Settings for Windows Media Encod

Getting the settings the way you like them in Windows Media encoding can be a bit tricky - as se several factors go into it . I have seen some pertty good looking video streamed using

I just used the encoding capabilities within LE 6.1. I set it for broadband 256.

Mark... I used the stand alone WMV encoder available free from the Microsoft website. Here were my steps in creating the file.

Selected - Convert File
File Download (computer playback)

Settings:

DVD quality video (1 Mbps VBR)
CD quakity audio (VBR)
1073 Kbps
29.97 frame rate
640x480

As you can see, file sizes are not small. My target viewing audience is NOT on dialup. Hope that helps.

Andy Browne

Streaming/Progressive download video can be done in a couple of different formats, both QUickTime and Windows Media. Streaming video requires that you have a streaming server, and a lot of knowledge on how to use it, so stick with Progressive Download. This is support by the "normal" servers. I'm not familiar with QT, so here's how you do it with Windows:

Download the free Windows Media Encoder from Microsoft. The WMV profiles supplied with Liquid don't support progressive download.
Fuse your timeline to an AVI.
Start the Windows Media Encoder. Use the New Session wizard and choose Convert A File. Put in the filename and from the Distribution dialog choose Web Server (Progressive Download).
In the Encoding Options you pick the bitrate. Choose Full Screen Video. This uses the same size as the source. Select the appropriate bit rate (higher bit rates give better quality but increase the file size). If you don't want a full size NTSC or PAL frame you're better off resizing in Liquid to the proper size first rather than resizing in the WMV encoder.
Fill out the display properties (if you want), make sure the Begin Converting when I click Finish checkbox is checked and click on Finish.

This will create the progressive download .WMV file. But this alone will not progressively download if put on a web server. You need to also use an HTML file which embeds the player. Here's a short piece of HTML which will do the job:

<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title goes Here</title>
</head>
<body>
<OBJECT ID="MediaPlayer" WIDTH="320" HEIGHT="240" CLASSID="CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95" TYPE="application/x-oleobject">
<PARAM NAME="FileName" VALUE="http://someserver.com/myfile.wmv">
<PARAM NAME="autostart" VALUE="1">
<PARAM NAME="showcontrols" VALUE="1">
<EMBED TYPE="application/x-mplayer2"
SRC="http://someserver.com/myfile.wmv"
WIDTH="320"
HEIGHT="240"
AUTOSTART="1"
SHOWCONTROLS="1">
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>
</body>
</html>

Copy both files to your web server. Edit the HTML and change the size parameters to match the frame. Change the URLs to point to the .WMV file and the title as appropriate. Now when you reference the HTML file it will start the appropriate media player for your system, buffer the video, and begin playing while downloading.

Hope this helps.

Dave S.

Some Examples with various settings