Now that Expression Encoder 2 has been released, the team is hard at work on the next version of the product. We want to be as responsive to community feedback as possible, and would like to set up a panel of customers with whom we can have ongoing conversations.
The Customer Panel is a way for us to build strong relationships with users of our product. We'll use it as a way to understand your needs, workflows as well as how you use the product. We'll also use it to float future feature ideas and get feedback on them
The Customer Panel is an ongoing project. The overall impact should be minimal and if at any point you no longer want to participate, just tell us. Typically we'll aim to reach out the Panel every couple of months or so. There may some times when we reach out more frequently.
TAPs are for specific releases and focus on getting you pre-releases of the software to play with. We'll use the same framework for the Customer Panel, but it is longer lived and goes beyond a particular release. This is an opportunity to have lasting impact on product direction.
If you want to take part, please send me an email by clicking here.
I'm pleased to announced that we just pushed a preview of the SLS publishing plugin for Expression Encoder 2 live:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/2/a/22a8da23-ffa7-4e5a-8fed-8239d3a7b322/SLSPlugin for Expression Encoder 2.msi
This plugin makes it very easy to publish and manage your encoded Silverlight video experiences online via the Silverlight Streaming service from within the Expression Encoder application.
As well as adding support for Expression Encoder 2, the plugin has a number of enhancements:
Hope this helps,
James
AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) is a file format commonly used by the latest generation of consumer HD camcorders. It consists of an AC-3 audio stream and an AVC (H.264) video stream encapsulated into a custom MPEG2 transport stream container.
While Expression Encoder 2 does not natively support that file type, it is possible to use them if the right components are installed. More specifically, three DirectShow components are required:
After installing those 3 components, you should be able to playback the M2TS files directly in Windows Media Player as well as importing and using them within Expression Encoder 2.
Also, David Sayed posted a very nice and detailed article on one of the multiple ways to get Expression Encoder 2 to support AVCHD files: http://blogs.msdn.com/david_sayed/archive/2008/05/31/avchd-recipe-for-expression-encoder-2.aspx
But if you own a Sony or Canon camcorder, you can also take advantage of the DirectShow filters that shipped with the bundled software.
Sony camcorder users: Sony Picture Motion Browser comes with a MPEG2-TS splitter and an AVC decoder. To use them in Expression Encoder 2, simply register sjvtdl.ax and SMParse.ax found in “C:\Program Files\Sony\Sony Picture Utility\Shared4” by following those steps:
Note: You will still need an AC-3 decoder to decode the audio.
M2TS files should now be playable via Windows Media Player and can be imported in Expression Encoder 2.
Canon Pixela ImageMixer 3 SE registers all the required DirectShow components required by Expression Encoder upon it's installation.
To import the MTS or M2TS files in Expression Encoder, simply select "All Fles (*.*)" in the file picker in the import dialog. Then select the wanted MTS and M2TS files. The files will be treated like any other video files.
Known Expression Encoder 2 limitations:
We are hoping to further enhance the AVCHD workflow in future versions of Expression Encoder.
Last week we released the Expression Encoder 2 SDK. Here's a little video of Charles and I, giving a quick introduction. Apologies for the rather close camera angle as Charles was just holding the camera with his left hand, and it didn't help that our makeup and wardrobe department was out that day.
You can get it from the following location.
Microsoft® Expression® Encoder 2 SDK
Please try it out and don't hesitate to send us your feedback.