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Encoding or archiving a broadcast to a file

You can encode content to a file, and you can archive a live event to a file for later use.

Archiving on a Windows Media server versus archiving on the encoding computer

If you are broadcasting through a Windows Media server, you can archive the broadcast on the server rather than on the encoding computer. Archiving on the Windows Media server is the best solution when:

If you choose to archive the broadcast on the encoding computer, all the sources you set up in the broadcast session are archived automatically. However, archiving all sources is not always desirable. For example, if one of the sources is an advertisement, you may not want to archive the advertisement. You can have the encoder automatically pause archiving for sources that you specify.

Enabling seeking in the output file

Indexing at each key frame is turned on by default whenever you archive or encode to a file and your source includes video. By indexing the content, users can make use of the fast-forward and rewind features of a player while viewing encoded content. Indexing is not available for broadcasts. You can also choose to enable frame-level seeking in an output file by generating a time code (or preserving the time code already present in the source video). You can generate a time code when your source includes video and you are sourcing from digital video (DV) files in Audio-Video Interleaved (AVI) format, capture devices, and digital devices. You can preserve a time code when your source includes video and you are sourcing from digital video (DV) files in Audio-Video Interleaved (AVI) format or digital devices. To preserve the time code for a VTR that is connected through a COM port using the Sony RS422 protocol, you must set up an EDL for the session. You cannot preserve or create a time code when you are applying the inverse telecine filter.

Storing content temporarily

If you are encoding to a file while sourcing from devices, the encoding process might fall behind the capturing process, which reduces the quality of the encoded content. To prevent this from occurring, you can temporarily store the captured content and then encode it to a file. If you choose this option, capturing and encoding occur simultaneously and data is only stored temporarily if encoding falls behind. For the best quality, especially when capturing a large amount of data, you can choose to capture first and then encode only after you have stopped capturing.

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