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Multimedia Services

Multimedia Services


Editing your session configuration: Video

Resolution for Encoding | Resolution for Playback | Clipping Noise | Editing display and attributes | Changing Output Settings

Resolution for Encoding

When making screen capture movies, you may have to lower the resolution and color settings of your desktop. This change is sometimes necessary because movies with larger screen size may not fit 100% within the Windows Media Player and may show up poorly.

Recommended resolution for encoding Screen Capture movies is 640 by 480 and 256 colors. The instructions to lower the resolution are as follows:

  1. Right click on your desktop with the mouse and select Properties.

  2. Go to the Settings tab.

  3. Now, change the Colors to 256 colors and set the screen area to 640 by 480 pixels.

  4. Click OK.

  5. Click OK again to confirm the change to your desktop.

  6. And then click YES to keep the changes that you just made.

Now you are ready to encode Screen Capture movies.

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Resolution for Playback

When playing screen capture movies, you may have to increase the resolution and color settings of your desktop. This way you can playback Screen capture movies created in small screen area to fit in the large screen area of the Windows Media Player.

Recommended resolution for playback is 1024 by 768 and 16 bit colors. The instructions to increase the resolution and are as follows:

  1. Right click on your desktop with the mouse and select Properties.

  2. Go to the Settings tab.

  3. Now, change the Colors to 16 bit and set the screen area to 1024 by 768 pixels.

  4. Click OK.

  5. Click OK again to confirm the change to your desktop.

  6. And then click YES to keep the changes that you just made.

Now you are ready to playback the Screen Capture movie that you have just created.

Note: When you are done, please set the Colors back to 16 bit and screen area to 800 by 600 pixels.

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Clipping noise from video before encoding

When encoding audio and video, it is always advisable to start with the best possible source content. If your video includes wavy lines or other artifacts, you can use the Windows Media Encoder Video Clipping feature to trim noise from the edges of your video before you start to encode. You can also use Video Clipping to create a letterbox effect. This feature is only available in Session Properties.

To clip noise from your video

  1. On the Session menu, click Properties.

  2. Click the Video Size tab, and select a source group

  3. Enter the number of pixels to trim from the top, bottom, left, and right sides of the video. If you are clipping content that is also being de-interlaced, the top clipping value must be evenly divisible by 2.

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Editing display and attribute information

Both the display and attribute information are optional entries. Display information includes facts about your content such as the title, author, copyright, rating, and description. Users see this information in Windows Media Player when viewing your content.

Attributes contain information about the content that you want to include in the encoded stream such as the creation date, source file, editor’s name, and so on.

To edit display information

  1. On the Session menu, click Properties.

  2. Click the Attributes Information tab.

  3. In Title, Author, Copyright, Rating, and Description, type the appropriate information. These fields are optional.

  4. Click OK.

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Changing the Output Settings

The output of an encoding session is content that is either broadcast live or saved to a file. You specify the desired output when you configure the encoding session using the New Session Wizard. Once a session is configured, you can change the specified file, create an archive from a broadcast, and so on. The following list defines the types of changes you can make and when:

  • Before or after encoding, you can:

    • Change the output port for a live broadcast.

    • Select or cancel archiving to a file.

    • Change the name or location of the output file.

  • While encoding, you can:

    • Select or cancel archiving to a file.

    • Change the name of the archive file if you are not currently archiving.

  • While encoding, you cannot:

    • Change the port number.

    • Change from a broadcast session to an encode-to-file session.

To change the output settings

  1. On the Session menu, click Properties.

  2. Click the Output tab.

  3. Select the desired output. If you select Encode to file or Archive to file, type or browse for the output file name.

  4. Click OK.
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