So I’m kinda thinking, is there a point in continuing? Maybe this is already a very saturated area, and people are quite happy with what they have…

So consider this a ground-up rewrite of Encode360 with some advantages, and some disadvantages. I’ll go through them quickly so you can either gain or lose interest in the project from the outset. Okay, so…

• The initial aim is to output video for X360, Zune, PS3, AppleTV, iPhone and iPod - at a variety of quality levels (time vs speed)
• It’s bloody fast. As much as FFmpeg scares me, I just watched it re-encode a 30 minute MKV to H.264 MPEG4 in less than 6 minutes… On a ThinkPad T61 laptop.
• More input formats and active development of the core engine. Again, FFmpeg scares me, but you have to love open-source developers.
• Video stitching. It’s possible. I haven’t yet figured out all the logistics, but I think it’s important to be able to string a bunch of files together into one video.
• I’ve learned from all my previous mistakes with Enc360. I’m bound to make new ones, but by starting from the ground up, I’ve already tackled some of the big issues.
• I’ve implemented a proper bug-tracking system, and, the ability to automatically submit bug-reports with all the details I need included. Posting massive logs in the forums just didn’t make any sense, and I kept losing track of everything.
• EncodeHD will still be donationware. If it works for you, feel free to contribute.

Now. Bad news time…

• FFmpeg doesn’t support WMA Pro. Some people counted on Encode360’s ability to create 1080p WMV video with 5.1 audio with WMA Pro, which was a HD format for the X360. This isn’t going to be possible right now (maybe eventually). It’s still possible to achieve 5.1 audio, but only at 720p (as far as I can see). Maybe the next X360 update will support 5.1 AAC?
• FFmpeg won’t hardcode subtitles into a video file. This would have to be done prior to encoding. An alternative would be to have an intermediate stage where the subs are hardcoded. I’m not going to look into that just yet though.
• I’m initially going to keep some of the more advanced functionality that was in Enc360 out of it. The idea is to keep it simple - just drag and drop your files and start. We’ll come to the more advanced stuff later.

So to give an idea of where I’m at with it right now, here’s the obligatory screenshot:

Right now, I could really do with some help in beating this thing to death. Any volunteers?

Encode360 was somewhat based around VisualHub’s simplicity, but used an entirely different backend - Windows Media Encoder - which was itself riddled with problems and depreciated, so there was never any chance of bugfixes or feature additions from Microsoft. VisualHub on the other hand, used ffmpeg, which is VERY actively developed, self-contained (no need for external codecs), and multi-core enabled.

The only issue with ffmpeg is that it can’t output high-quality WMVs using WMA Pro audio (so essentially no 5.1 with VC1). ffmpeg does however, use x264, which can produce MPEG4 H.264 video. Now, the really nice thing here is that H.264 is supported on virtually every media device at the moment: Apple TV, iPhone, iPod, PS3, X360 and Zune. It’s a helluvah lot more space-saving than WMV8/9, and with AAC audio, can be 5.1 too. Granted encoding H.264 is slow, ffmpeg IS multi-core and will still encode a video faster than Encode360 at VC1 using the same bit-rates.

So I’ve starting throwing something together. It’s very very much in it’s infancy, has an extremely minimal UI and should be thought of as completely separate to Encode360. But is it of interest? Comments please…

For some reason, the MKV subtitle extraction components don’t get properly installed when upgrading from a previous version of Encode360. I have no idea why, and I’ve spent two days trying to figure out why. If it’s a fresh install, all is well, but if you are upgrading, I recommend you subsequently go to Add / Remove Programs, click on Encode360 and then run a Repair. Otherwise you’re going to get errors with MKV files. An uninstall of the old version may throw up errors around Windows Media Encoder so this is the best way to go about it.

So, the main changes here are:

• CHANGE: K-Lite install options changed to work with AVC/AAC formats without the need for CoreAVC. This should resolve a number of encoding problems
• NEW: When /AUTO is specified, the application will automatically exit on successful completion (returns errorcode 0)
• CHANGE: Updated MediaInfo to v0.7.7.6
• CHANGE: Some minor tweaks to hopefully fix up some form-related bugs
• FIX: Install / Uninstall mechanism now works as expected
• FIX: MSI tended to not actually upgrade the files, just the Windows Installer version details

And here’s the download

Cheers, Dan

Okay but seriously, if you try remove via Add / Remove Programs, you may encounter a problem where it’ll tell you that ehmm, Windows Media Encoder is not installed and therefore the ‘install’ cannot continue, thus making the app kinda difficult to remove. Well, not all that difficult, you just need to know what you’re doing.

The simplest way to remove is to re-download the installation, to somewhere like C:\Temp, and do the following:

• Click Start > Run
• Type: MSIExec /X C:\Temp\Encode360Installer.MSI /QB!

This will automatically remove the application, bypassing the WME check.

Alternatively, you could wait until I get Enc360 2.03 out (hopefully by Friday) which will upgrade and fix this problem (along with a number of other issues related to codecs, and other stuff).

Sorry about that kids… Totally my fault

Changelog:

• CHANGE: Everything has been changed to being x86 only. It’s not possible for Enc360 to work with WME9 x64, so the app is now forced to x86 mode on XP / Vista x64. This prevents against a lot of problems people have when trying to get Enc360 working on x64 platforms.
• CHANGE: Rework of how MKV subtitles are detected and extracted to be more robust
• CHANGE: Lots of fixes and updates to the installer
• CHANGE: Updated MKVToolNix to 2.3.0
• CHANGE: Updated K-Lite Codec Pack to 4.1.7
• CHANGE: Updated MediaInfo to 7.7.5.1

Download here

• NEW: Added Target OS Option under Advanced Settings
• NEW: Added MigrationExclusionsOlderThanDays option to config. This is ignored if set to 0 (default), but will exclude all accounts not logged in within the specified period, ie. 90 days. This uses USMT’s /UEL: parameter
• CHANGE: If MaxMigrationSize is set to 0, there is no limit to the migration size
• FIX: Under certain conditions, progress monitoring would continue even when the migration was finished or cancelled

Download from here

So I’m planning to do a strip-down and rebuild on something a bit more basic, probably continuing to use Justin Tadlock’s brilliant Options theme as a base but with less of my own customisations and less graphics.

Additionally, I was thinking of switching to bbPress for the forums so the whole site is a bit more integrated, and trimming them down a bit to essentially be FAQs and Support info.

I’ve already set up a new bug tracking system for Enc360 and WMA and am currently doing some testing with this. Bug Reports in future will go to specific email addresses and allows me to track problems better than I currently am (and by that I mean, pretty much not tracking at all!).

Any thoughts on all this?

Incidentally, full and proper x64 support for Enc360 is top of my list. I get a lot of mails about this so please bear with me while I try to get everything sorted out here first.

Cheers

WMA 1.01 (Build 63):

• FIX: Pre / Post Migration scripts did not run during Restore

Download from here