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Distribute Expertise: Encoder Shootout

Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer

An on-the-job comparison of sub-$1,000 streaming-media encoders for the PC.

Windows Media Video 9/VC-1

I included Microsoft's Expression Encoder in the Windows Media Video 9 (WMV)/VC-1 trials, and it produced the highest-quality real-world video in SD and tutorial videos — though HD quality lagged to the bottom. Lumped together behind the leader in SD trials were Squeeze, ProCoder, and AME CS4, with AME CS3 slightly but clearly behind. All that said, few viewers would notice the difference in SD absent any side-by-side comparisons.

Almost inexplicably, Expression Encoder crashed and burned in HD testing, despite using encoding parameters supplied by Microsoft that used the tweaks discussed below. I also tried using relatively generic encoding parameters, and they performed poorly as well. Otherwise, Squeeze took a slight lead in quality over the other encoders, with AME CS3 again trailing. The differences among this group weren't significant, however.

In terms of WMV feature support, Microsoft's own encoding tool wins the prize, as you would expect. “Tweak Support” refers to a number of compression-optimization options that debuted with Windows Media Format 11 SDK. Originally, the only ways to access these advanced encoding controls were by using a command-line encoder or by changing your Windows Registry, either manually or via an unsupported applet called the WMV-9 PowerToy.

Once you change your registry, any tool that encodes to Windows Media format uses those tweaks, but you have no direct control over those options from within the program. In contrast, with Expression Encoder 2, Microsoft added these tweaks as compression options directly within the program, which is unique in the sub-$1,000 class.

Is easy access to these tweaks valuable? In my experience, these advanced encoding options tend to help the most for videos with relatively consistent content, such as a television show shot against the same background. When video contains multiple scenes of varying content, it's tough to derive tweaks that improve all scenes without degrading others. Still, if Windows Media is an important format for your organization, the ability to tweak your video easily using options contained within your encoding tool is always a nice option.

Expression Encoder 2 is also the only Windows tool that can output a Silverlight player, and it can even insert closed captions and create chapter points that allow viewers to jump to specified points in the video (just like DVD chapter points). Obviously, if you're not producing for Silverlight, this option has little value, but if you are, it could be a great time-saver. Another plus is that Microsoft lets you try Expression Encoder for 60 days with no watermark, which is unique among the third-party encoders. If you're producing Windows Media Video today, it's definitely worth a look. Otherwise, I would definitely use AME CS4 over AME CS3 and expect very competitive results, and Squeeze would be my preferred choice if I decided to seek a third-party encoding tool.

Overall, choosing the right encoder for your application involves a balance of quality, budget, performance, and features. I hope you find the foregoing data useful for your decision making.

To comment on this article, email the Digital Content Producer staff at feedback@digitalcontentproducer.com.

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