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Encode360 2.0 b2 is now available

Dan has just released beta 2 of his very good application encode360.

Dan fixed as many of the reported bugs as possible. This release has highly detailed debugging information in case of a problem or bug. If you encounter something, be sure to copy the debug log into the post so I have something to work with.

Dan also invested a huge amount of time into this application already, and hope to continue improving and refining it to be the easiest way to encode high-quality WMV for your X360. For this reason this application is now DonationWare. If you feel it’s worth a few euros / dollars / , then please feel free to donate whatever you feel like.

"
Encode360 is an application designed to take your DivX/XVID etc video files and convert them to high quality WMV’s which can be played by the X-Box 360

Please note that this is a beta release, and although it’s gone through extensive testing, there’s bound to be a number of bugs, so only use this if you’re happy to be part of our guinea-pig group. If you encounter problems, please post in the forums so that we can verify and hopefully fix for the next release.
"

Encode360 2.0 b2 Changelog:

Added:

• x64 Support (untested, i don’t have x64 )
• Microsoft Zune screen resolution support (untested, i don’t have a Zune )
• Support for encoding VOB files (very very experimental!)
• Enable / Disable Explorer Context Menu "Process with Encode360" (experimental)
• Default Settings can now be saved
• Debugging Information Window (With oooodles of debugging information)
• Minimize to System Tray
• Added PayPal link to the About Box. Please make a donation if you feel like it!

Changed:

• Major internal code restructuring and refactoring. Let’s hope I fixed more than I broke eh?
• Dramatically improved encoding times
• Reduction in CPU overhead (more responsive system)
• Title no longer contains path where the file was originally encoded

Fixed:

• MKV file format wasn’t recognised
• Changing the Audio / Video Bitrate quality did nothing. Was always 98%. Doh
• Not using auto-scale caused encoded videos to resize anyway, and badly
• Move processed files option failed
• Sometimes, clicking Stop on a batch encode wouldn’t work
• Numerous other minor bugfixes

To install / upgrade:

• Make sure you have installed Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9
• Make sure you have installed .Net 2.0
• Download the beta from here and unzip somewhere on your hard drive: http://stalltheball.com/360/Encode360_2.0b2.Zip
• You’ll also need a copy of FFMpeg and extract FFMpeg.Exe to the same folder as Encode360. You can get FFMpeg here: http://esby.free.fr/CelticDruid/mirror/ffmpeg
• You’ll need FFDShow installed, get it from here: http://www.codecs.com/FFDShow_download.htm
• You’ll need AC3Filter installed, get it from here: http://ac3filter.net
• And most importantly, you need Windows Media Encoder 9, from here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

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or

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TVersity Media Server 0.9.9.1 now with WMV streaming

Version 0.9.9.1 (November 26, 2006)

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Encode360 v2.0 beta 1 now available

Encode 360 2.0 beta 1 has been released!

Please note that this is a beta release, and although it’s gone through extensive testing, there’s bound to be a number of bugs, so only use this if you’re happy to be part of our guinea-pig group. If you encounter problems, please post in the forums so that we can verify and hopefully fix for the next release.

Encode360 is an application designed to take your DivX/XVID etc video files and convert them to high quality WMV’s which can be played by the X-Box 360. Some of the new features in this release over the previous Encode360:

• GUI! (duh…)
• Uses WME COM for the encoding, which gives us full control of the encoding process, rather than relying on other scripts to do it (such as WMCMD.VBS). It also means full encoding progress in the application
• Automatic scaling to your TV resolution (with the ability to restrict the output size, so you can essentially half the resolution, save diskspace and encoding time, but still maintain the correct output resolution for your TV)
• Subtitle support (just name the .SRT file the same as your AVI and it’ll do it automatically)
• Automatic FFDShow and AC3Filter configuration
• Improved multichannel support
• Improved video attribute detection
• Experimental AVISynth support (should only be tried if your having problems)

To install:

• Download the beta from here and unzip somewhere on your hard drive: http://happybeggar.com/Encode360_2.0b1.Zip
• You’ll also need a copy of FFMpeg and extract FFMpeg.Exe to the same folder as Encode360. You can get FFMpeg here: http://esby.free.fr/CelticDruid/mirror/ffmpeg
• You’ll need FFDShow installed, get it from here: http://www.codecs.com/FFDShow_download.htm
• You’ll need AC3Filter installed, get it from here: http://ac3filter.net
• And most importantly, you need Windows Media Encoder 9, from here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

I’ll build a proper installer for later releases.

Some things still to do:

• Saving of default options
• Logging (this is a priority!)
• Folder monitoring and automatic processing
• Allow overriding of Aspect Ratio
• Probably a lot of bugfixes

Thanks to Eric Birnie and Jeff Housman for all the testing.

Extra special thanks to Bernard Maltais, our good webmaster, for all the help. Without him, this app wouldn’t be nearly as good as it is.

Digg this

Cheers! Dan

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Canadians don’t get content on XBOX 360 Video Marketplace

Thanks to distribution deals with content producers, Canadians will not get access to all those Video on Demand and HD Movie download now offered in the U.S.A. on XBOX 360 Video Marketplace.

The problem is not technical but business. Canadian distributors essentially by exclusive distribution rights to content produced in the U.S.A. (like CSI, Lost, Heros, etc, etc) and as such are guaranteed that no one else, not even Microsoft, will be allowed to distribute it in Canada!

Thank you very much! I mean, this suck! And there is not much that can be done about it. Hopefully future distribution contracts will allow for such content to be distributed somehow with maybe a money kickback to the Canadian distributor on a per download basis? That would be better that loosing 100% to a bit torrent download of the same thing.

This solution is a starting point is moving in the right direction for digital video distribution… let hope it can be fixed quickly… not ;-(
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TVersity now support realtime transcoding to XBOX 360

There is now a patch for the current TVersity UPNP media server that will allow you to transcode xvid (and others) files to WMV on the fly for instantaneous playback on the XBOX 360.

No need to pre-transcode files before playing them.  Simply add the folder containing the video files to TVersity and all video files within it will appear on the XBOX 360 as WMV files.

For most video files playback will start within a few seconds after hitting play on the 360 given a decent PC (like a 3ghz HT P4).

The patch is like a Beta and is not perfect yet.  Some issues remains with non square pixel content… but I can take this any time over no video at all

So the cat is now out of the bag.  Install the patch and have fun!

By the way, the default TVersity install make use of internet based video stream.  Once you apply the patch all those video stream will be listed on you 360… on mine this was giving me a total of 1413 files… a bit long for a list.  To cur down on the number of files simply delete the "Tversity Video Feed" from the "Video Feed" section.

Cheers!
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Free copy of Vista Business or Ultimate

I was very pleased to find the email below in my inbox tonight. Microsoft have given a copy of Vista Business or Ultimate to qualifying Beta Testers. The ticket to the free copy was to have submitted a bug report during the Beta Test period. This is really nice. Thank you Microsoft!

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Dear Poorman,

We would like to take a moment to thank you for your contribution to Microsoft Windows Vista. Quite simply, it would not be the product it is today without your time, dedication and thoughtful feedback. You should be proud to have helped us develop the highest quality, most secure and most reliable Windows to date. To say "thank you" we would like to provide you with a complimentary copy of Windows Vista for your use.

Please visit to accept your copy.

If for some reason you are unable to accept this gift you may decline by clicking "Decline Invitation" on the "My Participation" page on Connect.

Details:

We would like to offer you a copy of the software and a product key for Windows Vista Business Edition or, if you are eligible Ultimate Edition. You are eligible to choose Ultimate Edition if the machine on which you intend to install Windows Vista already has a DVD drive and is currently licensed for DVD playback, i.e., you have already licensed one or more pieces of software for playing back DVDs

· This is a full retail copy intended for your personal use and not for resale.

· It is being offered as a download only. No media will be mailed.

· Only currently active, invited members of the Windows Vista technical beta program who filed at least one bug are receiving this offer.

· Please visit to accept this offer and indicate your preference for Business or Ultimate editions.

· After accepting the offer terms you will be immediately be given access to download the software.

· You may install and use the edition you chose for 30 days without a product key. Simply click ‘next’ at the product key prompt during setup, continue on and choose the appropriate edition from the list. You will be able to enter your product key at the activation prompt at a later time.

· We will email you when your product key is available for retrieval on Connect. In general this should happen within one week of your acceptance of the terms.

Again, we thank you for all your contributions during the beta!!

Thank you,
The Windows Beta Team

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Encode360, the next step in video transcoding

Encode360 is a slightly more automated method to re-encoding media to WMV compatible with the Xbox 360 than the previous wme360 batch file.

Some features:

• Automatically checks for necessary components (FFMpeg, FFDShow, WMCMD)
• Automatically determines the correct FPS to use when encoding
• Point the script at a folder and it’ll encode all valid video file formats (Tested against Xvid and Divx. Others might have problems, but we can look into these as they happen)
• Drop a file onto it, and it’ll encode just that file
• Select multiple files and drag/drop - it’ll process them sequentially
• Ability to move encoded files to a separate folder
• Ability to move processed files to a separate folder

To set this up, you’ll need FFDShow. During the install, you should select to "Reset FFDShow settings", and untick MP3 from the Audio Decoding options. Otherwise, you will get CScript application crashes. Don’t ask us why.

You’ll also need FFMpeg. Download and decompress with 7Zip or WinRAR. Install to the default folder (C:\Program FIles\ffmpeg) - otherwise you’ll have to modify the VBS to point to the new location.

And lastly you need Windows Media Encoder 9.

Download encode360 from here and modify the first few items as you see fit. The only ones you probably need to worry about are:

• Codec for video encoding: Const sWMEOption_VCodec = "WMV9" (change to WMV8 if you prefer a faster transcode with less video quality)
• Folder to process when script is run without any parameters Const sProcessFolder = "C:\Downloads"
• Folder to move re-encoded files (Set to "" for none)Const sEncodedFolder = "C:\Downloads\Encoded"
• Folder to move processed files (Set to "" for none) Const sProcessedFolder = ""

If you’ve followed the rest of the instructions correctly, everything should now work.

Either doudle click on the script to process the content of the desired folder or drag one (or many) files onto the script to only process those.

It might be possible to include the ability to monitor a particular folder for new files coming in (ie, a completed torrent folder), and automatically process them (encode, and move to a "processed" folder).

If anyone is interested in this sort of functionality, let us know.

Dan

Update:

Progress has already been made with the script. If you are interested in trying the new beta simply download it here: encode360v0.9b1.zip

Summary of the new features:

• Better handling of missing components
• Encode360 will now resize to an XBOX 360 friendly resolution to prevent ugly looking lines on the screen.
• Resolution will be adjusted based on 4:3 or 16:9 content automagically (may not work ;-))

Update 2:

More Progress has been made! Guess what, the latest beta of encode360v0.9b2.zip will now automatically transcode AC3 5.1 to WMA PRO 5.1!

You will need to install AC3filter 1.11 and make sure you configure the filter Main Output to "3/2+SW 5.1 channels" with 16bit PCM like this:

Update 3:

Yet another beta is available. This one fixes some issue with the transcoding of MPEG2 source and with some audio parameters: encode360v0.9b3.zip

Update 4:

encode360v0.9b4.zip is now available. Some minor adjustments and text string fixes.

Update 5:

Thanks to Rob Cannon encode360v0.9b5.zip is now available. Fixes in this release are:

• Issues with Encode360 when launched from a directory with spaces in it (like My Documents) have been fixed.
• Fixed an issue with MPEG1 file processing

Update 6:

A new release is available: encode360v9b6.1 Fixes in this release:

• Ability to enable resizing of video to xbox 360 friendly resolution
• Support of more video format
• More debug information
• Support for avisynth source

Note that there is a known issue with PC language settings and encode360. For now you have to make sure you use English(USA) language. If you use something else it is likely that encode360 will crash for no good reason.

Also make sure to look at the forum to get more help and information.
Discuss encode360 in the forum

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New method of transcoding based on Windows Media Encoder 9

OK, I am a bit frustrated with the inconsistancy observed with the VLC method. I really like VLC and it’s speed but sometimes it will produce a bad encode.

So for those files I have come up with a new batch file method revolving around Microsoft Windows Media Encoder software.

For those interested it piloting it and providing feedback here is what I recommend you do:

1. Get ffdshow (http://www.codecs.com/FFDShow_download.htm) and install it on your system. This is not required but will help in decoding those troublesome files ;-).
2. Install Windows Media Player 11 (this will give you the latest MS codec)
3. Install a copy of Windows Media Encoder 9
   
4. Download a copy of ffmpeg for windows and uncompress it somewhere on your system (I strongly recommend "c:\program Files\ffmpeg"). If you don’t put it there you will have to edit the batch file to point to the ffmpeg location.
5. Grab a copy of wme360.vbs and put it in the folder where you have your video that need to be converted
   
6. Drag a video file on the wmv360.bat file and pick the best encoding option for the frame rate of your video (look at the fps info presented by ffmpeg when you dragged the video)

Update: Nov 11 2006

Thank’s to a forum member I have updated the WME batch file to a Visual Basic Script that will be able to automatically set the right frames per second to be encoded. Thank you Dan Cunningham!

Update: Nov 12 2006

For a more complete solution please head this way to Encode360.

Let me know what you think in the forum

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Joystiq.com Tutorial on video conversion to WMV

The guys at joystiq.com have posted a nice tutorial that will complement the method described on this site very well. Have a look if you have problems getting VLC transcoding to work.

http://www.joystiq.com
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New optimized batch file for 360 transcoding

OK, it has been two days and much progress has been made. Specifically on the video quality front. It appears as if the 360 video scaler is not the best with video resolution that at are not the result of a round division of 720p or 1080p resolution.

For example: an xvid video of 624×352 is 2.05×2.045 times smaller than 1280×720 (720p). The 360 will have to scale this video to 480i/p, 720p or 1080i/p resolution. The 360 upscalling tend to produce a bad looking set of "lines" on the display.

If you resize the video to 640×360 (2×2 time smaller than 720p) during the transcoding process you will obtain a much nicer overall picture.

VLC also tend to produce a cleaner encode when resizing to a more standard resolution. It will not show the typical "tearing" and "pixelation" present in non standard xvid resolution. My guess is that the VLC WMV2 codec does not deal properly with those resolutions as well.

So keeping things at 640×360 (or 640×480 for 4:3 content) will look much much better overall.

Due to another issue I ran into I have to post two batch file. One for 4:3 content and one for 16:9. Use the one you need based on the content you need to transcode.

For 4:3 content download the batch file here!

For 16:9 content download the batch file here!

I wish I could whip a better solution using some logic to pick the best "options" based on the source file. Maybe later on… unless one of you guys want to provide a helping hand

Enjoy!

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