Encode360

Encode360 is an application which will convert virtually any video format to high quality WMV’s which can be played by the X-Box 360, the Microsoft Zune device, or anything else that likes WMV format!

It has some great features including:

  • Uses Windows Media Encoder as a base, so it’ll create 100% Microsoft compliant WMV’s
  • Automatic re-scaling of video sizes to match your TV resolution or Zune screen. This prevents nasty stretching and artifacts
  • Encode as WMV8, WMV9 or ultra high quality WVC1
  • Encode with CBR (1 or 2 pass), Quality based VBR, Peak based VBR or Bitrate based VBR
  • Predefined bitrate options to best match your output device and network connection
  • Postview, so you can quickly see the quality of your encode, or if subtitles are being encoded correctly
  • And lots more that I forget right now!!!

Download

This application requires the .NET Framework 2.0 to be installed. You also need to have Windows Media Player 11 installed, and Windows Media Encoder 9 (x86) installed. Vista / Windows 7 users will also require this patch for Windows Media Encoder, otherwise, Encode360 will crash! Very big caveat! Please note that this patch needs to be run as an Administrator to install correctly!


Note: Encode360 has been discontinued. I’m afraid it’s impossible to continue development and support, since Microsoft is no longer developing Windows Media Encoder. If Encode360 doesn’t work for you, maybe try EncodeHD instead!


Latest Release: 2.03 (11th August 2008) – Download


Source Code: 2.03 (11th August 2008) – Download

Frequently Asked Questions
I have Windows Media Encoder installed on Vista / XP x64, but Encode360 won’t install and says WME isn’t installed, help!

Encode360 requires Windows Media Encoder x86 (32-bit) as opposed to the x64 version. This is because the x64 version doesn’t contain the same automation components as the x86 version. Don’t worry, encoding speeds on the x86 version are better than x64 – so you aren’t losing out

I keep getting codec errors when trying to encode files!

Encode360 works in conjunction with Windows Media Encoder through DirectShow filters (codecs) – hence the need to install the K-Lite Codec Pack. However, Windows Media Encoder doesn’t always place nice with these codecs. Unfortunately, if WME can’t encode the file, then either can Encode360 :(

2-pass encoding seems to be buggy! It keeps stopping before finishing encoding! Arghh!!

Yeah, sorry about that. That’d be Windows Media Encoder again, and unfortunately I can’t fix this :(

Change Log
2.03 (10th October 2008)
  • 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
2.02 (12th Sept 2008)
  • 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
2.0 Final (6th June 2008)
  • CHANGE: Updated K-Lite Codec Pack to 3.9.5
  • CHANGE: Updated MediaInfo to 0.7.7.1
  • CHANGE: Updated compiler options to hopefully fix some unmanaged COM problems
  • CHANGE: Updated MKVToolNix utilities to v2.2.0
2.0 RC2 (3rd December 2007)
  • NEW: Command-line option /Auto <file1> <file2> etc. for automatic encoding
  • NEW: Updated with support Vista Controls (Class Library from http://www.codeproject.com/vista/VistaControls.asp by Pedro M. C. Cardoso)
  • CHANGE: Upgraded to VS2008 Project
  • CHANGE: App Manifest for UAC (will hopefully prevent against regkey write failures because of running under standard user mode that was mucking up some filter settings, such as 5.1 audio through AC3Filter and subtitles under ffdshow)
  • CHANGE: Updated MediaInfo to 0.7.5.5
  • CHANGE: Updated K-Lite to 3.5.7
2.01 RC1 (13th August 2007)
  • NEW: Multi-core Support
  • NEW: Preferred Language. Sets the default language for both subtitle AND audio tracks (for container formats using Haali such as MKV/OGM)
  • NEW: Well, sortof. OGM Subtitles Extractor rewritten and now bundled as part of installer
  • NEW: Support for ASS Subtitles through ffdshow (experimental)
  • CHANGE: If FFDShow isn’t found, clicking Cancel no longer exits the app
  • CHANGE: Updated K-Lite Full Codec Pack to 3.3.0
  • CHANGE: Updated MediaInfo.DLL to 7.5.1.0
  • FIX: x64 Support (Thanks to balog and shlicky for assistance and fixes)
  • FIX: Encoder wasn’t cleaning up after itself, leading to memory leaks and dozens of systray icons
  • FIX: FFDshow subtitles weren’t being enabled if ticked in Advanced Settings
  • FIX: If ‘Output To’ was a saved preference, you’d be prompted for a path every time Enc360 started, even though the path was saved too
  • FIX: MKV PreProcessing Scriptlet would incorrectly parse certain subtitle streams and create a new folder instead of the actual subtitle file
  • FIX: Installer would continue if Windows Media Encoder wasn’t found
  • FIX: Minor bugfixes
2.0 beta 6 (13th July 2007)
  • NEW: FLV & WMV Support
  • NEW: Ability to Drag/Drop re-order of items in the encoding list.
    NEW: “Enable / Disable Subtitles through FFDshow” to Advanced Settings
    NEW: “Preferred Subtitles Language” Option to Advanced Settings. This is so that PreProcessing Scripts (such as the updated one for MKV files) can extract and use them
  • NEW: ETA on Encoding Completion (Requested by damski)
  • NEW: Shutdown PC when finished (Requested by Hitcher)
  • CHANGE: Massive internal re-write. I had been putting this off for a while, but eventually I had to do it. I’ve compartmentalized all of the Encoder code into a separate class and re-written huge segments. This has eliminated a HUGE amount of the codebase, and made it a lot more flexible.
  • CHANGE: Disabled .NET x86 directive. This means x64 isn’t currently supported, until someone gets around to re-compiling specifically for 64-bit. Schlicky will hopefully do this over the next few days
  • CHANGE: Huge overhaul to the Aspect Ratio handling code. Now works with Non-Square Pixel videos (Thanks to Zen)
  • CHANGE: Seriously cleaned up Debug Information
  • CHANGE: Rewrite to the PreProcessing Script code. New MKV PPS Scriptlet linked below. Extract to the Encode360 folder (will create a subfolder called MKV\)
  • CHANGE: Logging now includes less useless details, and more important details
  • CHANGE: Debug Info is no longer a Top-Most Window
  • CHANGE: An error is no longer displayed if no subtitles were found in an MKV
  • CHANGE: Updated MediaInfo to 0.7.5.0 (LOTS of media-detection bugs fixed)
  • FIX: Framerate “Double” error could occur if not using English as your Locale Settings (thanks to Zen)
  • FIX: Certain audio streams returned an invalid sampling rate which caused Encode360 to bomb out
  • FIX: If Autoscale was not enabled and was a saved setting, the Output Resolution was always 0×0 unless you ticked and unticked Autoscale
  • FIX: Non-Square Pixels were always detected, even when the source video wasn’t
  • FIX: Invalid duration times in a number of container formats, ie, MKV, OGM (which led to a host of other problems)
  • FIX: Force 2 Channel Audio Downmix setting now saved
  • FIX: Force Quality Based Audio Encoding setting now saved
  • FIX: Better Exception handling when running PreProcessing Scripts
  • FIX: Ratio division bug
  • FIX: If autoscale was disabled, Height / Width values were inverted resulting in a bad encode
2.0 beta 5 (26th December 2006)
  • NEW: Automatic correction for Non-Square-Pixel videos. This should resolve most Aspect Ratio issues
  • NEW: OGM File Support (Except for subtitles, although someone could probably build an PPS like the MKV one?)
  • NEW: Added DVR-MS as a filetype (may or may not work. I can’t find a codec that works with this)
  • NEW: Ability to set additional settings through Encode360.Exe.XML
    • Video Buffer Size (Bitrate Modes Only – Default 3000)
    • Video Buffer Max (Peak Bitrate Mode Only – Default 5000)
    • Video Image Sharpness (Quality Based VBR Mode Only – Default 100)
    • Video Keyframe Distance (Default 2000)
  • NEW: Can move processed files to the Recycle Bin by specifying “RECYCLE BIN” as the move path
  • NEW: PostProcessing Scriptlets
  • NEW: If a PreProcessing Scriptlet exists, the filetype it’s for gets added to the supported format list
  • CHANGE: No more FFMPEG! Now uses MediaInfo 0.7.4.3 Libraries
    • This has a lot of knock-on effects and is likely to have fixed a lot of reported bugs, but maybe caused new ones
  • CHANGE: Fail-over to No Progress if MediaInfo can’t determine the source duration
  • CHANGE: Selecting Output to Zune or Zune Bitrate now auto enables 2 channel downmix as well as setting all other Zune defaults
  • CHANGE: Numerous failsafes implemented to prevent encodes from failing
  • CHANGE: Expanded out the abilities of PreProcessing Scriptlets
  • CHANGE: If using the MKV Subtitle PPS
  • FIX: Arithmetic error in timerPercentComplete_Tick would occur if WME couldn’t determine the source duration
  • FIX: Default settings for 802.11b in an unconfigured environment were too high
  • FIX: Numerous cosmetic and logging bugs