MSPro7 gets Advanced MPEG menu....ON STEROIDS!!

[Dr Mordrid]

MediaStudio Pro users have thought for a very long time that its MPEG encoder has been inferior in terms of the number of settings it supports.

No longer is this the case.

Ulead has seen fit to enable the entire list of encoding options supported by the MainConcept MPEG engine (and then some!!) in MediaStudio Pro 7.0 by way of an Advanced menu. The Advanced menu is enabled by putting the usual "Advanced=1" in MSP.ini's [VIODRIVER] section;

[VIODRIVER]
PlayAC3=1
DecodeAC3=1
UleadAC3Encode=1
ADVANCE=1

Note the other settings which control the level of AC3 support.

Lots of new stuff:

The new Advanced menu includes all manner of settings including MPEG quality from 0 to 50 (default = 35); Low, Main and High profiles at multiple Levels including High 1440; 4:3, 16:9 & 2.21:1 aspect ratios; multiple frame rates including 23.976, 24, 59.94 & 60 fps; Audio Multiplexing and about every AC3 encoding option you could want:

1+1: (Channel 1, Channel 2)
1/0: (Center)
2/0: (Left, Right)
3/0: (Left, Center, Right)
2/1: (Left, Right, Surround)
3/1: (Left, Center, Right, Surround)
2/2: (Left, Right, Surround Left, Surround Right)
3/2: (Left, Center, Right, Surround Left, Surround Right)

Here are the screen shots:

After making the above change to MSP.ini to enable the Advanced MPEG menu you see this on the MPEG Compression tab;



On the "Basic" page you get to set the video standard, field options, delacing, relaxed standards, bitrate and encoder quality (0-50 with a default of 35);



This is the "Video Settings" page where you get to set up GOP characteristics, aspect ratios, CBR/VBR and VBR encoding options;



Also on the "Video Settings" page is the abiltiy to set up about any frame rate you could need;



On the "Advanced Video Settings" page is a lot of meat, including tons of stream encoding options. Note the Additional Settings window;



Here are the "Audio Settings" which includes the AC3, PCM and MPEG audio encoding options, most of which are ghosted (but readable) so I can show you the AC3 encoding options;



And finally here are the "Multiplexer Settings" where you can set up all manner of MUXing parameters;



Looks like it's time to study up on MPEG encoding options again.....

YES; for advanced options like 2-Pass VBR and several other features TMPGEnc will still be necessary.

Dr. Mordrid

[paulw]

Just as a matter of interest. How many folks are going to use AC3 for their home movies?? Ripping DVDs I can understand..

[Dr Mordrid]

If they're smart quite a few.

It provides better compatability with NTSC decks, for which AC3 audio has been the standard audio coding mode since day one. They'll play MPEG, but not as well as AC3. Just ask those who do ripping.

AC3 support was added to PAL later on with MPEG being its initial audio standard.

LPCM audio is just huge in terms of files size, which hurts how much video you can put on the disk.

The basic 2/0 stereo mode is also a better selection for encoding DVD audio than either MPEG or LPCM because it typically compresses to a smaller size than MPEG and a helluva lot smaller than LPCM. This means a bit more video on the disk.

Dr. Mordrid

[keithm]

Anyone tried this with the latest Mpeg.now for ulead 6.5?

[Dr Mordrid]

You might get the menu, but may not be able to get them to override the main menu settings.

I don't have 6.5 on any systems to test it, but you can try it by selecting MPEG-2 in the normal MPEG dialog, selecting the VBR setting and 48k audio then digging into the advanced settings. See if the settings "stick" when you exit back to the main MPEG menu.

Dr. Mordrid

[Elie]

I think Ulead missed the last channel in the Dolby Digital standard and that's the .1 i.e SUB Woofer!

The Subwoofer channel is a critical aspect which to my surprise, it's not included.

I only saw 3/2, it should be 3/2.1

Cheers,
Elie

[Dr Mordrid]

I have an inquiry in to Ulead about the LFE channel, so don't presume anything. I should hear later tonight, which is when they start work in Taiwan.

From the *real world* perspective it probably doesn't matter much if the front speakers have good woofers and a decent network since encoding the .1 to them is a very common practice.

Dr. Mordrid

[Elie]

Thanks Doc

Now re LFE, all explosions runblings in movies are targeted for LFE. Yes you may get an after effect on the front channels, but it's not the same.

Try this for example...

If you have a DVD Player and a cool movie like Matrix or Minority Report, playback using all speakers (DD 5.1 or DTS) then half way through the movie, shut off your Sub It will sound empty.

I hope they come through.

Regards,
Elie

[CaN-o-PuS]

Most decoders can be set to throw all frequencies below a given threshold to the .1 subwoofer.

[paulw]

Thanx Doc.

Makes sense now..