Streaming Media - December 2007/January 2008 - (Page 71) the Video Profiles menu. It’s definitely a neat feature, and it provides a more advanced preview function than any other encoder I’ve seen. Other Settings Features Expression Encoder offers several other features in the Settings panel, including trimming, cropping, aspect ratio conversion, and the ability to insert a logo over the video (the last two of which are shown in Figure 8). Inserting an overlay is as simple as selecting the file, size, and opacity. Expression Encoder can even key out the background. Aspect ratio conversion from 16:9 to 4:3 is not welldocumented, and it took awhile to figure out. Here’s what worked for me: Choose a 4:3 output resolution in the Profile video category, then choose Profile in the Video Profile list box, which tells the Video Profile to use the video settings from the Profile for the output size (I told you it was confusing). Then, check the Crop checkbox and deselect Maintain Aspect Ratio since you’re converting from 16:9 to 4:3. The original value in the Width box will correspond to the source aspect ratio of 16:9, in this case 640 (since 640x360 is 16:9). Change this to the number that adjusts the aspect ratio to 4:3, in this case 480 (since 480x360 is 4:3). Then drag the Left setting to adjust the video framing. In Figure 8, this produced the faint video shown on both sides of the fully visible square. While the result was good, this conversion process is much easier in tools like Compressor or even the Adobe Media Encoder. Since this is a fairly common adjustment, it’s definitely an area that Microsoft can improve. Metadata Once you’ve finished in the Settings window, it’s time to click over to the Metadata window, which is shown in Figure 9. I’ve closed the metadata category for size considerations; this is pretty standard stuff, like Title, Author, Copyright, etc., with a drop-down window you can open to enter 34 more items, or to create your own. Markers are a bit more fun and interesting. As we’ll see in a moment, most Silverlight skins let you display marker thumbnails that work like DVD menus to provide direct access to various scenes in the video. I’m encoding my standard short test-video, which has five scenes, ranging in motion from talking head to high action, and it’s convenient to link directly to each scene. To accomplish this, I’ll insert markers at each scene change. The procedure is simple. Just navigate to the target location in the timeline (using the helpful arrow keys on your keyboard for precision), and click Add in the Markers panel. Then fill in the value and check Key WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.COM 71 http://www.streamingmediahosting.com http://www.streamingmediahosting.com http://WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.COM
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