Demo with Expression Encoder 2

[benwaggoner]

It's not all pure codec tweaking, but I've got a new tutorial up on my blog about using the about-to-be-released Expression Encoder 2 on a high-touch encoding project that might be interesting for folks around here.

http://on10.net/blogs/benwagg/Hands-on-with-high-touch-encoding-Streaming-Media-All-Stars-Redo/

It shows off both the compression features and the interactive authoring features of Expression Encoder publishing to Silverlight.

[Sharktooth]

is it you in the pic? you need to practice some sport... ;)
jokes apart, from what i see i like the GUI and all the functionalities. markers, thumbnail navigation and all the goodies are really good stuff. EEv2 seems to be a good product but the competition will be hard.
however, when h.264 and aac will be implemented? :p

[crypto]

Yeah, EEv2's GUI is impressive as are the results compared to VP6. Good job.

However, like Sharktooth, I believe h.264 support is a must for a modern compression product, especially if it is targeted to limited bandwith use.

[benwaggoner]

is it you in the pic? you need to practice some sport... ;)
Indeed. I was in pretty good shape two years ago, but lugging around that 3rd kid gave me arthritis in my shoulder needing surgery, since then my job, kids, and remodeling our new house have kept me out of the gym too long. September '09 is my target to get things back togther.

...and my 20th high school reunion is tomorrow. Oh well, if I can't be thin and rich, at least I can be the most successful breeder :).

jokes apart, from what i see i like the GUI and all the functionalities. markers, thumbnail navigation and all the goodies are really good stuff. EEv2 seems to be a good product but the competition will be hard.
however, when h.264 and aac will be implemented? :p
Expression Encoder is mainly about Silverlight, so it'll get MPEG-4 when Silverlight does :).

Note that this is really our "hero" tool for Silverlight authoring/encoding to show how it's done. But we're working hard wth all of the usual compression tool vendors to license them the same technology, so we're not really aiming at "competing" in the traditional way, but to have a nice $199 tool out there, and to show the way to our higher-end partners.

[Sagittaire]

Flash support H264 ... ?

[benwaggoner]

Flash support H264 ... ?
Yeah, but Adobe had a HORRIBLE story with VP6. Propritary single-threaded codec provided by a third part with painful licensing terms for partners.

In VC-1, we have a better, standardized codec, with a variety of high quality implementations.

H.264 is certainly something customers ask about, and so which we will consider carefully. But we need to weigh it against other features we could build instead, and how much it would increase the size of the installer.

In the end, the real question is how much more content would get published in Silverlight with support for other media types, and how many more people would install Silverlight in order to get to those experiences, versus other features we could add with those same resources.

Feel free to try and talk me into it :)!