After a bit of a delay because of the service packs for ie6 & XP Pro, I've been testing Winmedia 9 beta -- I've found a couple of things that I hope might be of interest.
1st though, I'd like to sneak in a word or three about those service packs & one (of many?) Gotchas... If you install SP1 for XP first, you might not be able to download ie6 sp1 from the update site (the only place it was available), & in my experience, XP sp1 does not update all of the files for ie6 & Outlook Express -- if you've installed the XP sp1 already, you might want to check. However, installing the ie6 sp1 first, I had problems with the XP sp1 not fully installing, with more problems then I can go into here. Downloading (but not installing) the ie6 sp1 files 1st, I was able to update one install of XP Pro by doing the XP sp1 followed by the ie6 sp1.
But, as mentioned I had several problems updating this install, so your mileage might vary considerably -- it's just a word of warning. RE: any future attempts with these service packs, I'm keeping an eye on http://www.windowsxp.nu/ . Microsoft documents how to create an XP install file set with sp1 integrated, but they stop short of creating a bootable CD (a CD image is supposed to be available somewhere on MSDN), and the .bin file on http://www.windowsxp.nu/ , to make an XP pro install disc bootable, doesn't seem compatible with the integrated install setup. I'm thinking an install using this new setup using the repair option might be the safest way to go, taking less of a chance on losing a machine for however long. I'd also recommend a full disc image first as backup, rather then relying on the built in ASR.
Apologizing for that delay, on to the winmedia 9 beta stuff... What may be of the most interest, if you update the existing Windows Media player to decode winmedia 9 beta files, you get a cab file that expands to around a meg., & the codec will install if you right click on the .inf file, so you could conceivably include it a disc. In my opinion, this seems a route the average viewer might be more inclined to follow, rather then installing the full Media Player Beta. And, with the codec installed, Media Player 7.1 will play v.9 vbr.
So far at least, that vbr capability seems to be where the winmedia 9 beta shines, and where the 9 beta encoder seems to have received any optimization. I've only seen some slight improvement with cbr encoded files, and the beta encoder seems to take longer to produce them. The 9 beta vbr moves quicker then 2 pass encoding with winmedia 8, and significantly reduced a pet peeve -- the rough/jerky background crawl demonstrated by clouds for example.
If you want use it (if only for comparison), the earlier encoder can still be available, IF you install the beta encoder to a different folder or directory then the default. And yes, the beta encoder can be quite buggy, especially opening larger avi files on an ntfs disc. I've found it helps to create the profile first, along with turning off any and every extra process &/or program you can easily terminate.
The beta encoder also has problems with some source avi files over 2 gig, depending not on the format or codec, but on the program that created them; a 2nd, direct stream copy with V/Dub has solved this when it occurred.
The winmedia 9 beta SDK talks about something that might prove useful in the future as software companies include the final release... With v.9 it should be possible to treat winmedia files more like standard avi's, where unaltered files are not recompressed.
1st though, I'd like to sneak in a word or three about those service packs & one (of many?) Gotchas... If you install SP1 for XP first, you might not be able to download ie6 sp1 from the update site (the only place it was available), & in my experience, XP sp1 does not update all of the files for ie6 & Outlook Express -- if you've installed the XP sp1 already, you might want to check. However, installing the ie6 sp1 first, I had problems with the XP sp1 not fully installing, with more problems then I can go into here. Downloading (but not installing) the ie6 sp1 files 1st, I was able to update one install of XP Pro by doing the XP sp1 followed by the ie6 sp1.
But, as mentioned I had several problems updating this install, so your mileage might vary considerably -- it's just a word of warning. RE: any future attempts with these service packs, I'm keeping an eye on http://www.windowsxp.nu/ . Microsoft documents how to create an XP install file set with sp1 integrated, but they stop short of creating a bootable CD (a CD image is supposed to be available somewhere on MSDN), and the .bin file on http://www.windowsxp.nu/ , to make an XP pro install disc bootable, doesn't seem compatible with the integrated install setup. I'm thinking an install using this new setup using the repair option might be the safest way to go, taking less of a chance on losing a machine for however long. I'd also recommend a full disc image first as backup, rather then relying on the built in ASR.
Apologizing for that delay, on to the winmedia 9 beta stuff... What may be of the most interest, if you update the existing Windows Media player to decode winmedia 9 beta files, you get a cab file that expands to around a meg., & the codec will install if you right click on the .inf file, so you could conceivably include it a disc. In my opinion, this seems a route the average viewer might be more inclined to follow, rather then installing the full Media Player Beta. And, with the codec installed, Media Player 7.1 will play v.9 vbr.
So far at least, that vbr capability seems to be where the winmedia 9 beta shines, and where the 9 beta encoder seems to have received any optimization. I've only seen some slight improvement with cbr encoded files, and the beta encoder seems to take longer to produce them. The 9 beta vbr moves quicker then 2 pass encoding with winmedia 8, and significantly reduced a pet peeve -- the rough/jerky background crawl demonstrated by clouds for example.
If you want use it (if only for comparison), the earlier encoder can still be available, IF you install the beta encoder to a different folder or directory then the default. And yes, the beta encoder can be quite buggy, especially opening larger avi files on an ntfs disc. I've found it helps to create the profile first, along with turning off any and every extra process &/or program you can easily terminate.
The beta encoder also has problems with some source avi files over 2 gig, depending not on the format or codec, but on the program that created them; a 2nd, direct stream copy with V/Dub has solved this when it occurred.
The winmedia 9 beta SDK talks about something that might prove useful in the future as software companies include the final release... With v.9 it should be possible to treat winmedia files more like standard avi's, where unaltered files are not recompressed.