Product Q&A

Today's video is not limited to TV or camcorder anymore. Internet, DVD, Blu-ray, and digital recorders have spawned many different methods or formats to record or transport the video. An encoder like TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress can help you transfer the video from one format to another.

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This a process in which a certain type of information is changed into a form allowing for the transmission, archiving or playback over different media. TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress provides the necessary functions to encode most digital video content in many different formats.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress is a processor intensive application. While is is possible to use TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress on a laptop computer, the user experience may not be as great as a desktop computer can provide. If used on a laptop in battery powered mode, performance may even become too low for any practical use. We do not support the use of TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress on a laptop computer in any way.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress can manage several video clips and combine them linearly into a single output file.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress can generate files containing data that are compliant with the DVD-Video or Blu-ray video format. However, the generated files are not usable "as is" by a DVD-Video or Blu-ray video player as they do not have the required structure. In order to create a DVD or Blu-ray video disc you have to author those files with an authoring application such as TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress can help you in the conversion process by providing some of the editing or correction functions you may need. However, a complete conversion chain requires a video capture device such as a card or an external converter to connect your VCR to. The data generated by the capture system can then be processed in TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress is mainly a digital video converter/encoder application. While it offers numerous functions allowing the editing of digital video content, it works with the assumption that all contents are re-encoded at output. Video editing without re-encoding is possible in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 format with TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 3.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress provides you the tools to encode your video into a format usable in YouTube but the choice of the method to upload the outputted video to YouTube is left to you.

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The MPEG-4 format (ISO or H.264) is now the de facto reference for digital video. It provides good picture quality within a relatively small file size. Moreover, the same format is used in many devices and systems allowing a relatively easy transport.

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This is software or hardware used to decode or encode a given format. In the Windows® operating system codecs are used to decode and encode video and audio contents. TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress makes use of the installed codecs to access the content of AVI file formats.

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DirectShow is a part of the Windows operating system managing the video and audio coding and decoding. TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress accesses the operating system codecs through DirectShow in order to decode and encode AVI files.

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In video technical language, "p" stands for progressive while "i" stands for interlaced. Progressive means each displayed picture or frame is complete, like a photograph. Interlaced means each displayed picture provides only half of the picture, the other half being displayed later. Progressive display offers the best possible quality but requires more bandwidth (file size) and may be a source of flickering at relatively low framerates. Interlaced display reduces the bandwidth but may increase the flickering effect. Note that most modern LCD/Plasma displays offer an option to intelligently convert an Interlaced source into a Progressive display, able to combine the advantages of both modes. In TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress you can choose the output display mode to match the target format or player requirements.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress offers the necessary options to create files playable by a PSP, an iPod or other handheld players. However, you will have to set-up the encoder settings yourself.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress supports both TV standards and can also convert from PAL to NTSC or vice versa. Given the difference in framerate the best result is achevied in NTSC to PAL conversion. Conversion from PAL to NTSC is possible but may result in a jittery picture.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress provides the functions to change the picture aspect ratio. You may also use the resizing and cropping functions to reduce, or remove, the lateral black bars that appear in the outputted picture.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress provides the functions aimed to improve the picture quality such as a video noise reduction filter, several contour and sharpness filters, a multimode color correction filter and even a ghost reduction filter specially designed to process VHS recorded analog broadcasts.

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The TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress filtering stage provides a series of audio tools allowing you to reduce the noise, correct the audio volume or create a fade-in/out effect.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress provides the functions to change the picture resolution from input to output, including the possibility to choose the mathematical method used to enlarge or reduce the picture size.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress Clip editor provides the functions to designate specific pictures as keyframes or chapters. The keyframe/chapter information can then be used in the encoder stage to change some of the outputted video picture characteristics. A text file containing a list of the marked pictures can also be outputted along with the video for use in the TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 chapter editor.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress Source Wizard provides the option to import the content of a personnal DVD-Video or DVD-VR media. However, it does not import protected content such as those found in commercially available DVD-Video.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress supports the MPEG Transport Stream format from HDV and AVCHD sources. Support of a Transport Stream generated by a digital tuner capture device may be very limited, or subject to many defects making such sources almost unusable.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress can output in many different formats. You will find a complete list of available formats in the product specification page.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress supports the FLV format as an input source but cannot output it.

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Since version 4.6.2.266, TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress offers the option to use CUDA™ enabled video cards to accelerate some parts of the video processing chain. In the current version, CUDA technology is used in the filtering stage, allowing it to considerably reduce the necessary processing time. CUDA enabled video cards also offer a MPEG-1/2 decoder TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress can access it to speed up the decoding stage. In projects making heavy use of the filtering stage, acceleration provided by CUDA(TM) technology can go over 400% compared to non-CUDA processing.

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Since version 4.7.1.284, TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress offers the option to use the SpursEngine(TM) hardware MPEG-2/4 encoder to accelerate the encoding part of the processing chain. Furthermore, TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress can also access the SpursEngine(TM) super resolution engine to upconvert SD video into HD with an incredible quality. Used with CUDA(TM) technology, a project's processing time can achieve a speed increase to over 500%.

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TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress and TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 share the same subtitle data file formats. Subtitles created using the TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress subtitle editor can be imported into TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 to create selectable subtitle streams.

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The TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress Batch encode tool is an application designed to automate the project processing. Once you have set-up an encoding project, you can transfer it to the Batch encode tool for later processing while you are away from your computer. The Batch encode tool can hold several projects and processes them one after the other without needing any human action besides launching it.

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The TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress Batch encode tool can process as many projects at the same time as there are processor cores available on the host machine. If your computer has two cores, the Batch encode tool is able to process two projects at a time. However, some limitations may exist depending on the project characteristics.

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Our products have not been fully tested on the 64-bit version of Windows XP and Windows Vista. See our 64-bit compatibility page for current test results. You may download the trial versions of our software to test functionality, but keep in mind that our support does not cover usage on 64-bit systems, so please use at your own risk. All programs will run in 32-bit mode on a 64-bit OS.

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The Video File Application Programming Interface is a plug-in system allowing you to create your own data reader and connect it to the TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress input. You can find on the Internet numerous VFAPI plug-in for many different applications.

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