Auri's Space

To all my Windows Phone Developer Friends -

There's a lot of speculation, spin in the press, and [deserved] poor sentiment towards Microsoft and the handling of Windows Mobile development going forward.

That being said, we haven't seen anything yet, and we won't until MIX!

Let's stay cool until we get the tools, and hear how things will play out. Then we can have informed opinions.

Remember, Microsoft is an 800 pound gorilla. They can build and shatter markets - not like they used to, but they can still do it.

And I think they can with mobile.

Windows Phone 7 Series - we all know this - is a necessary "reset" as they are calling it.

Writing apps has been easy, but our apps have required a lot of extra work to build great UIs. The OS has had more leaks than Swiss cheese.

I think Microsoft did the right thing. For those of us who have been writing apps using .NET for years, we continue to leverage that knowledge, and the ease of use of building apps. Have you tried writing an app in Objective C? How about trying to call a Web service in Android?

I feel we're going to get good news out of MIX. The rest of the development platform at Microsoft (mobile) is hopefully finally catching up. Oh, and they're opening up an opportunity (it seems) for single development multiple platform - write an app using XNA / Silverlight / WhateverisannouncedatMIX and you can sell it on Windows Phone, Zune and XBox 360. You should also be able to port your desktop apps, and tie them together with other Microsoft (and other) platforms more easily.

Of course, I don't want to start on the speculation route.

So, that's my $1.05 for the day. Enjoy :)

Best,

-Auri

Should be a good day and place for it…

WHAT: Windows Phone Development Cocktails & Conversation
WHEN: 8PM to whenever
WHERE: MIX Lounge, which is located in THEhotel, part of Mandalay Bay.

Please follow @AuriGroup on Twitter for more details.

Could you spread the word, please? Please retweet! :)

Wouldn’t it be great to have a Windows Phone Developer Party at MIX? Not “official” by any means, but just a way for us developers to get together, go over what we have learned, what we want, and maybe even give a lot of feedback to Microsoft? Heck, if we’re paying $1200 (or more) to go to a developer conference, why shouldn’t all these great minds (ahem) get together?

Let me know… Ping me on Twitter at @AuriGroup or @Auri or send me an email at http://aurigroup.com.

Windows Live Movie Maker (WLMM) is a great product. But with the latest version, Microsoft removed many profiles that were included with the “old” Windows Movie Maker product. In this article I will show you how to modify the existing output “profiles,” turning WLMM into an even more flexible and powerful video production tool. Using this knowledge, you will be able to create your own profiles for uses not included in the core WLMM product.

TIP: If you would like to use a CableCard with Windows Media Center, you either need Windows 7 or a special version of Windows Vista. You will also need a CableCard tuner, such as the ATI Digital Wonder CableCard tuner.

Getting Started

Before you begin, there are some requirements:

• Windows Vista, Windows 7, or higher (future-proofing this blog post, I hope)
• Windows Live Movie Maker – why would you be doing this if you didn’t have it, anyway? <grin>
• Patience - to test your profiles

A Bit of Background

My search for how to do this started after I had encoded my Superbowl DVD and BluRay videos from my CableCard capture in Windows Media Center. While the trimmed video looked pretty good, I wanted a higher bitrate for higher video quality, and wanted to keep the 5.1 surround sound Media Center records, instead of the 2-channel stereo WLMM uses. Since I was creating a BluRay version of my Superbowl disc this year, I couldn’t live without the surround sound and highest bitrate available on BluRay, now could I! :)

Unfortunately, WLMM doesn’t have a built-in function to let users tune its built-in profiles. Thankfully, Microsoft’s WLMM team chose to use the same profile format as other applications that use Windows Media Encoding, and the idea for this article was born.

Step 1: Download Necessary Software

In order to create your profiles, you will need the Profile Editor, available in the free Windows Media Encoder utility. You can download the installers by following the appropriate link below:

 Windows Media Encoder or
 Windows Media Encoder x64 Edition – Get the x64 version if you are running a 64-bit version of Windows.

Step 2: Install Windows Media Encoder 9

After you have downloaded the appropriate installer, simply double-click it and follow the instructions to install. It shouldn’t take very long.

Figure: The Windows Media Encoder 9 setup wizard. Yours may look slightly different if you downloaded the 32-bit version.

Figure: After a few minutes, the software should be successfully installed.

Figure: FYI, you can find the Windows Media Encoder tools under Windows Media in the Start menu.

 CAUTION: According to Microsoft, you should not install both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the tools on the same machine.

Step 3: Back Up the Existing 1080p Profile

In this example, we will make a backup of the built-in 1080p output profile, and then modify its video quality setting to 100% instead of 95%.

1. Navigate to the WLMM video profiles folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Photo Gallery\Video Profiles

NOTE: Your drive letter may be different.

2. Make a copy of the PublishToFile1080p file by selecting the file, then pressing Control-C, and then Control-V.

Figure: The copied file.

3. Rename the copy from PublishToFile1080p – Copy to PublishToFile1080p – Backup. If you are showing file extensions, do not remove the .prx file extension!

 CAUTION: Always back up the profiles you are modifying!

Figure: The renamed file.

Step 4: Modify the New Profile

Double-click the original PublishToFile1080p file and the Windows Media Encoder Profile Editor will load, as shown in the figure below:

There are a lot of settings here, and I will leave it up to you to experiment and learn more.

TIP: The Windows Media Encoder Profile Editor comes with a help system so you can learn more about how it works.

Now, we want to change the audio and video quality. Next to Audio, change the Audio Mode dropdown to Quality VBR and the Codec to Windows Media Audio 10 Professional. Then, next to Video, change the Video Mode dropdown to Quality VBR. This video setting automatically determines the best bit rate to use based on a percentage scale.

Figure: Changing the Audio and Video modes.

Now, change to the Quality-based tab on the top and change the video quality from 95 to 100% and the audio format to VBR Quality, 98, 96 KHz, 5.1 channel 24bit VBR, as shown below.

Figure: Changing the quality settings.

Save and close the profile by typing clicking Save and Close.

Step 5: Test

Launch WLMM and you should not receive any errors. Find a video to encode, and save it using the High Definition 1080p profile.

Figure: Encoding the video. Note that this may take a while, since encoding video takes a long time anyway, and you just increased the quality settings!

TIP: You can also use Windows Media Encoder to test your profiles before you use them in WLMM, although this someone defeats the point.

TIP: Remember the rule of Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO). If your source media is low quality, a higher quality encode of a low quality source will likely not yield better results. In fact, it’ll probably make it worse.

That’s it! You’ve successfully modified your WLMM output profile settings!

Moving On

It would be nice if we could create our own profiles and have them be included. I haven’t tinkered with this yet, but I plan on playing around with accomplishing such a feat.

I encourage you to experiment – just make a backup before you do. Please post your results in Comments.

‘Til next time, enjoy!

Best,

-Auri

Every year, I record the Superbowl and create a DVD with just the game with no commercials, and the a separate disc with just the commercials and the entertainment (halftime concert and so forth). This year I bought an ATI Digital Wonder CableCard tuner and recorded the CBS high definition cable feed and it came out beautiful.

This year I decided to use Microsoft’s free Windows Live Movie Maker to edit the 1080i video, which is stored in a Microsoft TV file. While it has done a fine job, I ran into some issues that I hope will make it to the Live Movie Maker product team so they can make this an even more stellar product.

I have categorized my list of entries as Feature Requests, Update Requests, and Bugs.

Yes, I fully understand it’s a free app. But it’s a fantastic free app, and hey, it’s Microsoft, and they can do anything :)

So here we go:

• Bug: Live Movie Maker does not appear to continue encoding / saving a video if the computer locks. This is a problem, since Windows 7 automatically locks a computer after 10 minutes by default.

Figure: I started encoding at about 12pm, and the app appeared to be encoding just fine, at the 3% mark after 20 minutes. I left for lunch. My computer had locked the screen, and I didn’t touch it again for a few hours. When I unlocked it around 3pm, it wasn’t even past 7%. But the percentage meter started moving again after unlocking. As long as I prevented the computer from locking (it was plugged into a power supply and did not go to sleep), the video kept encoding. I got to the 41% mark before I left for the day. I left the laptop at the office overnight, and when I arrived in the morning and unlocked the computer, it was only at 60%. Ouch. Maybe it doesn’t stop encoding, but it sure does slow down to a short-bussed snail’s pace.

• Bug: Timeline preview doesn’t always appear to work, especially with high definition video. It just remains a long black area.
  
  UPDATE: It is actually not a black bar, it’s just the first frame of the video, continuously repeated.

Figure: Screen shot of the timeline bug.

• Feature: Utilize GPU video encoding.

• Feature: Save individual clips / trimmings as video files.
• Feature: Assign names to individual clips / trimmings.

Figure: How do I tell these clips apart? A textbox underneath the clip would be very helpful.

• Feature: Fast forward / reverse while trimming.
• Update: Seconds in Trim Tool is nice, but the seconds don’t show anywhere else – it’s minutes/seconds on video playback, so the position is hard to match up.
• Update: Provide a Properties context menu option to get information about the current video clip.
• Feature: Is it possible to see realtime video decoding with the slider, so we can slide quickly through video?
• Feature: Auto-save of projects, in case the app crashes, so you don’t lose all your work.
• Feature: Commercial removal feature, or a more obvious API for writing plug-ins? DVRMS Toolkit has commercial skip, so maybe that can be ported?
• Update: Maybe a paid version with more features?
• Update: Multiple in and out points in Trim Tool.
• Update: Ability to save in Blu-Ray ready formats like H.264 or MPEG-2, or allow plug-ins for different video encoders.

• Update: Make toolbars, such as effects, detachable or have them show your favorite / recent filters, since it’s a timewaster to keep scrolling down to the “fade from black” and so forth on every clip.
• Feature: Export to BluRay / AVCHD (this would be nice in Windows Media Center as well).