frame skipping,
while the value 1.0 is most likely to skip frames when bitrate cannot be
sustained. For more information about this option, please read section 7.1.5,
Frame skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image.
VBV buffer size The VBV buffer size can be set between 0 and 60 seconds.
Please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
Keyframe control Keyframes can be set in these modes:
Keyframes Only Makes all frames keyframes. This option should only be
used for very high bitrates.
Forced Keyframes Only Creates a keyframe after the specified number of
frames.
Natural and Forced Keyframes Lets the codec choose keyframe, but also
ensures that there is at least one keyframe within the specified interval.
If Keyframe distance is set to zero, keyframes will only be created
when a scene change is detected, making this the same as Natural
Keyframes Only.
Natural Keyframes Only Lets the codec decide when it is appropriate to
insert a keyframe. The codec automatically detects a scene change
and inserts a keyframe.
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Keyframe distance The maximum distance between any keyframes regardless
of scene changes. With long clips with much redundant data such as news
clips (talking head), setting a maximum distance will ensure that the stream
can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 0 to 10 000 frames.
Number of B-frames You can set the number of B-frames in a GOP from 0 to 4,
a higher number giving more efficient encoding but requiring more complex
processing. This requires the Advanced Simple Profile to be active.
Profile The Simple Profile is the fastest-encodable profile, the Advanced Simple
Profile gives additional options, but is not supported by most players.
Simple Visual Profile Level 0 The Simple Visual Profile Level 0 is used in 3GPP
files. If the visual bit stream in the encoded file is below 64 kbit/s it will be
tagged as level 0. If the visual bit stream is between 64 kbit/s and 128 kbit/s
it will be tagged as level 0B.
Motion estimation accuracy Sets the active area for looking at motion estimation. Half Pel (1/2 pixel) and Quarter Pel (1/4 pixel) can be selected.
Display aspect ratio The Display aspect ratio menu makes it possible to create
stretched widescreen anamorphic material: Encode your clip at the usual
size, for example PAL (720 × 576) or NTSC (720 × 480), then select the
desired display aspect ratio. When viewing the clip, the player will stretch
the image to the selected aspect ratio. Selecting Same as Input will use
whatever display aspect ratio has been indicated in the source material.
Error Correction MPEG-4 contains support for error correction. The Packet
length sets the lengths of the data packets. Large packets have less overhead, but give less error correction. The range is 0 to 163 840 bits.
Use Data Partition Data partitioning inserts synchronization markers for better
error correction. This is useful for very low bandwidth and error-prone
networks.
Use RVLC Reversible Variable Length Codes make it possible for the player to
“look back” and check previous parts of the image. If the image contains
corrupt data the codec can check with previous frames for correction. Note
that using RVLC increases the bandwidth requirements and therefore may
result in lowered image quality. RVLC is dependent on player support.
Use 2-pass encoding Encoding will be performed in two passes. In pass one, the
codec will analyze the frames and collect data. In the second pass it will
use the collected data as the basis for how to best distribute the bits. 2-pass
encoding improves the quality, but slows down the encoding. The 2-pass
interval value sets the number of frames the codec will analyze in the first
pass before encoding the second pass. Using a higher 2-pass interval will
increase the quality, but the encoding will be slower. The 2-pass value can
be from 200 to 500 frames.
Initial buffer fullness When encoding starts, the encoder assumes a certain level
of bits in the buffer, to get an even bitrate right from the beginning. How
full the buffer is assumed to be affects how large the first frames will be.
Lower fullness means there are fewer bits available and the first frames will
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be smaller. This is good when you want to limit the size of the first frame
which typically can be very large, especially if there is little motion in the
material (because then it makes sense to spend a lot of bits on the quality of
the first frame). Setting this value low will decrease the quality slightly for
the first frames of the movie. The default value in the decoder is 50%.
7.14
Episode Pro
QuickTime
What QuickTime codecs you have depends on your installation, so we cannot
describe them in any detail here but refer you to the codec suppliers’ documentation. Pressing QuickTime Movie Settings. . . displays the QuickTime codec
dialog. Choose the codec you wish to use from the top-most drop-down menu,
and enter the settings you want to use.
You can set a Display Aspect Ratio of Same as source, Square pixels, 4:3, 16:9,
2.21:1, or 2.35:1.
Frame rate
Episode will override the Frame Rate specified in the QuickTime dialog, so
you have to explicitly use the Frame Rate filter (section 8.3, Frame Rate).
7.15
RealVideo
RealVideo has no controls in the Video tab, but is instead controlled through the
Output tab. See section 6.1.9, Real Media for a description of these controls.
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7.16
RGB
This is an uncompressed format used by QuickTime. Bit Depth can be 24 or 32.
7.17
Targa Cine YUV
Targa Cine YUV is an uncompressed video format used with Cinewave cards, it
has no settings. The pixel values are stored with 4:2:2 subsampling.
Episode Pro
7.18
Windows Media Video 9
The Windows Media 9 codec is used in the Windows Media (WM) format, a
proprietary format playable in Windows Media Player.
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Windows Media Coding Modes The Coding Mode drop-down menu presents
you with different coding modes that are available for the Windows Media
Video encoder. Depending on which coding mode you select, different settings will be available in the GUI. The settings are described below, next to
each coding mode.
1-pass CBR This is a bitrate based mode and encodes the clip at the rate
specified in the Average rate field. How much the rate can vary depends on the VBV buffer size slider. A smaller buffer will allow
smaller variations in bitrate, and vice versa. Please read section 7.1.4,
VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
In 1-pass CBR mode the Smoothness/crispness slider sets the tradeoff between good picture quality and smooth frame rate, i e the frame
skip probability. Please read section 7.1.5, Frame skip probability—
smooth motion vs crisp image.
1-pass VBR Encodes the clip with variable bitrate, at the quality specified
in the Smoothness/crispness slider. This setting is picture qualitybased only and has no bitrate setting. The encoder will use whatever
bitrate necessary to maintain the specified quality. Unlike 1-pass CBR
a higher quality will never cause the encoder to skip frames, only to
use a higher bitrate.
2-pass CBR Encodes the clip with constant bit rate. The encoder analyzes
the source clip in the first pass and encodes in the second pass. This
setting is bitrate-based, and has no picture quality setting. As with 1pass CBR, the VBV buffer size slider decides how much the rate may
vary. A smaller buffer will allow smaller variations in bitrate, and vice
versa.
2-pass VBR Unconstrained This mode encodes the clip with variable bit
rate. The codec analyzes the source clip in the first pass and encodes
in the second pass. This setting is bitrate-based, but has no limitations
regarding how high it peaks.
2-pass VBR Peak Constrained Encodes the clip with variable bitrate. The
codec analyzes the source clip in the first pass and encodes in the second pass. This setting is bitrate-based. You can specify a Peak rate
and set the VBV buffer size to control the average bitrate.
2-pass requires extra disk space
2-pass encoding requires intermediate storage of the first pass results
on disk in raw format, which means that your available scratch disk
space should be at least 1.5 · output width · output height · framerate ·
duration bytes.
Peak rate The maximum allowed bitrate. The range is 5 kbit/s to 20 000 kbit/s.
Average rate The desired bandwidth of the video track in kilobits per second.
The range is 5 kbit/s to 20 000 kbit/s.
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VBV buffer size The VBV buffer size can be set between 0 and 60 seconds.
Please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
Smoothness/crispness The value 0 is least likely to cause frame skipping, while
the value 100 is most likely to skip frames when bitrate cannot be sustained.
For more information about this option, please read section 7.1.5, Frame
skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image.
Keyframe control Keyframes can be set in these modes:
Keyframes Only Makes all frames keyframes. This option should only be
used for very high bitrates.
Forced Keyframes Only Creates a keyframe after the specified number of
frames.
Natural and Forced Keyframes Lets the codec choose keyframe, but also
ensures that there is at least one keyframe within the specified interval.
If Keyframe distance is set to zero, keyframes will only be created
when a scene change is detected, making this the same as Natural
Keyframes Only.
Natural Keyframes Only Lets the codec decide when it is appropriate to
insert a keyframe. The codec automatically detects a scene change
and inserts a keyframe.
Keyframe distance The maximum distance between any keyframes regardless
of scene changes. With long clips with much redundant data such as news
clips (talking head), setting a maximum distance will ensure that the stream
can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 0 to 60 s.
Number of B-frames You can set the number of B-frames in a GOP from 0 to 4,
a higher number giving more efficient encoding but requiring more complex
processing. This requires the Main Profile to be active.
Profile The Simple Profile is the fastest-encodable profile, the Main Profile allows additional encoding options.
Encoding Complexity For streaming video you should choose Live Fast or Live
Normal. The former will encode faster but give lower quality video. For
downloadable video you can choose Offline Fast, Offline Normal, Offline
Slow, or Offline High Quality, which give increasingly slower, but higher
quality encoding.
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7.19
Windows Media Video VC-1
The VC-1 codec corresponds to the Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile;
it is the same as the SMPTE 421M video codec standard. It offers support for
interlaced content and is transport independent.
Windows Media Coding Modes The Coding Mode drop-down menu presents
you with different coding modes that are available for the Windows Media
Video encoder. Depending on which coding mode you select, different settings will be available in the GUI. The settings are described below, next to
each coding mode.
1-pass CBR This is a bitrate-based mode and encodes the clip at the rate
specified in the Average rate field. How much the rate can vary depends on the VBV buffer size slider. A smaller buffer will allow
smaller variations in bitrate, and vice versa. Please read section 7.1.4,
VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
In 1-pass CBR mode the Smoothness/crispness slider sets the tradeoff between good picture quality and smooth frame rate, i e the frame
skip probability. Please read section 7.1.5, Frame skip probability—
smooth motion vs crisp image.
1-pass VBR Encodes the clip with variable bitrate, at the quality specified
in the Smoothness/crispness slider. This setting is picture qualitybased only and has no bitrate setting. The encoder will use whatever
bitrate necessary to maintain the specified quality. Unlike 1-pass CBR
a higher quality will never cause the encoder to skip frames, only to
use a higher bitrate.
2-pass CBR Encodes the clip with constant bitrate. The encoder analyzes
the source clip in the first pass and encodes in the second pass. This
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setting is bitrate based, and has no picture quality setting. As with 1pass CBR, the VBV buffer size slider decides how much the rate may
vary. A smaller buffer will allow smaller variations in bitrate, and vice
versa.
2-pass VBR Unconstrained This mode encodes the clip with variable bitrate. The codec analyzes the source clip in the first pass and encodes
in the second pass. This setting is bitrate-based, but has no limitations
regarding how high it peaks.
2-pass VBR Peak Constrained Encodes the clip with variable bitrate. The
codec analyzes the source clip in the first pass and encodes in the second pass. This setting is bitrate based. You can specify a Peak rate
and set the VBV buffer size to control the average bitrate.
2-pass requires extra disk space
2-pass encoding requires intermediate storage of the first pass results
on disk in raw format, which means that your available scratch disk
space should be at least 1.5 · output width · output height · framerate ·
duration bytes.
Peak rate The maximum allowed bitrate. The range is 5 kbit/s to 20 000 kbit/s.
Average rate The desired bandwidth of the video track in kilobits per second.
The range is 5 kbit/s to 20 000 kbit/s.
VBV buffer size The VBV buffer size can be set between 0 and 60 seconds.
Please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
Smoothness/crispness The value 0 is least likely to cause frame skipping, while
the value 100 is most likely to skip frames when bitrate cannot be sustained.
For more information about this option, please read section 7.1.5, Frame
skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image.
Keyframe control Keyframes can be set in these modes:
Keyframes Only Makes all frames keyframes. This option should only be
used for very high bitrates.
Forced Keyframes Only Creates a keyframe after the specified number of
frames.
Natural and Forced Keyframes Lets the codec choose keyframe, but also
ensures that there is at least one keyframe within the specified interval.
If Keyframe distance is set to zero, keyframes will only be created
when a scene change is detected, making this the same as Natural
Keyframes Only.
Natural Keyframes Only Lets the codec decide when it is appropriate to
insert a keyframe. The codec automatically detects a scene change
and inserts a keyframe.
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Keyframe distance The maximum distance between any keyframes regardless
of scene changes. With long clips with much redundant data such as news
clips (talking head), setting a maximum distance will ensure that the stream
can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 0 to 60 s.
Number of B-frames You can set the number of B-frames in a GOP from 0 to 4,
a higher number giving more efficient encoding but requiring more complex
processing. This requires the Main Profile to be active.
Field order You can set the output be Progressive or interlaced with Top field
first or Bottom field first; Derive from source will retain whatever the
source file uses.
Display aspect ratio You can set the display aspect ratio of the output to 1:1,
4:3, 11:9, 16:9, 5:4, 3:2, or Custom. . . . For a custom aspect ratio you set
the desired aspect ratio in the fields below the menu. Derive from source
will retain the aspect ratio of the input.
Encoding Complexity For streaming video you should choose Live Fast or Live
Normal. The former will encode faster but give lower quality video. For
downloadable video you can choose Offline Fast, Offline Normal, Offline
Slow, or Offline High Quality, which give increasingly slower, but higher
quality encoding.
7.20
Windows RGB
Episode Pro
Windows RGB can be output with a Bit Depth of 24 or 32 bits.
7.21
XDCam
Episode Pro
XDCam is an MPEG-2-based codec used by Sony for High-Definition video.
The Field order can be set to Same as Input, Interlaced, or Progressive.
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7.22
Episode Pro
YCbCr
YCbCr is a transformation of RGB images where Y is the luma (brightness) component of the image and Cb and Cr are the blue and red chroma (colour) components, respectively. As human vision is more sensitive to brightness changes than
colour changes, the chroma components are typically subsampled relative to the
luma component; 4:2:2 means chroma is subsampled by a factor of two in the horizontal direction, 4:2:0 means it is subsampled by a factor two in both horizontal
and vertical directions.
Color Space can be set to Same as Source, 4:2:0, 4:2:2, or 4:2:2 Interleaved.
The default value is 4:2:0.
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8
Video tab—filters
The filters apply transformations to the source material. Filters may be concerned
with adjusting the output format, such as the Frame Rate or Resize filters, or they
may be used to improve the appearance of the image, such as the Noise Reduction
or Black and White Restoration filters; some filters add information to output file,
such as the Burn Timecode and Watermark filters. You can see the effects of
the filters in the Preview window, so you can easily check that you achieve the
intended effect.
All filters are originally shown collapsed and deactivated.
You expand a filter by clicking on the triangle icon. You activate a filter by checking the checkbox in the top left corner. Note that even if you have changed the
values in an expanded filter, the filter will not be applied to your clip unless you
activate the filter. To deactivate a filter, uncheck the checkbox. To clearly indicate
which filters are currently active, Episode moves activated filters to above the unused filters, and deactivated filters back to the bottom. Collapsed filters display a
text version of their parameter values.
The active filters are applied in the order they are shown from top to bottom.
However, the codec settings are applied last even though they are topmost in the
tab.
Most filters will operate on 8-bit video data, but the Frame Rate, Deinterlace,
Advanced Frame Rate, Resize, and Interlace filters can handle 10-bit video
data.
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8.1
RGB 10bit to 8bit by using LUT files
To convert 10-bit input material to 8-bit you can use a lookup table (LUT) that
determines how the 10-bit RGB values are to be mapped to 8-bit values.
A LUT file is a text file. It has a header LUT: 3 1024, followed by 3 × 1024
lines of integers in the range 0–255. The first group of 1024 values are for R
values, the next for G values and the final group for B values.
8.2
Field Order
As discussed in section 7.1.6, Video scan video input can be progressive or interlaced. For interlaced material you can change the field dominance.
Input Field Order This menu tells subsequent filters if the incoming material is
progressive or interlaced with a certain field dominance.
Derive from file format The field order information in the source file is
trusted to be correct.
Source has Top Field First The source is top field dominant.
Source has Bottom Field First The source is bottom field dominant.
Source is Progressive The source is progressive. This option disables the
Filter Action menu.
Source has unknown field order Subsequent filters will have to make a
best guess at the field order. This option disables the Filter Action
menu.
Filter Action You can change the dominance of interlaced material. Depending on if you use the Deinterlace filter or not, this will determine the field
dominance of the output.
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Same as input The field dominance of the input is unchanged.
Switch to Top Field First The field dominance is changed to top dominant.
Switch to Bottom Field First The field dominance is changed to bottom
dominant.
Interlaced to Progressive This deinterlaces the input and creates progressive output. The output frame rate from this filter will be twice the
input frame rate.
Caveats on Interlaced to progressive
Since the Interlaced to Progressive option will deinterlace the source material, you must not also use the Deinterlace filter.
Further, the output frame rate from the filter will be double the source frame
rate, so if you also use the Frame Rate or Advanced Frame Rate filter you
must take account of this.
8.3
Frame Rate
The Frame Rate filter will perform simple conversions of the frame rate of a clip.
The Advanced Frame Rate (section 8.5, Advanced Frame Rate) will perform
more complex conversions, suitable for video standard conversions (e g PAL ↔
NTSC).
This filter handles 10-bit video data.
Filter mode Fixed framerate When using fixed frame rate you specify the exact frame rate for the output format. The New framerate combo box
lets you choose a predefined frame rate or enter your desired frame
rate. You can choose a conversion algorithm in the Framerate preset
menu.
Fractional framerate When using fractional frame rate you specify the
resulting frame rate as a fraction of the original frame rate in the menu
Change framerate to. For example, if you choose 1/2 as fractional
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frame rate and encode a source video with 25 fps, then the resulting
video will have a frame rate of 12.5 fps. The available fractions are
2x, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/10. Note that 2x will speed up your frame
rate, this is useful when e g converting high-definition, low frame rate
video to standard-definition, high frame rate video. Since this option
simply selects from already existing frames without interpolating, the
Framerate preset menu is disabled.
Upper limit Sometimes you want to want to encode at a fixed frame rate,
though no higher than the source frame rate. Upper limit lets you
set a maximum frame rate that will be used if the input frame rate is
higher, but if the input frame rate is lower, that will be used instead.
Framerate preset Fast does not interpolate frames but reuses frames if needed
to achieve the desired frame rate. Automatic analyzes the source video to
determine the best algorithm for the specific conversion. The other menu alternatives perform conversions between specific formats and inactivate the
New framerate combo box. The available conversions are: Telecine 24>29.97, Telecine 23.98->29.97, Inv.Telecine, Fixed cadence 29.97->23.98,
Inv.Telecine 29.97->24, Inv.Telecine 29.97->23.98, Film => PAL 24->25,
PAL => Film 25->24.
As explained in section 7.1.6, Video scan, Episode will automatically detect
the cadence, even when it is broken, but if you know that the cadence is
fixed for the entire length of the clip, the extra processing in unnecessary
and you can select Inv.Telecine, Fixed cadence 29.97->23.98. This will
enable the menu First interlaced pair, which lets you set which frames
have been derived from the first duplicated film frame. If the first frame is
a single interlaced frame, this option cannot be used.
A frame rate change that changes the the duration of the video requires you to
use the Audio Speed filter to adjust the speed of any audio track to match (see
section 10.4, Audio Speed).
8.4
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A PAL or NTSC video frame is constructed of two fields, representing the even
and odd lines in the frame. When shown on a TV, these fields are drawn one at
a time. First, the frame’s odd lines are drawn and in the next sweep of the TV’s
electron beam, the even lines are drawn. In the next sweep the same procedure is
performed again, drawing the odd and the even lines. This method of rendering
a TV picture is called interlacing. In an NTSC system, a field is drawn every
1/59.94 s and in a PAL system one field is drawn every 1/50 s.
Because of the slight time difference between the fields in a frame, it is not possible to simply merge the two fields and get one clear frame. On a computer,
mobile phone screen etc, interlaced content will result in frames with shadows
and the images will look jagged, so if the source material is interlaced PAL or
NTSC you should deinterlace the input.
This filter handles 10-bit video data.
Field Order Choose which field to use as a base for the deinterlacing process in
the drop-down menu:
Automatic Detection Let Episode analyze the correct field order (recommended). If the Field Order filter is used, the values set there will be
used. If you have 4:2:0 source material, the colour information can be
set in either field, so check the coding results and set the field order
manually if the results are incorrect.
Top Manually set the top field as the base if you know that this is the field
that contains the chroma information.
Bottom Manually set the bottom field as the base if you know that this is
the field that contains the chroma information.
Create New Fields By The codec removes one of the fields. This results in the
missing field needing to be reproduced in order to get a full, undistorted
image. In the Create New Fields By drop-down, there are five different
methods to create new fields:
Duplication Duplicate the dominant field. This process is quick but the
result will not be as accurate as using the interpolation method.
Interpolation Remove the non-dominant field and create a new field by
linear interpolation. The new pixels are based on the nearest pixels in
the dominant field. This generally creates a better result than duplication, but requires more processing time.
Blending Use the average of both fields. This results in smoother motion
but less sharpness than the interpolation method. Since the deinterlaced image consists of the average of the top and bottom field, there
is no dominant field.
Edge Detecting Interpolation Interpolate, but where Interpolation only
interpolates vertically, Edge Detecting Interpolation attempts to find
similar elements in the frame and detect edges before interpolating.
The result is more distinct diagonal edges in the material.
Edge Detecting Interpolation Heavy “Heavy” interpolation is more CPUintensive, but produces slightly better results.
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Unprocessed interlaced frame
Duplication
Interpolation
Blending
Edge Detecting Interpolation
Deinterlace Type
Complete Deinterlace Deinterlace the whole frame.
Deinterlace Interlaced Frames (Automatic) Deinterlace completely the
frames in the material that are determined to be interlaced. This option
is suitable for material with both interlaced and progressive frames,
such as Telecine material.
Deinterlace Interlaced Frames (Manual) Deinterlace completely the frames
in the material that are determined to be interlaced. This option is suitable for material with both interlaced and progressive frames, such as
Telecine material. The threshold value for determining if interlacing
is present is set with the Threshold slider.
Deinterlace Moving Areas (Automatic) Deinterlace the moving parts of
each video frame. This option is not suitable for material with progressive frames, such as Telecine material.
Deinterlace Moving Areas (Manual) Deinterlace the moving parts of each
video frame. The threshold value for determining if interlacing is
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present is set with the Threshold slider. This option is not suitable
for material with progressive frames, such as Telecine material.
Double Frame Rate Separate interlaced frames into two consecutive frames. This
doubles the frame rate, so it would be necessary to apply the Frame Rate
filter to keep the original speed. A useful application of this function is
converting from high-definition interlaced material to standard-definition
progressive material.
Threshold Set the threshold for when deinterlacing should occur. The entered
value determines how large the difference can be between the pixels of the
two fields before deinterlacing. If the value is set to zero the whole frame
will be deinterlaced.
Deinterlace Chroma In most video material the Luma channel is interlaced but
the Chroma channels progressive. In that case only the Luma channel needs
to be deinterlaced. However, in some cases the Chroma channels are also
interlaced and you must check the Deinterlace Chroma check box to get a
correct deinterlace result. See the examples below. The source material is
interlaced in both the Luma and Chroma channels. In the picture on the left
only the Luma has been deinterlaced. In the picture on the right both Luma
and Chroma are deinterlaced.
Notice the deinterlacing artefacts in the picture on the left. It is not always
easy to know if the Chroma channels are interlaced or not. One way to
find out is to open the setting with a clip in the Preview and step through
it frame by frame. As always, we recommend you to experiment with the
settings to create the best result.
Do not deinterlace progressive material
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8.5
Advanced Frame Rate
The Advanced Frame Rate filter performs more complex frame rate conversions
than are possible with the Frame Rate filter. The settings have been split into two
tabs.
This filter handles 10-bit video data.
A frame rate change that changes the the duration of the video requires you to
use the Audio Speed filter to adjust the speed of any audio track to match (see
section 10.4, Audio Speed).
Filter mode The filter mode determines what type of frame rate conversion is
desired.
Fixed frame rate This enables the field Create new frames at the following rate, which can be set from 1 to 200 fps. New frames will be
created to match the given frame rate.
Twice the framerate The output frame rate from the filter is twice the input frame rate. This can be used to create slow motion material by
setting Stated output frame rate to Same as input.
Copy input frames The source frames are copied to the output, but a different frame rate can be specified with the Stated output frame rate
menu.
Create new frame The filter modes Fixed frame rate and Twice the framerate
require the generation of new video frames. This menu determines how
these frames are created.
as copy of nearest neighbor Copying the source frame closest in time to
the desired output frame is the fastest frame generation method, but
may cause uneven motion, especially in pans.
by blending neighboring frames The output frame is a weighted average
of the two source frames closest in time. This gives smoother motion,
but may also cause slight blurriness.
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using motion compensation Analysing the motion of the objects in the
video gives both a sharper image and smooth motion. Scenes where
the motion of objects is hard to analyse may however cause artefacts
in the image. This method is the slowest of the three.
Stated output frame rate This sets the output frame rate.
Same as input The output frame rate from the filter will be the same as the
frame rate of the input material. Note that the Field order filter may
have changed the frame rate relative to the source frame rate.
To keep speed This option will adjusted the stated output frame rate so
that one second of input material will generate one second of output
material.
Set to This option lets you explicitly set the desired output frame rate from
the filter.
You can further adjust how frame interpolation is performed by selecting the Advanced options.
Search block size A larger search block gives the interpolation algorithm better
data to work with but also limits the amount of motion in between frames.
Smaller-sized frames should use smaller search blocks. Search blocks can
be 16x16, 24x24, or 32x32 pixels.
Motion search length The interpolation algorithm can search for motion in the
frames over Short, Medium, or Long distances. The longer the search
distance, the slower the transcoding.
Punish deviating motion If motion is mostly uniform in one direction, set the
slider towards a lot. If motion is non-uniform and should be kept so, set the
slider towards not at all.
Blur motion estimation errors One way to hide errors in motion estimation is
to blur the image in those areas. This can be done from not at all to a lot.
Sub-pel precision Motion estimation can be done for movements smaller than a
full pixel. This gives better image quality, but slower transcoding.
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8.6
Resize
This filter handles 10-bit video data.
Size
Image size The Image size menu lets you select from a list of standard
image sizes, from QQCIF 88x72 to HD 1920x1080. If you select
Custom. . . you can insert arbitrary values for the width and height of
the picture.
Image proportions The Width : Height menu provides some image proportions commonly used in digital video to simplify size calculations
when entering a new custom image size. For example, if 11:9 is selected and 352 is entered in the Image size Width field, 288 will
appear in the Height. You can also specify custom proportions by selecting Custom. . . in the menu, and enter suitable values in the Image
proportions Width and Height.
Note that the image proportions only refer to the relation between the
number of pixels in the horizontal and vertical dimensions, which is
not necessarily the same as the display aspect ratio, as explained in
section 7.1.7, Picture resolution and aspect ratio.
Maintain proportion with When the source material has been processed
with Initial crop (see below), and the desired output has a different
aspect ratio, the Maintain proportion with menu provides the following three methods for maintaining the image proportions:
Cut This method keeps the image proportions of the material by cropping away parts of the image. For example, if encoding from a
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source clip with a 16 : 9 pixel relation to a clip with 4 : 3 pixel
relation, the sides of the source will be cut, leaving the resulting
image undistorted.
Letterbox (Pad) This method pads the image with black borders to
fit the destination proportions. For example, a 16 : 9 clip encoded
to 4 : 3 will be padded at the top and bottom of the image.
None (Distort) The resulting image will be stretched to the desired
size, which may cause distortion. The Initial crop (see below)
will still be used. When coding anamorphic MPEG-2 this is the
correct option to use. Force the source material to PAL or NTSC
size with this option, then select 16 : 9 display aspect ratio for
playback in the MPEG-2 codec.
Initial crop Before the image is scaled to the new size a cropping operation is
applied to the source material. This method can be used to remove black
borders or edge artefacts from the source material. The crop values sets
the number of pixels that are to be cut from the frame borders at the top,
bottom, left and right.
Advanced options
Interpolation method For the resizing you can choose which interpolation
method to use. Nearest Neighbor is the fastest method but it produces
the lowest quality. Nearest Neighbor should only be used when speed
is of more importance than quality. In general, Bilinear is best to use
when downsizing the image and Bicubic when upsizing the image.
Automatic means bilinear will be used for downsizing and bicubic
for upsizing.
Source display aspect ratio While Width and Height are given in pixels,
the pixels in the source material may not be square. Video CD (VCD)
material for instance is usually encoded with 480 × 480 pixels, but
displayed with 640 × 480 pixels.
Use Source display aspect ratio to compensate for odd frame sizes
and/or anamorphic source material, by indicating the actual display
aspect ratio of the source data.
Pass Through (Keep Display Aspect Ratio) will use the display aspect ratio that results from the settings in the Size and Initial crop
fields as explained above for Maintain proportion with.
Derive From Source will look for display aspect ratio information
in the source file. This is available for D-10/IMX, DV, MPEG-2 and
MPEG-4. For other formats, square pixels are assumed. Example: If
the source material is 480 × 480 pixels with its display aspect ratio
field set to 4 : 3, Image size is set to 480 × 480 and Maintain proportion with is set to Letterbox (Pad), the output will be 480 × 480
pixels, but with a visible area of 480 × 360 pixels with black margins
above and below.
Assume Square Pixels assumes that the source material has square
pixels and that its display aspect ratio therefore is the same as width :
height.
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Assume 4:3 to Assume 2.21:1 use the selected value for the source
display aspect ratio. This display aspect ratio is then used in the same
manner as for Derive From Source.
Preprocessing When doing a large downscale, for example from 720×576
to 176 × 144, artefacts may appear with some material, especially if it
contains sharp edges. Lowpass-filtering the source before downscaling can reduce the artefacts considerably. You can select the preprocessing alternatives Nothing, Lowpass source for large downscales,
and Always lowpass source.
Interlace options
Progressive Output This is the default mode and works well in most
cases. The image is scaled as a whole with no regard to interlacing.
Only Crop/Pad to Size - No Scale This option is useful when scaling to a size which is only slightly larger or smaller in height than
the source, especially if the content is interlaced. The method
simply crops or pads the image to the new size, without stretching the image.
An example is conversion from NTSC 720 × 486 to MPEG-2
NTSC 720 × 480. In this case you do not need to encode all
the source lines to a format that does not use all the lines. By just
cropping the unnecessary 6 lines you do not have to interpolate
lines and lose quality in the process.
Scale Fields Independently Using this method the image is divided
into two fields which are then scaled independently. This keeps
the interlacing correct when, for example, downscaling from HD
to SD material.
Automatic Based on the available field order information, the filter
can automatically select between Progressive Output and Scale
Fields Independently.
8.7
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The HSV levels consist of Hue, Saturation and Value (Brightness).
Hue is used to correct the colour of the material. The value is measured in degrees.
The value can be set between −180° and +180°. This can be very useful when, for
example, correcting badly white-balanced material.
Saturation changes the intensity of the colour. Moving the slider to the right
(increasing the values), intensifies the colours, and vice versa. The value can be
set from −100 to 100.
Brightness makes the video darker or brighter and affects all pixels linearly, unlike the contrast filter that will make dark pixels become darker and bright pixels
brighter. The value can be set from −100 to 100.
Test your HSV levels
NOTE
As with all settings, we strongly recommend that you test the material on the
intended target platform to determine the optimal filter values.
8.8
Sharpen
The sharpen filter enhances any edges in the image, thereby creating a sharper
look.
Unprocessed image
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8.9
Matte extractor
The matte extractor filter will output only the alpha (transparency) channel of the
source file. Note that this means no other filters will be used.
8.10
Noise Reduction
Episode has one of the most advanced noise reduction filters available. When
using Noise Reduction, there are three main methods available—Median, Average and Temporal. The unique approach to noise reduction in Episode is the
possibility to combine all the methods as well as to specify how many times each
method is to run.
Median Replaces each pixel value with the median value of the pixels in the filter
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box. This improves the quality of images with impulse noise, by mainly
affecting pixels with values very different from those of their neighbours.
Number of Runs The number of times the Median filter is applied to each
frame.
Radius The “radius” is properly speaking the side of the box filter applied
to the frame, so setting the radius to 3 means that the filter will be
applied to the 3 × 3 pixels surrounding each pixel.
Only Filter Chroma Use this option to filter only the colour component
of the material. Luma is left unchanged. This can be useful when
encoding old VHS material, since much of the noise often resides in
the chroma channel.
Average Replaces each pixel value with the average value of the pixels in the
filter box. This smooths the image.
Number of Runs The number of times the Average filter is applied to each
frame.
Radius The side of the box filter. The larger this value, the more noise
reduction will be applied, but details in the image will be lost along
with the noise.
Threshold If the difference between the filtered pixel and its environment
is larger than the threshold, the pixel is not filtered. This preserves text
and other small objects with large contrast.
Temporal The temporal filtering algorithm compares each pixel in the current
frame with the corresponding pixel in the previous frame. If the difference
is less than the threshold value the pixel value is left unchanged, otherwise
it is replaced by the pixel value in the previous frame. This will smooth a
series of frames over time.
Threshold The threshold level for pixel value replacement.
8.11
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The RGB filter corrects the colours in the separate colour channels—Red, Green
and Blue.
8.12
Black and White Restoration
Content for television (encoded from PAL or NTSC) can sometimes look washed
out, the black appears dark grey and white appears as light grey. The Black and
White Restoration filter has the ability to correct this by setting a new Black and/or
White level.
The Black and White Restoration filter works with threshold values similar to any
High/Low pass filter.
The default value for Black Restoration is 0, which corresponds to Same as Source.
If you raise the threshold value to 20 the filter will treat everything between value
0 and 20 as black.
White Restoration works the same way as Black Restoration. But since white is
at the other side of the spectrum from black you must lower the threshold from
the default White value 255 for the filter to start working. For instance, setting the
White value to 230 will cause the filter to set all pixel values between 230 and 255
to white.
8.13
Smoothing
The smoothing filter acts as a blur filter and interpolates the pixels. This makes
the material look smoother (but loses some contrast).
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Amount The smoothing value can be set between 0 and 100. A value closer to
100 means that the smoothing is heavier, and vice versa.
Radius The smoothing is done with a box filter which can have a size of either
3x3 or 5x5.
8.14
Contrast
Video encoded from PAL or NTSC can sometimes look a bit grey, or milky, when
digitized. Increasing the contrast can often enhance the result. Contrast adjustment makes the dark pixels darker and the lighter pixels lighter. Be careful not
to increase the contrast too much as the lighter pixels have a tendency to become
a “white blur”. By lowering the contrast, the image will become more flat or
greyish.
8.15
Fade
The Fade filter fades the encoded clip in and/or out. You can set the length of the
Fade In/Fade Out between 0 and 200 frames.
You can also choose to Fade In from or Fade Out to black or white.
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8.16
Gamma
Gamma is probably the most common filter to use and might be the most important correction to do. Gamma is a filter for compensating for the difference
between various display technologies and devices, such as when encoding for
handheld devices and terminals, targeting Mac/PC, etc.
Gamma is a non-linear filter. It will only affect the midrange tones but leave
the darkest and lightest parts unchanged. This is very helpful for darkening or
lightening a picture without the risk of getting distortion in the white areas.
Specifying a value to change the gamma of the image works as follows: Positive
numbers (1 to 100) make the image lighter. Negative numbers (−1 to −100) make
the image darker.
Test your gamma
NOTE
Always test the encoded file on the target platform to find out the optimal
gamma correction.
8.17
Interlace
Progressive source material will be converted to interlaced at half the input frame
rate. The field order can be set to Bottom Field First or Top Field First. See
section 7.1.6, Video scan for standard field orders for common formats.
This filter handles 10-bit video data.
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8.18
Burn Timecode
You can add a timecode to the output video. The timecode is added to the video
image and cannot be removed later.
You have to activate the Timecode in the Output Tab to use the Burn Timecode
filter.
The timecode text can be placed in one of 9 areas in the picture with the position
menus.
Position X Left, Center or Right of the picture.
Position Y Top, Center or Bottom of the picture.
Opacity The default is for the timecode to be fully opaque, but if you want a less
obtrusive timecode, you can make it more transparent.
Width You can set the width of the timecode relative to the image width.
Font You can choose the font used for the timecode.
Header A text which will be inserted in front of the timecode.
Verify that the timecode looks OK in the Preview before you encode.
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8.19
Watermark
Watermarking your encoded clip is an easy way to ensure that the viewers are
aware of the origin of the material that they are watching. The Watermark filter
offers support for the most common picture formats, see the list below.
To add a watermark to your encoding click the Source button and browse to the
picture file that you intend to use as your watermark. Note that you have to have
enabled the filter first to be able to set the watermark source.
The path for the watermark is saved in the setting. If the watermark picture is
removed, renamed or the path altered, the encoding will fail. Our advice is to
have a designated watermark folder where you keep all your watermark files.
If the size of your picture file is too big to fit your encoded file you can correct this
with the Resize option. The watermark should not be bigger than the actual size
of the encoding. For example: if your watermark file is 600 × 600 pixels and it
needs to be 50 × 50 pixels in the encoding to fit your output size, check the Resize
box and then click Configure to open the Watermark Resize window:
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The Watermark Resize window gives you the same options as the Resize filter for
video explained earlier in section 8.6, Resize. This gives you full control over the
size of your watermark.
Once you are satisfied with the size of your watermark you set its position. The
Corner menu lets you choose which corner of the picture you want the watermark
placed in: Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right. The offset in pixels
from the chosen corner is specified in the X Offset and Y Offset fields.
You can set the Opacity of the watermark. This is not to be confused with the
transparency (alpha channel) set in the image object itself. It is currently not
possible to set a transparency mask in the Watermark filter. However, you can set
the overall Opacity when applying an already masked watermark to the video.
The Start/End Points values let you limit the time during which the watermark
is shown to a single segment. If the Start box is not checked, the watermark
will be shown from the beginning of the clip, if the Stop box is not checked,
the watermark will be shown to the end of the clip. The start and end points are
given as hhoursi : hminutesi : hsecondsi , hhundrethsi. If you give a value without
colons, the number will be parsed as if there was a colon between each digit pair,
e g 125 will be interpreted as 00:00:01:25,00; 175 will be interpreted as
00:00:02:15,00, the “excess” seconds turned into an extra minute.
You can create animated watermarks in two ways:
1. Animated GIF files.
2. QuickTime movie files. While you can use any QuickTime file as watermark, you can get particularly good effects by using the QuickTime Animation (Lossless, alpha channel) codec, as the transparency masks avoids
having to cover more of the main image than needed.
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If you have an animated watermark the Loop type menu lets you choose between
Play once to play through the animation once and stop on the last frame and
Loop to continuously loop the animation. If the watermark is static, the loop type
is ignored.
Format
Bitmap
GIF
JPEG
QuickTime
Targa
TIFF
Comments
24 bit RGB
EXIF metadata also supported
24 bit RGB, 32 bit RGB
24 bit RGB, 32 bit RGB
Use Preview
Use Preview to check the opacity, size and offset of the watermark.
TIP
Uses of watermarks
TIP
You can use animated watermarks to insert credit rolls, ticker tapes, subtitles
and other features in your video material.
Watermarks in Episode Engine
NOTE
Telestream
If you intend to use watermarks in Episode Engine, please note that the path
to the watermark file in the settings file will be ignored. You are instead expected to place your watermark in the same watch folder as the corresponding
source and settings files. See the Episode Engine documentation for further
details.
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9
Audio tab—codecs
You can encode audio for most common platforms, formats and qualities. This
chapter will list the available audio codecs.
Some of the codecs are only available in Episode Pro. They will be marked with
a
in Episode. You can still use them in demo mode.
Episode Pro
9.1
AAC
AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is one of two audio codecs specified in the 3GPP
standard (the other is AMR). It is an excellent audio codec for music.
Bit Rate You have to adapt the sample rate to your preferred bit rate (and vice
versa). The AAC Setting Guidelines displays a table of recommended
sample rates for given bit rates (reproduced below).
Bitrate
[kbit/s]
8
16
20
24
28
32
40
48
56
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Mono Sample Rate Stereo Sample Rate
[kHz]
[kHz]
8–12
Mono only
8–24
8–12
11–24
8–12
11–32
11–24
11–32
11–24
11–48
11–24
16–48
16–32
22–48
22–32
22–48
22–48
32–48
32–48
All higher bitrates match 32–48 kHz.
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Mono sound is supported in the range 8–160 kbit/s, 2-channel stereo sound
in the range 16–320 kbit/s, surround sound in the range 160–640 kbit/s, 7.1
channels surround sound in the range 224–640 kbit/s.
Episode Pro
AAC Mode The mode can be either Low Complexity or High Efficiency. High
Efficiency AAC, also known as aacPlus, is an extension of the AAC file
format using two new coding techniques: Spectral Band Replication (SBR)
and Parametric Stereo. HE-AAC is only partly backwards compatible, as
playback of HE-AAC files on AAC decoders (e g QuickTime) is possible,
but the high frequencies will not be reconstructed and only mono playback
is performed if Parametric Stereo is used. Available HE-AAC decoders
include Winamp and VLC as well as the open source FAAD2 decoder.
In the High Efficiency mode, Spectral Band Replication is always used.
SBR is a technique which copies the lower half of the audio frequencies to
the higher half. A small amount of control data (about 2–4 kbit/s) is added
to make sure the reconstruction of the high frequencies will be correct, or at
least perceived to be correct. By doing this the AAC encoder will only have
to encode the lower half of the spectrum, which enables encoding at lower
bitrates. SBR is recommended for source files with sample rates of 32 kHz
or higher, and target bitrates of 20–80 kbit/s. (At higher bitrates, regular
AAC will yield higher sound quality.) Read more about SBR in e g [1].
Keep Codec Delay For technical reasons AAC players skip a segment of data at
the start of a file. This can be compensated by inserting empty data at the
beginning, the “codec delay”. This option should normally be turned on,
but if your particular player does not handle this well, so that your audio
ends up out of synch, you can try turning this feature off.
Parametric Stereo Turn on Parametric Stereo. Parametric Stereo is an extension
to SBR, which encodes stereo information in a very compact way (about
1–3 kbit/s). The source file is then converted to mono and encoded to AAC.
Depending on the source material, Parametric Stereo can sometimes improve audio quality at very low bitrates (15–50 kbit/s). As the name implies, PS can only be applied to stereo source files. HE-AAC with PS is
also known as EAAC+.
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9.2
Episode Pro
AES
The AES codec has been designed by the Audio Engineering Society for serial
digital transmission of stereo sound. Episode uses the SMPTE 331M type. The
codec has no settings.
9.3
AMR Narrowband
AMR Narrowband is designed for use in cellular phones and is mandatory in the
3GPP standard. It is a speech codec that produces extremely low bitrates but does
not work well with music.
Bit Rate AMR NB has a set of fixed bitrates known as modes: 4.75 Kbit/s (mode
0), 5.15 Kbits/s (mode 1), 5.90 Kbits/s (mode 2), 6.70 Kbit/s (mode 3),
7.40 Kbit/s (mode 4), 7.95 Kbit/s (mode 5), 10.2 Kbit/s (mode 6), 12.2
Kbit/s (mode 7).
SID If there are silent passages in the audio track(s), the SID (Silence Descriptor) option makes the AMR codec send a smaller amount of data to save
bandwidth. Note that not all players support the SID option.
9.4
ATSC A/52
ATSC A/52 is used on DVDs and one of the leading formats used in movie theatres. It is compatible with the Dolby AC3 codec. It supports bitrates from 64
Kbit/s to 640 Kbit/s, but only bitrates above 80 Kbit/s can be encoded as stereo
or surround sound. Recommended bitrates for encoding without audible artefacts
are 192 Kbit/s for stereo and 448 Kbit/s for 5.1 surround.
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The Dialog Normalization parameter indicates the average dialogue level of the
material, so that decoders can adjust the gain. The value −31 corresponds to unit
gain, −1 to 30 dB reduction in the decoder.
9.5
DV audio
DV audio settings are dictated by the DV video settings. Set Sample Size to 16
bit or 12 bit.
9.6
EVRC
Episode Pro
EVRC is a codec intended for speech only used in the 3GPP2 standard for mobile
phones. It has two bitrates to choose between, 4.8 Kbit/s and 9.6 Kbit/s.
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9.7
Lame MP3
Lame MP3 is one of the most used music codecs today. It is widely spread
and used as a default codec for music on the internet. See http://lame.
sourceforge.net/ for further information.
Encoding type The Bitrate based option lets you set the average bit rate of the
data and make other adjustments, the Lame Preset option lets you choose
one of the options in the Preset menu, which will then set all parameters to
predefined values.
Preset
R3Mix A legacy setting used at http://www.r3mix.net/. It gives
slightly better quality than the Medium setting.
Medium Acceptable audio quality for most uses.
Medium Fast Uses a faster algorithm but should give almost as good audio
quality as Medium.
Standard Good audio quality for normal use.
Fast Standard Uses a faster algorithm but should give almost as good audio quality as Standard.
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Extreme The best audio quality for high-quality equipment.
Fast Extreme Uses a faster algorithm but should give almost as good audio
quality as Extreme.
Insane The absolutely best audio quality, but will require very high bandwidth.
Bit Rate For bitrate-based encoding the average bitrate can be set from 16 Kbit/s
to 320 Kbit/s.
Settings Standard settings will give you suitable default settings for your chosen
bitrate, Advanced settings lets you adjust additional encoding parameters:
Coding Mode Your selected bitrate can be used for CBR (Constant Bit
Rate) or VBR (Variable Bit Rate). If the latter is selected, you can set
the Minimum VBR Bitrate and Maximum VBR Bitrate between
16 Kbit/s and 320 Kbit/s.
Stereo mode Stereo will encode each stereo channel separately. MS Stereo
will use mid/side encoding, where the shared content of the stereo
channels will be coded in higher resolution than the difference between them; this decreases the bandwidth requirements for low bit
rates (< 128 kbit/s) and small stereo separations. Joint Stereo will
decide, frame by frame, whether to use separated stereo or MS stereo.
Quality Note that 0 represents the best quality encoding, while 9 gives the
lowest quality. Better quality implies slower algorithms.
Set copyright flag The material is tagged as copyrighted.
Set original flag Unless checked, the material will be tagged as a copy.
Add VBR seek header (Xing) A “Xing” header adds information to a VBRencoded file so that a player can jump to arbitrary positions in the file.
Use error protection Activate CRC error protection. This allows reconstruction of lost packets, but requires slightly more bandwidth to encode the error protection data.
9.8
MPEG Audio
MPEG Audio includes the following three different settings:
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Bit Rate The bitrate can be set from 8 to 448 Kib/s, but not all bitrates are available for both layers.
Layer The alternatives are Layer I and Layer II. (Layer III is the same as MP3.)
Layer I uses a simpler encoding method and works best for higher bitrates,
Layer II uses a more complex encoding method but compresses better.
Psycho Model The psycho-acoustic model is used to determine the features of
the sound that are inaudible and therefore can be compressed away. Model 1
is the simpler model, which gives somewhat worse results for less computation; Model 2 requires more computation but gives better results.
The setting of the Sample Rate filter will determine the encoding, sample rates
from 16 to 24 kHz are encoded as MPEG-2 audio, sample rates from 32 to 48 kHz
are encoded as MPEG-1.
More information about MPEG audio encoding may be found in [4].
9.9
PCM
PCM is an uncompressed audio format that can be encoded in a number of formats
from 8 Bit Unsigned Integer to 32 Bit Little Endian Float. Not all outformats
support all PCM encodings, so the selected encoding may be quietly folded into
an encoding supported by the active outformat.
Checking Split each channel into a separate track (.mov only) will place the
stereo and surround sound channels in separate tracks on QuickTime output. For
other output formats the button setting is ignored.
9.10
QCELP
Episode Pro
QCELP is a codec intended for speech only used in the 3GPP2 standard for mobile
phones. It has two bitrates to choose between, 6.80 Kbit/s and 14.0 Kbit/s.
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9.11
QuickTime
What QuickTime codecs you have depends on your installation, so we cannot
describe them in any detail here but refer you to the codec suppliers’ documentation. Pressing QuickTime Movie Settings. . . displays the QuickTime code
dialog. Choose the codec you wish to use from the top-most drop-down menu,
and enter the settings you want to use.
All codecs share the menu Channels, with alternatives Mono and Stereo (L R),
and the field Rate for setting the sample rate in kHz. Below these is an area with
codec-specific settings. Some codecs have two versions of the specific settings,
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the larger version displayed when the box Show Advanced Settings is checked.
Do not use Channels and Sample Rate filters
Note that codec settings are applied after all filter settings. This means that
if you have set the Channels filter to Mono and your codec has been set to
produce stereo, the audio track will first be folded into mono, and this mono
track will then be replicated to make stereo tracks. The same goes if you set
the Sample Rate filter to a lower rate than set in the codec.
You should therefore ensure that Channels and Sample Rate are unchecked
(Same as Source) when using the QuickTime codec.
9.12
RealAudio
RealAudio has no controls in the Video tab, but is instead controlled through the
Output tab. See section 6.1.9, Real Media for a description of these controls.
9.13
Vorbis
Encoding type Selecting Quality based enables the Quality slider, Bitrate based
enables the other three sliders.
Quality A lower quality setting will require less bandwidth, but give worse sound
reproduction.
Bitrate The target bitrate for the audio, in the range 32–320 Kib/s. The codec
will generate the best audio quality possible for this bitrate.
Max Bitrate The maximum allowed bitrate, in the range 32–320 Kib/s.
Min Bitrate The maximum allowed bitrate, in the range 32–320 Kib/s.
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9.14
Windows Media Audio 9
The Windows Media Audio 9 codec has the following versions:
WMA 9 Standard Encode the audio in the WMA 9 Standard format. It supports
the coding methods One pass, constant bit rate (CBR) and One pass,
variable bit rate (VBR).
WMA 9 Professional Encode the audio in the WMA 9 Professional format. This
has support for multiple channels, sample rates above 48 kHz and wider
than 16 bit samples. However, it is often not available on lower-end platforms, such as mobile phones. It supports the coding methods One pass,
constant bit rate (CBR) and One pass, variable bit rate (VBR).
WMA 9 Lossless This is a non-destructive codec delivering uncompressed audio
containing all of the data in the original content. The final bitrate is dependent on your original source. It supports the coding method One pass,
variable bit rate (VBR).
The WMA version you select determines the available menu options in the top
menu in the Coding Method area. The selected option in combination with the selected coding method determines the available menu options in the bottom menu.
One pass, constant bit rate (CBR) contains encoding alternatives ranked in order
of their bit rate, One pass, variable bit rate (VBR) contains encoding alternatives
ranked in order of audio quality.
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10
Audio tab—filters
You expand a filter by clicking on the triangle icon. You activate a filter by checking the checkbox in the top left corner. Note that even if you have changed the
values in an expanded filter, the filter will not be applied to your clip unless you
activate the filter. To deactivate a filter, uncheck the checkbox. To clearly indicate which filters are currently active, Episode moves activated filters to above
the unused filters, and deactivated filters back to the bottom.
The active filters are applied in the order they are shown from top to bottom.
However, the codec settings are applied last even though they are topmost in the
tab.
10.1
Channel Mapper
Most of the time you need not worry about remapping sound channels from source
file to output file, as this is handled automatically, but occasionally you will have
a source file that just contains a number of mono audio channels that have to be
explicitly labelled with the spatial positions they correspond to.
In the channel mapper filter you have a matrix with the input channels along the
horizontal rows. They are numbered 1–8. The output channels are also numbered
1–8, but represent spatial positions according to the following table:
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1 2
3
4
5 6
7
8
Mono C
Stereo L R
3.1
C L
R
LFE
4.0
L R
LS RS
5.1
C LF RF L
R LFE
7.1
C LF RF L
R LS
RS LFE
C = Centre, L = Left, R = Right, F = Front, S = Surround,
LFE = Low Frequency Effects
You can connect multiple input channels to the same output channel, in which
case they are mixed together. The Clear button removes all connections, the Set
Defaults button connects input channel c to output channel c for all channels.
The Input Channels menu lets you indicate the number of input channels that
should be used. If the source file has more channels than indicated, only the indicated number will be used, if it has fewer channels, only as many channels as are
actually present in the file will be used. The Output Channels menu lets you set
the desired number of output channels. Input Channels and Output Channels
are limited to the maximum number of channels supported by the output format.
10.2
Channels
If the Channels filter is activated, incoming audio tracks, regardless of how many
they are, are resampled to a Mono, a Stereo, a 5.1, or a 7.1 audio track. Resampling from fewer input channels to more output channels is usually not meaningful
as it requires additional bandwidth without improving the sound quality.
10.3
Sample Rate
The Sample Rate filter has a drop-down menu with the available sampling frequencies for the audio codec that you have chosen in the Output Tab. The available frequencies in the list vary from codec to codec. Note however that not all
output formats allow all sample rates supported by a given codec.
The Sample Rate value represents the number of samples per second in the audio
track. Higher sample rates allow higher sound frequencies to be reproduced.
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The Nyqvist frequency
NOTE
The Nyqvist frequency is the highest reproducible sound frequency. It is half
the frequency at which the clip was sampled. E g, choosing 16 kHz as sampling frequency will allow you to encode audible frequencies up to 8 kHz.
10.4
Audio Speed
Some video frame rate conversions speed up or slow down the video speed (see
section 8.3, Frame Rate and section 8.5, Advanced Frame Rate). In these cases
you have to adjust the speed of the audio track to match. The Speed change menu
lets you select from a set of standard speed conversions: 2x : Twice the speed,
1x : Same speed, 1/2: Half the speed, 1/4: A Quarter of the speed, To Match
24 -> 25 fps speed-up, To Match 23.98 -> 25 fps speed-up, To Match 25 ->
24 fps slow-down, To Match 25 -> 23.98 fps slow-down. You can also select
Custom. . . and enter any arbitrary multiplier in the times original field.
10.5
Offset
The Offset slider lets you add an offset to the audio track to compensate for timing
differences between the audio and video tracks.
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10.6
Fade
The Fade filter fades the beginning and/or the end of the audio track. The length
of the Fade can be set between 0 and 10 seconds.
10.7
Balance
The Balance filter sets the stereo panning towards the left or right audio channel.
The results of using the balance filter on surround sound are undefined.
10.8
Equalizer
The graphic Equalizer is a set of five filters, each with a fixed center frequency
that cannot be changed, see picture above. You can control the amount of boost
(peak) or cut (notch) in each frequency band. Create a boost or a cut with the
sliders at 0.1, 0.3, 1.0, 3.0 and 10 kHz.
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10.9
High Pass/Low Pass
High Pass Cuts off all frequencies below the threshold value. The High Pass
filter can be set between 10 and 1000 Hz. Check the box to activate the
filter and enter the value of your choice.
Low Pass Cuts off all frequencies above the threshold value. The Low Pass filter
can be set between 1 and 20 kHz. Check the box to activate the filter and
enter the value of your choice.
10.10
Volume
Normalize Will analyze the material before encoding by looking for the loudest
peak in the audio channel and then encode with this value as reference to
avoid any clipping or distortion in the sound. When Normalize is chosen
the slider will show units in percent (%). If set to 90%, this option will set
the highest peak in any audio channel to be at 90% of full volume and adjust
the rest of the channels in linear correspondence.
Adjust in percent Will change the volume according to the value set with the
slider. The default value is 0% and equals no change. The value can be set
from −100% to +100%.
Adjust in dB Will change the volume according to the value set with the slider.
The value can be set between −18 dB and +18 dB. The default is 0 dB and
equals no change.
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11
Metadata tab
Metadata is information about a file, such as copyright information, source file
names, creation date, etc. Many media formats have data fields for metadata and
Episode lets you set the values of any of these fields in the Metadata tab. Different file formats support different metadata fields, but the Metadata tab automatically shows what is available in the chosen output file format.
The tab contains a Key column and a Value column. The Key column shows all
available metadata tags for the given output format. All tags are grey until you
have entered a value in the corresponding Value field. Double-click in the Value
column to activate the text field and enter your value. Fields for which you have
not entered a value will not be added to the output file.
Note that the values are constants, you cannot enter values that depend on any
properties of the source or settings files. Episode Engine adds .inmeta files,
which can be created by scripts, see the Episode Engine User Guide for more
information on this.
See chapter 13, Engine tab for information on additional functions for adding
metadata for use in Episode Engine.
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12
Stream tab
Streaming media are sent out in real time from a server. The server may not
necessarily know much about the encoded media, it therefore needs hint tracks.
The hints tell the streaming server how to packetize the media for transmission.
The correct packetizer for each media type is automatically selected when you
check Prepare For Streaming in either the Output tab or the Stream tab.
12.1
Streamable file formats
File Format
3GPP
3GPP2
MPEG-4
QuickTime
Extension
.3gp
.3g2
.mp4
.mov
Codecs
H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, AAC, AMR NB
H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, AAC, AMR NB, EVRC, QCELP
H.264, MPEG-4, AAC
H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, AAC, AMR NB
Formats in italics are only available in Episode Pro.
Episode Pro
Streaming RealMedia or Windows Media
NOTE
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RealMedia and Windows Media can also produce streamable files but their
streaming settings are found under their respective codec settings.
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12.2
AAC Low Complexity
Two methods of hinting are available for AAC:
LATM (MPEG-4 and 3GPP Default) Typically for mobile phones.
Generic (ISMA and QuickTime Default) Typically for Internet use.
The Packet Size Limit value can be set between 0 and 1500.
Packet size limit
NOTE
While it is possible to set Packet Size Limit to 0, this has limited utility, as the
stream would only consist of empty packets.
12.3
AMR NB
The options below are subject to support in the target player.
Frames per Packet The number of frames can be set from 1 to 10.
Packetizing Mode The packetizing mode can be one of two alternatives:
Octet Align Supported by all players.
Bandwidth Efficient Supported by some players.
CRC An error detection mechanism (cyclic redundancy check). Not supported
by all players.
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Robust Sorting Robust sorting reorders data in order to decrease the impact of
transmission errors. Not supported by all players.
12.4
Episode Pro
EVRC
Frames per packet Using a higher number of frames per packet gives better
bandwidth utilisation but increases the chance that the receiver will not be
able to handle all frames.
Interleave Interleaving increases the robustness against error, but also requires
higher memory capacity in the recipient.
Interleave frames A higher number of interleaved frames requires more memory
capacity in the recipient.
12.5
H.263
If H.263 is selected for streaming, the following options are available:
Packet Size Limit The value can be set between 0 and 1500 bytes.
Packetizing Type The two alternatives are 1998 (QT) and 2000.
Insert Extra Headers Enables error correction.
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12.6
H.264
Packet Size Limit can be set between 0 and 1500 bytes.
12.7
MPEG-4
Packet Size Limit can be set between 0 and 1500 bytes.
12.8
QCELP
Episode Pro
Frames per packet Using a higher number of frames per packet gives better
bandwidth utilisation but increases the chance that the receiver will not be
able to handle all frames.
Interleave Interleaving increases the robustness against error, but also requires
higher memory capacity in the recipient.
Interleave frames The number of interleaved frames, a higher number requires
more memory capacity in the recipient.
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13
Engine tab
The Engine tab is for use with Episode Engine, our server-based automated
transcoding product. If you do not use Episode Engine, you can skip this section and you can even turn off the entire tab in the Preferences window. For this
Episode Engine change to take effect, the setting must be closed and reopened.
As discussed in chapter 11, Metadata tab, you can add metadata to an output
file in the Metadata tab. The Engine tab lets you add additional metadata fields
to be used by Episode Engine. These will be written to a special file named
hsourcefilei .meta in the output watchfolder.
Click the New Setting button ( ) to create a new Key and Value row. Doubleclick the fields to enter the key and value.
Checking the Use .inmeta File box makes Episode Engine, in addition to the
metadata you have entered here and/or in the Metadata tab, use a metadata file
named hsourcefilei .inmeta in the watchfolder. This file has to be present for
Episode Engine to transcode the source. The Episode Engine User Guide describes .inmeta files in detail.
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A special use of metadata is as an interface to the Episode Engine scripting mechanism. As explained in Episode Engine User Guide, you can create event scripts
that can react to various events generated by a transcoding job and e g move output
files to their final destinations, send email to the administrator, etc.
You can write these scripts yourself, using whatever scripting language you prefer,
but you can turn on an option in System Preferences for Episode Engine to activate the script /usr/local/pwce/evt/00_job_Deployment_Telestream.
It will scan the metadata associated with a transcoding job for keywords which
will then be used to perform certain standard actions. In this way you can use
simple event actions without any programming at all. Keywords can be supplied
through the Engine tab as well as through an .inmeta file, thus allowing for
different actions depending on the file. The order of keywords is not important.
The Key post-action defines the action to be performed with the following
values:
copy Copy the output file to a directory specified by the value of post-action-path.
ftp-upload Upload the output file to an ftp server. This requires the additional
key/value pairs:
post-action-ftp-host the host name of the server,
post-action-ftp-path the directory on the server where the file is to
be stored,
post-action-ftp-username the username on the server,
post-action-ftp-password the password for logging in on the server.
Both commands will also take optional parameters:
post-action-transfer-meta Determines if any .meta file will be transferred along with the output file. Allowed values are yes and no, default is
no.
post-action-delete-files Determines if the output file and any .meta
file should be deleted from the output folder after having been copied/
uploaded. Allowed values are yes and no, default is no.
You can of course extend the script with any additional commands you wish to
implement.
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14
Description tab
The description tab lets you add textual descriptions to the settings.
Enter an explanatory comment in the Setting Description field and save the setting. The comment is used for tooltips in the Compression Settings as well as for
other applications using Episode settings.
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15
Support
For assistance with Episode, please check the Knowledge Base on our support
pages at http://www.flip4mac.com/support.htm. If the answer is not
already in our Knowledgebase, you can contact our support team through a form
on the web page.
Note that Telestream does not provide support for any hardware, capture cards,
software drivers, operating system or any other software than Episode. Please
consult your supplier for support on other items.
Episode is also offered with support agreements. If purchased, please check your
support agreement for details, or consult your software supplier for more information on available support agreements.
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Appendix A
Supported formats
The following media formats and codecs are supported by Episode:
3GPP (.3gp)
The 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) video format is based on QuickTime and intended for mobile phones.
Supported codecs: AAC, AMR NB, H.263, H.264, MPEG-4.
Restrictions: H.264 is input only.
Pro adds: Multi-Bit Rate files, but for output only. H.264 support for output.
HE-AAC, but for output only.
3GPP2 (.3g2)
3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2) video format is based on QuickTime and intended for mobile phones.
Supported codecs: AAC, AMR NB, EVRC, H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, QCELP.
Restrictions: EVRC, H.264, QCELP are input only.
Pro adds: EVRC, H.264, QCELP support for output. HE-AAC, but for output
only.
3GPP2 (EZMovie) (.3g2)
KDDI have developed the EZMovie version of 3GPP2, which allows a distributor
to limit how many times a file is played.
Supported codecs: AAC, AMR NB, EVRC, H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, QCELP.
Restrictions: EZMovie is output only.
Pro adds: EZMovie is only available in Pro.
ADTS (.aac)
Audio Data Transport Stream is a wrapper format for AAC-encoded audio files.
Supported codecs: AAC.
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AIFF (.aif)
The Audio Interchange File Format was developed by Apple.
Supported codecs: PCM.
AMC (.amc)
AMC (Adaptive Modulation and Coding) is a 3GPP variant. KDDI have developed the EZMovie version of AMC, which allows a distributor to limit how many
times a file is played.
Supported codecs: MPEG-4, QCELP
Restrictions: EZMovie files with distribution restrictions are only supported for
output.
Pro adds: EZMovie only available in Pro.
AMR (.amr)
AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) is an audio format.
Supported codecs: AMR Narrowband.
Restrictions: Input only.
Pro adds: AMR support for output.
ATSC A/52 (.a52)
ATSC A/52 is an audio format compatible with Dolby AC3.
Supported codecs: ATSC A/52.
AVI (.avi)
AVI is Microsoft’s wrapper format that encapsulates other video compression
standards.
Supported codecs: DV25, DVCPRO25, DVCPRO50, MJPEG, MP3, MPEG-4
(DivX, XVid), PCM, RGB16 (555), RGB16 (556), RGB24, RGB32, UYVY, Windows RGB, YCbCr 4:2:0, Y8, YUY2, YV16, YVU16, YVU9, YV12.
Restrictions: DivX, DVCPRO25, DVCPRO50, MJPEG, Windows RGB, and YCbCr
only supported for input. DivX and Xvid input requires a third-party QuickTime
plugin.
Pro adds: DVCPRO25, DVCPRO50, Windows RGB, YCbCr supported for output.
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DV (.dv)
Format for Digital Video; a recording format. This fileformat cannot handle separate timecode tracks like the .mov fileformat. iMovie uses this fileformat.
Supported codecs: DV25, DVCPRO25, DVCPRO50.
Restrictions: DVCPRO25 and DVCPRO50 only supported for input.
Pro adds: DVCPRO25 and DVCPRO50 supported for output.
Flash Video (.flv, .swf)
The Adobe/Shockwave Flash video format.
Supported codecs: H.263, VP6, MP3.
Restrictions: Only audio and video can be input. VP6 requires the Flash 8 Option.
GXF (.gxf)
GXF (General eXchange Format) is an interchange format for archival storage
and data networks developed by Grass Valley. The GXF format is only used as a
transfer format, the receiving server will convert the file to an appropriate internal
format. Although GXF can contain several formats like DV and JPEG streams, it
is mainly used with MPEG-2. A timecode track can be added to the file.
Supported codecs: MPEG-2, PCM.
Restrictions: Input only.
Pro adds: GXF supported for output.
MP3 (.mp3)
A part of the MPEG-1 standard; the full name of this standard is MPEG-1 Audio
Layer III. MP3 is a common standard for audio and music compression.
Supported codecs: Lame MP3
MPEG Elementary Stream (.m1a, .m1v, .m2v, .mpg)
An MPEG Elementary stream contains a single medium, audio or video, and can
be contained in a Program Stream.
Supported codecs: MPEG Audio, MPEG-1, MPEG-2
MPEG Program Stream (.mpg)
An MPEG Program Stream is intended for reliable media such as DVD or SVCD.
While the Elementary Streams of a Program Stream could be placed sequentially,
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Episode 5.0.1 User’s Guide
they are typically interleaved (muxed).
Supported codecs: AAC, ATSC A/52, H.264, MPEG Audio, MPEG-1, MPEG-2,
MPEG-4, PCM
MPEG Transport Stream (.m2t, .ts)
An MPEG Transport Stream is intended for broadcast media where packets may
be lost and viewers have to be able to enter a transmission in mid-stream. Elementary streams are interleaved (muxed) on the Transport Stream.
Supported codecs: AAC, ATSC A/52, H.264, HDV, MPEG Audio, MPEG-1,
MPEG-2, MPEG-4, PCM, VC-1.
Restrictions: Only supported for input.
Pro adds: AAC, ATSC A/52, H.264, MPEG Audio, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4, VC-1 supported for output.
MPEG-4 (.m4a, .m4b, .m4v, .mp4)
The MPEG standard most commonly in use today, encapsulated by most modern
video applications in one aspect or another. The .m4a, .m4b, and .m4v versions
are adapted for iPods as audio, audiobook and video specialisations, respectively.
Supported codecs: AAC, H.264, MPEG-4.
Restrictions: H.264 is input only.
Pro adds: H.264 support for output. H.264 High Profile and HE-AAC, but only
for output.
MXF (.mxf)
The Material eXchange Format is a wrapper standard intended to better support
metadata for media files so that they can be easier kept track of in an environment
where media are transmitted, edited and stored entirely digitally. More information is available at http://www.mxf.info/.
Supported codecs: AES, D-10/IMX, DV25, DVCPRO25, DVCPRO50, PCM.
Restrictions: Input only.
Pro adds: D-10/IMX supported for output.
OGG (.ogg)
Ogg is an open media wrapper format designed for efficient streaming and manipulation. More information is available at http://Xiph.Org.
Supported codecs: Vorbis.
Restrictions: Output only.
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PSP (.mp4)
PlayStation Portable can play MPEG-4 files, but requires that they be named
M4Vxxxxx.mp4, where xxxxx is five decimal digits, and stored in the directory
E:\MP_ROOT\100MNV01 on the PSP.
Supported codecs: AAC, H.264, MPEG-4.
QuickTime™ (.mov)
Apple’s movie file format. This is an umbrella format that encapsulates other
video compression standards as well as a few of its own.
Supported codecs: µLaw 2:1, AAC, aLaw 2:1, AMR NB, Apple Animation, Apple Component, Apple GSM, Apple Intermediate Format, Apple Lossless, Apple
Prores, Apple Video, Avid, Avid DNxHD, Avid DV, Avid Meridien, Blackmagic,
Cinepak, D-10/IMX, DV25, DVCPRO25, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO100, H.261, H.263,
H.264, HDV, IMA, Mace 3:1, Mace 6:1, Media 100, MJPEG, MP3, MPEG4, PCM, Pixlet, Qdesign, RED, RGB, RGB16 (555), RGB16 (556), RGB24,
RGB32, Sheer Video, Sorenson Video 1, 3, Targa Cine YUV, XDCAM HD,
YCbCr (YUV), UYVY, Y8, YUY2, YV16, YVU16, YVU9, YV12. Codecs in
italics require third party plugins.
Restrictions: Only AAC, AMR NB, Apple Video, Cinepak, DV25, H.261, H.263,
H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, PCM, Pixlet, RGB, RGB16 (555), RGB16 (556), RGB24,
RGB32, Sorenson Video 1, Sorenson Video 3 supported for output. QuickTime
reference files are only supported for input. Timecodes are not supported by the
native QuickTime importer—this mainly affects reference files.
Pro adds: µLaw 2:1, aLaw 2:1, Apple Animation, Apple Component, Apple
GSM, Apple Intermediate Format, Apple Lossless, Apple Prores, Apple Video,
Avid, Avid DNxHD, Avid DV, Avid Meridien, Blackmagic, D-10/IMX, DVCPRO25,
DVCPRO50, DVCPRO100, HDV, HE-AAC, IMA, Mace 3:1, Mace 6:1, Media
100, MJPEG, Qdesign, Sheer Video, Targa Cine YUV, XDCAM HD, YCbCr
(YUV), UYVY, Y8, YUY2, YV16, YVU16, YVU9, YV12 also supported for
output. In addition any installed QuickTime codec plugins will be used. However, we do not guarantee full functionality of or helpline support for any such
third party QuickTime components.
Real (.rm, .rmvb)
Supported codecs: RealAudio/-Video 8, 9, 10 and SureStream.
Restrictions: RealMedia files are only supported for output.
Wave (.wav)
Microsoft’s basic audio format.
Supported codecs: PCM.
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Windows Media (.wma, .wmv)
The Windows Media encoder creates files in Windows Media format, a proprietary format currently playable in Windows Media player, VLC, and, with the
help of the Flip4Mac Windows Media Components for QuickTime, in QuickTime Player.
Supported codecs: Intellistream, VC-1, Windows Media, Windows Media MBR,
WMA Pro, WMA Standard.
Restrictions: Only the largest stream is read from Intellistream multi-bit rate files.
VC-1 files require the Flip4Mac Windows Media Components for QuickTime
for input.
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Bibliography
[1] Martin Dietz and Stefan Meltzer. CT-aacPlus—a state-of-the-art audio coding
system. EBU Technical Review, (291), July 2002.
[2] Steve McMillen. Helix DNA Producer Feature Specification Audience File.
Helix Community, 2.02 edition, July 2004.
[3] Don Munsil and Brian Florian. DVD benchmark – part 5 – progressive scan
DVD. Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, 7(4), October 2000.
[4] Davis Pan. A tutorial on MPEG/audio compression. IEEE Multimedia,
2(2):60–74, Summer 1995.
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Index
3G, 51
3GPP, 37, 39, 128
3GPP2, 38, 128
3GPP2 (EZMovie), 128
deinterlacing, 26, 52, 85–88
demo mode, 4
DV, 50, 52, 53, 56, 92, 130
DV audio, 107
AAC, ii, 104, 121
aacPlus, 105
AC3, 106
Adobe Flash, 57, 59
ADTS, 128
Advanced frame rate, 89
AES, 106
AIFF, 129
alpha channel, 95
AMC, 39, 129
AMR, 121, 129
AMR NB, 106
anamorphic, 53, 92
Apple Final Cut Pro, 12
Apple Help, 18
aspect ratio, 52
ATSC A/52, 106, 129
audio balance, 117
audio channels, 115
audio offset, 116
audio speed, 116
audio volume, 118
AVC, 62
AVI, 39, 129
EAAC+, 105
equalizer, 117
EVRC, 107, 122
black and white restoration, 97
Blackmagic, 55
Blu-ray, 66
BMP, 103
Broadcast Wave Format, 45
cadence, 52, 85
channels, 115
codec delay, 105
contrast adjustment, 98
D-10, 56
D-10/IMX, 53, 92
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FAAD2, 105
fading, 98
audio, 117
field order, 52, 83
Finder, 10, 12, 21, 22, 29
Flash Video, 57, 59, 130
frame rate, 57, 84
advanced, 89
frame skip probability, 51
gamma correction, 99
GIF, 26, 103
GPRS, 51
GXF, 47, 130
H.263, 61, 122
H.264, 41, 62, 123
HDV, 66
HE-AAC, 105
high pass filtering, 118
hinting, 46
HSB, 93
HSV, 93
I-frames only, 69
ID3, 40
image size, 91
IMX, 52, 56
indexing, 45
interface components
12 bit, 107
16 bit, 107
2-pass interval, 58, 62, 65, 73
2-pass mode, 59, 60
a lot, 90
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AAC Mode, 105
AAC Setting Guidelines, 104
Action, 10, 17, 21, 23, 27, 29
Activate, 32
Add empty VBI space, 71
Add Picture Timing SEI, 66
Add Source File(s), 22, 33
Add VBR seek header (Xing), 109
Advanced Frame Rate, 82, 84, 89
Advanced intra coding, 62
Advanced options, 92
Advanced Video Options, 44
Amount, 98
Apply, 17
Aspect ratio, 53
Audio, 18, 36, 42, 46
Audio mode, 43
Audio Speed, 85, 89
Average, 96
Average rate, 57, 59, 61, 63, 68, 70,
72, 76, 78, 79
B-frames between P-frames, 69, 70
Bandwidth control, 63
Bit Depth, 75, 80
Bit Rate, 44, 56, 104, 106, 109, 110
Bitrate, 112
Bitrate control, 69
Blur motion estimation errors, 90
Brightness, 94
Browser, 5, 15, 35
Bumper/Trailer, 36
Burn Timecode, 47, 100
Change framerate to, 84
Change Serial Number. . . , 32
Channels, 111, 112
Clear, 115
Clear All Settings, 33
Clear Batch, 33
Clock, 29
Close, 15
Close Setting, 34
Codecs, 44
Coding Method, 113
Coding Mode, 76, 78, 109
Coding type, 68, 69
Color Space, 81
Colour Keyframes, 26
Colour space, 64, 67, 70
Compression Settings, 5–7, 9, 12–
14, 17, 19–22, 29, 126
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Configure, 101
Copy, 17, 18, 45, 46
Corner, 102
CRC, 121
Create New Fields By, 86
Create new frame, 89
Create new frames at the following
rate, 89
Create QuickTime Timecode Track,
40
Deactivate. . . , 33
Deblocking filter, 62
Deinterlace, 82, 84
Deinterlace Chroma, 88
Deinterlace Type, 87
Delete, 14
Description, 28
Destination Folder, 27
Dialog Normalization, 107
Disable Save, 40
Discard, 17, 18, 45, 46
Display Aspect Ratio, 56, 64, 74
Display aspect ratio, 57, 64, 70, 73,
80
Double Frame Rate, 88
Download, 43
Draw Average Bitrate, 26
Duplicate, 44
DV Type, 56
Edit→Copy, 23
Edit→Paste, 23
Encode, 17, 18, 45, 46
Encode alpha channel, 60
Encoded, 25, 26, 35
Encoded Movie Info, 26, 35
Encoding Complexity, 44, 77, 80
Encoding profile, 64
Encoding quality, 67, 68, 70
Encoding speed vs quality, 65
Encoding type, 108, 112
Engine, 18, 31, 124, 125
Enter Serial Number. . . , 4, 32
Entropy coding, 64
Error resilient mode, 60
Expiration Time, 38, 39
Export, 14
Export Setting, 14, 34
Fast start, 37, 40
Field Order, 71, 86, 88
Field order, 80, 90
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Filter Action, 83
Filter mode, 84, 89
Finder, 10, 23, 29
First interlaced pair, 85
Font, 100
Force headers for every GOP, 66
Force QuickTime Importer, 48
Force sequence header for every GOP,
69, 70
Frame Encoding Type, 71
Frame Rate, 82, 84, 88, 89
Frame size, 66
Frame skip probability, 58, 59, 61,
72
Frame Type, 71
Framerate preset, 84, 85
Frames per Packet, 121
Frames per packet, 122, 123
General, 30
GOP format, 68, 70
GOP type, 70
HDV Type, 66
Header, 100
Height, 53, 91, 92
Hide Engine tab, 31
High Pass, 118
Hint, 36
Hue, 94
Image proportions, 91
Image size, 91, 92
In/Out Points, 36, 47
Include Broadcast Wave Header, 45
Infra refresh distance, 58, 62
Initial buffer fullness, 66, 73
Initial crop, 55, 91, 92
Input Channels, 115
Input Field Order, 83
Input material is interlaced, 60
Insert Extra Headers, 122
Interlace, 82
Interlace options, 93
Interlacing, 67
Interleave, 122, 123
Interleave frames, 122, 123
Interpolation method, 92
Intra DC Precision, 71
Job Batch, 5, 8, 9, 12, 16, 17, 19–
24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 33–35
Keep Codec Delay, 105
Key, 119, 124, 125
Telestream
Keyframe control, 58, 59, 63
Keyframe distance, 58, 60, 62–64,
72, 73, 77, 79, 80
Language Description, 42
Layer, 110
Left, 25
License, 4, 30
Limit frame size, 66
Link, 20, 21
Link to MBR setting, 30
Link/Unlink Setting, 33
Loop type, 103
Loss Protection, 44
Low CPU priority, 31
Low Pass, 118
Maintain proportion with, 53, 54,
91, 92
Max Bitrate, 112
Maximum Startup Latency, 44
Maximum Time Between Key Frames,
44
Maximum VBR Bitrate, 109
MBR Type, 38
Median, 95
Metadata, 18, 119, 124
Min Bitrate, 112
Minimum distance, 60
Minimum VBR Bitrate, 109
Modified quantization, 62
Motion estimation accuracy, 73
Motion search length, 90
Mux Packet Size, 41
Naming Convention, 27, 29
New Bookmark. . . , 6, 11
New Folder, 13
New framerate, 84, 85
New Group, 15
New Naming Convention, 28
New Setting, 13, 124
not at all, 90
Number of B-frames, 64, 73, 77,
80
Number of reference frames, 64
Number of Runs, 96
Number of Slices, 65
Off, 25
Offset, 116
On, 25
Only Filter Chroma, 96
Opacity, 100, 102
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Open Settings, 13
Output, 15, 17, 18, 36, 74, 100, 112,
115, 120
Output Channels, 115
Output Format, 36
P-frames between I-frames, 69, 70
Packet length, 73
Packet Size Limit, 121–123
Packetizing Mode, 121
Packetizing Type, 122
Parametric Stereo, 105
Pause, 23, 24
PCR, 42
Peak rate, 59, 63, 70, 76, 79
PES packet control, 42
PID assignment, 41
Play, 7
Play sound when job is done, 31
Playback Count, 38, 39
PMT, 42
Preferences, 30, 35, 124
Prepare For Streaming, 46, 47, 120
Preprocessing, 93
Preset, 108
Preview, 9, 17, 24–27, 31, 35, 88,
100, 103
Preview is always on top, 31
Profile, 60, 67, 73, 77
Program number, 42
Psycho Model, 110
Punish deviating motion, 90
Purchase. . . , 32
Quality, 109, 112
QuickTime, 36
QuickTime Movie Settings. . . , 74,
111
Radius, 96, 98
Rate, 111
Recently Encoded, 5, 7, 21
Remove, 11
Reset Status, 24, 33
Resize, 82, 101, 102
Restrict distribution, 38, 39
Retry failed jobs, 31
Revert to Saved Setting, 17, 29
Right, 25
Robust Sorting, 122
Same As Source, 47
Sample Rate, 110, 112
Sample Size, 107
Telestream
Saturation, 94
Save, 13, 34
Save As, 17, 21, 29
Scratch location, 31
scrubber, 25
Search block size, 90
Select/Edit Templates, 43
Set copyright flag, 109
Set Defaults, 115
Set original flag, 109
Setting Description, 126
Settings Editor, 5, 8, 9, 13–16, 27,
29, 31, 33, 34
Sharpness, 60
Show Advanced Settings, 112
Show all files, 12, 31
Show Recently Encoded files, 31
SID, 106
Signal fixed framerate, 66
Signal progressive sequence in bitstream, 71
Simple Visual Profile Level 0, 73
Size, 91, 92
Skip Current Job, 24
Slice structure, 62
Smoothness/crispness, 76–79
Source, 25, 35, 101
Source Bookmarks, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12,
21, 22, 24
Source display aspect ratio, 53, 92
Speed change, 116
Split each channel into a separate
track (.mov only), 110
Start, 102
Start Encoding, 9, 23
Start/End Points, 102
Stated output frame rate, 89, 90
Status, 9, 23, 24, 30
Stereo mode, 109
Stop, 102
Stop Encoding, 24
Stream, 18, 47, 120
Stretch Anamorphic Frames, 26
Sub-pel precision, 90
SureStream™, 43
Target Average Bit Rate, 44
Target Video Quality, 44
Temporal, 96
Threshold, 87, 88, 96
Time limit, 2
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Timecode, 36, 40, 47, 100
times original, 116
Transport rate control, 42
Unlink, 21
Unlink from MBR setting, 30
Update, 30
Upload, 15
Upload Setting, 14
Use .inmeta File, 124
Use 2-pass encoding, 58, 60, 62,
65, 71, 73
Use adaptive interlacing mode, 65
Use Data Partition, 73
Use de-blocking filter, 65
Use error protection, 109
Use ID3 tag v 1.1, 40
Use ID3 tag v 2.3, 40
Use RVLC, 73
Use scene change detection, 71
Value, 119, 124
Variable Bit Rate, 44
VBR Quality, 63
VBR quality, 63
VBR Strength, 59
VBV buffer size, 58, 59, 61, 63, 70,
72, 76–79
Video, 18, 36, 42, 45, 74, 112
Video Codec, 43
Warning, 30
Watermark Resize, 101
Width, 53, 91, 92, 100
Width : Height, 91
Window, 2
X Offset, 102
Y Offset, 102
zoom slider, 25
Interlace, 99
interlaced scan, 52
job, 9, 22
JPEG, 26, 67, 103
keyboard shortcuts, 35
Lame MP3, 108
lookup table, 83
low pass filtering, 118
LUT, 83
matte, 95
matte extraction, 95
MBR, 45
Telestream
metadata, 45, 119
mobile phones, 128
mono sound, 114
Motion JPEG, 50, 67
MP3, ii, 40, 108, 130
MPEG
Elementary Stream, 41
Program Stream, 41
Transport Stream, 41
MPEG Audio, 109
MPEG Elementary Stream, 130
MPEG Program Stream, 130
MPEG Transport Stream, 131
MPEG-1, 41, 68
MPEG-2, 41, 53, 69, 92
Main Level, 69
Main Profile, 69
MPEG-4, ii, 41, 53, 72, 92, 123, 131
part 10, 62
MXF, 131
naming conventions, 27
noise reduction, 95
NTSC, 52, 53, 56, 57, 65, 70, 73, 85,
86, 92, 97, 98
offset, 116
OGG, ii, 131
PAL, 52–54, 56, 57, 65, 70, 73, 85, 86,
92, 97, 98
Parametric Stereo, 105
PCM, 110
PCRE, ii
PNG, 26
Podcast Producer, 1
Preferences, 12
processor priority, 31
progressive download, 37, 40
progressive scan, 52
PSP, 132
QCELP, 110, 123
QuickTime, 40, 47, 48, 74, 75, 103, 111
QuickTime Player, 12, 40, 133
QuickTime™, 132
Real, 132
RealAudio, 112
RealVideo, 43, 74
requirements
hardware, 3
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RGB, 75, 96
sample rate, 115
SBR, 105
scripting, 125
sharpening, 94
slices, 65
smoothing, 97
SMPTE
314M, 57
356M, 56
421M, 78
SMPTE 331M, 106
Spectral Band Replication, 105
stereo sound, 114
Supplemental Enhancement Information,
66
surround sound, 114
SVCD, 53
System Preferences, 125
Targa, 103
Targa Cine, 75
Telecine, 85
telecine, 52
temp directory, 31
TIFF, 26, 103
timecode, 100
transparency, 95
VC-1, 78
VCD, 92
VLC, 105, 133
volume
audio, 118
Vorbis, ii, 112
watermark, 101
WAVE, 45
Wave, 132
Winamp, 105
Windows Media, 45, 47, 75, 133
Windows Media Audio, 45, 113
Windows Media player, 133
Windows Media Streaming Server, 19
Windows RGB, 80
XDCam, 80
YCbCr, 49, 81
YUV, 49
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