Express Yourself

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. 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 well-documented, 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.

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 features 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 Frame to insert a keyframe at the marker position; then check Thumbnail to create a thumbnail to be used by the Silverlight player.

Markers can also trigger script commands for captions or external events, like opening your browser to a webpage, and they can work with SAMI and DVXP caption files. In Figure 9, you can see the captions I have triggered to appear with each scene in the video. That’s all for this tab; let’s move to Output.

The Output Tab
We’re almost done. There are three functions on the Output tab, and the first is relatively perfunctory: choosing a thumbnail type and size for your Marker thumbnails. I’ll let you make those choices yourself.

The second relates to Job Output, which involves multiple decisions, the first of which is choosing from among the 15 Output Templates Silverlight offers. You'll see that "None" is also a choice. If you don’t choose a template, the Expression Encoder produces only the WMV file. If you do choose a template, the encoder produces all files necessary to upload the "Silverlight Experience" to either a streaming server or regular web server for playback. Though I'm impressed by Microsoft Silverlight overall, I’ve got a couple of grumbles. First, you can’t preview your video in the selected template, which would have been nice.

Second, some templates don’t conform to the aspect ratio of your video, which means letterboxing, typically on the sides for 4:3 video, and top and bottom for 16:9. Since you can’t preview, you may not notice this until you actually upload the project to your web server, which is a pain. If you experiment with enough templates, you’ll find a template that doesn’t letterbox, but your choices will be much narrower.

Microsoft’s response is that this isn’t a problem; it’s an opportunity, since if you’re comfortable with scripting and working in a Flash-like environment, you can customize the interface in Blend 2. Fair enough, but the job isn’t trivial, since you have to manually customize each interface element to the new video resolution; it may be easier to simply start from scratch. Not to be obnoxious, but I played around with the multiple skins offered in Adobe Flash with both 16:9 and 4:3 source videos. Not only can you preview these at will, but they all conformed to the video file without letterboxing, though my tests weren’t exhaustive.

Again, most large producers will create their own Silverlight template, and this won’t be a problem for them. However, many smaller producers without programming resources will find the lack of preview and limited numbers of templates frustrating.

Publishing Your Silverlight Project
After rendering your project, Expression Encoder produces a number of files that you can simply upload to your web server to produce the Silverlight Experience. One of the files is an HTML file that will load and play the video in a separate window, or you can embed playback in another page.

Small producers should consider using Microsoft’s Silverlight Streaming Service, which is currently in Alpha testing and free, but it will become fee-based in the future. Microsoft provided an Expression Encoder plug-in that automatically uploaded my project to the service, which provides a page with all necessary HTML codes to link to and/or embed the video file into your own webpages.

Conclusion
Overall, despite some rough edges, I’m impressed with Expression Encoder 1.0 and Silverlight as a whole. Over my time with the product and technology, my view switched from "Why Silverlight?" to "Why not Silverlight?" at least as it relates to Windows Media producers. Again, I’m not taking on the deeper question of Flash versus Windows Media.

Rather, if you’re producing Windows Media Video files today, you should strongly consider Silverlight for future projects. True, there are a few notable limitations—lack of DRM and multicast among them—that disqualify the current version of Silverlight for some producers. On the other hand, if these or other technology issues don’t apply to you, you should strongly consider switching over to Silverlight.