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MillimeterTest Drive: Telestream Episode Pro, Part 1
Mar 9, 2009 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer
Figure 2. The Video tab, crowded with filters and other parameters.
Customizing Settings
To edit a setting (and then save it as your own), you double-click the setting in either the Compression Settings or Job Batch window. This opens the Settings Editor, which has six tabs across the top of the interface that you logically work across to configure your settings. You can create your setting from scratch, but most of the time it’s easier to choose a setting close to your target and customize from there.
The Output tab is first as you work through the tabs. This is where you choose (or confirm) the format and codecs; select in and out points if you’d like to trim your video; and add bumpers, trailers, or short videos to precede or follow the encoded video.
Figure 3. Setting audio parameters and other adjustments.
The Video tab contains video compression parameters and 19 other adjustments that you can make before compressing the source file. These run the gamut including adding a watermark, timecode, or fade to the video; filters such as black-and-white restoration, gamma, sharpen, and de-interlace; and control over frame rate and field order.
Enabling and disabling these adjustments is straightforward; if you don’t click the associated checkbox to enable the adjustment, Episode keeps the encoded file “Same as Source.”
Figure 4. Episode Pro’s Preview window.
Next is the Audio tab, which contains compression-related audio adjustments and filters including an equalizer, high- and low-pass filters, and fade effects (Figure 3). Operation is similar to that of the Video tab; you click the checkbox for options you’d like to change, or uncheck them when you want the encoded file to be the same as source. Briefly, to finish off the list, the Metadata tab is for adding album, artist, and author information (if desired), the Streaming tab for applying stream-related features such as hinting, while the Description tab gives you space to describe your setting in detail.
On the bottom left of the Settings window, you can see the Preview button, which you click to see a preview of the video after adjustments, but before compression (Figure 4). In other words, like most encoding programs, Episode Pro can’t preview the effects of your selected compression parameters, just the precompression adjustments made in the Video tab.
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.