Episode Pro User Guide

Telestream Episode Pro 4.2.
2 User’s Guide
Note on License
The accompanying Software is licensed and may not be distributed without writ-
ten permission.
Disclaimer
The contents of this document are subject to revision without notice due to contin-
ued progress in methodology, design, and manufacturing. Telestream shall have
no liability for any error or damages of any kind resulting from the use of this
document and/or software.
The Software may contain errors and is not designed or intended for use in on-line
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export, re-export, or import Software.
Copyright Statement
©Telestream, Inc, 2007

All rights reserved.
No part of this document may be copied or distributed.
This document is part of the software product and, as such, is part of the license
agreement governing the software. So are any other parts of the software product,
such as packaging and distribution media.
The information in this document may be changed without prior notice and does
not represent a commitment on the part of Telestream.
Trademarks and Patents
• UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.
• Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other
countries.
• Apple is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and

other countries.
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Telestream Episode Pro 4.2.2 User’s Guide
• QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S.

and other countries.
• Windows Media is a trademark of Microsoft Inc., registered in the U.S. and

other countries.
• RealNetworks, RealAudio, and RealVideo are either registered trademarks

or trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. in the United States and/or other coun-
tries.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
MPEG-4 AAC
“Supply of this Implementation of MPEG-4 AAC technology does not convey a

license nor imply any right to use this Implementation in any finished end-user or
ready-to-use final product. An independent license for such use is required.”
MP3
This software contains code from LAME, http://lame.sourceforge.

net/. “Supply of this product does not convey a license nor imply any right to
distribute content created with this product in revenue-generating broadcast sys-
tems (terrestrial, satellite, cable and/or other networks.), streaming applications
(via Internet, Intranets, and/or other networks), other content distribution systems
(pay audio or audio-on-demand applications and the like) or on physical media
(compact discs, digital versatile discs, semiconductor chips, hard drives, memory
cards and the like). An independent license for such use is required. For details,
please visit http://mp3licensing.com/.”
Disclaimer of Warranty on Software
You expressly acknowledge and agree that use of the Software is at your sole risk.
The Software and related documentation are provided “AS IS” and without war-
ranty of any kind and Licensor and the third party suppliers EXPRESSLY DIS-
CLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT
NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NEITHER LICENSOR NOR
ANY THIRD PARTY SUPPLIER WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CON-
TAINED IN THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, OR
THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED
OR ERROR-FREE. FURTHERMORE, THE TERMS OF THIS DISCLAIMER
AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY BELOW DO NOT AFFECT OR PREJ-
UDICE THE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A CONSUMER ACQUIRING THE
SOFTWARE OTHERWISE THAN IN THE COURSE OF A BUSINESS, NEI-
THER DO THEY LIMIT OR EXCLUDE ANY LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR
PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE.
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Limitation of Liability
LICENSOR AND THE THIRD PARTY SUPPLIERS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS

ALL LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, WHATEVER THEIR CAUSE, INCLUD-
ING DIRECT OR INDIRECT DAMAGE, SUCH AS CONSEQUENTIAL OR
BUSINESS DAMAGE, AMONGST OTHERS CAUSED BY THE NON-FUNC-
TIONING OR MALFUNCTIONING OF THE SOFTWARE. SHOULD LICEN-
SOR OR THE THIRD PARTY SUPPLIERS IN ANY WAY BE LIABLE FOR
DAMAGES, EITHER AS PER THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE OR OTHER-
WISE, THEN THIS LIABILITY WILL IN NO EVENT EXCEED THE AMOUNT
PAID BY YOU FOR THE SOFTWARE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT
ALLOW THE LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAM-
AGES SO THIS LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
Documentation Feedback
Comments about this documentation should be sent to:

documentation@popwire.com
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Contents
1 Welcome 1
1.1 Manual scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Document conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Before you install 3

2.1 Hardware requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.1 Minimum hardware configuration . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.2 Recommended hardware configuration . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Software requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 Installing Episode Pro 4

3.1 Before installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 Installing the software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.3 Installing the License Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4 Introduction to Episode Pro 5

4.1 Interface overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1.1 Source Bookmarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1.2 Compression Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1.3 Recently Encoded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1.4 Job Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1.5 Settings Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5 Episode Pro in detail 11

5.1 Managing source files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.1.1 Source Bookmarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.1.2 Source files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.1.3 File extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.2 Managing settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.2.1 Using template settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.2.2 Creating new settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2.3 Saving settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2.4 Creating new folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2.5 Deleting folders and settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2.6 Exporting settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.2.7 Duplicating settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
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5.2.8 Closing settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5.3 Working with settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.3.1 Choosing output format and codecs. . . . . . . . . . 18
5.3.2 Choosing video filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.3.3 Choosing audio filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.3.4 Other settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.4 Multi Bit Rate (MBR) settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.4.1 Creating an MBR setting in Compression Settings . . . . 20
5.4.2 Creating an MBR setting in the Job Batch . . . . . . . 21
5.5 Encoding in Job Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.5.1 Adding source files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.5.2 Adding settings to the Job Batch. . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.6 Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.6.1 In and out points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.7 Editing job settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5.8 Output Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5.9 Compressing files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.9.1 Playing and pausing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.9.2 Stopping encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.10 Action column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.11 Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.11.1 General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.11.2 Job Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.11.3 Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.11.4 License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.12 Control buttons and keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.12.1 Job Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.12.2 Settings Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.12.3 Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6 Output tab 36
6.1 Output Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.1.1 3GPP (3gp) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.1.2 3GPP2 (EZMovie). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.1.3 AMC (EZMovie) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.1.4 AVI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.1.5 HDV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.1.6 MOV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.1.7 MPEG-PS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.1.8 MPEG-TS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.1.9 MXF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.1.10 PBF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.1.11 Real Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6.2 Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.3 Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.4 Hint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.5 In/Out Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.6 Timecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.7 Bumper/trailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
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7 Video tab—codecs 48
7.1 Video codec concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.1.1 Colour formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.1.2 Frame types—I-, P- and B-frames . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.1.3 CBR, VBR and Quality Based VBR . . . . . . . . . 49
7.1.4 VBV—Video Buffer Verifier . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.1.5 Frame skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image . . 50
7.1.6 Video scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.1.7 Picture resolution and aspect ratio . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.2 Blackmagic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
7.3 D-10/IMX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
7.4 DV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
7.5 Flash Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
7.6 Flash 8 Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7.7 H.263 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
7.8 H.264 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.9 HDV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.10 MJPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.11 MPEG-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
7.12 MPEG-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
7.13 MPEG-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.14 QuickTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.15 RealVideo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.16 RGB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.17 Targa Cine YUV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.18 Windows Media Video 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.19 Windows Media Video VC-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7.20 Windows RGB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
7.21 YCbCr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
8 Video tab—filters 76
8.1 Field Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.2 Frame rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.3 Deinterlace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.4 Burn Timecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
8.5 Resize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
8.6 Noise Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
8.7 Black and White Restoration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
8.8 Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
8.9 Fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
8.10 Gamma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
8.11 HSV Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
8.12 Sharpen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8.13 Smoothing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8.14 RGB Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
8.15 Watermark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
9 Audio tab—codecs 95
9.1 AAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
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9.2 AES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
9.3 AMR NB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
9.4 ATSC A/52 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9.5 DV audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9.6 EVRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9.7 Lame MP3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
9.8 MPEG Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
9.9 PCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
9.10 QCELP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
9.11 QuickTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
9.12 RealAudio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
9.13 Windows Media Audio 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
10 Audio tab—filters 105

10.1 Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
10.2 Channel Mapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
10.3 Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
10.4 Equalizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
10.5 Fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
10.6 High Pass/Low Pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
10.7 Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
10.8 Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
10.9 Sample Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
11 Metadata tab 110
12 Stream tab 111

12.1 File formats for streaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
12.2 AAC Low Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
12.3 AMR NB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
12.4 EVRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
12.5 H.263 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
12.6 H.264 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
12.7 MPEG-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
12.8 QCELP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
13 Engine tab 115
14 Support 116
A Terminology 117
B Supported formats 118
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1 Welcome
Episode Pro represents many years of experience in the broadcasting industry

and intensive research and development. We strive to combine the widest span
of codecs and filters with an intuitive user interface to fit the needs of media pro-
fessionals and content delivery companies that need to produce content that is
compliant with industry standards. The result is a top of the line transcoder and
the evidence is in its speed, quality, and stability.
We are sure that our upgrading customers will delight in exploring all the new
features and optimizations that we have added in Episode Pro 4.2.2. After all,
many of the improvements come from listening carefully to you.
And to you, our first-time users, welcome to the ever growing community of com-
pressionists who have seen the light. You have embarked on an transcoding jour-
ney that will take you places you have never been before.
Once you have learned the power of Episode Pro, you can extend your workflow
with other products from our suite of interlocking applications that meet strict
requirements for scalability, reliability and fast encoding of content.
1.1 Manual scope
This manual provides installation procedures and operational guidelines for Epi-
sode Pro and is intended for users of Episode Pro who are familiar with the basics
of operating an Apple computer running Mac OS X. Basic knowledge of media
encoding is strongly recommended.
1.2 Document conventions
A note
Paragraphs marked like this highlight items of particular importance for the
proper function of the software.
NOTE
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A tip
Paragraphs marked like this highlight procedures that can save time or pro-
duce particularly good results.
TIP
A caution
Paragraphs marked like this warn about features which may cause loss of data
or failed execution if used incorrectly.
Document references, both internal and external, are shown in italics. Example:
See chapter 2 Before You Install. Literature references are given as numbers in
brackets with the full reference in the Bibliography. Example: See [2].
Directory names, file names, code examples, and prompts, are shown in plain
typewriter type. Example: The file printer.ppd can be found in /etc/
cups/ppd/.
The names of input fields are given in a sans serif type face. Example: Adjust the
time limit with the Time limit slider.
Options to be selected are displayed in bold typeface. Example: Select Show Log
from the Window drop-down menu.
On-screen buttons are displayed in a sans serif type face. Example: Press the Quit
button to exit the program.
Keys to be pressed on the keyboard are displayed in bold typewriter type. Exam-
ple: Press Return to select the GUI installation. Examples of extended dialogue
will include the shell prompt> .
Brackets [ ] are used to enclose an optional item in the command syntax.
The Episode Engine logotype in the margin signifies features, topics, or proce-
dures that are specific to working with Episode Engine and Episode Pro together.
If you are not using Episode Engine, you can disregard these sections.
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2 Before you install
Before installing, please make sure that your system meets the minimum require-
ments, as specified below.
2.1 Hardware requirements
2.1.1 Minimum hardware configuration
Episode Pro is universal software and runs on both PowerPC and Intel architec-
tures.
CPU G4, G5 or Intel Mac

Memory 512 MB RAM
Hard disk 100 MB free space is required to install the software
2.1.2 Recommended hardware configuration
CPU Dual 2 GHz G5 or Intel Mac

Memory 1 GB RAM
Hard disk 7200 rpm or better, with sufficient space for video production
Graphics 64 MB DDR graphics memory or more
2.2 Software requirements
Episode Pro 4.2.2 requires Mac OS X, version 10.4 or better, and QuickTime,
version 7 or better.
There have been several changes in the settings format in Episode Pro version
4.2, you should therefore redo older settings.
Episode Pro can act as a stand-alone product or as a part of an automated work-
flow with Episode Engine, our server-based transcoder. With this setup, you
can export settings from Episode Pro to be used in Episode Engine, automat-
ing the transcoding workflow. This enables a seamless workflow between content
provider and content distributor.
You can extend Episode Pro with options: The Flash 8 Option lets you write
Flash 8 media files.
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3 Installing Episode Pro
This chapter will guide you through the installation of Episode Pro.
3.1 Before installing
It is recommended that you uninstall any prior version of Episode Pro on your
computer. Move the Episode Pro application from the Application folder to
the trash. Empty the trash. The settings are saved in another location than the
application and will still be there once you have installed Episode Pro 4.2.2.
3.2 Installing the software
The Episode Pro software is delivered in the form of an installation file on the
distribution medium (CD-ROM) or via electronic distribution.
Double-click to open the CD-ROM or the Disk Image (.dmg) when it appears on
the desktop, or open the downloaded distribution package.
Drag and drop the application into your Applications folder.
This completes the installation of the software.
3.3 Installing the License Key
After installation, Episode Pro will run in Demo mode, allowing a maximum of
20 seconds encoding. You must register your software within 30 days, otherwise
it will cease to function after that period.
To register, select Episode Pro→Preferences. . . , choose the License tab and
press the Enter Serial Number. . . button to enter your serial number name and
serial number. See also section 5.11.4, License.
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4 Introduction to Episode Pro
This chapter gives an overview of the use of Episode Pro 4.2.2. After an intro-
duction to the user interface we will go through the basic workflow of encoding a
source file.
4.1 Interface overview
The Episode Pro main window is shown below. We will briefly explain the var-
ious components in this chapter and go into deeper detail in chapter 5, Episode
Pro in detail.
On the left is the Browser, which contains the Source Bookmarks, Compression
Settings, and Recently Encoded file lists. The area on the right is taken up either
by the Job Batch area showing the files to be encoded or the Settings Editor
allowing encoding settings to be set or modified.
4.1.1 Source Bookmarks
In the Source Bookmarks area you keep bookmarks for your source material.
The Movies folder in your system becomes the default bookmark folder when
installing Episode Pro. You can add or delete bookmarks to suit your preferences.
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By clicking the New Bookmark. . . button ( ) you will be able to browse to and
select a folder of your choice. That folder will be added to your Source Book-
marks list. In the example illustrated below a folder named My Media Files
has been added as a bookmark.
4.1.2 Compression Settings
The Compression Settings area is located directly below Source Bookmarks

and this is where your settings are stored. Settings are files that determine how
your input files will be encoded. The Episode Pro installation comes with a large
quantity of setting templates in the Templates folder. It contains two subfold-
ers, By format and By workflow. The By format folder contains tem-
plates organised according to output format, so that you find templates for MPEG
output, QuickTime output, Windows Media output etc. The By workflow
folder organises the templates according to the output medium instead, so that you
find templates for creating DVDs, videos for mobile phones, web video etc.
You can use the templates as they are, or edit them to fit your particular needs.
Setting creation and editing is explained in section 5.2, Managing settings.
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4.1.3 Recently Encoded
The Recently Encoded list is located below the Compression Settings and con-
tains the clips that have been encoded during this session. You can click the Play
button ( ) to play a selected clip.
4.1.4 Job Batch
The Job Batch tab is where the actual encoding is done. In this tab you combine
your source files with the settings you intend to use. All functions related to Job
Batch will be explained in section 5.5, Encoding in Job Batch.
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4.1.5 Settings Editor
The Settings Editor tab is used when you need to adjust the existing encoding
templates or create entirely new ones. We will go into further detail in section 5.2,
Managing settings.
4.2 Getting started
To make a test encoding, follow the three steps below:
1. Drag a source clip from the Source Bookmarks area to the Job Batch. The
Status column on the right will indicate that you have to add one or more
settings to create a job.
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2. Drag one or several settings from the Templates folder to the Job Batch
and drop them onto the source file. A setting that has been added to a source
file constitutes a job, and the Status column will say Pending..., i e
waiting to encode the job. If you double-click a setting in Compression
Settings the Settings Editor tab will be activated instead of Job Batch.
You can preview the two jobs you have created before you start the ac-
tual encoding. Ctrl-click one of the settings in Job Batch to get the context
menu and select Open in Preview, or click on the setting and press Enter.
You will now get the Preview window showing what your video will look
like if encoded with the selected setting. Once you have verified that ev-
erything is to your satisfaction you can close the Preview window. The
Preview will be further discussed in section 5.6, Preview.
3. Click the Start Encoding button ( ) in the lower right corner of the win-
dow.
When encoding starts the Status will change from Pending... to a progress
bar letting you see the progress of the encoding. Once the job is finished the
Status will say Done.
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The encoded files will be saved to the Desktop by default. How to change the
output path/location will be discussed in chapter 5, Episode Pro in detail.
To locate the encoded file click the Finder button in the Action column next to the
setting and the encoded file will be shown in the Finder.
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5 Episode Pro in detail
In chapter 4, Introduction to Episode Pro, we discussed the basics of the user

interface and how to get started with your first encoding. In this chapter we will
study the details of Episode Pro.
5.1 Managing source files
Episode Pro lets you collect references to your source files in a Source Book-
marks list, to which you can add files and folders at will. You can then move files
from the Source Bookmarks to the Job Batch for encoding.
5.1.1 Source Bookmarks
As described in section 4.1.1, Source Bookmarks, the Source Bookmarks area is

where you store the bookmarks to your source material folders. It is very easy to
add or remove bookmarks by using the New Bookmark. . . ( ) or Remove ( )
buttons located next to the header Source Bookmarks.
When removing a bookmark from the Source Bookmarks list, it will only remove
the shortcut, the source folders or files will not be affected.
5.1.2 Source files
To add a file to a batch, either drag it from the Source Bookmarks area to the Job
Batch, drag it from the Finder to the Job Batch, or press the Add Source File(s)
button ( ) at the top right side of the Job Batch to bring up a file browser that lets
you select a file to add to the Job Batch. The browser contains an Add Enclosing
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Folder To Bookmarks checkbox, which will add the folder of the selected file to
the Source Bookmarks list.
Ctrl-click a file in the Source Bookmarks area to bring up a context menu.
Add to Job Batch Add the file to Job Batch.

Open in Preview Show a preview of a selectable frame of source video; see sec-
tion 5.6, Preview. Alternatively, click to select the source file and press
Enter.
Reveal in Finder Open the folder where your source file resides in the Finder.
Open in QuickTime Player Launch the source file in QuickTime Player.
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5.1.3 File extensions
Episode Pro recognizes your media files by their extensions. If a file does not
have a visible extension, like a DV file exported from Apple Final Cut Pro, it
will not be visible in Source Bookmarks. If this is the case you can make the
file visible by activating Show all files in Preferences, see further section 5.11,
Preferences.
The difference between file formats and codecs

Even though a source file may be in a known file format, it may be encoded
with a codec that is not supported by Episode Pro. For example an AVI file
that appears in the file manager may still not be possible to encode because
it uses the DivX codec. Check appendix B, Supported formats for the file
formats and codecs supported by Episode Pro.
5.2 Managing settings
The Compression Settings is located directly below the Source Bookmarks area.
This is where you store your encoding settings. You can create new settings,
delete them and arrange them in folders. This subject was briefly touched on in
section 4.1.2, Compression Settings. In this chapter we will explain in more detail
the different options available.
5.2.1 Using template settings
The Episode Pro installation comes with a large number of presets that cover most
of the usual encoding scenarios. These settings are located in the Templates
folder. You can use the Template settings to get started with encoding. They can
also be used as a starting point when you are creating your own custom settings.
Ctrl-click a setting or a whole setting folder and choose Duplicate in the context
menu to make a copy to work with, this way you will always keep the original
setting available. To edit a setting, double-click on the setting name; this will
switch the window to the Settings Editor tab showing the selected setting.
Templates
The template settings are generic and can be tweaked to suit your specific
needs. However, when doing so, we suggest you save your copies under a
new name and/or in a new folder. This way, you can install a new template
NOTE
pack later without losing your changes.
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Restoring default templates

If your template settings have been altered or removed you can always recover
the default templates with the File→Restore Templates. . . menu option.
NOTE
5.2.2 Creating new settings
To create a new setting, either select File→New Setting, press Command-N,

or press the New Setting button ( ) in the Compression Settings area. The
Settings Editor tab will be activated so you can edit your new setting.
You may edit multiple settings simultaneously and switch between them with the
Open Settings menu at the top left of the Settings Editor.
5.2.3 Saving settings
After creating your setting you can save it by either pressing the Save button ( )
at the top right of the interface, pressing Command-S, selecting File→Save, or
selecting File→Save As. . . .
5.2.4 Creating new folders
To create a new folder in the Compression Settings area, click the New Folder
button ( ). To create a sub-folder, select a folder in the Compression Settings
and click the New Folder button. To rename, select the folder and then click on it
once to activate the name field and type the folder name of your choice.
5.2.5 Deleting folders and settings
Select a setting or folder and press Command-backspace to delete it from the

Compression Settings, or click the Delete button ( ). If you accidentally delete
a setting you can find it in the Trash. To reinstall it, simply drag the deleted
setting from the Trash back to the Compression Settings.
Reinstalling trashed folders

A whole setting folder that has been moved to the Trash cannot be copied
back to the Compression Settings by drag and drop. You need to create a new
folder in the Compression Settings and import the settings individually.
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5.2.6 Exporting settings
To export and import settings in Episode Pro, either ctrl-click the setting and
choose Export in the context menu or use the Export Setting button ( ) located
at the top right of the Settings Editor and your setting will be exported as an
XML-format setting document. This document can be used in Episode Engine
or, e g, emailed to another Episode/Episode Pro user depending on what export
mode you choose: Episode Engine or Episode/Episode Pro.
In the Export dialogue you choose in what format you wish to export the set-
ting(s). If you export in Episode/Episode Pro format the setting cannot be used
in Episode Engine but is importable in any Episode or Episode Pro. The re-
ceiving user can just drag and drop this setting document into the Compression
Settings.
If you export in Episode Engine Format the setting is altered to fit Episode En-
gine and cannot be imported into Episode Pro again.
Exporting and importing multiple settings

You can export several settings simultaneously by command-clicking to
choose several settings and then ctrl-clicking and using the Export option in
NOTE the context menu. The same is applicable for a whole folder with settings.
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5.2.7 Duplicating settings
To duplicate a setting, either ctrl-click the setting and select Duplicate from the
context menu, click the setting and select Edit→Duplicate, or click the setting
and press Command-D.
5.2.8 Closing settings
When you are done working with a setting, you can close the current setting either
by clicking the Close button ( ) at the top right of the tab, selecting File→Close
Current Document, or pressing Command-Shift-W.
5.3 Working with settings
To open a setting in the Settings Editor, double-click the setting in the Compres-
sion Settings. If you have opened several settings you can easily switch between
them with the drop-down menu at the top of the interface.
Navigate through the different parts of the setting by using the tabs in the Set-
tings Editor. The screen shot below shows the available tabs, with the Output tab
activated.
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Alternatively, you can double-click a setting in the Job Batch, and an editor win-
dow will be placed on top of the window to let you edit that setting. In this case
you cannot switch between different settings, but are expected to do your edits
and then select Apply.
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5.3.1 Choosing output format and codecs
The first step in creating a setting is to choose what file format and codecs to use
in the Output tab. Depending on which file format you select, different codecs
will be available. Here you also specify which tracks to encode—video, audio or
both. This is done by selecting Encode, Discard or Copy for the current track:
Encode Specify which codec to use for a specific track.
Discard Exclude the selected track from the output file.
Copy Copy the existing track into the destination file format, provided that the
format of the source track is supported by the destination format.
In the next example .mov is selected as output file format. Video will be encoded
with the MPEG-4 codec and the audio track will be discarded, creating a silent
clip. We will not discuss Hint, In/Out Points or Timecode in this chapter since
they are fully covered in chapter 6, Output tab.
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5.3.2 Choosing video filters
In the Video tab you specify the settings for the video codec you selected in the
Output tab. For a full listing of the codecs see chapter 7, Video tab—codecs.
You can also select which video filters that are to be used in the setting. To activate
a filter check the checkbox at the top left of the filter area.
You can collapse and expand the filter as you want but it will stay activated until
you un-check the checkbox. If the box is un-checked the filter is not used and
the filter setting equals Same as Source. You can press the question mark to
bring up an Apple Help page on the relevant filter.
For more information about available filters see chapter 8, Video tab—filters.
5.3.3 Choosing audio filters
The Audio tab works like the Video tab. You specify the settings for the audio
codec you selected in the Output tab. For a full listing of codecs and filters see
chapter 9, Audio tab—codecs and chapter 10, Audio tab—filters.
5.3.4 Other settings
The Metadata, Stream, and Engine tabs have their own corresponding chapters
later in the manual: chapter 11, Metadata tab, chapter 12, Stream tab, and chap-
ter 13, Engine tab; they will not be discussed further in this chapter.
5.4 Multi Bit Rate (MBR) settings
A Multi Bit Rate file is basically a file containing several tracks of your media
with individual encoder settings for bitrate, framerate and filters. In this way you
can accommodate users with low bandwidth connections as well as those with
medium and high bandwidth connections in a single file. In other words, combine
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your modem setting, ISDN setting and broadband setting into one MBR Setting
and encode one file instead of three. MBR is supported by the following formats:
• 3GPP
• Real Media (called Sure Stream files)
• Windows Media (called Intellistream files)
Real Media MBR settings are created through the Real Media interface (see sec-
tion 6.1.11, Real Media). For the other formats you create MBR settings either in
the Compression Settings or in the Job Batch.
5.4.1 Creating an MBR setting in Compression Settings
To create an MBR setting, select File→New MBR Setting. An untitled MBR

setting is created in Compression Settings. The MBR setting can be renamed the
same way as a regular setting. You can expand and collapse the MBR setting, but
until any settings are added it is merely an empty container.
In the example presented below the Templates/WindowsMedia/Streaming

folder is opened. Command-click the settings you want to add and drag them to
the empty MBR setting. Only use settings that are intended for streaming. Note
that all the settings in an MBR setting must be for the same output format. Win-
dows Media Streaming Server cannot stream VBR-encoded files so files intended
for WMSS must use CBR settings only.
Once the settings of your choice have been added to the MBR setting you can start
using it.
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A setting is not editable if it is inside an MBR setting. If you need to edit it, drag
it outside the MBR setting, edit it, and drag it back inside the MBR setting.
An MBR setting is used just like any other setting, drop it on a source file in the
Job Batch to use it.
5.4.2 Creating an MBR setting in the Job Batch
Drag streamable settings from Compression Settings and drop them on a source
file in the Job Batch. In this example we use settings from Templates/WindowsMedia/
Streaming.
Select the settings, ctrl-click and choose Link as MBR Setting from the context
menu, or click the Link button ( ) at the top right.
Alternatively you can click on one or more streamable settings and any other
compatible settings will show a Link button in their action column, clicking this
will create an MBR setting containing the clicked and the selected settings.
When you look at the expanded MBR setting in the Job Batch you can see an
Unlink button ( ) in the action column next to the setting. Clicking the Unlink
button or just dragging the setting outside the MBR setting breaks the association.
If you change your mind you can drag the setting back into the MBR Setting.
The difference between an MBR Setting created in the Job Batch and one created
in Compression Settings is that the former only exists in the Job Batch. If you
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want to save it to the Compression Settings click the Save As button ( ) in the
Action column to save it under a new name.
5.5 Encoding in Job Batch
All encoding is controlled in the Job Batch tab. This is where you create your
jobs by combining source files and settings. This is also where you decide the
naming convention and the output path of the encoded files.
5.5.1 Adding source files
To be able to do an encoding you must always begin with adding one or several
source files to the Job Batch. There are four different ways to do this:
1. Drag and drop a source file or a whole folder with source files from the
Source Bookmarks area to the Job Batch.
2. Ctrl-click a source file in the Bookmark area and choose Add to Job Batch
in the context menu.
3. Drag and drop a source file from any location in the Finder to the Job
Batch.
4. Click the Add Source File(s) button ( ) at the top right side of the Job
Batch. When adding a source file in this way you will also be given the
option to add the enclosing folder to the Source Bookmarks list, see further
section 5.1, Managing source files.
5.5.2 Adding settings to the Job Batch
Adding a setting to a source file in the batch completes the necessary preparations
to do an encoding. As soon as you have dropped a setting on a source file you
have created a job. The ways to add settings to a source file are:
1. Drag and drop a setting from the Compression Settings onto a source file
in the Job Batch.
2. Copy a setting in the Compression Settings and paste it onto a source file
in the Job Batch.
3. Ctrl-click the source file in the Job Batch and select Add Setting from the
context menu.
Settings are copied

Note that a setting is copied to the Job Batch, any subsequent edits to the
original will not affect the job setting.
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Adding multiple settings to multiple files

You can copy and paste to add multiple settings to multiple files. Select
the settings you wish to add to the batch and press Command-C or select
Edit→Copy to copy them. Then select the specific source files in the Job
Batch to which you want to paste the settings and press Command-V or select
Edit→Paste. The copied settings will be pasted onto all the chosen source
TIP
files. If you want to add the selected settings to all files in in the Job Batch, ctrl-
click the settings and choose Add Setting(s) to Job Batch from the context
menu.
5.6 Preview
The Preview window lets you see the effects of your settings. To open the Preview
window, select a setting in the Job Batch tab or a source file in either the Source
Bookmarks or Job Batch and select Open in Preview in the context menu or
press Enter.
The Preview window has three tabs, Source, Preview, and Encoded. If you are
previewing a source file, only the first tab will be active. It lets you play the video
clip with the usual video controls. There is also a scrubber that lets you pull a
marker to the point in the timeline you wish to preview.
By default, the full timeline is displayed, but for long video sequences the resolu-
Telestream 23
tion may not be enough to let you select the precise point you want. In this case
you can use the zoom slider to select a suitable scale. The zoom will be centred
around the current point.
If you had selected a setting for preview, you will get the Preview tab. This will
show what the video will look like if encoded with the selected setting. In this tab
you can only look at single frames of the video and the video controls are greyed
out. Additionally you can turn on the display of filter effects: Pressing On will
show the filtered view over the entire window, Off will turn off the filtered view.
Pressing Left or Right will show the filtered view in the left or right part of the
window; by dragging the mouse in the window you can move the separator further
left or right. Holding down the Ctrl key will show the filtered view as long as the
key is held down.
Resize and Deinterlace always active

In order to make it easier to compare the before/after effects, the effects of
the resize and deinterlace filters are always shown, regardless of whether you
NOTE have turned on filtered display or not.
Finally, if you select a setting that has been encoded, you can choose between
the Preview and Encoded tabs. The Encoded tab lets you play the final result
of encoding. You also get an extra window Encoded Movie Info which shows a
bar chart of the number of bits used for each frame of encoded video. If you drag
the current frame marker across the bar chart the preview will update to show
the frame you have selected, conversely, dragging the scrubber in the Preview
window will move the bar chart to centre on the relevant frame. If you enlarge
the Encoded Movie Info window, the scale bars will adjust to show more detail.
Checking the box Colour Keyframes will fill the bars representing keyframes in a
darker colour. Checking the box Draw Average Bitrate will draw a line showing
the average number of bits used over whatever averaging period has been set in
the codec (see further in section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier).
You can save the current Preview image as a file by selecting Preview→Capture
Frame to Disk. . . . You can choose to save the image as a GIF, JPEG, JPEG 2000,
PNG or TIFF image. Anamorphic images can be stretched to the correct pro-
portions by checking the Stretch Anamorphic Frames box in the file browser.
Preview→Capture Frame to Disk Quickly will reuse the most recently used
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capture filename with a default name based on the source file name if this is your
first capture.
5.6.1 In and out points
If you have an hour-long clip there is no need to encode the whole clip every time
to test encodings, so to save time you can use the Preview to select a specific part
of the source file to encode. Select the setting in Job Batch and open the Preview.
The buttons at the bottom of the Preview window let you create your In and Out
points.
Set the In Point to the current time in the scrubber. You can also press i. To
remove the in point, press Alt while pressing this button, or press Alt-i.
Set the Out Point to the current time in the scrubber. You can also press o. To
remove the out point, press Alt while pressing this button, or press Alt-o.
Go to In Point. Will instantly bring you to the position of your In Point. You
can also press Shift-I.
Go to the beginning of the clip.
Play the clip from the current point.
Go to the end of the clip.
Go to Out Point. Will instantly bring you to the position of your Out Point.
You can also press Shift-O.
The In/Out points are indicated by and icons in the scrubber. They cannot
be dragged, but are set only by selecting a point in the scrubber and pressing Set
in/out point. If you have set In/Out Points in the Preview a clock icon ( ) will
show up in the Action column next to the setting in the Job Batch. If you have
added several settings to a source file in the Job Batch and want to apply the
same In/Out Points to all the settings you can use the Copy In/Out to Siblings
command in the context menu. Create In/Out Points on one of your settings and
then ctrl-click that setting to copy to the rest of the settings:
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Saved in and out points

If you set in and out Points in the Preview they will only be saved in that job in
the batch. They will not affect the original setting. To permanently save in and
out points in a setting you have to open the setting in the Settings Editor and
NOTE
add the in and out point values there.
5.7 Editing job settings
When moving a setting to the Job Batch a copy of the setting is created. This
means that any changes you made in the Settings Editor will not affect the setting
in the Job Batch. However, you can still do changes to that particular setting by
editing in the Job Batch. Double-clicking the setting in the Job Batch opens an
editor window. The window will slide down on top of the Job Batch and you can
do your setting alterations here. When you are satisfied with your setting changes
click Apply. Your setting in the Job Batch is now altered and you can view the
changes in the Preview. The original setting is not affected by the changes you
have made.
However, when you have applied the changes to your job, two buttons pop up in
the Action column: the Save As button ( ) and the Revert to Saved Setting
button ( ):
The Save As function lets you save the altered setting to the Compression Set-
tings under a new name. The Revert to Saved Setting button will reload the
original setting from the Compression Settings if you want to return to the start-
ing point.
5.8 Output Options
By default, encoded files will be saved to the Desktop when the encoding is
done, but you can set any location in your system to be the output destination.
The Destination Folder menu at the bottom of the Job Batch tab lets you select
among alternative destinations. The option Browse. . . lets you create and/or
specify a folder where you want your encoded files to be placed when finished:
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File naming in non-English languages

Episode Pro does not accept paths to folders with any input other than stan-
dard 7-bit characters. This means that non-English characters (such as å, ø,
NOTE ü, etc.) are disallowed.
To make the general handling and management of your output files as easy as pos-
sible, you can define file naming conventions. There are two predefined naming
conventions available: Incremental Filename and Date. You can select
them in the Naming Convention menu at the bottom of the Job Batch tab.
There are a number of tags available to dictate the naming of your encoded files. In
Incremental Filename we have used name, setting, counter and extension
to form the output name:
< name > ”” < setting > [”” < counter >]”.” < extension >
The result of a file named sourcefile encoded with a setting named qt-setting
would be sourcefile_qt-setting.mov. The counter was added to pre-
vent previously encoded files with the same name being overwritten, instead a
number will be added to each encoded file after the first one.
The naming convention Date works like Incremental Filename but will
add the current date to the beginning of the file name.
You can create your own naming conventions to suit your own needs. From the
drop-down menu select Edit Naming Conventions. . . to access the editor.
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From the editor, you can add or delete naming conventions of your own. All
available tags are shown in the scroll list at the bottom. Click the New Naming
Convention button ( ) to create a new naming convention. Then double-click
New to activate the Description field and insert a name for your naming conven-
tion:
After entering a name click the corresponding Naming Convention to activate

that field and do the adjustments you need. Close the editor window and you
are done. You have created a new naming convention available in the drop-down
menu whenever you need it.
You can also set the naming convention for individual settings by ctrl-clicking on
a setting to bring up a context menu:
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If you select Custom. . . , you get the default name of the output file and you can
edit this to what you want and this will be remembered for future encodings:
5.9 Compressing files
5.9.1 Playing and pausing
When you have added your settings and files to the Job Batch you can start en-
coding.
All files in the Job Batch tab are preceded by a checkbox. If you for some reason
do not wish to encode a given source file, uncheck its box, if you do not wish to
use a given setting, uncheck its box. If you have unchecked some of the settings
for a given source file, its checkbox will be marked with a horizontal line.
Start encoding by pressing the Start Encoding ( ) button in the lower right
corner of the Job Batch. The first job in the Job Batch will start running, the
Start Encoding button will change into a Pause button ( ) and a progress bar
will show the progress of each track being encoded and how long the encoding is
expected to take.
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When a file is completely encoded the progress bar is replaced by the message
Done. The output file can now be accessed by clicking the Finder button ( )
located in the Action column to the left of the Status column.
With the Pause button you can temporarily stop your current encoding if you need
the processing power of your computer for some other application. You can even
pause your job and put your computer to sleep, and then resume your encoding at
another time. Alternatively, you can press the space key to run/pause encoding.
If you decide not to continue with a particular encoding, press the Skip Current
Job button ( ) and encoding will continue with the next job in the queue; the
skipped job will go to the Stopped state.
5.9.2 Stopping encoding
To stop the encoding of the current job press the Stop Encoding button ( ). This
will stop all jobs and the files encoded so far will be left in the destination direc-
tory. Files that have been partly encoded will also remain in the output directory.
There is no way to resume encoding a stopped job. If you want to run the jobs
again you will have to click the Reset Status button ( ) at the top right of the
Job Batch first.
5.10 Action column
In the Action column you will get information about the current job.
The Finder icon is clickable. It will reveal the corresponding file in the Finder.
It works on both source files and encoded files.
The Clock icon indicates that In/Out Points have been set in this setting.
The Save As button indicates that the setting in the job has been edited. Click-
ing the Save As icon gives you the opportunity to save the setting under a
new name.
The Revert to Saved Setting icon will reload the original saved setting from
the Compression Settings. This will remove all changes made in the Set-
tings Editor.
The Warning icon indicates that something is wrong. Whenever the Warning
icon is displayed the error code is presented in the Status column.
The Link to MBR setting button indicates that this setting can be, but is not,
linked into an MBR Setting.
The Unlink from MBR setting button lets you unlink a selected setting from
an MBR setting.
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5.11 Preferences
You can set some of the behaviour of Episode Pro in the Preferences to suit
your own workflow. The Preferences window is divided into tabs: General, Job
Batch, Update and License. Start by selecting Episode Pro →Preferences. . . .
5.11.1 General
The General tab is chosen by default.
The different options in the General tab and their functions are:
Show all files Show all files and not only the media files. This is the default.
For more information, see section 5.1.3, File extensions.
Show Recently Encoded files Show the list of recently encoded files, as ex-
plained in section 4.1.3, Recently Encoded.
Preview is always on top When the box is checked the Preview window will
always be on top, regardless of any other application in use.
Hide Engine tab Hide the Engine Tab located at the right in the Settings Editor
tab list. The Engine tab is only used when exporting settings from Episode
Pro to be used in Episode Engine.
Scratch location Set the location of the temp directory where temporary files
are placed during encoding. As these may become quite large, the size of
the selected partition is displayed.
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5.11.2 Job Batch
Play sound when job is done Self-explanatory.
Retry failed jobs Set the number of times you want Episode Pro to retry a file
that failed to encode properly. The reasons for a job to fail can differ and are
not necessarily a result of an error in the source file or the encoding setting.
A failure can be a result of a loss of power, memory issues, intermittent
network problems, etc.
Low CPU priority You can lower the processor priority assigned to Episode
Pro. This is very useful if you want to work in other applications while
Episode Pro is encoding in the background. The encoding will usually be
slower but your other applications will respond better.
5.11.3 Update
Episode Pro can automatically check for updated versions. You can select the
frequency for how often it will perform the check or start the check manually.
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5.11.4 License
An unregistered copy of Episode Pro will run in demo mode, allowing 20 seconds
of encoding, for up to 30 days. Open the License tab and press Purchase. . .
and you web browser will be directed to our webshop. When the purchase is
completed you will receive an email with your serial number and the name you
registered under. Press the Enter Serial Number. . . button, copy your name and
serial number from the email message, paste them into the window displayed, and
press Activate. Episode Pro is now fully functional.
5.12 Control buttons and keyboard shortcuts
The Episode Pro main window has two tabs: Job Batch and Settings Editor. The
two tabs have different control buttons.
5.12.1 Job Batch
Episode Pro is launched with the Job Batch view active by default and the row
of control buttons present at the top right of the user interface are:
Use the Add Source File(s) button to add source files to the Job Batch.
The Link/Unlink Setting button will connect or disconnect one or several set-
tings to or from an MBR Setting.
The Reset Status button will reset the status of your jobs in the Job Batch
tab allowing you to start and run your job again. You can also use the
Command-U key.
The Clear Batch button will clear everything from the Job Batch tab—source
files and settings alike. You can also use the Delete key.
Clear All Settings will only clear the settings from Job Batch, the source files
will be left untouched.
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5.12.2 Settings Editor
The Settings Editor tab has the following control buttons:
The Save button will save your current setting.
The Export Setting button will export the setting(s) of your choice in either
Episode Pro or Episode Engine format.
The Close Setting button will close the current setting. If this is the last setting
in the Settings Editor, you will be placed in the Job Batch after closing.
Tips
Place your mouse over any button or window and wait for two seconds without
clicking—a tool tip with an explanation of that particular button or window will
TIP appear.
Telestream 34
5.12.3 Keyboard shortcuts
Key combination Effect

space Run or Pause the current encoding
Command-+ Zoom Preview timeline in
Command-- Zoom Preview timeline out
Command-, Open the Preferences
Command-? Episode Pro Help
Command-0 Set Preview window to half size
Command-1 Set Preview window to normal size
Command-2 Set Preview window to double size
Command-3 Fit Preview window to screen size
Command-Alt-1 Switch to Source tab in Preview window
Command-Alt-2 Switch to Preview tab in Preview window
Command-Alt-3 Switch to Encoded tab in Preview window
Command-A Select All
Command-C Copy the selected item
Command-Alt-C Write current Preview image as file
Command-Alt-Shift-C Write current Preview image as file with
default file name
Command-D Duplicate the selected item
Command-I Show/hide Encoded Movie Info window
Command-M Minimize the application window
Command-N Create a new setting
Command-Shift-N Create a new MBR setting
Command-O Open a stored setting
Command-S Save the active setting
Command-Shift-S Save the active setting under a new name
Command-V Paste the most recently copied item
Command-W Close the application window
Command-Shift-W Close current setting
Command-Alt-W Close all settings
Command-{ Display previous setting
Command-} Display next setting
backspace Clear a file from the Browser or Job Batch
Command-backspace Delete selected setting
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6 Output tab
In this chapter we will go through the Output tab and its different sections: Output
Format, Video, Audio, Hint, In/Out Points, Timecode and Bumper/Trailer.
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6.1 Output Format
Episode Pro supports a large variety of file formats. The complete listing of file
formats supported can be found in appendix B, Supported formats. A number of
these file formats require special settings. These file formats and their particular
settings will be explained later in this chapter. File formats that do not have any
special settings will not be individually explained.
6.1.1 3GPP (3gp)
3GPP is a format targeted towards mobile phones. When encoding .3gp files
for download or streaming you can choose to flag this file as either 3GPP v 5 or
3GPP v 6. The choice here is dictated by what target clients you are encoding for.
The safest way to go in this case is with 3GPP version 5. There are older mobile
phones that have not been upgraded to handle version 6. Most version 6 phones,
on the other hand, are compatible with version 5.
MBR Type lets you choose between 3GPP and Vidiator encoding for Multi Bit
Rate streams. See section 5.4, Multi Bit Rate (MBR) settings for further informa-
tion on Multi Bit Rate streams, see http://www.vidiator.com/ for addi-
tional information on the Vidiator codecs.
Fast start adds information that allows a player to start playing the file before all
data have been downloaded. Note that this is incompatible with streaming.
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6.1.2 3GPP2 (EZMovie)
3GPP2 is a further development of 3GPP. It comes in two flavours; the EZMovie

version lets you Restrict distribution of a downloaded file by limiting the Play-
back Count to a chosen number of times and/or set the Expiration Time of the file
to a specified number of days.
6.1.3 AMC (EZMovie)
AMC (Adaptive Modulation and Coding) is a 3GPP variant mainly used in Japan.
AMC lets you Restrict distribution of a downloaded file by limiting the Playback
Count to a chosen number of times and/or set the Expiration Time of the file to a
specified number of days.
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6.1.4 AVI
AVI is a wrapper format that comes in two versions: Version 1 (regular AVI)
and Version 2 (large files). Version 2 is not supported by all players but allows
encoding of source files larger than 4 GB.
6.1.5 HDV
HDV is a format for high-definition video that uses MPEG-2 compression. Video
and audio data are muxed (interleaved) in the data stream. The Mux Packet Size
determines the size of the interleaved packets and can be set in the range 300 to
5000 bytes.
6.1.6 MOV
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Create QuickTime Timecode Track together with the Timecode option (see sec-
tion 6.6, Timecode), creates a QuickTime timecode track. This track can then be
toggled on or off in QuickTime Player.
Create QuickTime Chapter Track creates a track marking chapters in the file.
Disable Save prevents any transcoding of your file to other formats.
Fast start adds information that allows a player to start playing the file before all
data have been downloaded. Note that this is incompatible with streaming.
6.1.7 MPEG-PS
An MPEG Elementary Stream (MPEG-ES) contains only a single medium, video

or audio. A Program Stream (MPEG-PS) interleaves (multiplexes) video and au-
dio data. The Mux Packet Size can be set in the range 300 to 5000 bytes.
Note that the video and audio tracks need not be encoded according to the same
MPEG version, you may e g have an MPEG-1 video track with an MPEG-2 audio
track.
6.1.8 MPEG-TS
An MPEG Elementary Stream contains only a single medium, video or audio.

A Transport Stream (MPEG-TS) interleaves (multiplexes) video and audio data.
Transport Streams are intended for broadcast media, so they contain interleaved
headers that let receivers pick up an ongoing transmission.
The Mux Packet Size can be set in the range 300 to 5000 bytes.
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The Headers / sec can be set in the range 1 to 10. It sets how often the Program
Specific Information tables, Program Association Table and Program Map Table
are inserted in the stream. The more often PSI tables occur, the faster a player
that tunes in to the broadcast can pick up what media the stream contains, but the
higher the overhead.
Note that the video and audio tracks need not be encoded according to the same
MPEG version, you may e g have an MPEG-1 video track with an MPEG-2 audio
track.
6.1.9 MXF
The Material eXchange Format is a wrapper format which brings together the
actual media and metadata on the media in a single file. This wrapping can be
done on a frame-by-frame basis or for whole clips. The Wrapping menu lets you
choose between Frame and Clip.
6.1.10 PBF
PBF (Popwire Blockbased Format) is a proprietary format which stores files in

indexed blocks that can be retrieved separately, thus not requiring the download
of all of a very large file just to see part of it. You can set the Keyframes per
chunk between 1 and 10, higher numbers creating larger blocks which take longer
to download but require less overhead.
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6.1.11 Real Media
The RealVideo codec is used in the RealMedia format, a proprietary file format
only playable in RealPlayer. The RealVideo codec can only be used with the
RealAudio codec.
RealVideo not available for Intel Macs

Currently there is no Intel implementation of the RealVideo codec, so this func-
tionality is only available on G4 and G5 Macs.
NOTE
Filetype Select Download or SureStream™.
Audio mode Select Music or Voice.
Video Codec Choose between RealVideo 8, RealVideo 9 or RealVideo 10.
Creating RealVideo settings requires the use of RealMedia proprietary interface

which you reach by clicking the Select/Edit Templates button.
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We can only shortly explain the features of RealVideo here, for a more in-depth
description, see [2].
When you select a template setting in the left part of the window the corresponding
data for that template is displayed in the right part of the window. These data are
not editable, but you can select a template and click Duplicate to create an editable
setting, which then will be shown at the top of the list. The parameters you can
edit are the following:
Bit Rate You can set the maximum constant or variable bitrates in kbit/s. For
Variable Bit Rate you can also set the Target Average Bit Rate in kbit/s
and the Target Video Quality. The Target Video Quality takes an integer
value between 0 and 100, where 100 is the best possible reproduction and
0 is a low quality reproduction. Note that neither the target average bitrate
nor the target video quality may actually be achieved if the maximum bitrate
is too low. VBR should be used for progressive download only, never for
streaming.
Codecs You can choose from a large number of video and audio codecs. Which
to choose is beyond the scope of this manual.
Advanced Video Options Pressing the button will open a new dialogue win-
dow letting you specify the following:
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Encoding Complexity This can take the values High, Medium and Low;
high encoding complexity requiring more processing time but giving
better-looking video.
Maximum Startup Latency The startup latency is a value between 4 and
60 s. The longer the latency, the better the video quality can be, but
causes a corresponding delay for streaming presentations. For down-
loaded video, the maximum value is recommended.
Maximum Time Between Key Frames The time is a value between 0
and 60 s. The longer the time the more compression can be achieved,
but the more likely it is that frames lost in transmission will cause
visible errors.
Loss Protection Enabling loss protection adds data to the stream to min-
imise the effects of lost frames and thus requires higher bit rates.
When you are done, select the settings you want to include and you have created
a RealVideo setting.
6.2 Video
In the Video section you can choose between three basic settings:
Encode Choose Encode and then select a video codec for the video track in the
drop-down list. Video codecs that are incompatible with the chosen file
format will be greyed out in the list.
Discard Choose Discard to ignore the source video track in the encoding. No
video track will be encoded.
Copy Choose Copy and the video track will be copied, without transcoding, as
long as the input source format is compatible with the output format.
6.3 Audio
In the Audio section you can choose between three basic settings:
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Encode Choose Encode and then select an audio codec for the audio track in
the drop-down list. Audio codecs that are incompatible with the chosen file
format will be greyed out in the list.
Discard Choose Discard to ignore the source audio track in the encoding. No
audio track will be encoded.
Copy Choose Copy and the audio track will be copied, without transcoding, as
long as the input source format is compatible with the output format.
6.4 Hint
If you want to stream a file from a streaming server you first have to hint the
file. Hinting the file means that you packetize the tracks of the file in a way that
enables a streaming server to send the information as a viewable stream in real
time. Streaming cannot be done with the original video and audio tracks of the
file and therefore a set of two hinted tracks has to be created. These hinted tracks
are based on the original video and audio tracks of the file.
Accordingly, a hinted file contains up to four different tracks: 1. video track,
2. hinted video track, 3. audio track, and 4. hinted audio track
The file size of a hinted file is therefore twice as big as the original file without
containing any more information. Thus, a file should never be hinted unless it is
intended to be streamed from a streaming server, otherwise the user has to down-
load twice the amount of data as the original file without any extra information.
Note that Apple QuickTime Streaming Server version 10.4.8 and later requires all
streaming media to be hinted.
The Prepare For Streaming option adds packetizer(s) and prepares the file for
streaming. If hinting is enabled, only encoders that can be hinted are enabled in
the codec list.
If you select Prepare For Streaming you will activate the Stream tab where you
can choose what packetizers you want for your video and audio tracks, see chap-
ter 12, Stream tab.
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6.5 In/Out Points
If you only want to encode a segment of your source file you can specify In/Out
Points in your setting. This can be a very helpful feature, if you tweak a setting
and want to do several quick test encodings to evaluate filter settings etc.
The in and out points are given in hours, minutes and seconds. As a simplify-
ing feature, if you enter minute and second values larger than 59, they will be
converted into the corresponding hour and minute values.
6.6 Timecode
This section enables you to encode a timecode track in your file if the given output
format supports timecodes.
Either select Same As Source to transfer the timecode from your source material,
or specify a new starting point for your Timecode and a new timecode track will
be created.
The Timecode filter can be used together with the Create QuickTime Timecode
Track option in the .mov file format.
Even though not all file formats support a timecode track you can always use
Timecode together with the Burn Timecode filter (see section 8.4, Burn Time-
code) in which case the timecode is burnt into the picture rather than saved as a
separate timecode track. This way you can use timecode in any file format. Note
that the Burn Timecode filter is destructive—once the timecode has been added
to the picture there is no way of removing it.
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6.7 Bumper/trailer
Bumpers and trailers are clips you can add in front of and behind your media,
respectively. Bumpers and trailers are passed through the Resize and Frame Rate
filters only, all other processing of the clips must have been done beforehand.
Check the box and press the button Bumper and/or Trailer to browse for a bumper
and/or trailer file, respectively.
Note that bumpers and trailers must have both a video and an audio track.
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7 Video tab—codecs
Episode Pro supports a variety of video codecs suitable for everything from very
low bitrate encoding to uncompressed material. This chapter covers these codecs
and their individual settings and parameters.
7.1 Video codec concepts
Before going into detail with the options available for the video codecs, we will
explain a couple of the more common concepts in video encoding, since they
appear as options in several of our encoders. This will help you to get a better
understanding of the implications these options have for the encoded video and
hopefully help you produce better-looking video material.
7.1.1 Colour formats
The most common way to represent colour in digital images is to use the RGB
colour space. In RGB each pixel has three values: red, green and blue, and this is
the way computer screens display colour.
However, this is not how colour is represented in most video codecs, due to the
way television emerged, at first with only black and white images and later with
colour images. The colour format was designed to contain all the black and white
information in one channel, and the colour information in two additional channels.
The black and white channel is called luma (light), and the two colour channels
are called chroma (colour). The separation of luma and chroma made it possible
for the older television sets to still work, only picking up the black and white
image, while the newer ones could benefit from the colour information.
This colour space is called YUV, or YCbCr, and has several advantages over RGB
in terms of video compression. Note that most of the image information ends up
in the luma channel and that the chroma channels hold much less information for
most video material. This, in combination with the fact that human visual per-
ception is less sensitive to colour than to brightness, makes it possible to sample
the colour more sparsely, thereby reducing the amount of data required to store an
image.
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7.1.2 Frame types—I-, P- and B-frames
Except for raw data formats and editing formats, such as DV or Motion JPEG,
most video formats do not simply consist of a sequence of frames, allowing
them to be decoded independently. Since a video frame often looks a lot like
its neighbouring frames, the video codec searches for differences between frames
to achieve a good compression ratio (temporal compression). Only the differences
are stored in the encoded video file. However, for the encoded stream to be decod-
able, independent frames, which can be decoded directly, must appear throughout
the clip. These frames are called keyframes, or I-frames. To decode a frame at a
certain time in the movie the decoder must therefore begin the decoding process
at the nearest previous key-frame and decode to the desired frame. Keyframes
spaced far apart will make the clip hard to search, but will result in a good com-
pression ratio. Accordingly they are good for streaming material in which search-
ing is not usually done. The setting Natural and Forced Keyframes which limits
the distance between keyframes to some maximum distance is the most useful for
most material.
A frame that predicts data from a previous frame is called a P-frame (“Predictive
Frame”). A frame that predicts data from both a previous and a subsequent frame
is called a B-frame (“Bi-Predictive Frame”). The use of B-frames will give a
somewhat better compression ratio, but is also more CPU intensive.
7.1.3 CBR, VBR and Quality Based VBR
Constant Bit Rate (CBR), Variable Bit Rate (VBR) and Quality Based VBR are
coding options available in several of the video encoders. A clip encoded in CBR
mode will have a relatively constant bitrate throughout its duration. CBR encoding
is necessary when the content will be distributed over networks or from devices
that cannot handle peaks that are higher than the average bitrate. However, the
use of true CBR, also called Flat Rate, is difficult since it requires every encoded
video frame to be exactly equal in size. This is not good for quality. I-frames, for
example, must be allowed to be larger in size for the overall quality to be good.
Different segments of a movie need different bitrates in order to maintain constant
quality. The quality delivered by most modern video encoders partly depends
on the amount of motion and fine detail in the material. For this reason it is
a good idea to allow VBR, while keeping the average rate at the desired level.
VBR is suitable for playback on devices with less limited bandwidth. Since the
average rate is known, it is still possible to predict the resulting file size with good
accuracy.
When quality is of outmost importance, Quality Based VBR is the best encoding
mode. Using this mode you only specify the desired quality of the encoded ma-
terial. For each part of the clip the encoder will use the bitrate required to reach
the specified quality. The size of the resulting file cannot be predicted, since it
depends on how difficult the clip is to compress. For example, for the same visual
quality, a clip with a newsreader will yield a small file while a clip of a football
game will be quite large.
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7.1.4 VBV—Video Buffer Verifier
To control how large the variations in bitrate are allowed to be when encoding,
a Video Buffer Verifier (VBV) is used. The buffer size determines within which
time region the bitrate must be kept constant. The VBV is measured in seconds
and anything from 0 to 5 seconds is considered CBR. Everything over 5 seconds
is considered to be VBR. During the specified VBV period of time the bitrate
may vary, without limits, as long as the average rate in the region is correct. This
allows the codec to use higher bitrates for difficult passages and vice versa. A
larger VBV will enable the codec to encode difficult passages better, since the
bitrate is allowed to peak for a longer period of time.
Since the buffer size determines how much the bitrate may vary, it sets a constraint
on how long a player must buffer before starting playback, to ensure smooth play-
back without need for re-buffering. In practice the size of the VBV is a trade-off.
A large VBV lets the encoder vary the bitrate more freely depending on the dif-
ficulty of the current part of the material, still keeping the correct average bitrate.
However, the player will have to buffer a larger portion of the clip before play-
back can be started safely. A small VBV will force the codec to encode at a more
constant bitrate throughout the clip. This results in lower quality for difficult pas-
sages, but the buffer time for the viewer will be low.
When encoding a clip with Quality Based VBR there is no constraint on the size
of the VBV, it is simply ignored. For every part of the movie, the encoder will use
the bitrate required to reach the desired quality.
7.1.5 Frame skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image
In order to keep the specified bitrate most video encoders vary the quality of the
encoded clip. Another alternative supported by some encoders is to skip frames
when the bitrate gets too high. This allows the encoder to keep a higher quality for
each encoded frame, but the motion of the video will not be as smooth. Depending
on the material being encoded, smooth motion may be more important than crisp
image and vice versa. The frame skip probability controls the tradeoff between
skipping frames and lowering quality. A frame skip probability of 1 means that
when the encoder has to choose between lowering the quality or skipping a frame,
it will skip a frame. A probability of 0 does not mean frames will never be skipped,
but this will only happen when image quality cannot be lowered more.
Frame skip probability is also important to use when creating content for networks
with extreme bandwidth limitations such as GPRS, 3G or when streaming over
modem. These networks sometimes cannot handle even the slightest peaks over
the specified bitrate, and frames can be skipped to avoid this. When streaming
to such a device, set the priority towards sustaining the bitrate and sacrificing
the frame rate if necessary. When encoding for a less bandwidth limited target
platform, such as local playback on a computer, the frame skip probability value
can be set lower. This is possible since the data rate from the computer’s hard
drive is sufficient to handle quite large bitrate peaks.
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7.1.6 Video scan
Video material can be rendered either a full frame at a time, progressive scan or
with every second line of the frame at a time, interlaced scan.
The two half-frames in interlaced material are known as the top and the bottom
fields. One of the fields is dominant and contains the majority of data. The domi-
nant field should always be played back first. When encoding material to be burnt
on a DVD and played back in a TV it is important that the dominant field is set as
the first field. If you have not edited the material you are going to encode it can
be difficult to know whether the dominance lies in the top or bottom field. The
normal field dominances of some of the more common formats are:
Format Field dominance

DVCPRO 100 HD Top field
DV 25, DVCPRO 25/50 Bottom field
IMX Bottom field
Apple Intermediate Codec Top field
Uncompressed 4:2:2 Bottom field
Much video material is in fact generated from non-interlaced film material, where
a single film frame may be sampled several times to generate video fields. For
NTSC material this is typically done by taking 3 fields from one frame and 2 from
the next, known as “3-2 pulldown”; for PAL “2-2 pulldown” is the normal. Mak-
ing use of knowing this sequence of fields, the “cadence”, can greatly improve the
quality of deinterlacing. Typically subsequent editing breaks up the cadence, but
Episode Pro will detect broken cadences and immediately adapt. The interested
reader is referred to [3] for an extended discussion of deinterlacing methods.
Field issue in QuickTime Player

There is a known issue with field-based encoding in QuickTime Player 7.0.4
and possibly other versions, causing visual artefacts on playout. Try another
NOTE media player if you have problems.
7.1.7 Picture resolution and aspect ratio
A video sequence has a given pixel resolution, the number of addressable pixels
in the images. However, the pixels may not have a 1 : 1 aspect ratio, i e, the pixels
may be non-square. An example is the SVCD format which stores NTSC video at
480 × 480 pixels, but where the pixels have an aspect ratio of 4 : 3. This requires
the player software to “stretch” the pixels. In the SVCD case the player will
typically render the image with 640 × 480 pixels (assuming the display has square
pixels, normally true for computer displays), interpolating pixel values along the
horisontal axis to generate the additional pixels.
Some of the codecs (DV, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4) will allow the user to set a pixel
aspect ratio for the resulting video. This will set a data field in the video data,
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informing a player of the desired aspect ratio for viewing.

The resize filter (see section 8.5, Resize) also has an aspect ratio setting, but this
refers to the relation between the number of pixels in the horisontal and vertical
directions. In the above SVCD example, you would set the aspect ratio to 1 : 1 and
the pixel size to 480 × 480 in the Size filter, and the pixel aspect ratio to 4 : 3 in the
codec settings to get the intended rendering. However, your input data may have
a different pixel aspect ratio, depending on its format. The Source Pixel Aspect
Ratio menu will let you give a hint to the encoder if the input does not have square
pixels. Example: You have a PAL video with 720 × 576 square pixels and wish to
convert this to a SVCD video with 480 × 480 non-square pixels. In this case, you
should select None (Distort) in the Maintain Aspect Ratio by menu and Pass
Through (Keep Pixel Aspect Ratio) in the Source Pixel Aspect Ratio menu.
The pixels will then be “squashed” in the proper manner, so that the image will
look right when played out. If you want to perform the conversion in the opposite
direction you should select Assume 4:3 in the Source Pixel Aspect Ratio menu
and None (Distort) in the Maintain Aspect Ratio by menu.
In other cases, you may wish to convert from one square-pixel format to another
square-pixel format with different pixel resolutions. In this case you have two
options, either to scale the smallest dimension to fit the output format and cut
off parts of the largest dimension, or to scale the largest dimension to fit and pad
the smallest dimension with black. Example: You start with an HD video of
1280 × 720 pixels (an image aspect ratio of 16 : 9) and wish to encode it as a PAL
video at 720 × 576 pixels (4 : 3) while retaining as much of the picture as possible.
In this case you should choose the Letterbox (Pad) alternative, scaling down the
width of the picture until it fits. This will shrink the vertical dimension to 324
pixels and the picture will get 126-pixel black borders along the top and bottom.
The other alternative is to choose Cut, when the vertical dimension will be scaled
to 576 pixels and the horisontal to 1024 pixels, of which 152 are cut off at both
the left and right sides. You may combine these two modes by using the Initial
Crop values, which let you crop parts of the picture before performing the scaling
caused by either cutting or padding.
7.2 Blackmagic
The Blackmagic codec is uncompressed video and is used by Decklink and Aja
products. You have the option to store the video with either 8 or 10 bits per pixel
and channel. Note that 10-bit encoding cannot increase the quality of 8-bit source
data.
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7.3 D-10/IMX
The D-10 or IMX codec is defined by the SMPTE 356M standard. It corresponds
to MPEG 4:2:2 I-frames-only video.
You can select a Bit Rate of 30 MBit/s, 40 MBit/s or 50 MBit/s.
You can choose a Display Aspect Ratio of 1:1 (square pixels), 4:3, 16:9 or
2.21:1.
7.4 DV
DV is one of the most widespread editing formats in use today. The DV codec
does not use prediction between frames (all frames are keyframes), which makes
every frame decodable separately. This is what makes the codec suitable for edit-
ing, and gives the video an even quality, even in parts of the video that are typically
difficult to encode for other video encoders.
The format is restricted to the NTSC and PAL frame sizes and frame rates. Other
frame sizes or frame rates cannot be encoded.
Audio sample rate

The DV type setting will automatically set the audio sample rate filter (sec-
tion 10.9, Sample Rate) to the appropriate value.
NOTE
DV Type Episode Pro supports the following DV formats:
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DV The DV (25) format is specified by the ISO IEC 61834 standard:

• Frame size must be 720 × 576 (PAL) or 720 × 480 (NTSC) at a
frame rate of 25 and 29.97 frames per second, respectively.
• The bitrate is fixed at 25 Mbit/s.
• The image sampling structure is 4:2:0 for PAL and 4:1:1 for
NTSC clips.
• 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz audio sample rates are supported.
DVCPRO DVCPRO is specified by the SMPTE 314M standard:
• Frame size must be 720 × 576 (PAL) or 720 × 480 (NTSC) at a
rate of 25 and 29.97 frames per second, respectively.
• bitrate is fixed at 25 Mbit/s.
• The image sampling structure is 4:1:1 for both PAL and NTSC.
• Only 32 and 48 kHz audio sample rates are supported.
DVCPRO50 The DVPRO50 format has a bitrate of 50 Mbit/s and an image
sampling structure of 4:2:2, but is otherwise the same as the DVCPRO
format.
Pixel Aspect Ratio The pixel aspect ratio informs the device playing the DV file
whether it should be displayed at 4 : 3 or 16 : 9 aspect ratio.
7.5 Flash Video
The Flash 7 Video format is often used for video content on the Web and is stored
in either the Adobe Flash (SWF) or Flash Video (FLV) file format.
Average rate The desired bandwidth of the video track in kilobits per second.
The range is 0 kbit/s to 100 000 kbit/s.
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Frame skip probability The value 0.0 is least likely to cause frame skipping,
while the value 1.0 is most likely to skip frames when bitrate cannot be
sustained. For more information about this option, please read section 7.1.5,
Frame skip probability—smooth motion vs crisp image.
VBV buffer size The VBV buffer size can be set between 0 and 60 seconds.
Please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
Keyframe control Keyframes can be set in these modes:
Keyframes Only Makes all frames keyframes. This option should only be
used for very high bitrates.
Forced Keyframes Only Creates a keyframe after the specified number of
frames.
Natural and Forced Keyframes Lets the codec choose keyframe, but also
ensures that there is at least one keyframe within the specified interval.
If Keyframe distance is set to zero, keyframes will only be created
when a scene change is detected, making this the same as Natural
Keyframes Only.
Natural Keyframes Only Lets the codec decide when it is appropriate to
insert a keyframe. The codec automatically detects a scene change
and inserts a keyframe.
Intra Block Refresh When choosing Intra Block Refresh (IBR), the In-
fra refresh distance must be set. This differs from the other keyframe
options in that the codec does not update the whole frame. The codec
updates the different areas in the image in blocks instead of the whole
frame. This is extremely useful when encoding for very low bitrates
and streaming, since it makes the bitrate more constant.
Keyframe distance The maximum distance between any keyframes regardless

of scene changes. With long clips with much redundant data such as news
clips (talking head), setting a maximum distance will ensure that the stream
can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 0 to 10 000 frames.
Use 2-pass encoding Encoding will be performed in two passes. In pass one,
the codec will analyze the frames and collect data. In the second pass it will
use the collected data as the basis for how to best distribute the bits. 2-pass
encoding improves the quality, but slows down the encoding. The 2-pass
interval value sets the number of frames the codec will analyze in the first
pass before encoding the second pass. Using a higher 2-pass interval will
increase the quality, but the encoding will be slower. It is possible to set a
2-pass value between 200 to 500 frames, but it must be at least twice the
length of the VBV buffer size in order to have any effect on image quality.
Flash audio sample rates

Flash uses MP3 as audio codec. The sample rates defined and allowed in the
Flash standard are 44.1, 22.05, and 11.025 kHz.
NOTE
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7.6 Flash 8 Video
With the Flash 8 Option you can create video in the Flash 8 Video format and
store it in either the Adobe Flash (SWF) or the Flash Video (FLV) file format.
Peak rate The maximum allowed bitrate. The range is 50 kbit/s to 100 000 kbit/s.
VBR Strength If the 2-pass mode is set to VBR, you can set the amount of
variability allowed; 0 corresponds to CBR.
frames.
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Keyframes Only.

can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 1 to 200 frames.
Minimum distance The minimum allowed distance between keyframes. If this

setting is larger than the Keyframe distance setting, Minimum distance will
be set equal to Keyframe distance. The range is 0 to 50 frames.
Error resilient mode If checked, error correction codes will be added to the out-
put. This improves the quality on lossy networks, but adds approximately
5% overhead to the material.
Input material is interlaced If the input material is interlaced you should check
this box, to let the encoder make use of this. You should not use the Dein-
terlace filter (section 8.3, Deinterlace) in combination with this option.
Quality You can set the image quality to Normal Quality, High Quality or
Highest Quality. Higher quality requires more encoding time.
encoding improves the quality, but slows down the encoding.
2-pass mode The 2-pass mode kan be set to CBR, Constant Bit Rate (default) or
VBR, Variable Bit Rate.
Sharpness A low sharpness setting blurs the image slightly, a high sharpness
setting enhances edges but may also cause image artefacts.
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7.7 H.263
H.263 is a video codec mainly designed for lower bitrates. The format is suitable
for applications such as video conferencing and streaming to handheld devices.
The settings for H.263 are listed below.
frames.
Keyframes Only.
Intra Block Refresh When choosing Intra Block Refresh (IBR), the In-
fra refresh distance must be set. This differs from the other keyframe
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options in that the codec does not update the whole frame. The codec
updates the different areas in the image in blocks instead of the whole
frame. This is extremely useful when encoding for very low bitrates
and streaming, since it makes the bitrate more constant.

Profile The H.263 codec has two different profiles: Baseline and Profile 3. Base-
line only supports the picture sizes QCIF (176×144) and Sub-QCIF (128×
96). Profile 3 supports all picture sizes and enables four added encoding
options:
Advanced intra coding The codec uses an advanced algorithm for the
coding of intra blocks.
Deblocking filter The codec adds a deblocking filter to prevent blocking
due to hard quantization.
Slice structure The codec uses a different method for dividing the picture
into smaller units.
Modified quantization The codec uses a different method for quantiza-
tion to add flexibility and decrease computational load for the encoder.
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7.8 H.264
H.264, also called AVC or MPEG-4 part 10, represents the state of the art of video
compression. The 8-bit codec used uses many different techniques to achieve a
good video compression ratio for bitrates ranging from very low levels for hand-
held devices to high levels for HD television.
Limit frame size Even if the average bitrate stays below the set limit, individual
frames may become larger than a decoder can handle in real time, thus you
can set limits on how large frames can get. This may reduce image quality
considerably, so you should not use this setting unless you have definite
problems.
Frame size The maximum value of any single frame is limited to be 2–10 times
the average size of frames.
Initial buffer fullness When encoding starts, the encoder assumes a certain level
of bits in the buffer, to get an even bitrate right from the beginning. How
full the buffer is assumed to be affects how large the first frames will be.
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Lower fullness means there are fewer bits available and the first frames will
be smaller. This is good when you want to limit the size of the first frame
which typically can be very large, especially if there is little motion in the
material (because then it makes sense to spend a lot of bits on the quality of
the first frame). Setting this value low will decrease the quality slightly for
the first frames of the movie. The default value in the decoder is 50%.
frames.
Keyframe distance is the maximum distance between any keyframes
regardless of scene changes. With long clips with much redundant
data such as news clips (talking head), setting a maximum distance
will ensure that the stream can recover more rapidly if losing packets.
If the value is set to zero, keyframes will only be created when a scene
change is detected, making it the same as Natural Keyframes Only.

can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 1 frames and up-
wards.
Number of reference frames Sets the number of reference frames that P-frames
search for prediction. In general, using more than 3 reference frames will
improve the quality only for sequences with a large amount of movement.
Number of B-frames You can set the number of B-frames in a GOP from 0 to 4,
a higher number giving more efficient encoding but requiring more complex
processing.
Profile Baseline is the fastest-encodable profile, Main can give better compres-
sion, High will give higher quality encoding, primarily for HDTV applica-
tions.
Entropy coding Choice of entropy coding is only possible for the Main and High
profiles. CAVLC (Context-adaptive variable-length coding) is the simpler
and faster coding method and the one used by the Baseline Profile; CABAC
(Context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding) is the more efficient method.
Colour Space The High profile allows you to set the colour encoding of the out-
put video to either Same as Source, 4:2:0 or 4:2:2. The other profiles will
use 4:2:0.
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Encoding speed vs quality The H.264 encoder has a wide range of encoding
methods to use, which may result in a very time consuming encoding pro-
cess. The Speed vs. Quality setting determines the complexity of the en-
coding by switching on or off different tools. Speed vs. Quality can be set
between 10 and 100, 10 representing the fastest speed, with most of the ad-
vanced features turned off and 100 representing the most advanced coding
mode, yielding the best quality, but also taking a considerably longer time.
In general, values over 50 will yield very small improvements in visible
image quality.
Encoding passes If 2-Pass is selected, encoding will be performed in two passes.

In pass one, the codec will analyze the frames and collect data. In the sec-
ond pass it will use the collected data as the basis for how to best distribute
the bits. 2-pass encoding improves the quality, but slows down the encod-
ing. The 2-pass interval value sets the number of frames the codec will
analyze in the first pass before encoding the second pass. Using a higher
2-pass interval will increase the quality, but the encoding will be slower. It
is possible to set a 2-pass value between 200 to 500 frames, but it must be
at least twice the length of the VBV buffer size in order to have any effect
on image quality.
Use de-blocking filter The de-blocking filter smoothens out block artefacts which
may occur in the image when using lower bitrates. Using the de-blocking
filter may increase image quality considerably.
7.9 HDV
HDV is a High Definition Video codec, using MPEG-2 compression. HDV Type
lets you choose between HDV 720p (1280x720 24, 25, 29.97 or 30 fps), HDV
1080i (1440x1080 25, 29.97 or 30 fps) and HDV 1080p (1440x1080 24 or 25
fps).
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7.10 MJPEG
Motion JPEG is simply a sequence of JPEG still images, and is suitable to use as
an editing format.
Profile The available profiles are Mjpeg A, Mjpeg B and Photo Jpeg. The actual
encoding is identical for all versions, but the headers are different.
Colour space The colour space can be set to Same as Source, 4:2:0 or 4:2:2.
Interlacing The video scan can be set to Progressive, Interlaced or Same As

Source. If Interlaced is selected you can set the field dominance to either
Bottom First or Top First.
Encoding quality The image quality for a video frame is set from 0 (most com-
pression but lowest quality) to 100 (least compressed but highest quality).
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7.11 MPEG-1
Video encoded with the MPEG-1 codec is accepted by most video players. This
format is suitable when it is important to reach a large audience on different plat-
forms. MPEG-1 is recommended for use with sizes up to CIF (352 × 288) and
bitrates up to 1500 kbit/s, above these levels we suggest that you use MPEG-2
instead.
Coding type You can choose to base the encoding on keeping to a given bitrate
(Bitrate-based) or to a certain level of quality (Quality-based).
The range is 16 kbit/s and upwards.
GOP format Different frame types (I-, P-, and B-frames) are encoded in the
same order throughout a clip. This repeating group of frame types is called
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a Group Of Pictures (GOP). For an explanation of frame types, please see

section 7.1.2, Frame types—I-, P- and B-frames. You can select one of
a number of predefined GOP structures, or select Custom. . . to specify
some other GOP structure with the fields P-frames between I-frames and
B-frames between P-frames.
Force sequence header for every GOP Insert a Sequence Header before ev-
ery GOP, a requirement when creating MPEG files for editing.
7.12 MPEG-2
The MPEG-2 codec is similar to the MPEG-1 codec, but is more suitable for larger
frame sizes and higher bitrates. MPEG-2 is the standard format for DVDs and for
digital television.
Coding type You can choose to base the encoding on keeping to a given bitrate
(Bitrate-based) or to a certain level of quality (Quality-based).
Bitrate control This menu determines how the bitrate should be maintained. It
has the following options:
CBR The video will be encoded with a constant bitrate. Should frames
be encodable at a lower bitrate, they will be padded to reach the set
bitrate.
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VBV Size This option lets you enter a buffer time value in the VBV buffer
size field. The VBV buffer size field controls the variation in bitrate.
A larger buffer size will make room for bigger variations in bitrate.
For more information about the impact on bitrate by the buffer size,
please read section 7.1.4, VBV—Video Buffer Verifier.
Peak Rate The variation in bitrate is controlled by entering a maximum
bitrate value in the Peak rate field. This value represents the highest
bitrate that is to be allowed in the clip.
GOP type This menu lets you specify Open GOP or Closed GOP. In a file us-
ing an Open GOP structure, frames are allowed to predict data from frames
outside the GOP. This gives better compression but is not accepted by all
applications and will not work well when using MPEG-2 as an editing for-
mat. When using Closed GOP each frame in the GOP is independent of the
frames outside of the GOP. Hence all the predictive coding is done inside
each GOP.
GOP format Different frame types (I-, P-, and B-frames) are encoded in the
same order throughout a clip. This repeating group of frame types is called
a Group Of Pictures (GOP). For an explanation of frame types, please see
section 7.1.2, Frame types—I-, P- and B-frames. You can select one of
a number of predefined GOP structures, or select Custom. . . to specify
some other GOP structure with the fields P-frames between I-frames and
B-frames between P-frames.
Force sequence header for every GOP Insert a Sequence Header before ev-
ery GOP, a requirement when creating MPEG files for editing.
Colour space The colour space can be set to Same as Source, 4:2:0 or 4:2:2.
Note that not all MPEG-2 players support the 4:2:2 colour space. If you
have problems with 4:2:2-encoded video, try 4:2:0 instead.
Pixel aspect ratio The Pixel aspect ratio menu makes it possible to create stretched
widescreen anamorphic material. To do this you encode your clip at the
usual size, for example PAL (720 × 576) or NTSC (720 × 480). Then se-
lect the desired display aspect ratio. When viewing the clip, the player will
stretch the image to the selected aspect ratio. Selecting Same as Input will
use whatever pixel aspect ratio has been indicated in the source material.
Intra DC Precision The DC component of the encoded signal determines the

base level of each encoded block. This can be encoded with from 8 bits to
10 bits.
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Frame Type Even if the output is intended to be displayed as interlaced video,

the two fields can be processed and stored as progressive frames, from
which the even and odd fields are then extracted by the player. This is
the normal behaviour for most MPEG-2 players. Processing and storing
interlace fields independently may give slightly better compression, but
transcoding is slower and the format is not supported by most players. Ac-
cordingly, the frame type of the output can be set to either Progressive or
Interlaced. In either case, Field Order can be set to Bottom First, Top
First or Same as Input, which will be ignored by the player for actual
progressive material.
Signal progressive sequence in bitstream If Frame Type is set to Progres-

sive, a flag indicating this can be set in the output stream.
Encoding passes If 2-Pass is selected, encoding will be performed in two passes.

In pass one, the codec will analyze the frames and collect data. In the sec-
ond pass it will use the collected data as the basis for how to best distribute
the bits. 2-pass encoding improves the quality, but slows down the encod-
ing. The 2-pass interval value sets the number of frames the codec will
analyze in the first pass before encoding the second pass. Using a higher
2-pass interval will increase the quality, but the encoding will be slower. It
is possible to set a 2-pass value between 200 to 500 frames, but it must be
at least twice the length of the VBV buffer size in order to have any effect
on image quality.
Use scene change detection
7.13 MPEG-4
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MPEG-4 is rapidly becoming the most common format for downloadable video
and audio material.
frames.
Keyframes Only.

processing. This requires the Advanced Simple Profile to be active.
Profile The Simple Profile is the fastest-encodable profile, the Advanced Simple
Profile gives additional options, but is not supported by most players.
Simple Visual Profile Level 0 The Simple Visual Profile Level 0 is used in
3GPP files. If the visual bit stream in the encoded file is below 64 kbit/s
it will be tagged as level 0. If the visual bit stream is between 64 kbit/s and
128 kbit/s it will be tagged as level 0B.
Playback of Simple Visual Profile Level 0B in QuickTime Player

Using Simple Visual Profile Level 0B in QuickTime Player 6.5.2 will
generate a spurious error message. Click OK in the error dialogue and
NOTE the file will play fine. SVPL 0B plays fine in QuickTime Player 7.
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Motion estimation accuracy Sets the active area for looking at motion estima-
tion. Half Pel (1/2 pixel) and Quarter Pel (1/4 pixel) can be selected.
Error Correction MPEG-4 contains support for error correction. The Packet
length sets the lengths of the data packets. Large packets have less over-
head, but give less error correction. The range is 0 to 163 840 bits.
Use Data Partition Using data partitioning inserts extra synchronization mark-
ers for better error correction. This is useful for very low bandwidth and
error prone networks.
Use RVLC Reversible Variable Length Codes make it possible for the player to
“look back” and check previous parts of the image. If the image contains
corrupt data the codec can check with previous frames for correction. Note
that using RVLC increases the bandwidth requirements and therefore may
result in lowered image quality. RVLC is dependent on player support.
7.14 QuickTime
In addition to the encoders in Episode Pro it is possible to use all QuickTime

video encoders installed on your system. To access your QuickTime codecs,
press the QuickTime Movie Settings. . . button to display the QuickTime standard
video compression dialog. Choose the codec you wish to use from the top-most
drop-down menu, and enter the settings you want to use.
Frame rate
Episode Pro will override the Frame Rate specified in the QuickTime dialog,
so you have to explicitly use the Frame Rate filter (section 8.2, Frame rate).
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7.15 RealVideo
RealVideo has no controls in the Video tab, but is instead controlled through the
Output tab. See section 6.1.11, Real Media for a description of these controls.
7.16 RGB
This is an uncompressed format used by QuickTime. Bit Depth can be 24 or 32.
7.17 Targa Cine YUV
Targa Cine YUV is an uncompressed video format used with Cinewave cards, it
has no settings. The pixel values are stored with 4:2:2 subsampling.
7.18 Windows Media Video 9
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The Windows Media 9 codec is used in the Windows Media (WM) format, a
proprietary format playable in Windows Media Player.
Incompatible settings
The Windows Media support has been completely rewritten in Episode Pro
version 4.2, therefore any settings created in older versions cannot be reused
but have to be reimplemented.
Windows Media Coding Modes The Coding Mode drop-down menu presents
you with different coding modes that are available for the Windows Media
Video encoder. Depending on which coding mode you select, different set-
tings will be available in the GUI. The settings are described below, next to
each coding mode.
1-pass CBR This is a bitrate based mode and encodes the clip at the rate
specified in the Average rate field. How much the rate can vary
depends on the VBV buffer size slider. A smaller buffer will allow
smaller variations in bitrate, and vice versa. Please read section 7.1.4,
VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
In 1-pass CBR mode the Smoothness/crispness slider sets the trade-
off between good picture quality and smooth frame rate, i e the frame
skip probability. Please read section 7.1.5, Frame skip probability—
smooth motion vs crisp image.
1-pass VBR Encodes the clip at a variable bitrate, at the quality specified
in the Smoothness/crispness slider. This setting is picture quality
based only and has no bitrate setting. The encoder will use whatever
bitrate necessary to maintain the specified quality. Unlike 1-pass CBR
a higher quality will never cause the encoder to skip frames, only to
use a higher bitrate.
2-pass CBR Encodes the clip at Constant Bit Rate. The encoder analyzes
the source clip in the first pass and encodes in the second pass. This
setting is bitrate based, and has no picture quality setting. As with 1-
pass CBR, the VBV buffer size slider decides how much the rate may
vary. A smaller buffer will allow smaller variations in bitrate, and vice
versa.
2-pass VBR Unconstrained This mode encodes the clip at Variable Bit
Rate. The codec analyzes the source clip in the first pass and encodes
in the second pass. This setting is bitrate-based, but has no limitations
regarding how high it peaks.
2-pass VBR Peak Constrained Encodes the clip at a variable bitrate. The
codec analyzes the source clip in the first pass and encodes in the
second pass. This setting is bitrate based. You can specify a Peak
rate and set the VBV buffer size to control the average bitrate.
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Smoothness/crispness The value 10 is least likely to cause frame skipping,

while the value 100 is most likely to skip frames when bitrate cannot be
frames.
Keyframes Only.

can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 0 to 60 s.
processing. This requires the Main Profile to be active.
Profile The Simple Profile is the fastest-encodable profile, the Main Profile al-
lows additional encoding options.
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7.19 Windows Media Video VC-1
The VC-1 codec corresponds to the Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile;
it is the same as the SMPTE 421M video codec standard. It offers support for
interlaced content and is transport independent.
Windows Media Coding Modes The Coding Mode drop-down menu presents
you with different coding modes that are available for the Windows Media
Video encoder. Depending on which coding mode you select, different set-
tings will be available in the GUI. The settings are described below, next to
each coding mode.
1-pass CBR This is a bitrate based mode and encodes the clip at the rate
specified in the Average rate field. How much the rate can vary
depends on the VBV buffer size slider. A smaller buffer will allow
smaller variations in bitrate, and vice versa. Please read section 7.1.4,
VBV—Video Buffer Verifier for more information.
In 1-pass CBR mode the Smoothness/crispness slider sets the trade-
off between good picture quality and smooth frame rate, i e the frame
skip probability. Please read section 7.1.5, Frame skip probability—
smooth motion vs crisp image.
1-pass VBR Encodes the clip at a variable bitrate, at the quality specified
in the Smoothness/crispness slider. This setting is picture quality
based only and has no bitrate setting. The encoder will use whatever
bitrate necessary to maintain the specified quality. Unlike 1-pass CBR
a higher quality will never cause the encoder to skip frames, only to
use a higher bitrate.
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2-pass CBR Encodes the clip at Constant Bit Rate. The encoder analyzes
the source clip in the first pass and encodes in the second pass. This
setting is bitrate based, and has no picture quality setting. As with 1-
pass CBR, the VBV buffer size slider decides how much the rate may
vary. A smaller buffer will allow smaller variations in bitrate, and vice
versa.
2-pass VBR Unconstrained This mode encodes the clip at Variable Bit
Rate. The codec analyzes the source clip in the first pass and encodes
in the second pass. This setting is bitrate-based, but has no limitations
regarding how high it peaks.
2-pass VBR Peak Constrained Encodes the clip at a variable bitrate. The
codec analyzes the source clip in the first pass and encodes in the
second pass. This setting is bitrate based. You can specify a Peak
rate and set the VBV buffer size to control the average bitrate.
Smoothness/crispness The value 10 is least likely to cause frame skipping,

while the value 100 is most likely to skip frames when bitrate cannot be
frames.
Keyframes Only.

can recover more rapidly if losing packets. The range is 0 to 60 s.
processing. This requires the Main Profile to be active.
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Field order You can set the output be Progressive or interlaced with Top field
first or Bottom field first; Derive from source will retain whatever the
source file uses.
Pixel aspect ratio: You can set the pixel aspect ratio of the output to 1:1, 4:3,
11:9, 16:9, 5:4, 3:2, or Custom. . . . For a custom aspect ratio you set the
desired aspect ratio in the fields below the menu. Derive from source will
retain the aspect ratio of the input.
7.20 Windows RGB
Windows RGB can be output with a Bit Depth of 24 or 32 bits.
7.21 YCbCr
Color Space can be set to Same as Source, 4:2:0 or 4:2:2. Default value is
4:2:0.
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8 Video tab—filters
The filters apply transformations to the source material. Filters may be concerned
with adjusting the output format, such as the Frame Rate or Resize filters, or they
may be used to improve the appearance of the image, such as the Noise Reduction
or Black and White Restoration filters; some filters add information to output file,
such as the Burn Timecode and Watermark filters. You can see the effects of
the filters in the Preview window, so you can easily check that you achieve the
intended effect.
All filters are originally shown collapsed and deactivated.
You expand a filter by clicking on the triangle icon. You activate a filter by check-
ing the checkbox in the top left corner. Note that even if you have changed the
values in an expanded filter, the filter will not be applied to your clip unless you
activate the filter. To deactivate a filter, uncheck the checkbox. To clearly indicate
which filters are currently active, Episode Pro moves activated filters to above the
unused filters, and deactivated filters back to the bottom. Collapsed filters display
a text version of their parameter values.
The active filters are applied in the order they are shown from top to bottom.
However, the codec settings are applied last even though they are topmost in the
tab.
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8.1 Field Order
As discussed in section 7.1.6, Video scan video input can be progressive or inter-
laced. For interlaced material you can change the field dominance.
Input Field Order This menu tells subsequent filters if the incoming material is
progressive or interlaced with a certain field dominance.
Derive from file format The field order information in the source file is
trusted to be correct.
Source has Top Field First The source is top field dominant.
Source has Bottom Field First The source is bottom field dominant.
Source is Progressive The source is progressive. This option disables the
Filter Action menu.
Source has unknown field order Subsequent filters will have to make a
best guess at the field order. This option disables the Filter Action
menu.
Filter Action You can change the dominance of interlaced material. Depend-
ing on if you use the Deinterlace filter or not, this will determine the field
dominance of the output.
Same as input The field dominance of the input is unchanged.

Switch to Top Field First The field dominance is changed to top domi-
nant.
Switch to Bottom Field First The field dominance is changed to bottom
dominant.
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8.2 Frame rate
Use the frame rate filter to change the frame rate in your clip. The change in frame
rate can be either Fixed or Fractional. To use the same frame rate as the source
material, de-select the Frame Rate filter.
Fixed When using fixed frame rate you specify the exact frame rate for the out-
put format. You can choose a predefined frame rate or enter your desired
frame rate in the fps combo box. You can choose a conversion algorithm in
the menu on the right. Fast does not interpolate frames but reuses frames
if needed to achieve the desired frame rate. Automatic analyzes the source
video to determine the best algorithm for the specific conversion. The other
menu alternatives perform conversions between specific formats and in-
activate the fps combo box. The available conversions are: Telecine (24
=> 29.97), Telecine (23.98 => 29.97), Inv. Telecine (29.97 => 24), Inv.
Telecine (29.97 => 23.98), PAL => NTSC (25 => 29.97), NTSC => PAL
(29.97 => 25), Film => PAL (24 => 25), PAL => Film (25 => 24).
Fractional When using fractional frame rate you specify the resulting frame rate
as a fraction of the original frame rate in the menu Change framerate to.
For example, if you choose 1/2 as fractional frame rate and encode a source
video with 25 fps, then the resulting video will have a frame rate of 12.5 fps.
Using fractional frame rate will produce a video with smoother motion,
since the frame rate is an even fraction of the original one. The available
fractions are 2x, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/10. Note that 2x will speed up your
frame rate, this is useful when e g converting high-definition, low frame rate
video to standard-definition, high frame rate video.
Extended options If you are performing conversion between PAL and NTSC
or speeding up the framerate, you can further adjust the algorithms used.
Algorithm The Drop/Add (Fastest) option simply drops frames or adds
copies of the nearest frame to achieve the desired frame rate. Blend-
ing (Fast) interpolates between frames, Motion Compensated (Slow)
takes into account motion within the frames to make better interpo-
lated frames.
Field order The field order of the input data can be set to Progressive
(None), Bottom First or Top First.
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In the following table you have the optimal frame rates for NTSC or PAL source
material:
Ideal NTSC-derived frame rates Ideal PAL-derived frame rates

30 fps (all frames) 25 fps (all frames)
15 fps (every other frame) 12.5 fps (every other frame)
10 fps (every third frame) 8.3 fps (every third frame)
7.5 fps (every fourth frame) 6.25 fps (every fourth frame)
6 fps (every fifth frame) 5 fps (every fifth frame)
5 fps (every sixth frame)
NTSC frame rates

NTSC 29.97 fps is mostly used for material to be broadcast. If you are creating
NTSC video for broadcasting, Episode Pro supports 29.97 fps in Fixed frame
NOTE mode.
Frame rates at low bitrates

For low bitrates, higher frame rates will give a smoother motion, but decrease
the image quality. Lower frame rates result in crisper images, but might be
TIP perceived as jerky motion.
8.3 Deinterlace
A PAL or NTSC video frame is constructed of two fields, representing the even
and odd lines in the frame. When shown on a TV, these fields are drawn one at
a time. First, the frame’s odd lines are drawn and in the next sweep of the TV’s
electron beam, the even lines are drawn. In the next sweep the same procedure is
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performed again, drawing the odd and the even lines. This method of rendering
a TV picture is called interlacing. In an NTSC system, a field is drawn every
1/59.94 s and in a PAL system one field is drawn every 1/50 s.
Because of the slight time difference between the fields in a frame, it is not possi-
ble to simply merge the two fields and get one clear frame. When creating content
to be shown on a computer or a mobile phone screen etc, it is not proper to use
interlaced content. That will result in a frame with shadows and the image will
look as if it is split into lines (“jagged”), so if the source material is interlaced PAL
or NTSC it might be necessary to deinterlace in order to achieve a good result.
Field Order Choose which field to use as a base for the deinterlacing process in
the drop-down menu:
Automatic Detection Let Episode Pro analyze the correct field order (rec-
ommended). If the Field Order filter is used, the values set there will
be used. If you have 4:2:0 source material, it is vital to check the
coding result, since the colour information can be set in either field.
Top Manually set the top field as the base if you know that this is the field
that contains the chroma information.
Bottom Manually set the bottom field as the base if you know that this is
the field that contains the chroma information.
Create New Fields By The codec removes one of the fields. This results in the
missing field needing to be reproduced in order to get a full, undistorted
image. In the Create New Fields By drop-down, there are five different
methods to create new fields:
Duplication Duplicate the dominant field. This process is quick but the
result will not be as accurate as using the interpolation method.
Interpolation Remove the non-dominant field and creates a new field by
linear interpolation. The new pixels are based on the nearest pixels in
the dominant field. This generally creates a better result than duplica-
tion, but requires more processing time.
Blending Use the average value between both fields. This results in smoother
motion but less sharpness than the interpolation method. Since the
deinterlaced image consists of the average of the top and bottom field,
when using blending, there is no dominant field.
Edge Detecting Interpolation Interpolate, but where Interpolation only
interpolates vertically, Edge Detecting Interpolation attempts to find
similar elements in the frame and detect edges before interpolating.
The result is more distinct diagonal edges in the material.
Edge Detecting Interpolation Heavy The Heavy variant is more CPU-in-
tensive, but produces slightly better results.
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Unprocessed interlaced frame
Duplication Interpolation
Blending Edge Detecting Interpolation
Deinterlace Type
Complete Deinterlace Deinterlace the whole frame.

Deinterlace Interlaced Frames (Automatic) Deinterlace completely the
frames in the material that are determined to be interlaced. This option
is suitable for material with both interlaced and progressive frames,
such as Telecine material.
Deinterlace Interlaced Frames (Manual) Deinterlace completely the frames
in the material that are determined to be interlaced. This option is suit-
able for material with both interlaced and progressive frames, such as
Telecine material. The threshold value for determining if interlacing
is present is set with the Threshold slider.
Deinterlace Moving Areas (Automatic) Deinterlace the moving parts of
each video frame. This option is not suitable for material with pro-
gressive frames, such as Telecine material.
Deinterlace Moving Areas (Manual) Deinterlace the moving parts of each
video frame. The threshold value for determining if interlacing is
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present is set with the Threshold slider. This option is not suitable
for material with progressive frames, such as Telecine material.
Double Frame Rate Separate interlaced frames into two consecutive frames.
This doubles the frame rate, so it would be necessary to apply the Frame
rate filter to keep the original speed. A useful application of this function
is converting from high-definition interlaced material to standard-definition
progressive material.
Threshold Set the threshold for when deinterlacing should occur. The entered
value determines how large the difference can be between the pixels of the
two fields before deinterlacing. If the value is set to zero the whole frame
will be deinterlaced.
Overlap Motion Blocks (Slow) In order to minimise deinterlacing artefacts due

to too low a threshold value, it is possible to use overlapping motion detec-
tion blocks. This gives better results in situations when only small objects
(such as credit texts) are moving in the picture, but may require up to four
times more processing time.
Deinterlace Chroma In most video material the Luma channel is interlaced but
the Chroma channels progressive. In that case only the Luma channel needs
to be deinterlaced. However, in some cases the Chroma channels are also
interlaced and you must check the Deinterlace Chroma check box to get a
correct deinterlace result. See the examples below. The source material is
interlaced in both the Luma and Chroma channels. In the picture on the left
only the Luma has been deinterlaced. In the picture on the right both Luma
and Chroma are deinterlaced.
Notice the deinterlace artefacts in the picture on the left. It is not always
easy to know if the Chroma channels are interlaced or not. One way to find
out is to open the clip with setting in the Preview and step through it frame
by frame. As always, we recommend you to experiment with the settings to
create the best result.
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Deinterlace
Only apply Deinterlace to interlaced content. If applied to non-interlaced con-
tent undesirable artefacts will appear.
NOTE
8.4 Burn Timecode
You can add a timecode to the output video. The timecode is added to the video
image and cannot be removed later.
You have to activate the Timecode in the Output Tab to use the Burn Timecode
filter.
The timecode text can be placed in one of 9 areas in the picture with the position
menus.
Position X Left, Center or Right of the picture.
Position Y Top, Center or Bottom of the picture.
Opacity The default is for the timecode to be fully opaque, but if you want a less
obtrusive timecode, you can make it more transparent.
Width You can set the width of the timecode relative to the image width.
Font You can choose the font used for the timecode.
Header A text which will be inserted in front of the timecode.
Verify that the timecode looks OK in the Preview before you encode.
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8.5 Resize
Size
Pixel size The pixel size menu lets you select from a list of standard image
resolutions, from CIF 352x288 to HD 1920x1080. If you select Cus-
tom. . . you can insert arbitrary values for the width and height of the
picture. Note that only even numbers are accepted since most codecs
do not accept non-even image sizes.
Aspect Ratio The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio between width and
height. For example, an image with the dimensions 352 × 288 pixels
has an aspect ratio of 11 : 9, since 352/288 = 11/9. Note that some of
the codecs (DV, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4) can define pixel aspect ratios
that determine the intended shape of the pixels themselves. The final
result depends on the combination of pixel and image aspect ratio.
See a more extended discussion in section 7.1.7, Picture resolution
and aspect ratio.
The Aspect Ratio drop-down menu provides some aspect ratios com-
monly used in digital video, to simplify size calculations when enter-
ing a new custom image size. For example, if 11:9 is selected as
image aspect ratio and 352 is entered in the width field, 288 will ap-
pear in the height field. You can also specify a custom aspect ratio
by selecting Custom. . . in the drop-down menu, and then enter the
desired aspect ratio.
Maintain Aspect Ratio by When the source material has been processed
with Initial Crop (see below), and the desired output has a different
aspect ratio, the Maintain Aspect Ratio by filter drop-down menu
provides the following three methods for maintaining the aspect ratio:
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Cut This method keeps the aspect ratio of the material by cropping
away parts of the image. For example, if encoding from a source
clip with 16 : 9 aspect ratio to a clip with 4 : 3 aspect ratio, the
sides of the source will be cut, leaving the resulting image undis-
torted.
Letterbox (Pad) This method pads the image with black borders to
fit the destination aspect ratio. For example, a 16 : 9 clip encoded
to 4 : 3 will be padded at the top and bottom of the image.
None (Distort) The resulting image will be stretched to the desired
size, which may cause distortion. Initial Crop (see below) will
still be used. When coding anamorphic MPEG-2 this is the cor-
rect option to use. Force the source material to PAL or NTSC size
with this option, then select 16 : 9 aspect ratio for playback in the
MPEG-2 codec.
Initial Crop Before the image is scaled to the new size Initial Crop is applied to
the source material. This method can be used to remove black borders or
edge artefacts from the source material. The crop values sets the number of
pixels that are to be cut from the frame borders at the top, bottom, left and
right.
Advanced Options
Interpolation method When resizing video you can choose which Inter-
polation method to use:
In general, Bilinear is best to use when you downsize the image and
Bicubic when upsizing the image. Nearest Neighbor is the fastest
method but it produces the lowest quality. Nearest neighbor should
only be used when speed is of more importance than quality. By set-
ting the Interpolation method option to Automatic bilinear will be
used for downsizing and bicubic for upsizing.
Lowpass source for large downscales When doing a large downscale,
for example from 720 × 576 to 176 × 144, artefacts may appear with
some material, especially if it contains sharp edges. Lowpass-filtering
the source before downscaling can reduce the artefacts considerably.
Source Pixel Aspect Ratio Width, Height and Aspect Ratio are all in ac-
tual pixels, however the pixels in the source material may not be
square. Video CD (VCD) material for instance is usually encoded
in 480 × 480 pixels, but is displayed at 640 × 480 pixels.
Use Source Pixel Aspect Ratio when compensating for odd frame
sizes and/or anamorphic source material, by indicating the actual as-
pect ratio of the source data.
Interlace options
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Progressive Output This is the default mode and works well in most
cases. The image is scaled as a whole with no regard to interlac-
ing.
Only Crop/Pad to Size - No Scale This option is useful when scal-
ing to a size which is only slightly larger or smaller in height than
the source, especially if the content is interlaced. The method
simply crops or pads the image to the new size, without stretch-
ing the image.
An example can be when you want to go from NTSC DV 720 ×
486 to MPEG-2 NTSC 720 × 480. Then you do not need to en-
code all the source lines to a format that does not use all the lines.
By just cropping the unnecessary 6 lines you do not have to recal-
culate the picture, something that would lead to losing a digital
generation in the process.
Scale Fields Independently Using this method the image is divided
into two fields which are then scaled independently. This keeps
the interlacing correct when, for example, downscaling from HD
to SD material.
Automatic Based on the available field order information, the filter
can automatically select between Progressive Output and Scale
Fields Independently.
8.6 Noise Reduction
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Episode Pro has one of the most advanced noise reduction filters available. When
using Noise Reduction, there are three main methods available—Median, Average
and Temporal. The unique approach to noise reduction in Episode Pro is the
possibility to combine all the methods as well as to specify how many times each
method is to run.
Median Encodes the median value of the surrounding pixels.
Number of Runs The number of times this part of the filter is applied on
every frame.
Radius The “radius” is properly speaking the side of the box filter applied
to the frame, so setting the radius to 3 means that a median filter will
be applied to the 3 × 3 pixels surrounding each pixel.
Only Filter Chroma Use this option to filter only the colour component
of the material. Luma is left unchanged. This can be useful when
encoding old VHS material, since much of the noise often resides in
the chroma channel.
Average Works like a blur filter with edge detection.
Number of Runs The number of times this part of the filter is applied on
every frame.
Radius The side of the box filter. The larger this value, the more noise
reduction will be applied, but the detail in the image will be lost along
with the noise.
Threshold If the difference between the filtered pixel and its environment
is larger than the threshold, the pixel is not filtered. This preserves text
and other small objects with large contrast.
Temporal The temporal filtering algorithm compares regions of the current frame
with the previous one. If the difference is less than the threshold value the
area is left untouched.
Threshold The tolerance level against difference in other pixels.
8.7 Black and White Restoration
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Content for television (encoded from PAL or NTSC) can sometimes look washed
out, the black appears dark grey and white appears as light grey. The Black and
White Restoration filter has the ability to correct this by setting a new Black and/or
White level.
The Black and White Restoration filter works with threshold values similar to any
High/Low pass filter.
The default value for Black Restoration is 0, which corresponds to Same as Source.
If you raise the threshold value to 20 the filter will treat everything between value
0 and 20 as black.
White Restoration works the same way as Black Restoration. But since white is
at the other side of the spectrum from black you must lower the threshold from
the default White value 255 for the filter to start working. For instance, setting the
White value to 230 will cause the filter to set all pixel values between 230 and 255
to white.
8.8 Contrast
Video encoded from PAL or NTSC can sometimes look a bit grey, or milky, when
digitized. Increasing the contrast can often enhance the result. Contrast adjust-
ment makes the dark pixels darker and the lighter pixels lighter. Be careful not
to increase the contrast too much as the lighter pixels have a tendency to become
a “white blur”. By lowering the contrast, the image will become more flat or
greyish.
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8.9 Fade
The Fade filter fades the encoded clip in and/or out. You can set the length of the
Fade In/Fade Out between 0 and 200 frames.
You can also choose to Fade In from or Fade Out to black or white.
8.10 Gamma
Gamma is probably the most common filter to use and might be the most im-
portant correction to do. Gamma is a filter for compensating for the difference
between various display technologies and devices, such as when encoding for
handheld devices and terminals, targeting Mac/PC, etc.
Gamma is a non-linear filter. It will only affect the midrange tones but leave
the darkest and lightest parts unchanged. This is very helpful for darkening or
lightening a picture without the risk of getting distortion in the white areas.
Specifying a value to change the gamma of the image works as follows: Positive
numbers (1 to 100) make the image lighter. Negative numbers (−1 to −100) make
the image darker.
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Always test your gamma

Always test the encoded file on the target platform to find out the optimal
gamma correction.
NOTE
8.11 HSV Levels
The HSV levels consist of Hue, Saturation and Value (Brightness).

Hue is used to correct the colour of the material. The value is measured in degrees.
The value can be set between −180° and +180°. This can be very useful when, for
example, correcting badly white-balanced material.
Saturation changes the intensity of the colour. Moving the slider to the right
(increasing the values), intensifies the colours, and vice versa. The value can be
set from −100 to 100.
Brightness makes the video darker or brighter and affects all pixels linearly, un-
like the contrast filter that will make dark pixels become darker and bright pixels
brighter. The value can be set from −100 to 100.
Settings
As with all settings, we strongly recommend that you test the material on the
intended target platform to determine the optimal setting.
TIP
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8.12 Sharpen
The sharpen filter enhances the edges of the image, thereby creating a sharper
look.
Unprocessed image Sharpened image
8.13 Smoothing
The smoothing filter acts as a blur filter and interpolates the pixels. This makes
the material look smoother (but loses some contrast).
Amount The smoothing value can be set between 0 and 100. A value closer to
100 means that the smoothing is heavier, and vice versa.
Radius The smoothing is done with a box filter which can have a size of either
3x3 or 5x5.
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8.14 RGB Filter
The RGB filter corrects the colours in the separate colour channels—Red, Green
and Blue.
8.15 Watermark
Watermarking your encoded clip is an easy way to ensure that the viewers are
aware of the origin of the material that they are watching. The Watermark filter
offers support for the most common picture formats, see list on page 93.
To add a watermark to your encoding click the Source button and browse to the
picture file that you intend to use as your watermark. The path for the watermark
is saved in the setting. If the watermark picture is removed, renamed or the path
altered, the encoding will fail. Our advice is to have a designated watermark folder
where you keep all your watermark files.
If the size of your picture file is too big to fit your encoded file you can correct this
with the Resize option. The watermark should not be bigger than the actual size
of the encoding. For example: if your watermark file is 600 × 600 pixels and it
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needs to be 50 × 50 pixels in the encoding to fit your output size, check the Resize
box and then click Configure to open the Watermark Resize window:
The Watermark Resize window gives you the same options as the Resize filter for
video explained earlier in section 8.5, Resize. This gives you full control over the
size of your watermark.
Once you are satisfied with the size of your watermark it is time to decide the
position for it. Choose in which corner of your encoding you want to place the
watermark in the Corner menu: Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom
Right. The offset in pixels from the chosen corner is specified in the X Offset and
Y Offset fields.
You can set the Opacity of the watermark. This is not to be confused with the
transparency (alpha channel) set in the image object itself. It is currently not
possible to set a transparency mask in the Watermark filter. However, you can set
the overall Opacity when applying an already masked watermark to the video.
You can create animated watermarks in two ways:
1. Animated GIF files.
2. QuickTime movie files. While you can use any QuickTime file as water-
mark, you can get particularly good effects by using the QuickTime Ani-
mation (Lossless, alpha channel) codec, as the transparency masks avoids
having to cover more of the main image than needed.
If you have an animated watermark the Loop type menu lets you choose between
Play once to play through the animation once and stop on the last frame and
Loop to continuously loop the animation. If the watermark is static, the loop type
is ignored.
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Format Comments
Bitmap 24 bit RGB
GIF
JPEG EXIF metadata also supported
QuickTime
Targa 24 bit RGB, 32 bit RGB
TIFF 24 bit RGB, 32 bit RGB
Use Preview
Use Preview to check the opacity, size and offset of the watermark.
TIP
Uses of watermarks
You can use animated watermarks to insert credit rolls, ticker tapes, subtitles
and other features in your video material.
TIP
Watermarks in Episode Engine

If you intend to use watermarks in Episode Engine, please note that the path
to the watermark file in the settings file will be ignored. You are instead ex-
pected to place your watermark in the same watch folder as the corresponding
NOTE source and settings files. See the Episode Engine documentation for further
details.
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9 Audio tab—codecs
You can encode audio for most common platforms, formats and qualities. This
chapter will list the available audio codecs.
9.1 AAC
AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is one of two audio codecs specified in the 3GPP
standard (the other is AMR). It is an excellent audio codec for music.
Bit Rate AAC has a fairly complex table of allowed sample rates depending on
the chosen bitrate. We strongly advice that you use the AAC Setting Guide-
lines to ensure that you get the best quality possible for your encoding.
Click the AAC Setting Guidelines to display a table of recommended sam-
ple rates (reproduced below).
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Bitrate (bit/s) Mono Sample Rate (Hz) Stereo Sample Rate (Hz)
8000 8000–11025 (Only mono available)
16000 8000–22050 8000–11025
20000 11025–24000 8000–11025
24000 12000–32000 8000–16000
28000 16000–32000 8000–16000
32000 16000–32000 8000–22050
40000 16000–44000 11025–24000
48000 22050–44000 12000–32000
56000 24000–48000 16000–32000
64000 32000–48000 16000–44100
80000 44100–48000 16000–44100
96000 44100–48000 22050–44100
112000 44100–48000 22050–48000
128000 44100–48000 22050–48000
160000 44100–48000 22050–48000
192000 44100–48000 22050–48000
224000 44100–48000 22050–48000
256000 44100–48000 22050–48000
288000 48000–48000 24000–48000
AAC Mode The mode can be either Low Complexity or High Efficiency. High
Efficiency AAC, also known as aacPlus, is an extension of the AAC file
format using two new coding techniques: Spectral Band Replication (SBR)
and Parametric Stereo. HE-AAC is half-way backwards compatible, as
playback of HE-AAC files on AAC decoders (e g QuickTime) is possible,
but the high frequencies will not be reconstructed and only mono playback
will be supported in case Parametric Stereo is enabled. Available HE-AAC
decoders include Winamp and VLC as well as the open source FAAD2
decoder.
In the High Efficiency mode, Spectral Band Replication is always used.
SBR is a technique which copies the lower half of the audio frequencies to
the higher half. A small amount of control data (about 2–4 kbit/s) is added
to make sure the reconstruction of the high frequencies will be correct, or at
least perceived to be correct. By doing this the AAC encoder will only have
to encode the lower half of the spectrum, which enables encoding at lower
bitrates. SBR is recommended for source files with sample rates of 32 kHz
or higher, and target bitrates of 20–80 kbit/s. (At higher bitrates, regular
AAC will yield higher sound quality.) Read more about SBR in e g [1].
Parametric Stereo Turn on Parametric Stereo. Parametric Stereo is an exten-

sion to SBR, which encodes stereo information in a very compact way
(about 1–3 kbit/s). The source file is then converted to mono and encoded to
AAC. Depending on the source material, Parametric Stereo can sometimes
improve audio quality at very low bitrates (15–50 kbit/s). As the name im-
plies, PS can only be applied to stereo source files. HE-AAC with PS is
also known as EAAC+.
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9.2 AES
The AES3 format has been designed by the Audio Engineering Society for se-
rial digital transmission of stereo sound. The original AES3 format only sup-
ports uncompressed audio, but it has been extended by SMPTE (Society of Mo-
tion Picture and Television Engineers) to support compressed audio, based on
the AC3 codec. AES type can be set to SMPTE 331M or SMPTE 302M.
Detailed descriptions of the SMPTE extensions can be purchased from http:
//www.smpte.org/smpte_store/standards/.
9.3 AMR NB
AMR Narrow Band is a speech codec that produces extremely low bitrates. It was
designed for use in cellular phones and is set as mandatory in the 3GPP standard.
The AMR algorithm does not respond well to music and is best used with speech.
Bit Rate AMR NB has a set of fixed bitrates known as modes: 4.75 Kbit/s (mode
0), 5.15 Kbits/s (mode 1), 5.90 Kbits/s (mode 2), 6.70 Kbit/s (mode 3),
7.40 Kbit/s (mode 4), 7.95 Kbit/s (mode 5), 10.2 Kbit/s (mode 6), 12.2
Kbit/s (mode 7).
SID Silence Descriptor, if there are silent passages in the audio track(s), this op-
tion makes the AMR codec send a smaller amount of data to save band-
width.
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SID
SID is player dependent—only use this option if you know in advance that your
target player supports it.
NOTE
9.4 ATSC A/52
ATSC A/52 is used on DVDs and one of the leading formats used in movie the-
atres. It is compatible with the Dolby AC3 codec. It supports bitrates from 64
Kbit/s to 640 Kbit/s, but only bitrates above 80 Kbit/s can be encoded as stereo
or surround sound. Recommended bitrates for encoding without audible artefacts
are 192 Kbit/s for stereo and 448 Kbit/s for 5.1 surround.
9.5 DV audio
DV audio settings are dictated by the DV video settings. Set Sample Size to 16
bit or 12 bit.
9.6 EVRC
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EVRC is strictly a speech codec used in the 3GPP2 standard for mobile phones.
It has two bitrates to choose between, 4.8 Kbit/s and 9.6 Kbit/s.
9.7 Lame MP3
Lame MP3 is one of the most used music codecs today. It is widely spread
and used as a default codec for music on the internet. See http://lame.
sourceforge.net/ for further information.
Encoding type The Bitrate based option lets you set the average bit rate of the
data and make other adjustments, the Lame Preset option lets you choose
one of the options in the Preset menu, which will then set all parameters to
predefined values.
Preset
R3Mix A legacy setting used at http://www.r3mix.net/. It gives

slightly better quality than the Medium setting.
Medium Acceptable audio quality for most uses.
Medium Fast Uses a faster algorithm but should give almost as good audio
quality as Medium.
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Standard Good audio quality for normal use.

Fast Standard Uses a faster algorithm but should give almost as good au-
dio quality as Standard.
Extreme The best audio quality for high-quality equipment.
Fast Extreme Uses a faster algorithm but should give almost as good audio
quality as Extreme.
Insane The absolutely best audio quality, but will require very high band-
width.
Bit Rate For bitrate-based encoding the average bitrate can be set from 16 Kbit/s
to 320 Kbit/s.
Settings Standard settings will give you suitable default settings for your chosen
bitrate, Advanced settings lets you adjust additional encoding parameters:
Coding Mode Your selected bitrate can be used for CBR (Constant Bit
Rate) or VBR (Variable Bit Rate). If the latter is selected, you can set
the Minimum VBR Bitrate and Maximum VBR Bitrate between
16 Kbit/s and 320 Kbit/s.
Stereo mode Stereo will encode each stereo channel separately. MS Stereo
will use mid/side encoding, where the shared content of the stereo
channels will be coded in higher resolution than the difference be-
tween them; this decreases the bandwidth requirements for low bit
rates (< 128 kbit/s) and small stereo separations. Joint Stereo will
decide, frame by frame, whether to use separated stereo or MS stereo.
Quality Note that 0 represents the best quality encoding, while 9 gives the
lowest quality. Better quality implies slower algorithms.
Set copyright flag The material is tagged as copyrighted.
Set original flag Unless checked, the material will be tagged as a copy.
Add VBR seek header (Xing) A “Xing” header adds information to a
VBR-encoded file so that a player can jump to arbitrary positions in
the file.
Use error protection Activate CRC error protection. This allows recon-
struction of lost packets, but requires slightly more bandwidth to en-
code the error protection data.
9.8 MPEG Audio
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MPEG Audio includes the following three different settings:
Bit Rate The bitrate can be set from 8 to 448 Kib/s, but not all bitrates are avail-
able for both layers.
Layer The alternatives are Layer I and Layer II. (Layer III is the same as MP3.)
Layer I uses a simpler encoding method and works best for higher bitrates,
Layer II uses a more complex encoding method but compresses better.
Psycho Model The psycho-acoustic model is used to determine the features of

the sound that are inaudible and therefore can be compressed away. Model 1
is the simpler model, which gives somewhat worse results for less compu-
tation; Model 2 requires more computation but gives better results.
The setting of the Sample Rate filter will determine the encoding, sample rates
from 16 to 24 kHz are encoded as MPEG-2 audio, sample rates from 32 to 48 kHz
are encoded as MPEG-1.
More information about MPEG audio encoding may be found in [4].
9.9 PCM
PCM is an uncompressed audio format that can be encoded in the number formats
from 8 Bit Unsigned Integer to 32 Bit Little Endian Float.
Not all outformats support all PCM encodings, so the selected encoding may be
quietly folded into an encoding supported by the active outformat.
9.10 QCELP
QCELP is strictly a speech codec used in the 3GPP2 standard for mobile phones.
It has two bitrates to choose between, 6.80 Kbit/s and 14 Kbit/s.
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9.11 QuickTime
The QuickTime codec is a set of codecs from which you can select one. Which
exact codecs you have depends on what plugins you have installed so we will not
describe them further here but refer to the codec suppliers’ documentation.
Pressing the button QuickTime Movie Settings. . . opens a new window, supplied
by QuickTime, which lets you select a codec and set its parameters.
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All codecs share the menu Channels, with alternatives Mono and Stereo (L R),
and the field Rate for setting the sample rate in kHz. Below these is an area with
codec-specific settings. Some codecs have two versions of the specific settings,
the larger version displayed when the box Show Advanced Settings is checked.
Settings application order

Note that codec settings are applied after all filter settings. This means that
if you e g have set the filter Channels to Mono and your codec has been set
to produce stereo, the audio track will first be folded into mono, and this mono
track will then be replicated to make stereo tracks. You should therefore ensure
that the Channels and Sample Rate are set to (Same as Source) when
using the QuickTime codec.
9.12 RealAudio
RealAudio has no controls in the Video tab, but is instead controlled through the
Output tab. See section 6.1.11, Real Media for a description of these controls.
9.13 Windows Media Audio 9
Incompatible settings
The Windows Media support has been completely rewritten in Episode Pro
version 4.2, therefore any settings created in older versions cannot be reused
but have to be reimplemented.
The Windows Media Audio 9 codec has the following versions:
WMA 9 Standard Encode the audio in the WMA 9 Standard format. It supports
the coding methods One pass, constant bit rate (CBR) and One pass,
variable bit rate (VBR).
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WMA 9 Professional Encode the audio in the WMA 9 Professional format. This
has support for multiple channels, sample rates above 48 kHz and wider
than 16 bit samples. However, it is often not available on lower-end plat-
forms, such as mobile phones. It supports the coding methods One pass,
constant bit rate (CBR) and One pass, variable bit rate (VBR).
WMA 9 Lossless This is a non-destructive codec delivering uncompressed audio

containing all of the data in the original content. The final bitrate is depen-
dent on your original source. It supports the coding method One pass,
variable bit rate (VBR).
The WMA version you select determines the available menu options in the top
menu in the Coding Method area. The selected option in combination with the se-
lected coding method determines the available menu options in the bottom menu.
One pass, constant bit rate (CBR) contains encoding alternatives ranked in order
of their bit rate, One pass, variable bit rate (VBR) contains encoding alternatives
ranked in order of audio quality.
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10 Audio tab—filters
You expand a filter by clicking on the triangle icon. You activate a filter by check-
ing the checkbox in the top left corner. Note that even if you have changed the
values in an expanded filter, the filter will not be applied to your clip unless you
activate the filter. To deactivate a filter, uncheck the checkbox. To clearly indicate
which filters are currently active, Episode Pro moves activated filters to above the
unused filters, and deactivated filters back to the bottom.
The active filters are applied in the order they are shown from top to bottom.
However, the codec settings are applied last even though they are topmost in the
tab.
10.1 Offset
The Offset slider lets you add an offset to the audio track to compensate for timing
differences between the audio and video tracks.
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10.2 Channel Mapper
The channel mapper lets you remap audio channels from and to mono, stereo,
5.1 surround and 7.1 surround. The Input Channels menu lets you indicate the
number of input channels that should be used. If the source file has more channels
than indicated, only the indicated number will be used, if it has fewer channels,
only as many channels as are actually present in the file will be used.
The Output Channels menu lets you set the desired number of output channels.
Input Channels and Output Channels are limited to the maximum number of
channels supported by the output format.
The Channel Mapping matrix lets you connect each input channel to one or sev-
eral output channels. Multiple input channels can be connected to the same output
channel, in which case they are mixed together. The Clear button removes all con-
nections, the Set Defaults button connects input channel c to output channel c for
all channels.
10.3 Channels
If the filter is activated, incoming audio tracks, regardless of how many they are,
are resampled to a Mono, a Stereo, a 5.1, or a 7.1 audio track. Resampling
from fewer input channels to more output channels is usually not meaningful as it
requires additional bandwidth without improving the sound quality.
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10.4 Equalizer
The graphic Equalizer is a set of five filters, each with a fixed center frequency
that cannot be changed, see picture above. You can control the amount of boost
(peak) or cut (notch) in each frequency band. Create a boost or a cut with the
sliders at 0.1, 0.3, 1.0, 3.0 and 10 kHz.
10.5 Fade
The Fade filter fades the beginning and/or the end of the audio track. The length
of the Fade can be set between 0 and 10 seconds.
10.6 High Pass/Low Pass
High Pass Cuts off all frequencies below the threshold value. The High Pass
filter can be set between 10 and 1000 Hz. Check the box to activate the
filter and enter the value of your choice.
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Low Pass Cuts off all frequencies above the threshold value. The Low Pass filter
can be set between 1 and 20 kHz. Check the box to activate the filter and
enter the value of your choice.
10.7 Volume
Normalize Will analyze the material before encoding by looking for the loudest
peak in the audio channel and then encode with this value as reference to
avoid any clipping or distortion in the sound. When Normalize is chosen
the slider will show units in percent (%). If set to 90%, this option will set
the highest peak in any audio channel to be at 90% of full volume and adjust
the rest of the channels in linear correspondence.
Adjust in percent Will change the volume according to the value set with the
slider. The default value is 0% and equals no change. The value can be set
from −100% to +100%.
Adjust in dB Will change the volume according to the value set with the slider.
The value can be set between −18 dB and +18 dB. The default is 0 dB and
equals no change.
10.8 Balance
The Balance filter sets the stereo panning towards the left or right audio channel.
The results of using the balance filter on surround sound are undefined.
10.9 Sample Rate
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The Sample Rate filter has a drop-down menu with the available sampling fre-
quencies for the audio codec that you have chosen in the Output Tab. The avail-
able frequencies in the list vary from codec to codec. Note however that not all
output formats allow all sample rates supported by a given codec.
The Sample Rate value represents the number of samples per second in the audio
track. Higher sample rates allow higher sound frequencies to be reproduced.
The Nyqvist frequency

The Nyqvist frequency is the highest reproducible sound frequency. It is half
the frequency at which the clip was sampled. E g, choosing 16 kHz as sam-
NOTE pling frequency will allow you to encode audible frequencies up to 8 kHz.
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11 Metadata tab
Metadata is information about a file, such as copyright information, source file

names, creation date, etc. Many media formats have data fields for metadata
and Episode Pro lets you set the values of any of these fields in the Metadata
tab. Different file formats support different metadata fields, but the Metadata tab
automatically shows what is available in the chosen output file format. Any meta-
data in the source file are copied to the output files, but are overwritten if there are
values with the same key entered in the Metadata tab.
The tab contains a Key column and a Value column. The Key column shows all
available metadata tags for the given output format. All tags are grey until you
have entered a value in the corresponding Value field. Double-click in the Value
column to activate the text field and enter your value. Fields for which you have
not entered a value will not be added to the output file.
Note that the values are constants, you cannot enter values that depend on any
properties of the source or settings files.
See chapter 13, Engine tab for information on additional functions for adding
metadata for use in Episode Engine.
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12 Stream tab
The concept of streaming is that you are sending audio and video data in real time
to a player from a streaming server.
The correct packetizer for the current media type is automatically selected when
choosing Hint in either the Output tab or the Stream tab.
12.1 File formats for streaming
File Format Extension Codecs

3GPP .3gp H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, AAC, AMR NB
3GPP2 .3g2 H.263, MPEG-4, AAC, AMR NB, EVRC, QCELP
MPEG-4 .mp4 H.264, MPEG-4, AAC
QuickTime .mov H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, AAC, AMR NB
Streaming RealMedia or Windows Media

Both RealMedia and Windows Media can produce streamable files but the
settings for these proprietary formats are found under their respective codec
NOTE settings discussed earlier. Neither of them has any Packetizer settings.
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12.2 AAC Low Complexity
Two methods of hinting are available for AAC:
LATM (MPEG-4 and 3GPP Default) Typically for mobile phones.
Generic (ISMA and QuickTime Default) Typically for Internet use.
The Packet Size Limit value can be set between 0 and 1500.
Packet size limit

It is possible to set packet size limit to zero bytes, but such a packet size limit
has limited usefulness, as the stream only would consist of empty packets.
NOTE
12.3 AMR NB
The options below are subject to support in the target player.
Frames per Packet The number of frames can be set from 1 to 10.
Packetizing Mode The packetizing mode can be one of two alternatives:
Octet Align Supported by all players.

Bandwidth Efficient Supported by some players.
CRC An error detection mechanism (cyclic redundancy check). Not supported

by all players.
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Robust Sorting Robust sorting reorders data in order to decrease the impact of
transmission errors. Not supported by all players.
12.4 EVRC
Frames per packet Using a higher number of frames per packet gives better
bandwidth utilisation but increases the chance that the receiver will not be
able to handle all frames.
Interleave Interleaving increases the robustness against error, but also requires
higher memory capacity in the recipient.
Interleave frames The number of interleaved frames, a higher number requires

more memory capacity in the recipient.
12.5 H.263
If H.263 is selected for streaming, the following options are available:
Packet Size Limit The value can be set between 0 and 1500 bytes.
Packetizing Type The two alternatives are 1998 (QT) and 2000.
Insert Extra Headers Enables error correction.
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12.6 H.264
When using H.264 for streaming, the value of the Packet Size Limit can be
changed. The value can be set between 0 and 1500 bytes.
12.7 MPEG-4
When using MPEG-4 in streaming, the value of the Packet Size Limit can be
changed. The value can be set between 0 and 1500 bytes.
12.8 QCELP
Frames per packet Using a higher number of frames per packet gives better
bandwidth utilisation but increases the chance that the receiver will not be
able to handle all frames.
Interleave Interleaving increases the robustness against error, but also requires
higher memory capacity in the recipient.
Interleave frames The number of interleaved frames, a higher number requires

more memory capacity in the recipient.
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13 Engine tab
The Engine tab is for use with Episode Engine, the batch transcoding companion
product to Episode Pro. If you do not use Episode Engine, you can skip this
section and you can even turn off the entire tab in the Preferences window. For
this change to take effect, the setting must be closed and reopened.
In the tab you can add additional metadata fields to be used by Episode Engine.
These will be written to a special file named < source f ile > ”.meta” in the output
watchfolder.
Click the New Setting button ( ) to create a new Key and Value row. Double-
click the fields to enter the key and value.
Checking the Use .inmeta File box means that Episode Engine, in addition to
the metadata you have entered here and/or in the Metadata tab, will require there
to be a metadata file named < source f ile > ”.inmeta” in the watchfolder before
it starts encoding.
See the Episode Engine manual for more information.
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14 Support
For assistance regarding Episode Pro, please check the Knowledgebase on our
support pages at http://www.popwire.com/support/. If the answer is
not already in our Knowledgebase, you can submit a ticket through a web form or
e-mail support@popwire.com.
Note that Telestream does not provide support for any hardware, capture cards,
software drivers, operating system or any other software than Episode Pro. Please
consult your supplier for support on other items.
Episode Pro is also offered with support agreements. If purchased, please check
your support agreement for details, or consult your software supplier for more
information on available support agreements.
Telestream 116
Appendix A Terminology
Hinting Hinting a file means that you packetize the tracks of the file in a way that
enables a streaming server to send the information as a viewable stream in
real time.
Metadata Metadata is information about the contents of a file. This can encom-
pass copyright information, source file names, creation date etc.
Proxy file A proxy file is a lower resolution version of the main video file. The
proxy file can be used for quick checking of the contents or for creating edit
records.
Settings file A file that contains the parameters for a compression process, output
format, frame rate, resolution etc. Settings files can be created in Episode.
Temp directory Temporary work files are created during the compression pro-
cess. They are stored in a temp directory. You can set any directory you
want to be the temp directory, but the default is /tmp.
Watch folder A folder whose contents are continuously checked. If files are
dropped in a watch folder, they will automatically be processed by the pro-
gram watching the folder.
Watermark A watermark is a more or less visible logo, text or other marker

superimposed on images to make copyright ownership obvious.
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Appendix B Supported formats
The following media formats are supported by Episode Pro:
3GPP (.3gp)
3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) is intended for mobile phones.

Supported codecs: AAC, AMC, AMR NB, H.263 Baseline, H.263 P3L10, H.264,
MPEG-4.
Multi-Bit Rate files are only supported for output.
3GPP2 (.3g2)
3GPP2 is an improved version of 3GPP.

Supported codecs: AAC, AMR NB, EVRC, H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, QCELP.
ADTS (.aac)
Audio Data Transport Stream is a wrapper format for AAC-encoded audio files.
Supported codecs: AAC.
ATSC A/52 (.a52)
ATSC A/52 is an audio format. It is compatible with Dolby AC3.

Supported codecs: ATSC A/52.
AIFF (.aif)
Audio Interchange File Format was developed by Apple.

Supported codecs: PCM big-endian.
AMR (.amr)
AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) is an audio format.

Supported codecs: AMR Narrowband.
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Only supported for output.
AVI (.avi)
This is Microsoft’s wrapper format that encapsulates other video compression

standards.
Supported codecs: DV 25, DVC PRO 25, DVC PRO 50, MJPEG, PCM little-
endian, RGB16 (555), RGB16 (556), RGB24, RGB32, UYVY, Windows RGB,
YCbCr 4:2:0, Y8, YUY2, YV16, YVU16, YVU9, YV12.
RGB16 (555), RGB16 (556), RGB24, RGB32, UYVY, Y8, YUY2, YV16, YVU16,
YVU9, YV12 only supported for input.
DPX (.dpx)
DPX is the SMPTE standard for file format for Digital Moving-Picture Exchange.
It is an uncompressed format. The Cineon format is almost the same as DPX, but
uses a different header.
Supported codecs: RGB
DPX is only supported for input of files in .tar archives.
DV (.dv)
Format for Digital Video; a recording format. This fileformat cannot handle sep-
arate timecode tracks like the .mov fileformat. iMovie uses this fileformat.
Supported codecs: DV, DVC PRO 25, DVC PRO 50.
Flash Video (.flv, .swf)
The Adobe/Shockwave Flash video format.

Supported codecs: Flash 7 Video, Flash 8 Video.
Flash video is only supported for output. Flash 8 further requires the Flash 8
Option.
GXF (.gxf)
GXF (General eXchange Format) is an interchange format for archival storage

and data networks developed by Grass Valley. The GXF format is only used as a
transfer format. The receiving server will convert the file to an appropriate internal
format. Although GXF can contain several formats like DV and JPEG streams, it
is mainly used with MPEG-2.
Supported codecs: MPEG-2, PCM, Time Code.
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HDV (.m2t)
HDV is a format for high-definition video that uses MPEG-2 compression. Video
and data are multiplexed, i e interleaved.
Supported codecs: MPEG-2.
MP3 (.mp3)
A part of the MPEG-1 standard; the full name of this standard is MPEG-1 Audio
Layer III. MP3 is a common standard for audio and music compression.
Supported codecs: Lame
MPEG-1 (.m1a, .m1v, .mpg)
MPEG-1 was the first digital video compression standard to come out of the Mo-
tion Picture Experts Group. Today, it is mainly used in legacy applications, with
the notable exception of its Layer-3 audio coding, commonly referred to as MP3.
Media are encoded as Elementary Streams, single video or audio tracks, that can
be contained in Program Streams, intended for reliable media such as DVD or
SVCD, or Transport Streams, intended for broadcast media. The wrapping of
Elementary Streams into Program or Transport Streams is typically muxed (mul-
tiplexed), i e interleaved. The .m1a variant is a non-muxed elementary audio
stream, the .m1v variant is non-muxed elementary video stream only.
Supported codecs: Elementary, Muxed and Transport Streams, AAC, ATSC A/52,
MPEG Audio, PCM.
MPEG-2 (.m2p, .m2v, .mpg)
MPEG-2 is backwards compatible with MPEG-1, but also supports interlaced

video and works better than MPEG-1 for high-bitrate streams. Media are encoded
as Elementary Streams, single video or audio tracks, that can be contained in Pro-
gram Streams, intended for reliable media such as DVD or SVCD, or Transport
Streams, intended for broadcast media. The wrapping of Elementary Streams into
Program or Transport Streams is typically muxed (multiplexed), i e interleaved.
The .m2v version is non-muxed video only.
Supported codecs: Elementary, Program and Transport Streams, AAC, ATSC
A/52, MPEG Audio, PCM.
MPEG-4 (.m4a, .m4b, .m4v, .mp4)
The MPEG standard most commonly in use today, encapsulated by most modern
video applications in one aspect or another. The .m4a, .m4b, and .m4v versions
are adapted for iPods as audio, audiobook and video specialisations, respectively.
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Supported codecs: AAC, ATSC A/52, H.264, MPEG-4, MPEG Audio, PCM.
H.264 High Profile is only supported for output.
MXF (.mxf)
The Material eXchange Format is a wrapper standard intended to better support

metadata for media files so that they can be easier kept track of in an environment
where media are transmitted, edited and stored entirely digitally. More informa-
tion is available at http://www.mxf.info/.
Supported codecs: AES, D-10/IMX, DV, DV Audio, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG
Audio, PCM.
PBF (.pbf)
A progressive downloadable media format which allows the user to select any
starting point without having to wait for the stream to be downloaded to that point
in time.
Supported codecs: AAC, MPEG-4.
PSP (.mp4)
PlayStation Portable can play MPEG-4 files, but requires that they be named
M4Vxxxxx.mp4, where xxxxx is five decimal digits, and stored in the directory
E:\MP_ROOT\100MNV01on the PSP.
Supported codecs: AAC, H.264, MPEG-4
QuickTime™ (.mov)
Apple’s movie file format. Like AVI, this is an umbrella format that encapsulates
other video compression standards as well as a few of its own. Episode Pro has
added QuickTime export support. This means that Episode Pro can make use of
any export plugins for QuickTime. However, we do not guarantee full functional-
ity of or helpline support for any such third party QuickTime components.
Supported codecs: AAC, AMR NB, Apple Animation, Apple Component, Apple
Intermediate Format, Apple Video, Avid, Blackmagic, Cinepak, D-10/IMX, DV,
DVC Pro 25, DVC Pro 50, DVC PRO 100, HDV, H.261, H.263 Baseline, H.263
P3L10, H.264 Baseline, H.264 High Profile, IMA, Media 100, MJPEG A/B,
MPEG-4, PCM, Pixlet, Qdesign, RGB, RGB16 (555), RGB16 (556), RGB24,
RGB32, Sheer Video, Sorenson Video 1, 2 and 3, Targa Cine YUV, YCbCr
(YUV), UYVY, Y8, YUY2, YV16, YVU16, YVU9, YV12.
HDV is only supported for input. RGB16 (555), RGB16 (556), RGB24, RGB32,
UYVY, Y8, YUY2, YV16, YVU16, YVU9, YV12 are only supported for input.
High Efficiency AAC is only supported for output. Apple Component and Video
only supported for input. Avid, Cinepak, H.261, IMA, Pixlet, Sorenson Video 1
only supported for input. QuickTime reference files are only supported for input
Telestream 121
and only the first reference will be used. QuickTime codecs not listed above are
only supported for output.
Real (.rm, .rmvb)
Supported codecs: RealAudio/-Video 8, 9, 10 and SureStream.

RealMedia files are only supported for output.
Wave (.wav)
Microsoft’s basic audio format.

Supported codecs: PCM little-endian.
Windows Media (.wma, .wmv)
The Windows Media encoder creates files in Windows Media format, a propri-
etary format currently playable in Windows Media player, VLC and, with the
help of the Flip4Mac Windows Media Components for QuickTime, in Quick-
Time Player.
Supported codecs: Intellistream, VC-1, Windows Media, Windows Media MBR,
WMA Pro, WMA Standard.
WMA Pro 5.1 audio is only supported for input. Intellistream multi-bit rate files
are only supported for output.
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Bibliography
[1] Martin Dietz and Stefan Meltzer. CT-aacPlus—a state-of-the-art audio coding
system. EBU Technical Review, (291), July 2002.
[2] Steve McMillen. Helix DNA Producer Feature Specification Audience File.
Helix Community, 2.02 edition, July 2004.
[3] Don Munsil and Brian Florian. DVD benchmark – part 5 – progressive scan
DVD. Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, 7(4), October 2000.
[4] Davis Pan. A tutorial on MPEG/audio compression. IEEE Multimedia,

2(2):60–74, Summer 1995.
Telestream 123
Index
3G, 50 fading, 89
3GPP, 37, 38, 118 audio, 107
3GPP2, 38, 118 field order, 77
Finder, 10–12, 22, 30
AAC, ii, 95, 112 Flash Video, 54, 56, 119
aacPlus, 96 frame rate, 54, 78
AC3, 97, 98
Adobe Flash, 54, 56 gamma correction, 89
ADTS, 118 GIF, 24, 94
AES, 97 GPRS, 50
AES3, 97 GXF, 119
AIFF, 118
AMC, 38 H.263, 58, 113
AMR, 112, 118 H.264, 40, 60, 114
AMR NB, 97 HDV, 39, 62, 120
Apple Final Cut Pro, 13 HE-AAC, 96
Apple Help, 19 high pass filtering, 107
aspect ratio, 51 hinting, 117
ATSC A/52, 98, 118 HSB, 90
audio balance, 108 HSV, 90
audio channels, 106
image size, 84
audio offset, 105
IMX, 53
audio volume, 108
interface components
AVC, 60
12 bit, 98
AVI, 39, 119
16 bit, 98
black and white restoration, 87 2-pass interval, 55, 59, 62, 67, 69
Blackmagic, 52 2-pass mode, 56, 57
BMP, 94 AAC Mode, 96
AAC Setting Guidelines, 95
channels, 106 Action, 10, 22, 25, 26, 30
contrast adjustment, 88 Activate, 33
Add Enclosing Folder To Bookmarks,
D-10, 53 12
deinterlacing, 24, 79–83 Add Source File(s), 11, 22, 33
DPX, 119 Add VBR seek header (Xing), 100
DV, 49, 51, 53, 84, 119 Advanced intra coding, 59
DV audio, 98 Advanced Options, 85
Advanced Video Options, 43
EAAC+, 96
AES type, 97
equalizer, 107
Algorithm, 78
EVRC, 98, 113
Amount, 91
FAAD2, 96 Apply, 17, 26
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Aspect Ratio, 84, 85 Disable Save, 40

Audio, 19, 36, 44 Discard, 18, 44, 45
Audio mode, 42 Display Aspect Ratio, 53
Average, 87 Double Frame Rate, 82
Average rate, 54, 56, 58, 60, 64, 66, Download, 42
68, 71, 73, 74 Draw Average Bitrate, 24
B-frames between P-frames, 65, 66 Duplicate, 43
Bit Depth, 70, 75 DV Type, 53
Bit Rate, 43, 53, 95, 97, 100, 101 Edit→Copy, 23
Bitrate control, 65 Edit→Paste, 23
Bookmark, 22 Encode, 18, 44, 45
Brightness, 90 Encoded, 23, 24, 35
Browser, 5, 35 Encoded Movie Info, 24, 35
Bumper, 47 Encoding Complexity, 44
Bumper/Trailer, 36 Encoding quality, 63, 64, 66
Burn Timecode, 46, 83 Encoding speed vs quality, 62
Change framerate to, 78 Encoding type, 99
Channel Mapping, 106 Engine, 19, 31, 115
Channels, 103 Enter Serial Number. . . , 4, 33
Clear, 106 Entropy coding, 61
Clear All Settings, 33 Error resilient mode, 57
Clear Batch, 33 Expiration Time, 38
Clock, 30 Export, 15
Close, 16 Export Setting, 15, 34
Close Setting, 34 Extended options, 78
Codecs, 43 Fast start, 37, 40
Coding Method, 104 Field Order, 67, 80
Coding Mode, 71, 73, 100 Field order, 75, 78
Coding type, 64, 65 Filter Action, 77
Color Space, 75 Finder, 10, 30
Colour Keyframes, 24 Font, 83
Colour Space, 61 Force sequence header for every GOP,
Colour space, 63, 66 65, 66
Compression Settings, 5–7, 9, 13– fps, 78
16, 20–22, 26, 30 Frame Rate, 78
Configure, 93 Frame size, 60
Copy, 18, 44, 45 Frame skip probability, 55, 56, 58,
Corner, 93 68
CRC, 112 Frame Type, 67
Create New Fields By, 80 Frames per Packet, 112
Create QuickTime Chapter Track, Frames per packet, 113, 114
40 General, 31
Create QuickTime Timecode Track, GOP format, 64, 66
40, 46 GOP type, 66
Deblocking filter, 59 HDV Type, 62
Deinterlace Chroma, 82 Header, 83
Deinterlace Type, 81 Headers / sec, 41
Delete, 14 Height, 85
Description, 28 Hide Engine tab, 31
Destination Folder, 26 High Pass, 107
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Hint, 18, 36, 111 New Folder, 14

Hue, 90 New Naming Convention, 28
In/Out Points, 18, 36, 46 New Setting, 14, 115
Infra refresh distance, 55, 58 Number of B-frames, 61, 68, 72,
Initial buffer fullness, 60 74
Initial Crop, 52, 84, 85 Number of reference frames, 61
Input Channels, 106 Number of Runs, 87
Input Field Order, 77 Off, 24
Input material is interlaced, 57 Offset, 105
Insert Extra Headers, 113 OK, 68
Interlace options, 85 On, 24
Interlacing, 63 Only Filter Chroma, 87
Interleave, 113, 114 Opacity, 83, 93
Interleave frames, 113, 114 Open Settings, 14
Interpolation method, 85 Output, 16, 18, 19, 36, 70, 83, 103,
Intra DC Precision, 66 109, 111
Job Batch, 5, 7–9, 11, 12, 17, 20– Output Channels, 106
23, 25–27, 29–31, 33–35 Output Format, 36
Key, 110, 115 Overlap Motion Blocks (Slow), 82
Keyframe distance, 55, 57–59, 61, P-frames between I-frames, 65, 66
68, 72, 74 Packet length, 69
Keyframes per chunk, 41 Packet Size Limit, 112–114
Layer, 101 Packetizing Mode, 112
Left, 24 Packetizing Type, 113
License, 4, 31, 33 Parametric Stereo, 96
Limit frame size, 60 Pause, 29, 30
Link, 21 Peak rate, 56, 66, 71, 74
Link to MBR setting, 30 Pixel Aspect Ratio, 54
Link/Unlink Setting, 33 Pixel aspect ratio, 66
Loop type, 93 Pixel aspect ratio:, 75
Loss Protection, 44 Play, 7
Low CPU priority, 32 Play sound when job is done, 32
Low Pass, 108 Playback Count, 38
Lowpass source for large downscales, Preferences, 31, 35, 115
85 Prepare For Streaming, 45
Maintain Aspect Ratio by, 52, 84 Preset, 99
Maximum Startup Latency, 44 Preview, 9, 23–26, 31, 35, 82, 83,
Maximum Time Between Key Frames, 94
44 Preview is always on top, 31
Maximum VBR Bitrate, 100 Profile, 61, 63, 68, 72
MBR Type, 37 Psycho Model, 101
Median, 87 Purchase. . . , 33
Metadata, 19, 110, 115 Quality, 100
Minimum distance, 57 QuickTime Movie Settings. . . , 69,
Minimum VBR Bitrate, 100 102
Modified quantization, 59 Quit, 2
Motion estimation accuracy, 69 Radius, 87, 91
Mux Packet Size, 39, 40 Rate, 103
Naming Convention, 27, 28 Recently Encoded, 5, 7
New Bookmark. . . , 6, 11 Remove, 11
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Reset Status, 30, 33 Timecode, 18, 36, 40, 46, 83

Resize, 92, 93 Trailer, 47
Restrict distribution, 38 Unlink, 21
Retry failed jobs, 32 Unlink from MBR setting, 30
Revert to Saved Setting, 26, 30 Update, 31
Right, 24 Use .inmeta File, 115
Robust Sorting, 113 Use 2-pass encoding, 55, 57, 59,
Same As Source, 46 69
Sample Rate, 101, 103 Use Data Partition, 69
Sample Size, 98 Use de-blocking filter, 62
Saturation, 90 Use error protection, 100
Save, 14, 34 Use RVLC, 69
Save As, 22, 26, 30 Use scene change detection, 67
Scratch location, 31 Value, 110, 115
scrubber, 23 Variable Bit Rate, 43
Select/Edit Templates, 42 VBR Strength, 56
Set copyright flag, 100 VBV buffer size, 55, 56, 58, 60, 66,
Set Defaults, 106 68, 71–74
Set original flag, 100 Video, 19, 36, 44, 70, 103
Settings Editor, 5, 8, 9, 13–16, 26, Video Codec, 42
30, 31, 33, 34 Warning, 30
Sharpness, 57 Watermark Resize, 93
Show Advanced Settings, 103 Width, 83, 85
Show all files, 13, 31 Window, 2
Show Recently Encoded files, 31 Wrapping, 41
SID, 97 X Offset, 93
Signal progressive sequence in bit- Y Offset, 93
stream, 67 zoom slider, 24
Simple Visual Profile Level 0, 68 interlaced scan, 51
Size, 84
Skip Current Job, 30 job, 9
Slice structure, 59 JPEG, 24, 63, 94
Smoothness/crispness, 71–74
keyboard shortcuts, 35
Source, 23, 35, 92
Source Bookmarks, 5, 6, 8, 11–13, Lame MP3, 99
22, 23 low pass filtering, 107
Source Pixel Aspect Ratio, 52, 85
Speed vs. Quality, 62 metadata, 117
Start Encoding, 9, 29 mobile phones, 118
Status, 8, 9, 30 Motion JPEG, 49, 63
Stereo mode, 100 MP3, ii, 99, 120
Stop Encoding, 30 MPEG Audio, 100
Stream, 19, 45, 111 MPEG-1, 40, 64, 120
Stretch Anamorphic Frames, 24 MPEG-2, 40, 51, 65, 84, 85, 120
SureStream™, 42 MPEG-4, ii, 40, 51, 67, 84, 114, 120
Target Average Bit Rate, 43 MPEG-4 part 10, 60
Target Video Quality, 43 MXF, 41, 121
Temporal, 87
Threshold, 81, 82, 87 naming conventions, 27
Time limit, 2 noise reduction, 86
NTSC, 51, 53, 54, 66, 78–80, 85, 88
Telestream 127
offset, 105 Windows Media, 70, 122

Windows Media Audio, 103
PAL, 52–54, 66, 78–80, 85, 88 Windows Media player, 122
Parametric Stereo, 96 Windows RGB, 75
PBF, 41, 121
PCM, 101 YCbCr, 48, 75
PNG, 24 YUV, 48
Popwire Blockbased Format, 41
Preferences, 13
processor priority, 32
progressive scan, 51
proxy file, 117
PSP, 121
QCELP, 101, 114

QuickTime, 39, 69, 70, 94, 102
QuickTime Player, 12, 40, 51, 68, 122
QuickTime™, 121
Real, 122
RealAudio, 103
RealVideo, 42, 70
requirements
hardware, 3
RGB, 70, 92
sample rate, 108

SBR, 96
settings file, 117
sharpening, 91
smoothing, 91
SMPTE, 97
SMPTE 314M, 54
SMPTE 356M, 53
SMPTE 421M, 73
Spectral Band Replication, 96
SVCD, 51, 52
Targa, 94
Targa Cine, 70
temp directory, 31, 117
TIFF, 24, 94
timecode, 83
VC-1, 73
VLC, 96, 122
volume
audio, 108
watch folder, 117

watermark, 92, 117
Wave, 122
Winamp, 96
Telestream 128

Episode Pro User Guide

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Episode Pro User Guide

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Telestream Episode Pro 4.2.

©Telestream, Inc, 2007

Trademarks and Patents

• UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.

• Apple is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and

• QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S.

• Windows Media is a trademark of Microsoft Inc., registered in the U.S. and

• RealNetworks, RealAudio, and RealVideo are either registered trademarks

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

“Supply of this Implementation of MPEG-4 AAC technology does not convey a

This software contains code from LAME, http://lame.sourceforge.

Disclaimer of Warranty on Software

LICENSOR AND THE THIRD PARTY SUPPLIERS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS

Comments about this documentation should be sent to:

2 Before you install 3

3 Installing Episode Pro 4

4 Introduction to Episode Pro 5

5 Episode Pro in detail 11

5.2.8 Closing settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

10 Audio tab—filters 105

11 Metadata tab 110

12 Stream tab 111

13 Engine tab 115

B Supported formats 118

Episode Pro represents many years of experience in the broadcasting industry

1.1 Manual scope

1.2 Document conventions

2.1 Hardware requirements

2.1.1 Minimum hardware configuration

CPU G4, G5 or Intel Mac

2.1.2 Recommended hardware configuration

CPU Dual 2 GHz G5 or Intel Mac

2.2 Software requirements

3.1 Before installing

3.2 Installing the software

3.3 Installing the License Key

4.1 Interface overview

4.1.1 Source Bookmarks

4.1.2 Compression Settings

The Compression Settings area is located directly below Source Bookmarks

4.1.3 Recently Encoded

4.1.4 Job Batch

4.1.5 Settings Editor

4.2 Getting started

To make a test encoding, follow the three steps below:

In chapter 4, Introduction to Episode Pro, we discussed the basics of the user

5.1 Managing source files

5.1.1 Source Bookmarks

As described in section 4.1.1, Source Bookmarks, the Source Bookmarks area is

5.1.2 Source files

Ctrl-click a file in the Source Bookmarks area to bring up a context menu.

Add to Job Batch Add the file to Job Batch.

5.1.3 File extensions

The difference between file formats and codecs

5.2 Managing settings

5.2.1 Using template settings

Restoring default templates

5.2.2 Creating new settings

To create a new setting, either select File→New Setting, press Command-N,

5.2.3 Saving settings

5.2.4 Creating new folders

5.2.5 Deleting folders and settings

Select a setting or folder and press Command-backspace to delete it from the