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Understanding profiles

A profile is a collection of command-line options tailored to the type of content being encoded, the connection speed of the intended audience, and the desired image quality of the output. The options stored in a profile include the audio and video bit rate, frame rate, video size, client connection speed, and codecs. Using a profile can simplify the process of setting up an encoding session. Instead of specifying each individual setting that you want to use to encode your content, you specify a profile name. All settings within that profile will be applied.

Windows Media 8 Encoding Utility includes a number of system profiles for encoding both National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) and Phase Alternating Line (PAL) formats. These profiles are similar to the profiles that were included with Windows Media Encoder 7 except that:

Note   The NTSC format is the broadcast system standard accepted by and used in North America, Japan, most of Central America, and portions of Southeast Asia. It specifies that video must contain 525 lines per frame at an update rate of 30 frames per second (fps).

The PAL format is the broadcast standard for most of Europe, Africa, China, South America, and the Middle East. This format specifies that video must contain 625 lines per frame at an update rate of 25 fps. PAL video has higher resolution than NTSC, but also displays more flicker in the image.

You can see the list of profiles that are installed with Windows Media 8 Encoding Utility from the command line by using one of the following command-line options:

-profile?

Displays all audio and video profiles.

-profileall?

Displays all audio and video profiles and the details of each profile.

-profile_profilename?

Displays the details of the profile that you specify. Replace profilename with the number of the specific profile. For example:

wm8eutil -profile_av32?

To specify the profile that you want to use for an encoding session, use the –profile command-line option, followed by the name of the profile. For example:

wm8eutil -profile av700pal

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