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Rovi TotalCode Studio v2.5
Rovi TotalCode Studio v2.5 ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................................5
Congratulations! ............................................................................................................................................................ 5
Getting Started .................................................................................................................................................. 10
System Requirements .................................................................................................................................................. 10
Installation ................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Unlocking a TotalCode Studio Plug-In ......................................................................................................................... 15
Quickstart Tutorial ....................................................................................................................................................... 16
The TotalCode Studio Interface ........................................................................................................................ 20
The Menus ................................................................................................................................................................... 20
The File Menu ................................................................................................................................................ 20
The Transcode Menu..................................................................................................................................... 22
The View Menu ............................................................................................................................................. 22
The Tools Menu ............................................................................................................................................. 23
The Help Menu .............................................................................................................................................. 23
The Tools Dialogs ......................................................................................................................................................... 24
The Modules Dialog....................................................................................................................................... 24
The Show Batch Job Dialog ........................................................................................................................... 26
The Log Dialog ............................................................................................................................................... 27
The Preset Manager Dialog ........................................................................................................................... 28
The Preferences Dialog ................................................................................................................................. 29
The Buttons Bar ............................................................................................................................................. 32
The Main Interface ...................................................................................................................................................... 33
The Input Pane .............................................................................................................................................. 33
The Output Pane ........................................................................................................................................... 35
The Video Tab................................................................................................................................................ 38
The Multiplexer Tab ...................................................................................................................................... 40
The Post Process Tab ..................................................................................................................................... 41
The PID Tab ................................................................................................................................................... 42
The Subtitle Tab ............................................................................................................................................ 42
The Audio Tab ............................................................................................................................................... 43
The Filters Tab ............................................................................................................................................... 45
The Video Filters............................................................................................................................................ 46
The Audio Filters ........................................................................................................................................... 50
The Watch Folder Feature ........................................................................................................................................... 58
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How to work with the Batch List .................................................................................................................................. 60
The Advanced Video Codec Interfaces ......................................................................................................................... 63
The Advanced MPEG Encoder Settings ......................................................................................................... 65
The Advanced H.264/AVC Encoder Settings ................................................................................................. 74
The Advanced VC-1 Encoder Settings ........................................................................................................... 82
The Advanced MPEG-4 Part 2/H.263 Encoder Settings ................................................................................ 87
The DVCPRO 25/50/100 Encoder Settings .................................................................................................... 91
The Advanced JPEG2000 Encoder Settings ................................................................................................... 92
The Advanced CUDA H.264/AVC Encoder Interfaces .................................................................................... 96
The Advanced OpenCL H.264/AVC Encoder Interfaces ............................................................................... 103
The Advanced MVC Encoder Interfaces ...................................................................................................... 109
The Advanced DivX Encoder Settings .......................................................................................................... 118
The Advanced Audio Codec Interfaces ....................................................................................................................... 122
The MPEG Audio Encoder Settings Window ............................................................................................... 122
The LPCM Audio Encoder Settings Window ................................................................................................ 124
The AAC Encoder Settings Window ............................................................................................................. 126
The Dolby Digital Professional Encoder Settings Window .......................................................................... 128
The Dolby Digital Plus Pro Encoder Settings Window ................................................................................. 132
The Advanced Multiplexer Interfaces ........................................................................................................................ 136
The MPEG Multiplexer Settings Window .................................................................................................... 136
The MP4 Multiplexer Settings Window ...................................................................................................... 139
The Elementary Stream Settings Window .................................................................................................. 140
Appendix ......................................................................................................................................................... 141
Raw File Import.......................................................................................................................................................... 141
HE-AAC Usage ............................................................................................................................................................ 143
The TotalCode Studio Import Modules ...................................................................................................................... 146
QuickTime Import Module .......................................................................................................................... 146
MPEG Import Module ................................................................................................................................. 147
XDCAM Import Module ............................................................................................................................... 148
Technical Support ........................................................................................................................................... 149
TotalCode Studio Support .......................................................................................................................................... 149





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Copyright 2012 MainConcept GmbH - Now part of Rovi. All rights reserved.
Trademarks are used for informational purposes, and remain the property of their owners. Depending on the
software version, screenshots may vary in this manual.
Adobe and Flash are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the
United States and/or other countries.
Dolby Digital codec manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories.
Dolby and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories.
Portions of this software are copyright (c) 2008 The FreeType Project (www.freetype.org). All rights reserved.
Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 Thai Open Source Software Center Ltd and Clark Cooper
Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Expat maintainers.

Edition: May 22, 2012
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Introduction
Congratulations!
For years, storing digital video footage has been a big challenge because of the large amount of
disk space required. Various compression methods have been created to reduce the space
requirements, but often at the expense of quality. But what is the most useful format in video,
production and broadcast business? H.264/AVC? JPEG2000 or DVCPRO? The new VC-1 or the
approved MPEG standard? Now Rovi presents Rovi TotalCode Studio: the new encoder application
which combines all popular codecs and renowned formats. And the user decides which formats or
codecs he really needs!
The demo version of TotalCode Studio is a kind of basic application which includes the most
important MainConcept codecs as a demo. You can test the power of the codecs the way you
already know from the popular MainConcept Codec SDK or applications, i.e. only a watermark is
added to the converted clips. Furthermore, the TotalCode Studio demo version has an import
limitation of 30 seconds for files which include Dolby Digital Professional, Dolby Digital Plus Pro or
AAC audio, i.e. after this period of time audio is muted and only video is transcoded correctly.
The new application is available in the following packages:
TotalCode Studio containing the following codecs:
MPEG-2 (incl. MPEG-1)
H.264/AVC Professional Version (incl. CUDA H.264/AVC and OpenCL H.264/AVC )
VC-1 Professional Version
MPEG-4 Part 2
DivX / DivX Plus

TotalCode Studio Broadcast Pack containing the following codecs:
H.264/AVC Broadcast Version (incl. AVC-Intra, CUDA and OpenCL H.264/AVC )
DVCPRO HD
JPEG2000


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TotalCode Studio Advanced Codec Pack containing the following codecs:
MVC / Blu-ray 3D

TotalCode Studio Audio Pack containing the following codecs:
Dolby Digital Professional
Dolby Digital Plus Pro

When you are interested in obtaining the full version of the codec, you have to purchase the
appropriate plug-in for TotalCode Studio. After you have installed e.g. TotalCode Studio H.264/AVC
for the application, you can then convert your clips into H.264 files without any restrictions. And if
you need additional format, you simply obtain the desired codec plug-in for the new TotalCode
Studio application, and you can start transcoding.
Here are some brief information on the formats, the new TotalCode Studio software offers:
The MPEG format (developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group) offers an excellent method of
compressing video and audio data, because it can achieve significant reductions in file sizes while
retaining quality.
The two most popular variations are MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. MPEG-1 generally offers lower (but
good) quality with extremely small file sizes. MPEG-1 is the format used in Video CDs (VCDs)
compact discs containing video material that can be played in VCD players, computers and many
standalone DVD players. MPEG-1 is also used to create ultra-compact video clips for e-mailing and
posting on the web, and for creating reasonably-sized clips to include in multimedia presentations or
on standard CDs. MPEG-2 can offer much higher quality, suitable for Super Video CDs (SVCDs),
DVDs and broadcasting.
Now there is also H.264 - the next generation in video compression which offers highest
compression in best quality! H.264/AVC (Advanced Video Coding) - also known as MPEG-4 Part 10
- is poised to be a major video standard because it can replace several popular formats while
offering significant advantages over them. It contains advanced compression, i.e. it includes a high
rate-distortion efficiency which can result in significant bitrate savings over MPEG-2. The network
friendliness is based on a network abstraction layer designed for highly efficient transmission of
header data. The available H.264 profiles for a wide variety of applications are ranging from video
telephony to high-end broadcasting and storage.
TotalCode Studio H.264/AVC Pro and Broadcast now also offer CUDA and OpenCL H.264/AVC
transcoding support, offering amazing performance by making use of NVIDIAs and ATIs
Hardware Acceleration, while providing excellent quality.
CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) is a parallel computing architecture that is used on
many graphics boards from NVidia, such as Quadro, Tesla and GeForce.
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OpenCL is a parallel computing architecture that is used on many graphics board from ATI and
AMD resp., such as Radeon HD and FirePro. It allows a significant increase in encoding
performance by off-loading most of the resource-intensive encoding features to the GPUs (Graphics
Processing Units). In this case, the systems CPU utilization is dramatically reduced and can be
used for other tasks, while the GPUs do the decoding, scaling and encoding work. In contrast to
CPUs, the graphics boards' GPUs provide a parallel architecture that consists of a large number of
cores, that are able to run thousands of threads simultaneously.
CUDA and OpenCL allow a significant increase in encoding performance by offloading most of the
resource-intensive encoding features to the GPUs (Graphics Processing Units). In this case, the
systems CPU utilization is dramatically reduced and can be used for other tasks, while the GPUs
do the decoding, scaling and encoding work. In contrast to CPUs, the graphics boards' GPUs
provide a parallel architecture that consists of a large number of cores, that are able to run
thousands of threads simultaneously. With the rapid progress in GPU technology development and
the large number of GPU based graphics boards in the market, taking advantage of the GPUs
power for video encoding and transcoding makes sense for both consumer users as well as
professional markets and industries, such as simulations in science and research, content creation,
medical imaging scans, etc. In the end-user segment, CUDA and OpenCL transcoding speeds-up
the time consuming task of converting your home movies into the H.264/AVC format and also
reduces CPU utilization so that the computer can be used for other purposes while encoding.
SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers) VC-1 has been adopted as a mandatory
video format for HD DVD and Blu-ray

. The TotalCode Studio VC-1 plug-in offers fast encoding and

decoding speeds in the Simple, Main and Advanced profiles and all levels supported by the
standard. In addition, it features MainConcept's extraordinary encoding and decoding quality.
The DVCPRO 25/50 plug-in is the perfect solution for amateurs and professionals working with high
end video. It can be used to decode and encode DVCPRO 25 and 50 frames. DVCPRO 50 delivers
considerably higher picture quality since it allows video data rates at 50 Mb/s. It supports all major
YUV and RGB color spaces.
The DVCPRO HD (also known as DVCPRO 100) plug-in can be used to decode and encode
DVCPRO HD frames (SMPTE 370M - 2002). It supports all major YUV and RGB color spaces.
DVCPRO HD delivers considerably higher picture quality since it allows video data rates at 100
Mb/s and also supports the YUV 4:2:2 color space.
The JPEG2000 standard provides a set of features that are of importance to many high-end and
emerging applications in the digital imaging market, everything from digital cameras, pre-press,
remote sensing, medical imaging, e-commerce and other key sectors by taking advantage of new
technologies. It addresses areas where current standards fail to produce the best quality or
performance and provides capabilities to markets that currently do not use compression. Due to its
advanced features, JPEG2000 is interesting especially for the professional market, where superior
image quality and editing features are of highest importance.
DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative) adopted JPEG2000 for video encoding of motion pictures
(http://www.dcimovies.com). Current movie distribution and presentation from movie rolls is
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expected to be replaced by digital projectors that will play high-res mj2 streams with superior image
and sound quality.
The MPEG-4 Part 2 standard (ISO/IEC 14496-2) is widely used for encoding and streaming. It
offers a Simple Profile (SP) that is used for environments where low bit rates and low resolutions
are needed, and an Advanced Simple Profile (ASP) that allows higher bit rates and resolutions.
Many mobile devices, such as mobile phones require these video streams as 3GPP or MP4 for
playback. MPEG-4 Part 2 is also supported by Apple iPod and Sony PSP.
MVC (Multiview Video Coding) is a new amendment to the H.264/AVC standard that allows you to
generate stereoscopic and multi-view 3D video streams. It is also an essential part of Free
Viewpoint Video (FVV), the interactive selection of viewpoints as well as direction within an
operating range (a virtual view, not an available camera view). MVC makes use of some interfaces
and approaches that have been initiated with the Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension of
H.264/AVC standard.
After the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) approved and released the new Blu-ray 3D specification,
multiview video coding has generated a lot of interest in the content and content delivery markets.
Right now more and more movies are produced in 3D for enhanced entertainment. There is also a
steadily increasing number of cinemas that are able to present movies in 3D. In the near future,
users will also want to watch these 3D films in their living-room or on a PC. Many companies have
recently announced plans to release TVs, monitors and Blu-ray players with 3D playback
capabilities. Now it is up to the content community to deliver larger amounts of compelling 3D
content to satisfy the needs of the home entertainment market.
For years, storing digital video footage has been a big challenge because of the large amount of
disk space required. Various compression methods have been created to reduce the space
requirements, but often at the expense of quality. TotalCode Studio DivX / DivX Plus now
combines two of the most popular codecs into a single transcoding solution: DivX and the new DivX
Plus HD.
The renowned DivX codec is based on the MPEG-4 ASP profile which is part of the MPEG-4 Part 2
(ISO/IEC 14496-2) standard. DivX video offers a better quality than both MPEG-1 (e.g. as for VCD)
and MPEG-2 (e.g. as for SVCD or standard DVD video) for low bitrates. It is still one of the most
popular encoding formats for movies on the PC.
The new DivX Plus HD is based on H.264/AVC (MPEG-4 Part 10) video and AAC (MPEG-2
(ISO/IEC 13818-7) and MPEG-4 (ISO/IEC 14496-3)) audio standard. This codec allows generating
and playing back full HD H.264 videos in the Matroska (MKV) file format.
In the recent past, more and more standalone DVD players get the DivX Certified logo, i.e. they are
able to play back DivX encoded movie discs. Nowadays DivX is one of the most widespread home
entertainment formats available on the market. DivX Plus HD will be the next major step for
customers in the long lasting history of DivX certified devices.
TotalCode Studio DivX offers several presets ranging from videos for mobile devices up to high-
definition video to encode your video footage into DivX and DivX Plus HD compliant streams. It
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comes with the below profiles offering a simple choice that matches best the device you expect to
play back a DivX video:
DivX Plus HD (new DivX standard based on H.264/AAC)
Home Theater (e.g. DVD players, recorders)
720p (e.g. High Definition DVD players)
1080p (e.g. High Definition DVD players)
Mobile (e.g. Smartphones, personal multimedia players, personal digital assistants, and in car
navigation devices with video playback)

The DivX format offers significantly better quality than VCD, SVCD and DVD when using low
bitrates. TotalCode Studio DivX comes with an MPEG-1/2 Layer 3 (MP3) Audio Encoder that can
exclusively be used in combination with the DivX video encoder.
With DivX Plus customers will enter the next generation in quality and performance. Due to its
extraordinary versatility and quality, H.264/AAC is expected to be the next major standard for the
professional broadcast industry as well as television transmission and content delivery worldwide.
TotalCode Studio offers exceptional rendering speed and quality. On modern PC systems, it can
achieve near-realtime performance in many cases - rivaling expensive hardware encoders. The
program is easy to use, yet it still gives power users the ability to tweak a wide variety of settings.

And now we wish you a lot of fun working with our TotalCode Studio application, and of course,
reading this manual.

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Getting Started
System Requirements
Encoding is very resource-intensive. To achieve acceptable speeds, we recommend at least these
minimum specifications:
Operating system:
Microsoft

Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7 (we recommend to install always the current
Service Pack for the used operating system), Microsoft

DirectX 9.0

.
Mac OS X 10.5 or higher (Intel).

Graphics Board (for CUDA H.264/AVC Transcoding):
NVIDIA video card with CUDA support:
- Professional: Tesla, Quadro 4000-series and higher, FX, CX, NVS, QuadroPlex
- Consumer: GeForce 8, 9, 100, 200, 400-series and higher GPUs
with a minimum of 256 MB of local graphics memory card or 512 MB for 1920x1080p encoding.
CUDA compute capability 1.1 and higher is strongly recommended (excludes certain GeForce 8800
models - GTS, Ultra. Compute capability 1.0 works in general for encoding, but has known issues.
We have used the following drivers for our tests, although other drivers might work with the CUDA
H.264/AVC Encoder as well: Minimum NVIDIA Driver version v260.XX
There is a useful tool called CUDA-Z that quickly analyzes whether your graphics board supports
CUDA encoding or not. Please download here: http://cuda-z.sourceforge.net.
Before registering our CUDA H.264/AVC Encoder you should run this small tool to get the
necessary information about CUDA support on your system.

Graphics Board (for OpenCL H.264/AVC Encoding):
OpenCL Encoding is only available for Microsoft Windows OS.
AMD Radeon HD Graphics:
- 6900 Series (6970, 6950)*, 6800 Series (6870, 6850)*

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ATI Radeon HD Graphics_
- 5900 Series (5970)**
- 5800 Series (5870, 5850, 5830)*
- 5700 Series (5770, 5750), 5600 Series (5670), 5500 Series (5570)

- ATI FirePro Graphics
V8800*, V7800

Processor:
1 GHz or faster

RAM:
1 GB or more

TotalCode Studio will work on many systems not meeting these specifications, although rendering
speed will be slower. So it also depends on the actual codec plug-in you use, whether you system
can achieve acceptable results and speed or not.





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Installation
The installation of TotalCode Studio takes part in two steps: the installation of the base application
which includes all codecs as a demo version, and the unlocking of the actual codecs package
(encoders & decoders), such as TotalCode Studio (base package), TotalCode Broadcast Pack or
TotalCode Studio Audio Pack. We start with a short description, how to install the TotalCode Studio
base application.
If you downloaded the base application, please follow the steps below:
Double-click the Setup file. A splash screen and progress indicator will appear. It may take a few
moments until the installation process begins. In the Welcome dialog, click Next to proceed.

When the license agreement appears on the screen, review it carefully, then click Yes if you agree
to the terms and you want to continue the installation.

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If you do not click Yes, the installation process will be aborted.
If you re ready to Install, click Install to start the installation-

Now the installation starts. An indicator will show the installation process.

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When the following dialog box appears, click Finish to complete the setup.

After the installation you will be prompted to restart your computer:

Please restart your system in order to assue the proper functioning of TotalCode Studio and the
activation system.

The TotalCode Studio application with all codecs as demo versions is now installed on your
computer. You can launch it from your Windows start menu or from the shortcut on your Windows
desktop.

If you ever need to uninstall the program, you can launch the uninstaller from the Add or Remove
Programs option in the Windows Control Panel.
Or, you can launch the uninstaller by running the Setup program again.
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Unlocking a TotalCode Studio Plug-In
If the PC where TotalCode Studio is installed has internet connectivity the activation can be
performed instantly. The only requirement is a Ticket ID that was provided by your sales contact
person. The Ticket ID is a link and will look like the example below:
http://licensecentral.mainconcept.com/ticket/C2TLS-5RRVK-AALNP-P59QE-36NDV

To activate a license, please proceed with the following steps:
Click or copy&paste the provided link into your browser.



The browser will access the License Central where the product will be automatically shown.
The only required action is to confirm by pressing Activate Now.

Please confirm the dialog with the Activate button.

After some seconds the status will change to Activated.

The license is now activated and can be used.


For more information about the activation procedure and the
license management, please refer to the How to Unlock
TotalCode Studio which can be opened from the Help
dialog.
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Quickstart Tutorial
TotalCode Studio is designed for easy, efficient operation. Many encoding jobs can be controlled
entirely from the user-friendly main window, with no need to access any of the advanced controls.
We use TotalCode Studio H.264/AVC as an example for this tutorial. The following steps show how
easy it is.
Launch the TotalCode Studio application if it is not already running. When you start the software for
the first time, a dialog appears where you can specify the Preferred output mode (PAL or NTSC)
you are working with, After confirmation, the main window will appear.



Click the Open Media button in the button bar at the top left of the window.



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In the dialog box that appears, select any video file.

TotalCode Studio will scan the file and display its attributes in the main window, along with
suggested settings for the output filename and format. In this case we have loaded an MPEG file
containing video and audio. A summary of the source files video and audio settings can be find in
the Input field. A preview of the file appears on the right side of the window.
Now you need to assign the imported source to the Output section for specifying the transcoding
settings. This can be done easily: Simply select the name of the source, and drag it into Target of
the Output pane. As you can see, the elementary streams of the input file are added as video #0
source and audio #0 source there.

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Now choose under Preset e.g. the option Blu-ray > H.264, high resolution. If necessary, you can
also adjust the rest of the settings by changing some parameters among the Video, Audio, and
Multiplexer tabs. This depends on what you want to do with the output file and the format you have
chosen. But please keep in mind that some settings might result in incompatible files.

Press the Browse for output file button to search for a desired location for the media you want to
encode. Moreover, you can specify a file name here. Simply follow the instructions in the Output
file name dialog.

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Click the Start transcoding button in the button bar at the top of the main interface. The status
indicator will show the encoding progress.

You can pause or stop the transcoding process any time by clicking the corresponding button next
to the progress bar in the Transcode field. It is only visible during the conversion process.

Your encoded file has now been saved to the location and filename that was specified in the
Browse for output file portion of the main window.
If you want to encode another file, repeat steps 2 to 8. Otherwise, exit the program by clicking the X
icon at the upper right of the main window, or by choosing Exit in the File menu.
Now we will take a tour of the TotalCode Studios interface and show you how to use the various
components in detail.

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The TotalCode Studio Interface
The Menus
In the top part of the window are the File, Transcode, View, Windows and Help menus.

The File Menu
Open Media... loads a video and/or audio file for
encoding. You can also load subtitle streams that way.
Open Media Using... allows you to load audio and/or
video streams, MVC streams, as well as subtitles by
using a specific importer, decoder, etc.
Please note, that the import of source streams for Blu-
ray 3D transcoding works differently in the TotalCode
Studio MVC version. Due to the fact that the software
requires two input streams, e.g. one stream for each
view for Blu-ray 3D (base and dependent), you have to
go to File > Open Media Using... > Create multi-view
Input. In the following window, you can select the
corresponding streams. During file import, TotalCode
Studio creates a metafile (*.mmf) with the information
about the first and second view, and you can use it as
regular input file afterwards.

NOTE: Please note that the selected input files must have the same dimensions, frame
rate as well as duration.

Open recent gives you list of recently video and/or audio files you have worked with in previous
sessions, so you do not need to search for them again. The Clear recent files option deletes the
file list.
Close closes the current file in the Input pane of the encoder.
Close All closes the all files in the Input pane of the encoder.
Select output file specifies location and file name of the stream(s) you want to encode.
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Set output size opens the following window, where you can try to specify a desired file size for the
output file with regard to the video/audio bitrate.

In the Size input prompt you enter the desired file size in kb or MB for the output stream. The
effects on the audio and video bitrate can be seen in the statistics below.
Copy format copies source files settings into the Output settings pane, so that it uses these
parameters for encoding.
Open batch loads a batch list which is stored on your computer, or brings it to the front if it is
already open but hidden behind other windows.
Save batch saves the current batch list.
Add to batch offers two options: Add current adds the
contents of the main window (file names and
parameters) to the batch list for encoding later. Attach
source adds the current file to the batch list project, so
that the entire list will be encoded to one file.
Open project enables you to load a previously saved
project file.
Recent Projects gives you list of projects you have
worked with in previous sessions, so you do not need to
search for them again.
Close Project closes the previously saved and/or
loaded project.
Save project (Ctrl+S) enables you to save the current
settings, including all file names and parameters in the
main window and batch list. The settings are saved as
project file with *.xml extension, which is added
automatically when you name a project file.
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Save Project as... stores the current project under another name and/or location.
Export > Target Settings generates an *.ini file with current transcoder settings.
Exit (Ctrl+Q) quits the program.
NOTE: You cannot use this option while encoding is in progress. In that case it is
necessary to click the Abort button on the main window, then click Exit.


The Transcode Menu
Start transcoding starts the actual encoding process
of the current file or batch list.
Stop transcoding stops the actual encoding process of
the current file or batch list.
Enable smart render if possible allows you to
transcode a file using smart rendering. In this case the
source files settings need to match the export settings as close as possible.

The View Menu
Zoom in maximizes the preview area.
Zoom out minimizes the preview area.
The option Preview while transcoding activates the
preview during encoding.
Show encoded frames displays the actual converted
frames during the encoding process, enabling you to
see how the current settings will affect quality. When
the option is enabled, the upper part of the preview
shows the source video and the lower part the
transcoded video.
When you choose the Go to option, a small window
appears where you can enter the fame number or
timecode (hh:mm:ss:ms) you want to seek to.
Play input opens the Windows

Media Player and plays back the source file with it.
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Play output opens the Windows

Media Player and plays back the transcoded file with it.
Take Screenshot allows you to take a still image from the current frame. The screenshot is created
in the resolution, you have specified under Width and Height in the Video output pane. The still
image is saved in the PNG format.

The Tools Menu
The Tools menu offers several options which
appear all in a separate window: Modules, Show
Batch jobs, Log, Preset Manage, Preferences
and Arrange. We will explain the different windows
in the chapter The Windows Dialogs.
The Arrange option automatically arranges all open
Tools on the screen.



The Help Menu
User Guide... (F1) opens this manual as a PDF file.
How to Unlock TotalCode Studio opens the
activation guide as a PDF file.
The Check for Update option requires that you
are connected to the internet. If the option is
enabled, TotalCode Studio will automatically connect to the MainConcept website to find out if there
is a newer version available. That happens once a day you run the application.
About... opens a window showing the current program version and copyright information. Click OK
to close it.

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The Tools Dialogs
The Modules Dialog
The Modules dialog gives you an overview of the available plug-ins for import, encoding, muxing
and filters. It also shows you which of them are installed as full versions. Moreover, you find some
options here to modify the modules.

Under View you specify which installed plug-ins should be displayed in the list: All, Import
Modules, Video Encoders, Audio Encoders, Muxers/Demuxers, Filters and Misc. In the
modules tree you get access to the different plug-ins which have been installed with the encoder
application.
NOTE: Sony has changed the specifications of the XDCAM MXF format, in order to
make it more compliant with the SMPTE MXF specs. All Sony XDCAM hardware
shipped from April 2008 onwards will produce streams that include these changes. Older
hardware shall get a firmware update. These changes affect the MXF Muxer and
Demuxer.
The new MXF Muxer now additionally supports XDCAM 422P@HL and 24 bit audio.
Moreover, it has been changed to use 'Frame wrapped MPEG ES Label' of the new
specs. Please note that streams produced by this MXF Muxer cannot be opened by the
old MXF Demuxer!!
The old version of the MXF Demuxer was not able to detect video streams, because
Sony changed the 'Frame wrapped MPEG ES Label'. This has been fixed with the new
version. The updated MXF Demuxer can now deal with both old and new specification
files.
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The dialog give you information on the installed modules/plug-ins, their type (import, video/audio
encoders, muxers/demuxers etc.), the status (enabled(/disabled) as well as priority of Import
Modules and the supported file extensions.
NOTE: If you want to import MOV files using the QuickTime import module, the
QuickTime Player must be installed on your system.
If you want to import WMV streams using QuickTime under Mac OS X, a 3rd party
QuickTime component must be installed. It can be downloaded on the Microsoft website
at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx.

If there is a checkbox in the disable column, you have the opportunity to disable the corresponding
import module, so that this in not used for importing files any more.
The Configure button enables you to change some of the modules parameters if necessary:
The Priority spinbox enables you to change
the priority of the import modules if necessary.
Under File extensions the supported file
extensions for the chosen import module are
displayed. Some modules, e.g. AVI and
DirectShow, are not determined by particular
file extensions. Others, e.g. the MPEG
module, are chosen by file extension. In this
case the list of file extensions can be changed
by the user. However, you can change them if
required, e.g. if you are using a DVD
authoring program which prefers a certain
extension.

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The Show Batch Job Dialog
One of the TotalCode Studio applications most powerful features is batch processing the ability
to encode multiple files unattended. Multiple videos can even be combined into one file. The Show
Batch Job dialog offers several options for working with a batch list and its corresponding content.

Add job adds a new file and its settings for transcoding as project to the batch list.
Update job enables you to update the selected job with the current settings from the main window.
The Clear button removes all entries from the batch list.
The Save button saves the current batch list as an XML file (file extension: *.mbl).
The Load button opens a batch list which is stored on your system.
The Start button launches the conversion process of the batch list. The button text changes to
Pause, and you can pause the encoding of the entire list by clicking it. Click the Resume button to
continue encoding.
The button Stop aborts the encoding of the entire batch list.
There are some buttons on the right of the Batch Jobs window:
The two arrow up/down buttons allow you to change the order of the streams for an encoding job,
i.e. convert several clips into one file. It also enables you to change the order of several jobs.
The button lets you remove the selected entry from the batch list. Alternatively, you remove and
entry by selecting it and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard.





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A cogwheel icon and a percentage display in the batch list indicates that the item is currently being
processed.

The progress of each item is shown in the percent display in the corresponding batch list entry, and
you can click the Stop button to quit encoding a single entry without stopping the rest of the list.
The entries in the batch list which are supposed to be encoded are marked with a checkmark. You
can disable the entries, so that they are not encoded when starting the batch list encoding by
clicking them. Then the checkmark turns into a small cross.
Successfully encoded items are indicated by a green button. Those which were aborted or had
errors are indicated by a red button.


The Log Dialog
The Log dialog shows lots of technical
information on the settings and the encoding
process. Moreover, it gives an overview on
previously made conversions since you have
started the application.
The Clear button deletes all information in the
log window.



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The Preset Manager Dialog
In the Preset Manager... dialog you have the opportunity to manage your own presets, you can
create in the main window by adjusting the necessary settings for a video/audio source and save
them as a *.mps file (it is structured like an XML file).


NOTE: Please keep in mind that one preset file can contain more than one preset.
However, the various presets in a single preset file have different names.

Next to Preset file the application displays the path of the currently selected preset file.
The option saves all or the currently selected presets into a new preset file container.
Opens a preset file container, if you want to adapt settings from another location.
The buttons at the bottom of the dialog perform the following functions:
Remove deletes the selected preset.
Import... allows you to load a preset as an XML structured file (*.mps). The included presets are
added to the already existing presets of the encoder application, so that you can use them for your
encoding purposes. This option also enables you to import presets from TotalCode Studio 1.x into
the new version.
Export... generates the selected preset as XML structured file (*.mps). These preset files can be
shared or uploaded for TotalCode Enterprise, so that they can be used there.
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The Close button closes the window again.
The Export Filter Presets Dialog
In the Export Filter Presets... dialog you have the opportunity to manage your filter presets, you
can create in the main window by adjusting the necessary settings on the video/audio Filters
panes. They are saved as *.mfs files. These MFS files can be uploaded to TotalCode Enterprise for
automated usage in high volume delivery transcoding jobs.
NOTE: Please keep in mind that one filter preset file can contain more than one filter.
The various filters in a single filter preset file have different names. However, you cannot
enable or disable particular filters within a filter preset file, i.e. all of them are applied.


The Preferences Dialog
In the Preferences dialog is divided in two tabs, where you can adjust some global and file open
options for TotalCode Studio. The Settings tab offers the following:


Preferred Output Mode specifies whether you want to use PAL or NTSC as your default mode at
startup of the software.
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Default Output File Name offers two options for specifying how TotalCode Studio should handle
the output file name. When selecting Append _out to input file name in the same folder,
TotalCode Studio simply adds the previously mentioned suffix to the file name in the same folder
where the input file is located. When choosing Keep input name, and put out file in /out
subfolder, TotalCode Studio creates a new folder called out and writes the exported file into it
without changing the actual source file name.
When matching output format to input offers several checkboxes. When you enable one or more
of them the corresponding parameter of the input stream is automatically used for the output as
well, i.e. this specific export setting will match the source files parameter.
Check for updates on start lets TotalCode Studio connect to the MainConcept website, in order to
find our if newer versions are available for instant download. When you prefer to work offline, we
recommend disabling the checkbox. TotalCode Studio will connect once to the internet a day when
it is started.
Play sound on Finish (finished.wav) plays a short jingle when the transcoding process has
successfully been finished.
Write Logfile (<outfile>.log) writes a log file with several information on the encoding next to the
output file.
Disable presets using demo codecs hides all transcoding presets of codec plug-ins that are still
in demo mode.
Disable CBR bitrate adjust for MPEG Transport Stream muxing: The default bitrate type for
most of the TotalCode Studio presets is VBR (Variable Bit Rate). But VBR muxing is often not the
best solution for transport stream muxing. So if this option is enabled, the bitrate changes from VBR
to CBR (Constant Bit Rate) when you switch the muxer to transport stream.
The Checks and Warnings tab offers several options where you can define how TotalCode Studio
should behave when such a file is imported:
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Under Alternative File Open you find these options:
Open the P2 clip when video or audio essence file that is a part of the clip selected: Yes will
allow TotalCode Studio to do this; click No if you deny doing this. If you select Ask, TotalCode
Studio will ask you what to do every time it encounters such a streams.
Open the corresponding .IFO when .VOB DVD is selected: Yes will allow TotalCode Studio to
do this; click No if you deny doing this. If you select Ask, TotalCode Studio will ask you what to do
every time it encounters such a streams.
Enable closing of referenced input files: Yes will allow TotalCode Studio to do this; click No if
you deny doing this. If you select Ask, TotalCode Studio will ask you what to do every time it
encounters such a streams.




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The Buttons Bar
The Buttons bar at the top of the application gives you quick access to the most important
functions of the TotalCode Studio application. They perform the following actions from left to right:
The first button enables you to load a video and/or audio stream for encoding. You also have
the opportunity to import subtitle streams that way. It is even possible to import an unlimited number
of JPEG2000 still images as J2C or PNG files that way. The only prerequisite is that they need to
be labelled with numbers (e.g. image_#0000.j2c, image_#0001.j2c, image_#0002.j2c, etc.). They
imported as a single clip then.
This button allows you to close the selected stream in the Input field.
Clicking the third button enables you to specify the location and name for the output file.
Click this button to start the encoding process. It turns into a Pause button then that you can
press to stop the conversion process. Clicking the button again resumes it.
Use this option to stop the current encoding session. You can also press the Esc key on your
keyboard.
The following button allows you to load a batch list which is stored on your system.
This option shows the current batch list on the monitor.
Adds a new file and its settings for transcoding as project to the batch list.
Adds the selected source file to an existing project in the batch list, so that it results in a single
file. This can only be done, when the current source files settings in the main window match the
ones in the batch list project.
Using this button enables you to specify the size for the output file.
This option tries to match the output format as close as possible to the format of the selected input
file.
Enables the Whats this? mode. When you move the mouse pointer over a certain area and click it,
the option describes the corresponding function.
The Add/Remove Shortcut option enables you to create transcoding preset
buttons for quick access. Simply choose the desired preset you often need from the list, and Add it
as a shortcut. You also have the opportunity to Delete All Shortcuts again.
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The Main Interface
The TotalCode Studio main window consists of three components: the Input, Output and Preview
pane. They offer many information on the source file as well as a lot of options and settings for
optimizing your output files. Furthermore, the preview area enables you not only to have a look at
the streams you want to encode, but you have also the opportunity to define In/Out point and define
chapter points. In the following, we want to describe the various components in more detail.

The Input Pane
In the Input pane displays the most important parameters of the video and/or audio streams, you
have loaded into TotalCode Studio, such as format, resolution, frame rate, bitrate etc. Moreover,
you can specify whether you want to encode the audio or video stream only, or both streams at the
same time.

You have the opportunity to import video, audio and/or subtitle streams by using the menu options
or buttons as well as via drag-and-drop from the Windows Explorer.
Right-clicking the Input area, opens a list of options that enable you to open a new media file,
watch folder, batch list and a project. Moreover, you have the opportunity to close the current or all
media files in the Input area. These options are the same as in the File menu, we have already
described earlier.
TotalCode Studio allows you to adjust some stream parameters of the input file if necessary.
FourCC opens an additional dialog where you can select the appropriate colorspace.
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Framerate opens an additional dialog where you can select the appropriate frame rate and field
order.
Frame Aspect opens an additional dialog where you can select the appropriate aspect ratio.
When the video # checkbox is enabled, the video stream will be encoded. Disabling the option,
does not encode the corresponding stream.
When the audio # checkbox is enabled, the audio stream will be encoded. Disabling the option,
does not encode the corresponding stream.
When one or more subtitle # checkboxes are enabled, these subtitle streams will be used for the
output file. Disabling the option, does not use the corresponding stream(s).
You can have different video and audio source files. For example, lets say that you have an AVI file
that you want to convert to MPEG. But you want to replace the audio stream in the AVI file with your
favorite song, which you have as a sound file. With TotalCode Studio, you could accomplish this
easily by loading the AVI file as the video source, and the sound file as the audio source. The result
would be a video clip with your favorite song in it. Simply enable the corresponding checkbox for the
desired video and audio stream in the Input section.
You can also use a video clip containing sound as your audio source. For example, you can create
an MPEG clip that includes the video from one AVI clip and the audio from another.













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The Output Pane
In the Output pane, you can choose one of the predefined settings for everyday use. Furthermore,
you adjust the desired settings and parameters for encoding your streams here. Due to the selected
target stream, different tabs are available which include numerous Video, Audio, Multiplexer, PID,
Filters and Subtitle options. The usage of TotalCode Studio has changed to distinguish between
the video and audio streams as well as the container format in a more subtle way.

When you want to transcode an input file, you need to add the complete file or its elementary
streams (video/audio) from the Input section to the appropriate position in the Output area. So for a
complete file transcoding job, select the file name of the file in the Input section you want to
convert, and drag it to the output section. As you can see, the corresponding elementary streams
are added under e.g. video #0 and audio #0. You can also add the elementary streams separately.
Simply drag e.g. the video #0 stream of the Input area to the video #0 section of the Output
section. Repeat the same for audio by dragging e.g. the audio #0 stream of the Input area to the
audio #0 section of the Output section (depending of the number of audio streams you have added
before). Depending on the preset and container format, you have the opportunity to add more audio
streams to one file. Simply drag another audio elementary stream from the Input section below the
last audio stream in the Output section and it is automatically added. Now you can choose a preset
for the input you want to transcode.
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Even individual subtitle streams can be imported and added to the output Section this way. After
you have imported one and chosen an appropriate input stream and profile, drag the subtitle stream
to the corresponding video # source in the Output > Target section. TotalCode Studio can open
*.srt and *.sub subtitle streams (*.sub is a Micro DVD format).
It is even possible to change the Muxer, Video and Audio format directly in the Output pane after
you have chosen a Preset. When you double-click Target, video# or audio# this turns into a drop-
down menu that allows you to change the format that is currently possible to choose in the existing
combination.

Depending on the installed TotalCode Studio codec plug-ins the drop-down menu Preset offers
predefined and ready-to-use settings for encoding. The presets in the list are sorted by the available
formats: Blu-ray, MVC Blu-ray 3D, Flash, XDCAM EX, XDCAM HD, iPod, PSP, Digital Cinema,
AVCHD, Panasonic P2 DVCPRO, Panasonic P2 AVC-Intra, DivX, DivX Plus, Uncompressed
and many more. If you want to do some quick conversions, these presets already offer good quality
results without the need to change more settings. Of course, you have the opportunity to finetune
the settings. When you choose a preset here, all other settings are automatically adapted. Due to
the specifications of these presets, some options are not available or are disabled. TotalCode
Studio also offers a Custom preset here, that allows you to select one of the included codecs and
do the rest of the settings yourself. Here you can select codecs for transcoding such as H264
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Baseline, H264 Main, H264 High, VC-1 Baseline, VC-1 Main, etc. Own, user-defined presets can
be found under My Presets.
If your system includes a GPU accelerated graphics board for encoding, such as NVIDIAs CUDA or
ATIs OpenCL, you find Custom > H.264 @ GPU under Preset. Choose one of the options to make
use of the hardware encoders within TotalCode Studio.
NOTE: If you do not have a graphics board with CUDA or OpenCL support installed, the
H.264 @ GPU will not be available. If the OpenCL or CUDA preset is not available
although your graphics board should support ATIs or NVIDIAs GPU hardware
acceleration, we recommend doing a driver update, and restart TotalCode Studio
afterwards.

After you have changed the necessary parameters, you can create your own preset(s) by clicking
the Create new preset with current setting as base button. In the following dialog you can give
the new preset a desired name. Then you can select it from the Preset drop-down menu for future
usage.
The Delete button on the right removes the selected preset from the Preset drop-down menu. You
can only remove user-defined presets from the list.
The four tabs Video, Audio, Muxer, Filters and Subtitle offer numerous options for specifying the
video and audio format, resolution, bitrate, sample rate and many more for encoding. We will
describe the various settings and their parameters later on. You need to select the corresponding
target stream to get access to the specific tab options. So when you select a video stream (e.g.
video #0) in the output area, you have access to the options of the Video and Filters tab. When
you select a audio stream (e.g. audio #0) in the output area, you have access to the options of the
Audio and Filters tab. When you select Target, i.e. the container format, you have access to the
Stream tab and you can choose the desired muxing format.

Click the Browse for output file button to search for a location and enter a name for the output file.
TotalCode Studio displays the approximate size of the output file with the current settings at the end
of the line.



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The Video Tab
Due to the installed TotalCode Studio codec plug-ins, you can select the desired codecs and adjust
some general video settings. You have access to the tabs options, when video # stream is
selected in the Output section. The Video section offers the following options as drop-down menus:

The drop-down menu Codec offers a list of available codecs, which are installed as plug-ins for the
TotalCode Studio application. Possible codecs are e.g. MPEG-1/2, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4 Part 2,
DVCPRO, DVCPRO HD 100, JPEG2000, MPEG-4 Part 2, and VC-1. For H.264/AVC and VC-1
also professional (so called: Pro) versions are available. Depending on the preset you have
chosen, this option might be disabled.
If you have an NVIDIA or ATI graphics board installed using CUDA or OpenCL, you can select the
GPU H.264/AVC Encoder for the graphics board you want to use for conversion, i.e. H.264/AVC
CUDA or H.264/AVC OpenCL:
Depending on the installed codec plug-ins, the Profile option offers different format settings such as
H.264 Baseline, H.264 Main and H.264 High for H.264/AVC, DVCPRO 25, DVCPRO 50 and
DVCPRO 100 for DV, MPEG HD1 (720p), MPEG HD2 (1080i), MPEG ATSC, MPEG DVD, as well
as generic MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 for MPEG, etc. TotalCode Studio now also supports Sony
XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX profiles for the latest generation of Sony camcorders and decks. Of
course, you find even more profiles here. When you choose a profile, the appropriate settings are
loaded and displayed in the field under Show details. Depending on the preset you have chosen,
this option might be disabled.
Use the Mode drop-down menu to choose between the NTSC and PAL video standards.
Under Frame rate you specify the desired frame rate for the video you want to encode.
The Width and Height options enable you to set the desired resolution for your video. When you
right-click on of the spinboxes you get a list of predefined resolutions that are possible for the
current profile. Simply select the appropriate one from the list.
Aspect enables you to change the aspect ratio of the clip, such as 4:3, 16:9 and Square pixels.
The P/Q option offers some predefined settings that aim at quality in relation to speed. The value
range is from 1 to 15. If you choose Fastest/Poor (1), this parameter offers fastest encoding speed,
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but at the expense of quality, i.e. it will not be very good. The parameter Slowest/Best (up to 31 for
MPEG-2) provides highest quality, but the encoding performance would be rather slow. The default
setting is Balanced (8 or 15, depending on the codec), it offers good quality while offering an
acceptable performance. The parameters in between are all offering better quality at the expense of
speed or vice versa.
You find the Bitrate option here, too. Depending on the codec you have chosen, you can specify
here whether you want to use CBR (Constant Bitrate), VBR (Variable Bitrate), and CQT (Constant
Quantization) and kips. For some codecs this option is disabled.
Depending on the Bitrate parameter you have selected the following spinbox and drop-down
menus differ. When you choose VBR, you can specify the Target as well as the Max bitrate in kips.
Selecting CBR allows you to define the Rate in kips as well. Choosing CQT enables various quality
modes. The better the Mode, the slower the performance. In contract the lower the quality, the
higher will be the transcoding speed. For some codecs this option is disabled.
Ticking the checkbox 2-Pass allows you to choose whether you want to use 1-pass or 2-pass
encoding. When using 2-pass the encoder analyzes the video during the first pass, and uses these
information to optimize the video during the second (encoding) pass. This will improve the quality
but will also take about the double of time. 2-pass encoding is not available for all codecs.
NOTE: Please keep in mind that 2-pass encoding is only available when using VBR
(Variable Bit Rate).

The button with the wrench opens another window, which offers numerous additional settings.
These options are predominantly for professional users, because you need a detailed and
competent knowledge for them. Some changes might result in incompatible files. But we will explain
the settings later on.


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The Multiplexer Tab
Depending on the selection in the Output section, the Stream tab offers different options for
specifying the desired mux as well as stream type, and also the TS PID. Moreover, you have
access to the advanced MPEG and MP4 Muxer settings.
When you have selected the Target item in the Output section, you can choose the desired muxing
Type, i.e. the adequate container format for the output file.

The drop-down menu Type enables you to pick the type of stream, including the option to create
separate video and audio files (known as Elementary streams). Various DVD authoring software
works more efficiently with certain types of streams, so we recommend checking the programs
documentation for information on which stream type will give the best results. When you specify an
H.264 preset with AAC, you can choose the MP4 File Format here, too. Additional stream types
are for DVCPRO stream, DVCPRO HD stream (DV DIF), DV-AVI stream, ASF File Writer (for
VC-1), MJ2 File Format (for JPEG2000), MXF File Format (for Sony XDCAM HD, Panasonic P2
DVCPRO/AVC-Intra or JPEG2000), MPEG Program Stream and Multi-program MPEG TS
(Transport Stream) etc. However, this depends on the installed TotalCode Studio plug-ins.
NOTE: Sony has changed the specifications of the XDCAM MXF format, in order to make it more
compliant with the SMPTE MXF specs. All Sony XDCAM hardware shipped from April 2008
onwards will produce streams which include these changes. Older hardware shall get a firmware
update. The changes affect both the MainConcept MXF Muxer as well as the MXF Demuxer.
The new MXF Muxer now additionally supports XDCAM 422P@HL and 24 bit audio. Moreover, it
has been changed to use 'Frame wrapped MPEG ES Label' of the new specs. Please note that
streams produced by this MXF Muxer cannot be opened by the old MXF Demuxer!
The old version of the MXF Demuxer was not able to detect video streams, because Sony changed
the 'Frame wrapped MPEG ES Label'. This has been fixed with the new version. The updated MXF
Demuxer can now deal with both old and new specification files.
When you select and Panasonic P2 DVCPRO or AVC-Intra presets, the option Create P2 folder
structure is enabled. Ticking the checkbox additionally creates the appropriate folde strcutre that is
common for Panasonic P2 camcorders.
The button with the wrench opens the advanced muxer settings if available.
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The Post Process Tab
The Post Process tab allows you to run a command after the transcoding process has been
finished. You can add here all commands that can be executed under Windows and Mac OS X via
command line. So you can directly start a DRM tool to protect the output file, directly upload the
transcoded and source stream to an ftp server, etc.

The command is executed after output file processing finishes.
Use %o as placeholder for output file name, and %i for input file name.
If multiple input files are used, e.g. one for video and one for audio input, %i1, %i2,... can be used
for those input file names. In this case %i will be substituted for all input file names separated by
spaces.
If multiple output files will be produced, e.g. in case of multiple output elementary streams %o1,
%o2,... can be used for those output file names. In this case %o will be substituted for all output file
names separated by spaces.
%op will be substituted for output file folder, and %ob for output file name.
If the output file name is /out/path/file.mpg, %op will be substituted with /out/path, and %ob with file.

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The PID Tab
When you have specified Multi-program MPEG TS as muxing type, you have the opportunity to
define the TS PID (= Transport Stream Program ID). When you have selected the video # or audio
# item in the Output section, the Stream tab shows different options. Here you can choose the TS
PID for the output file.

If the Auto checkbox next to TS PID is enabled, TotalCode Studio automatically uses the correct
value. When you disabled it, an input prompt is displayed where you can enter a TS PID value
manually.

The Subtitle Tab
Depending on the source file and the output format, you have the opportunity to add and edit
subtitle streams to your output. These subtitle streams normally found on DVDs or Blu-rays, and
contain a translation of the dialogs in a movie. TotalCode Studio can open *.srt and *.sub subtitle
streams.

The drop-down menu Palette allows you to specify whether you want to use all subtitle streams of
the imported IFO source (IFO palette) or only the Default one.
When you have added an individual or separate subtitle stream to your project in the Output
section that is not connected to your current source, the options in the Subtitle tab differ.
Under Font file you can load the desired font you want to display your subtitle in.
Font size specifies the size of the subtitles in the video stream later on.
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The drop-down menu Encoding specifies the character coding set. This is important when
encoding subtitles from Chinese, Japanese, Kyrillic, the German umlaut, etc.
The Delay input prompt allows you to specify when TotalCode Studio should start displaying the
subtitles.
The Relative speed input prompt allows you to speedup or slowdown subtitles relatively to the
video stream on which it is rendered. If the value is 1.0, it remains at the same speed. If you specify
a greater value the subtitles should speed up, e.g. if set to 2.0 the subtitle which would normally
render at 60 seconds speed, will now render at 30 seconds.
The Color input prompt allows you to specify the color of the subtitles in the video stream.
The drop-down menu Effect specifies the effect type applied to the subtitles.

The Audio Tab
Due to the installed TotalCode Studio codec plug-ins, you can select the desired codecs and adjust
some corresponding audio settings. You have access to the tabs options, when audio # stream is
selected in the Output section. The Audio section offers the following options as drop-down
menus:

The Codec drop-down menu selector enables you to specify MPEG (Layer 1 or Layer 2) audio, the
LPCM format, the AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) format (for H.264 and MPEG-2 profiles), Raw
Audio or DV Audio. Certain DVD authoring software works more efficiently with certain audio
types, so we recommend checking the programs documentation for more information on which
mode to choose. Furthermore, the application offers WMA audio for VC-1. However, this depends
on the installed TotalCode Studio plug-ins.
NOTE: The demo version of TotalCode Studio has an audio import limitation of 30
seconds, i.e. after this period of time audio is muted and only video can be transcoded
correctly.

Channels lets you choose between Stereo or Mono. Depending on the audio format, the
application offers additional multi-channel audio options for up to six channels.
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NOTE: When you select one of the Dolby Digital formats, a Configure... button appears
under Channels. Clicking it, opens up the Dolby Digital Professional or Dolby Digital
Plus Pro advanced settings dialog. They enable you to specify the channel mapping if
necessary. The corresponding settings are explained in more detail in the Appendix
chapter of the documentation.
The drop-down menu Bitrate specifies the bitrate of the audio stream. Depending on the MPEG
type selected, some values may not be available. Increasing the bitrate will yield better sound
quality and result in larger files, or if the total bitrate is limited it will mean less of the total bitrate is
available for the video.
The Sample rate option enables you to specify the desired frequency for the output file.
The VBR checkbox is only enabled when you have selected AAC under Codec. It enables you to
use variable bitrate for AAC encoding.
When AAC is selected, the Type drop-down menu is available. Here you can choose whether you
want to use Low Complexity, High Efficiency v1 or High Efficiency v2 as AAC type.
The wrench button opens another window, which offers numerous advanced audio settings. These
options are predominantly for the professional user, because you need a detailed and competent
knowledge for them. We will explain them in detail later on. When you have chosen e.g. AAC
(Advanced Audio Coding) for H.264 under Codec, a different dialog appears on the screen, we will
also describe in more detail later on.
TotalCode Studio also supports multi-channel audio.
The Open audio channel configuration button with
the loudspeaker opens the corresponding dialog
where you can edit the input and output channels
configuration for transcoding. Here you distribute the
different input channels to the desired output channel,
or resample a multi-channel audio to a mono or
stereo track.
The drop-down menu on the top right defines the
Number of output channels.
In the right column Output channels you see the
destination, i.e. the channels of the stream you like to
export. In the left column you see the Input channels
of your source file. Here you can change the input
channels for the output file by disabling and/or
enabling the desired input channels. You have also
the opportunity to downsample various input channels or mix them. Here is an example to give you
an idea how it works: You have a 5.1 AAC stream, you want to downsample to a stereo track. By
ticking the corresponding checkboxes, you can define that channels 1, 4, and 5 of the input will be
downsampled to the left stereo output channel, and channels 2, 3 and 6 to right output channel.
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Under the Input channel and Output channel columns you find a summary of the current multi-
channel audio distribution.
Set default resets all channel configurations to their original settings.

The Filters Tab
The Filter dialog offers different sections, in order to crop a clip, to scale it again to the desired size
afterwards, to deinterlace a video etc. To access the Video Filters, you need to select the
corresponding Video Stream in the Output > Target section. When selecting the Audio Stream,
then you have also access to several Audio Filters.
The individual filters can be chosen by clicking the Add filter
drop-down menu market with the plus icon. Of course, it is
possible to apply more than one filter to a clip.
Here are the icons and their functionality in more detail:
The drop-down menu allows you to choose the desired
filter. After selecting a filter it is moved in the area above.
The two arrow up/down buttons allow you to change
the order of the filters, i.e. they define in which order the filters
are applied to a clip.
Deletes the selected filter.
Deletes all filters that are currently selected for a video or
audio stream.

You can save your own filter presets for future use. After you have adjusted all necessary filter
parameters, click the Create new filter preset button, so it is stored and added to the filter Preset
drop-down menu next to it. To remove a preset again, select it in the drop-down menu and click the
Delete filter preset on the right.
NOTE: You can even export filters later on using the Tools > Epxort Filter Presets... option. This
allows you to export a whole set of presets that can be used in TotalCode Enterprise then, in order
to apply video and audio filters for high volume content delivery.

After you have selected a filter, it is displayed in the area over the buttons bar. You can now access
the features on the right of the Filters pane or you can click the wrench button, in order to open an
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additional dialog that offers some more options and a preview where you can directly see the effect
of the chosen filter and its values.
The Video Filters
In the following we want to describe the various Video Filters that come with TotalCode Studio.
The Flip image pane
The filter Flip image turns the picture vertically, i.e. upside down, if needed.

The Cropping pane
The Cropping option offers settings for cropping the frames margins. This function enables you to
remove interferences or noise from the videos margins, and scale it again to full screen resolution.
If the option is disabled the fame is encoded as it is.

The Reset button resets all settings to their original state.
The Top spinbox moves the cropping frame up and down.
The Width spinbox enables you to change the distance between the cropping frame in the preview
and the right margin of the video.
The Left spinbox moves the cropping frame to the left or right.
The Height spinbox enables you to change the distance between the cropping frame in the preview
and the bottom margin of the video.
Use the controls to define the region you like to crop. The Reset button restores all settings to their
original value.
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Aspect specifies how the aspect ratio will behave during cropping. The available options are: Keep,
4:3, 16:9 and Free. Keep leaves the aspect ratio as it is while cropping. When choosing Free the
aspect ratio changes freely during the cropping process.
The Reset button resets all settings to their original state.

The Deinterlacing pane
The Deinterlacing filter enables you to choose a deinterlacing method.

The drop-down menu allows you to specify the deinterlacing method. Here you tell the application
only to show one frame instead of two fields. This is sometimes useful during video playback to
remove stripes in the preview. The available options are Keep Top Field, Keep Bottom Field and
Reverse fields. The latter interchanges the upper and the lower field. The new deinterlacing option
Bob offers line doubling. It takes the lines of each interlaced frame and doubles them, i.e. each field
is turned into an individual frame.

The Logo pane
Logo enables you to load a PNG still image, in order to blend it into the transcoded stream.

The Browse... button enables you to search for the desired PNG file on your system, you want to
use as an overlay. The filename is displayed in the field next to it.
The Reset button deletes the chosen PNG file from the selection, that is currently used.
Logo x position specifies the position of the logo on the x-axis (in pixels).
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The drop-down menu From defines the starting point from where the position on the x-axis will be
calculated: left or right.
Logo y position specifies the position of the logo on the y-axis (in pixels).
The drop-down menu From defines the starting point from where the position on the y-axis will be
calculated: top or bottom.

The Timecode inserter pane
The Timecode inserter enables you add a timecode to the transcoded video, so that it is displayed
when playing it back later on. This can sometimes be useful for checking the lip synch of a video.

In the Filter configuration section you find the Timecode inserter option. Clicking the button on
the right opens the Video Filter configuration dialog. In the Timecode drop-down menu, you can
specify whether the timecode is imprinted as Timecode or as Frame number.
The Timecode start drop-down specifies whether the timecode display should start on the First
Input Frame or the a specified In Point.
The Reset button resets all settings to their original state.

The Brightness/Contrast pane
The Brightness/Contrast dialog allows you to change the values for these parameters in the video.
There are three different sliders to control them.

Brightness allows you to change brightness of the video.
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Contrast enables you to modify the contrast of the stream.
Gamma allows you to change the gamma value of the video.
The Reset button resets all settings to their original state.

The Animated Logo pane
Animated Logo enables you to load a video clip, in order to blend and play it back in the
transcoded stream.

The Browse... button enables you to search for the desired PNG file on your system, you want to
use as an overlay. The filename is displayed in the field next to it.
Loop logo on finish starts the animated video over and over again after it has been finished. When
the checkbox is disabled, the playback stops after the first time.
Logo opacity specifies the visibility of the logo. The higher the value, the clearer you can see the
animated logo in the stream.
x offset specifies the position of the logo on the x-axis (in pixels).
The drop-down menu From defines the starting point from where the position on the x-axis will be
calculated: left or right.
y offset specifies the position of the logo on the y-axis (in pixels).
The Reset button resets all settings to their original state.
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The Audio Filters
In the following we want to describe the various Audio Filters that come with TotalCode Studio.
The Audio Volume pane
The Audio Volume dialog enables you to control the overall volume as well as the volume of the
individual audio channels of the stream you want to convert.

The Master volume slider controls the audio of the entire clip with all channels at the same time.
The checkbox Mute all mutes the audio of the whole clip, i.e. the volume of all channels is set to
zero.
Channel 1 volume to Channel 8 volume controls the audio of the individual channel.
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Channel 1 mute to Channel 8 mute sets the audio of the individual channels to zero, so that it is
muted.
The Reset button resets all settings to their original state.

The Normalize Sound Level pane

The Normalize Sound Level to [%] slider enables you to set the audio volume to the same value
throughout the whole clip (in percent). This is very useful for clips where there volume is sometimes
louder and lower all the time. Using the normalization feature you can set the volume to a fixed level
throughout the whole stream.
The Reset button resets all settings to their original state.


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The Dynamics Processing pane
The Dynamics Processing filter enables you to modify the audio dynamics, in order to generate
limiting, compression, expansion, and noise gating effects.

The Limiter option offers control over the high peaks in audio streams. In parallel, it only slightly
changes the signal's dynamics. If the input audio stream exceeds the threshold level you specified,
the output level remains constant although the input signal might increase in volume.
Ticking the Use Limiter checkbox enables this options, so that the settings you change will have an
effect.
Threshold controls the upper and lower thresholds of the high audio peaks.
Attack Time specifies the time it will take for the output signal until it reaches the selected output
volume (in milliseconds).
Release Time specifies the time it will take for the end of the output level before until it achieves the
selected output volume (in milliseconds).
The Compressor option the dynamic range by decreasing the amplitude when an audio streams
increases beyond a user-defined threshold. Quiet or lower sections of an audio stream remain
untouched, but louder parts are lowered according to the corresponding setting. The result is that
the difference between louder and lower sections of an audio stream are not so big anymore.
Threshold controls the upper and lower thresholds of the louder and lower parts.
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Ratio controls the difference between input and output amplitudes when a threshold has been
exceeded.
Attack Time specifies the time it will take for the output signal until it reaches the selected output
volume (in milliseconds).
Release Time specifies the time it will take for the end of the output level before until it achieves the
selected output volume (in milliseconds).
The Noise Gate option eliminates noise by significantly lowering the audio signal levels that
decrease beyond a user-defined threshold. It can be used to remove background noise or silence in
a speech, i.e. it removes noise when no audio signal is present.
Threshold controls the upper and lower thresholds of the audio signal level.
Attack Time specifies the time it will take for the output signal until it reaches the selected output
volume (in milliseconds).
Release Time specifies the time it will take for the end of the output level before until it achieves the
selected output volume (in milliseconds).
The Expander option allows you to increase the dynamic range of an audio stream by lowering the
amplitude when this signal decreases beyond a defined threshold. This feature is useful in order to
lower the background noise in an audio stream.
Threshold controls the upper and lower thresholds of the audio signal.
Ratio controls the difference between input and output amplitudes when a threshold has been
exceeded.
Attack Time specifies the time it will take for the output signal until it reaches the selected output
volume (in milliseconds).
Release Time specifies the time it will take for the end of the output level before until it achieves the
selected output volume (in milliseconds).


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The Delay pane
The Delay filter specifies when the audio should start in the transcoded stream.

The Delay input prompt allows you to define the start point of the audio in milliseconds. A negative
value means that the audio stream will start before the actual video stream.

The Preview Pane
As the name already implies the Preview pane offers a preview of the current media. Moreover,
you find some options for working with chapter as well as In/Out points here.

Above the preview area, you find two drop-down menus:
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The left drop-down menu with the magnifier offers several options to change the size of
the preview:
Zoom in maximizes the preview area. This can also be done when pressing the Ctrl+Cursor Up key
on the keyboard if the preview has the focus.
Zoom out minimizes the preview area. This can also be done when pressing the Ctrl+Cursor Down
key on the keyboard if the preview has the focus.
Fit to screen proportionally adapts the video to the preview area.
Moreover, you have different presets which enable you to change the size of the preview in percent.
Due to source videos resolution in the preview, some parameters might be disabled here.
If the focus is on this drop-down menu, you can also change the previews size by using the mouse
wheel.
When the preview has the focus, press Ctrl+Cursor Left to move one frame backward, and
Ctrl+Cursor Right to step one frame forward on the keyboard.
The drop-down menu on the right provides some options to change the aspect ratio of the preview:
Square pixels: Square resolution (used for PC monitors)
4:3: Standard format (TV)
16:9: Widescreen format (16:9 TV, cinema)
2.21:1: Cinemascope aspect ratio (70 mm film)
Custom: Here you can enter an aspect ratio freely in the input prompt next to the option.
The option Show preview while transcoding activates the preview during encoding.
Show encoded frames while transcoding displays the actual converted frames during the
encoding process, enabling you to see how the current settings will affect quality. When the option
is enabled, the upper part of the preview shows the source video and the lower part the transcoded
video.
Save frame with current output video resolution allows you to take a still image from the current
frame. The screenshot is created in the resolution, you have specified under Width and Height in
the Video output pane. The still image is saved in the PNG format.
Only the clip which is ticked in the Input area is shown in the Preview.
The image display in the preview area shows the current aspect ratio.
The rectangle below shows the relation from the input to the output file. If it is 1:1 the input matches
the output.
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The start/stop display on the right shows the in- and out-points of the selected video stream in the
preview. If you have defined chapter points for a clip, you can also find the number of them under
chapter here.
The red frame labelled crop in the Preview area shows the area which will be visible on the screen
after encoding. You can crop the video by using the control in the Filter pane among the Output
work area. You can also crop the image by selecting the crop frame with a left mouse-click. When
you now hold the left mouse-button and use the mousewheel you can directly crop the video in the
preview area. You have also the opportunity to move the crop frame by left-clicking it while holding
the Shift key on your keyboard. Now you can move the frame in the preview area while holding the
mouse-button.
Use the scrubber under the preview area to move through the video. When the cursor has the
focus, press Cursor Left to move one frame backward, and Cursor Right to step one frame forward.
When the slider has the focus, you can also use the mouse-wheel to scroll back and forth through a
clip.
The buttons right of the scrubber perform the following functions (from left to right):
This button sets an In-point for encoding at the current position.
This button enables you to jump to the specified In-point.
This button enables you to jump to the specified Out-point.
This button sets an Out-point for encoding at the current position.
This button resets the In/Out-points to their original position.
The In/Out-points are marked as red brackets on the scrubber. In the preview the video which is
outside these points appears slightly darker.
Under Position the TotalCode Studio application offers two displays. The first one shows the
current position of the slider in frames and as timecode. The second one shows the last frame of
the media as frame number and timecode.
Under Chapters you find several options for working with chapter points. Here have the opportunity
to define additionally I-Frames, so that you can seek for these frames in the video later on:
The drop-down menu enables you to specify a chapter point you want to edit (when created before).
Click the button to jump to the previous chapter point in the stream.
Click the button to jump to the next chapter point in the stream.
Click the button to add a new chapter point or remove the currently selected one.
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Click the button to remove all chapter points.
Chapter points are displayed as green triangles in the timeline.

The Transcode Pane
The Transcode area is only visible when the encoding process is in progress. It offers some
controls for starting, resuming and stopping the encoding process.



When you start the encoding process, the Pause button appear in the Transcode section. After you
have clicked it, the button the encoding process is interrupted and it turns into a Resume button.
Click it again to continue conversion.
Clicking the Stop button, cancels the current encoding process.
The progress bar on the right shows the current status during conversion.



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The Watch Folder Feature
One of TotalCode Studios most powerful features is the watch folder function the ability to
specify folders that automatically will encode their contents to a defined format. The watch folder
option monitors a predefined folder for any changes, i.e. when new media files are added to it. Then
it takes care, that the clip will be encoded in the appropriate format in the background.
To specify a folder as watch folder, you have to choose File > Open Watch Folder... in the menus
or right-click in the Input area, and choose Open Watch Folder... from the options list. Then you
can browse for an existing folder or create a new one by clicking the Make New Folder button.
As you can see, the Watch Dialog appears on the screen. It offers several options and information
on how to work with the watch folder.

Under Watch Folder Status you find some general information on the current status of this feature,
such as the location as well as name of the specified watch folder, the number of new, done and
failed files etc. Of course, you can specify these folders here as well.
The section When finished with input file... offers some options how TotalCode Studio should
proceed with the source file after encoding it:
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Move to enables you to specify an existing or new folder where the source file will be copied to
after encoding has been done. Use the browse button at the end of the link to specify a folder or to
create a new one. For the latter, please use the Make New Folder button and follow the steps on
the screen. The source file is then copied to a Processed folder, and its file name is extended by
adding the current date and time when the encoding process has taken place (e.g. California_2007-
10-18-13-35-14.avi).
Delete it will remove the source file from the watch folder after encoding.
Leave it simply leaves the transcoded source file as and where it is.
In the Output format section you specify the encoding settings which should be used for media
clips which are copied into the watch folder. You can use one of the presets or specify your own
settings by using the options in the Video, Audio, Stream and Filter pane. The corresponding
functions and their parameters have already been described earlier.
Under Pending you find the list of source files in the watch folder that are waiting to be encoded.
Under Done you find the list of media clips from the watch folder which have been encoded
successfully.
Under Current file progress, you can watch the current transcoding progress.
To start the watch folder function, you have to click the Start Encoding button in the buttons bar at
the top of the main window. You can pause the process by clicking the Pause button. You can abort
it, by clicking the Stop button.
The encoding option for the Watch Folder is enabled, i.e. you have started the encoding as
described above. When you now copy a clip (California.avi) into the specified folder, it is
automatically transcoded in the previously specified format. The encoded clip is copied to an Out
folder which is automatically generated in the Watch Folder. To guarantee a better identification that
the file has already been converted, its name has slightly changed (California_0_done.mp4). Due to
the specified option what will finish to the source file after transcoding, it is either deleted or moved
to the Processed folder where it is renamed by extending the original file name with date and time
information on when the encoding process has been performed. These steps are repeated with
every clip copied into the Watch Folder as soon as you stop the encoding for it.
To leave the Watch Folder mode in TotalCode Studio, click the Close button in the buttons bar at
the top of the main window.

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How to work with the Batch List
One of TotalCode Studios most powerful features is batch processing the ability to encode
multiple files unattended. Multiple videos can even be combined into one file.
To add files to the batch window for encoding later:
Load the desired file(s) and parameters into the main window as shown previously in this manual.

Add the clip to the Output section as described in previous chapters via drag-and-drop. The names
of the corresponding streams should appear under Target > video #0 and audio #0.
Now choose the desired target format for the media. In our example, we do not adjust complicated
parameters, but simply choose one of the numerous presets, such as Blu-ray H.264, High
Resolution format from the Preset drop-down menu which is available when the full version of
TotalCode Studio H.264/AVC is installed.

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Of course, you can edit more parameters and settings, but to make a long story short, we only
change the preset here.
Press the Browse for output file button to search for a desired location for the media you want to
encode. Moreover, you can specify a file name here. Simply follow the instructions in the Output
file name dialog.
In the File menu, choose Add to batch > Add current or click the Add job from GUI to current
batch job list button in the button bar at the top of the main window.

The paths, filenames and settings from the main window are added as an entry in the Batch Jobs
dialog. You also find a summary of the most important source and target file settings in the batch
list.

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Repeat steps 1 and 2 as needed if you want to load more clips for the current batch list job.
NOTE: It is also possible to change the order of the clips in the batch list. This can be
useful when encoding several clip into one file. Simply use the up/down arrow button at
the top right of the Batch J obs dialog to define a new order.

To add another clip to the same job, i.e. having the same format settings, click the Add selected
input from GUI to the selected job in the batch list button. Alternatively, you can choose Add to
batch > Attach Source from the File menu.
Click the Start button in the Batch Jobs window to start the encoding of the clips in the batch list.
During the encoding process, the progress for each media is displayed in percent. When finishing
the files are encoded successfully, the will be marked with a green button in the batch list.
Following the steps above, the files in the batch list will all be included into one target file. You have
also the opportunity to create a batch list, where every media is transcoded as an individual file. In
the following we will shortly explain, which steps you have to perform for doing so.
Follow the steps 1 to 4 until you have added the first clip to the batch list. Click the Show batch
jobs window to display the corresponding dialog on the screen if necessary.
Now load another clip, drag it into the Output > Target section and choose the desired preset and
format settings for it. In this case we choose an Apple iPod preset. Then you have to specify
another output file name by clicking the Select Output File button in the buttons bar at the top of
the main window. Simply follow the steps until you have specified a name and location for the target
file.
To create a new job for the batch list, simply click the Add job from GUI to current batch job list
button, so that the new media is added to the Batch Jobs dialog. As you can see, a new job is
created in the batch list, i.e. the new clip will be exported as an individual file such as the first one.
Repeat steps 8 to 10 as needed if you want to load more clips and/or specify more target formats
for additional batch jobs.
NOTE: You can save the current batch list whenever you like. Simply press the Save
button in the Batch J obs window. Simply follow the instructions on the screen, and
specify a name and destination for the batch list. To load a batch list again, you can
either click the Load button in the Batch J ob dialog or press the Open Batch List
button in the main window of TotalCode Studio.
If you want to start the individual jobs in the batch list, click the Start button in the Batch Jobs
dialog. You can watch the progress on the screen as already described in this chapter before.
During the actual encoding process, the progress for each media is displayed in percent. After
finishing, the files which have been encoded successfully, are marked with a green button in the
batch list.
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The Advanced Video Codec Interfaces
Depending on the installed TotalCode Studio codec plug-in, the application offers advanced
settings interfaces for the corresponding codec: MPEG-1/2, H.264/AVC, VC-1, JPEG2000, MVC,
DivX, DVCPRO, etc. The advanced interface offers even more settings, primarily for professional
users in highly specialized environments. Advanced settings can be saved and loaded using the
buttons at the bottom left of the window.
To reach this interface, click the Advanced... button in the corresponding detailed settings window.
The advanced dialogs for TotalCode Studio MPEG-2 includes two panes: Video Settings, and
Advanced Settings. Some options are only available when certain parameters are in effect.
The advanced settings for TotalCode Studio H.264/AVC Broadcast and MainConcept H.264/AVC
Pro offers two panes: Basic Settings, and Advanced Settings. Some options are only available
when certain parameters are in effect.
The advanced dialogs for TotalCode Studio VC-1 Pro offers two panes: Basic Settings, and
Advanced Settings. Some options are only available when certain parameters are in effect.
The advanced dialogs for TotalCode Studio MPEG-4 Part 2 includes two panes: Video Settings,
and Advanced Settings. Some options are only available when certain parameters are in effect.
The advanced encoder settings for TotalCode Studio DVCPRO 25/50 and MainConcept DVCPRO
HD are available in one window.
The advanced JPEG2000 encoder settings for TotalCode Studio JPEG2000 are included in a single
dialog, too.
The advanced dialogs for the TotalCode Studio CUDA H.264/AVC Encoder consist of two panes:
Basic Settings, and Advanced Settings. Some options are only available when certain
parameters are in effect.
The advanced dialogs for the TotalCode Studio OpenCL H.264/AVC Encoder consist of two panes:
Basic Settings, and Advanced Settings. Some options are only available when certain
parameters are in effect.
The advanced settings for TotalCode Studio MVC are listed on three panes: Basic Settings,
Advanced Settings, and Views. Some options are only available when certain parameters are in
effect.
The advanced dialogs for TotalCode Studio DivX and DivX Plus are available on two panes each:
Basic Settings, and Advanced Settings. Some options are only available when certain
parameters are in effect.

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NOTE: The default settings in the main window generally offer the correct settings for
high-quality results. We recommend that you only change the advanced settings if you
are familiar with them and have a specific need to do so. Incorrect adjustments of these
parameters can result in non-compliant MPEG or H.264 files.

Before we explain the most important Advanced Settings in detail here some general remarks first.
As mentioned above we recommend that only experienced users should modify these settings.
Some of the Advanced Settings may be restricted by the settings selected in previous dialogs.
When encoding into the VCD, SVCD, Blu-ray, DVD, etc. formats, it is possible to make changes to
these settings such that the resulting file is not compliant for the chosen format.

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The Advanced MPEG Encoder Settings
The Basic Settings Pane
In this window you can change the settings for Video Format, GOP (Group of Pictures) Structure
and Bitrate. You can also see the current Preset here.
Under Preset you see the current MPEG-2 profile that has been chosen in the main window of
TotalCode Studio.
Under Video Format TotalCode Studio offers the following options:
Resolution shows the current resolution that has
been set in the main window.
The checkbox Keep Aspect Ratio enables you to
select whether the aspect ratio should be kept or not.
Next to the checkbox you have a drop-down menu
with different options:
Square Pels: Square resolution (used for PC
monitors)
4:3: Standard format (TV)
16:9: Widescreen format (16:9 TV, cinema)
1:1: Aspect ratio
Progressive Sequence: If the checkbox is ticked, all
frames in the video are progressive, if set to 0 both
progressive and interlaced frames can appear in the
video. See ISO/IEC 13818-2 section 6.3.5 for more
information. This option is only valid for MPEG-2.
The drop-down menu Picture Structure enables
you to define whether MainConcept MPEG Encoder
should work in Frame coding (Progressive Frame)
or Field coding (Interlaced Frame) mode. In
interlaced mode, the video footage is encoded field-
based, i.e. the whole picture is saved, but no fields or
field information will be used. In progressive mode
the video is encoded frame-based, i.e. frames will be
saved which include field information. These will be
used to combine the individual fields to one frame.
Using this method the temporal aspect of the fields is
considered, i.e. whether the top field or the bottom field is saved first.
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The drop-down menu Field Order enables you to specify the adequate order of the fields: Bottom
Field First or Top Field First.
Under Frame rate you specify the number of frames per second.
The parameters under Pulldown/Telecine convert 23.976 fps (frames per second) to 29.97 fps, or
24 fps to 30 fps, and it is supposed to be done only on progressive frame video (like film). The
movie studios slow their films from 24 fps to 23.987 and then encode using pulldown to display at
29.97 fps. The video encoder manipulates the Top Field First (tff) and Repeat First Field (rff) flags to
convert 4 frames (8 fields) to 5 frames (10 fields) like this:
(T = top field, B = bottom field)
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
frame 2: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 4: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
So you get the sequence of fields: TB TBT BT BTB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB TB. The
above would be considered 2:3 pulldown as it is 2 fields, 3 fields, 2 fields etc.
3:2 is the reverse:
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 2: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
frame 4: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
In this case you get the sequence of fields: TBT BT BTB TB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB
TB.
In most cases the MPEG Encoder adjusts the necessary settings automatically, so that the
Pulldown option remains disabled.
The Bitrate section offers the options below:
Bitrate Mode: The drop-down menu Bitrate Mode offers three options: Constant Bitrate (CBR)
offers a fixed bitrate (the relevant input prompt will be enabled if selected). Choosing Variable
Bitrate (VBR) option defines the maximum value of the bitrate range the encoder should stay within
while encoding. The average value is the desired average bitrate of the video stream. The relevant
input prompts will be enabled if selected. Constant Quantizer and Constant Quantizer (strict) are
the last options. They offers quantization parameters for the different frame types (I, P and B).
Using this function, the bitrate can vary without any limitation in contrast to VBR and CBR mode. A
lower value for any frame quantization parameter will result in better quality.
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When choosing VBR or CBR, the following options are available:
Under Target Bitrate (kbps) you define a fixed average bitrate for the encoding process.
The Maximum Bitrate (kbps) input prompt is only available in VBR mode. Here you specify the
maximum bitrate for the MPEG Encoder, it should not exceed.
When choosing one of the Constant Quantizer options, the following options can be set:
I Quant specifies the macroblock quantization value for I-frames to use in constant quantization
variable bitrate mode.
P Quant specifies the macroblock quantization value for P-frames to use in constant quantization
variable bitrate mode.
B Quant specifies the macroblock quantization value for B-frames to use in constant quantization
variable bitrate mode.


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The Advanced Settings Pane
This pane offers professional settings which should not be changed if you are creating MPEG
streams for VCD, SVCD or DVD. These adjustments are designed for specific, highly technical
environments. It offers settings for GOP Structure, Picture Coding Style, Motion Estimation and
Quantization Matrices.
Under Profile you have five different options here: High Profile, Main Profile (standard setting),
Simple Profile, and 4:2:2 Profile.
Level lets you choose between High, High 1440, Main, and Low Level.
The MPEG-2 spec (specification) allows for a large
number of variations in the settings, e.g. the frame
resolution can theoretically be as large as 2
14
x 2
14
.
The Profiles and Levels just set limits on what the
values of some of the other settings can be; so if a
specification (like the DVD spec) says only Main
Profile/Main or Low Level is allowed, the decoders
can safely assume what the bounds of some settings
are going to be. A DVD player does not have to
account for the resolution being 2
14
x 2
14
because the
DVD spec only allows a maximum of Main
Profile/Main Level which only enables for a maximum
frame resolution of 720x576.
Under GOP Structure you can find the following
options:
I frame distance (min/max): These frames are also
called Key Frames. All GOPs start with an I frame. I
frames contain information for a complete picture,
and can be decoded independent of any other frame.
I frames are the largest (and least compressed)
frames. Using the spinboxes you define the
Minimum and Maximum distance between the I
frames.
P Frame Distance: P frames are encoded using
information from the previous I or P frame, and can
only be decoded correctly if the previous I / P frame
is available. P frames are smaller than I frames.
Closed GOP Interval: This value specifies how often
the GOPs should be closed and is only of importance
if there are B frames present in the GOPs. A value of 0 means do not close any of the GOPs, a
value of 1 means close every GOP and a value of 2 means close every other GOP etc. If a GOP is
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closed, it can be decoded by itself. If a GOP is not closed, the first few B frames of the GOP will be
dependent on the last P frame of the previous GOP and cannot be decoded correctly without
decoding the previous GOP first. When a GOP is closed, the first few frames of a GOP are encoded
so they only depend on the I frame in the GOP (the previous GOP is not required). This can be
useful for setting chapter points so a player can jump to these GOPs and can start decoding
immediately without having to read the previous GOP (or discarding the first few B frames).
Leading Bs: B frames are usually encoded using information from the previous I or P frame and
the next I or P frame. In this case, B frames can only be decoded correctly if the previous and the
next I / P frames are available. B frames are smaller than P frames. In addition, B frames can be
encoded using only information from the next I / P frame but then they are larger than if they were
encoded using both the previous and next frame information.
As a general rule for practical settings: The GOP size (in frames) is specified with the I frame setting
and it must be a multiple of the P frame setting. When I frame is set to 1, all frames in the video will
be I frames. When I frame is larger than 1, it specifies the size of the GOP, and the P frame setting
specifies how often P frames occur in the GOP. If P frame is set to 1, the video will consist of only I
and P frames. If a P frame is larger than 1, B frames are placed between the P frames and the
video will consist of I, P and B frames. Larger GOPs will yield greater compression but will possibly
cause a loss of quality. We recommend using the default settings.
Auto Gop Placement: This function always starts a new GOP when there is a scene change, i.e.
the encoder sets an I frame. If you choose None from the drop-down menu, there will be no scene
detection. The Fast option is a quick method of scene detection where no VCSD happens. During
the motion search the application checks, if a scene change occurs, and - if yes - the P frame is
encoded as an I frame. Then the encoder starts a new GOP. VCSD is the abbreviation for Visual
Content Scene Detection, which is a better way of doing scene detection. At first, the VCSD is
carried out, i.e. the analysis of the frames, and then the GOP planning. It will yield a slightly slower
encoding.

The Picture Coding Style offers the following options:
Chroma Format: The option specifies whether to use the 4:2:0 or 4:2:2 (high profile only) chroma
format for the encoded video. See ISO/IEC 13818-2 section 6.3.5 for more information. Only the
4:2:0 and 4:2:2 formats are supported. This option is only valid for MPEG-2.
DC Precision: Specifies the effective precision of the DC coefficients in intra-coded macroblocks.
10-bits usually achieves quality saturation, 11-bits can be used if the quantization is very low (the
bitrate is quite high compared to the frame size/rate). See ISO/IEC 13818-2 section 6.3.10 for more
information. This option is only valid for MPEG-2.
Prediction/DCT: Set to 1 to have the motion estimation and DCT (Discrete Cosine Transformation)
computations done on both fields of a frame in the same pass, set to 0 to have them done on each
field independently. Normally this should be 0 for interlaced frames and 1 for progressive frames.
Setting this field to 1 will result in slight faster encoding but will yield less quality in interlaced
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frames. This setting can be specified independently for each frame type (I, B and P). See ISO/IEC
13818-2 section 6.3.10 for more information. This option is only valid for MPEG-2.
Quantization Scale: Specifies which mapping to use between the encoded quantization scale
factor and the quantizer scale applied in the inverse quantization arithmetic. Set to 0 to specify a
linear mapping or 1 to specify a non-linear mapping. This setting can be specified independently for
each frame type (I, B and P). See ISO/IEC 13818-2 section 6.3.10 for more information. This option
is only valid for MPEG-2.
VLC Format: VLC is the acronym for Variable Length Coding. This option specifies one of two
MPEG defined variable length coding tables used for intra coded blocks. Table 1 is considered to
be statistically optimized for Intra coded pictures coded within the sweet spot range (e.g. 0.3 to 0.6
bit/pixel) of MPEG-2. Normally set to 1 for MPEG-2 video, this setting can be specified
independently for each frame type (I, B and P). See ISO/IEC 13818-2 section 6.3.10 for more
information. This option is only valid for MPEG-2.
Scanning Order: Specify one of two entropy scanning patterns which define the order in which
quantized DCT coefficients are run-length coded. Set to 1 for the alternate scanning pattern or 0 for
the zig-zag scanning pattern. The alternate scanning pattern is considered to be better suited for
interlaced video where sophisticated forward quantization is not enabled. This setting can be
specified independently for each frame type (I, B and P). See ISO/IEC 13818-2 section 6.3.10 for
more information. This option is only valid for MPEG-2.

Under Motion Estimation you can find the options below:
When ticking the checkbox Auto adjust the encoder automatically sets the best Motion Estimation
parameters for the output stream.
When Sub Pixel Mode is activated, the Motion Search operation also looks for pixels that move
only 1/2 of a pixel from one frame to the next (a subpixel search). This should usually be enabled
and should only be disabled if speed is desired above quality.
The Search Mode defines which method is used to search for pixel movement in the video stream.
A higher value specifies a better method and will normally yield better quality. The practical range is
3 to 11.
Search Range specifies the motion vector range.
Noise Sensitivity specifies how sensitive the video encoder is to noise in the source video; it does
not reduce the noise in the source video at all. It sets a motion search threshold at which point the
encoder will stop the search for matching blocks of pixels from one frame to another. Higher values
mean low sensitivity (faster search times, less quality), while lower values mean higher sensitivity
(longer search times, better quality). Typically this option is set in the 1 ... 14 range as follows:
1 ... 5 - Computer animation, VCD from DV-Source, after a line-filter or noise reducing filter
(virtually no noise in the source video)
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3 ... 7 - Digital video, DV-quality, Hi8-quality etc.
5 ... 14 - Analog captured video, Video 8, Hi8, broadcast TV
The setting is strictly based on the state of the source video; it has nothing to do with the type of
output (DVD, SVCD or VCD).
If you are only concerned with quality (at the expense of speed), you should set the value to 1 all
the time, as this would yield the best results (but for noisy video it would slow the encoder quite a bit
without any quality benefit).
Basically what the setting does, is set a level in the encoder at which point the encoder will give up
trying to match a pixel between two frames.
If the source video is noisy and the setting is set to a low value, the encoder will spend more time
trying to match pixels from frame to frame, and (in the case of noise) it may not find a match at all,
so excessive time is spent trying to find a match when there is none.
If the source video has no noise at all, and the setting is set to a very high value, the encoder may
give up to soon and not match some pixels from frame to frame (wasting bits).
Under Quantization Matrices you can modify the quantization matrices for export:
Each 8x8 block of pixels in the image is run through a DCT (Discrete Cosine Transformation)
function which yields an 8x8 block of DCT coefficients. These coefficients are arranged in the 8x8
array with the lower frequencies in the upper left corner of the array and the higher frequencies in
the lower right corner. The numbers of these 8x8 blocks are the results of mathematical functions
performed by the encoder to represent the video in a smaller number of bits.
The quantization matrices determine the divider used by the quantization function for each DCT
coefficient. Lower numbers mean the coefficient will be quantized less (better quality, closer to the
original DCT value but more bits are needed), while higher numbers mean the coefficients are
quantized more (lower quality but less bits are needed). The default intra matrix values are biased
towards the low frequency coefficients; they are represented better while the high frequency
coefficients are not represented as well. The numbers on the top left handle the low frequency
regions, and the numbers on the bottom right handle the high frequency regions. The human eye is
less sensitive to the high frequencies, so that region can be compressed to a higher degree; this is
why the values are higher there. If the whole matrix consists of 1, there would be virtually no
compression at all (but a very large number of bits). If you set all numbers of the matrix to 255, you
will obtain a very bad picture because it has been compressed to such a degree that it will lead to a
significant loss of quality.
When you activate the checkbox you can click the arrow buttons in order to choose whether you
want adjust the parameters for Matrix for Intra Block, Matrix for Inter Block, Matrix for Chroma
Intra Block or Matrix for Chroma Inter Block. In the following window you can change these
settings.
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These values must be in the range 16 ... 256, with the exception that the first entry in the intra block
matrix must be 8. Intra blocks are macroblocks coded using only information from the current
picture (I frames), non-intra blocks are macroblocks coded using information from the current
picture and other pictures (B and P frames). If the bitrate is high you should not change the
parameters. Ultimately, these values depend on the source material. If the bitrate is low you can
change the parameters to get better results.
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The Miscellaneous Pane
This pane offers additional settings for the Input Format as well as the Stream Structure.
Under Input Format you can modify some options
for the input stream:
Ticking the Specify Incoming Field Order
checkbox enables you to define the correct order of
the input streams fields: Bot Field First or Top
Field First.
Ticking the checkbox Invert Incoming Color
Range will invert the color range of the incoming
stream.
Under Stream Structure you can enable/disable
several options for the output streams structure:
Write SMPTE 328M Timecode places SMPTE
328M user data in the elementary stream that
contains the timecode information. These
information are predominantly necessary for
XDCAM streams.
Write Picture Display Extension specifies whether
picture display extensions are written in the video
stream.
Write Sequence Display Extension specifies
whether a sequence display extension is written in
every GOP. It seems some players have problems
playing SVCDs that have the extensions present,
so this flag is present to turn the extensions off if
needed.
Write Sequence Header every GOP specifies
whether to write a sequence header every GOP or
just one at the beginning of the stream. Ticking the
checkbox, puts a sequence header before every GOP. If it is not set, a sequence header is only put
at the beginning of the stream.
NOTE: Please note that VCD, SVCD and DVD should have this option turned on.

Write Sequence End Code specifies whether the encoder writes a sequence end code at the end
of the stream.
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The Advanced H.264/AVC Encoder Settings

The Professional version of TotalCode Studio H.264/AVC has limited functionalities in comparison
with the Broadcast version. Here is a brief list of the missing features:
AVC-Intra Class 50 and 100 support.
10-bit support.
The Basic Settings pane
In this dialog you specify different basic video settings
for Video Format, and Bitrate.
The drop-down menu Video Preset shows the
current encoding preset for H.264/AVC. There are a
few differences between the options we like to explain
to you briefly. Using H.264 Baseline the encoder
does not use B-slices. For the Baseline profile only
progressive and for coding mode only CAVLC are
available. The H.264 Main profile enables you to use
B-slices and CABAC as coding mode, too. You can
choose interlaced or progressive here. In general, this
profile offers better encoding properties.
Under Video Format you find the following options:
The spin boxes under Resolution are disabled here,
because you can specify the desired resolution in a
previous dialog.
The checkbox Keep Aspect Ratio you can only
change in the previous dialog, too. For that reason, it
is disabled here. The drop-down menu next to it
enables you to change the aspect ratio of the clip.
The Frame Rate drop-down menu is disabled again,
because you can define the appropriate frame rate in
one of the earlier dialogs.
Pixel aspect ratio allows you to choose one of the
predefined parameters here. When you select
Custom here, you have the opportunity to specify a
free value using the corresponding spinboxes that are
now available.
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The drop-down menu Picture Structure enables you to define whether transcoder should work in
Frame coding (Progressive) or Field coding (Interlaced) mode. In Interlaced mode, the video
footage is encoded field-based, i.e. the whole picture is saved, but no fields or field information will
be used. In Progressive mode the video is encoded frame-based, i.e. frames will be saved which
include field information. These will be used to combine the individual fields to one frame. Using this
method the temporal aspect of the fields is considered, i.e. whether the top field or the bottom field
is saved first. The third option is MBAFF. MBAFF is the acronym for MacroBlock Adaptive
Frame/Field coding. Using this option, the encoder in each case writes two fields as one frame in
the stream, i.e. it uses interlaced frame coding.
Field Order specifies the field order of the video. The available options are Top Field First, and
Bottom Field First.
The parameters under Pulldown convert 23.976 fps (frames per second) to 29.97 fps, or 24 fps to
30 fps, and it is supposed to be done only on progressive frame video (like film). The movie studios
slow their films from 24 fps to 23.987 and then encode using pulldown to display at 29.97 fps. The
video encoder manipulates the Top Field First (tff) and Repeat First Field (rff) flags to convert 4
frames (8 fields) to 5 frames (10 fields) like this:
(T = top field, B = bottom field)
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
frame 2: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 4: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
So you get the sequence of fields: TB TBT BT BTB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB TB. The
above would be considered 2:3 pulldown as it is 2 fields, 3 fields, 2 fields etc.
3:2 is the reverse:
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 2: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
frame 4: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
In this case you get the sequence of fields: TBT BT BTB TB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB
TB.
In most cases the H.264/AVC Encoder adjusts the necessary settings automatically, so that the
Pulldown option remains disabled.
The drop-down menu Chroma Format allows you to specify the chrominance sampling. Available
parameters are 4:0:0, 4:2:0, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4. The latter is currently not supported.
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Bit-depth Luma specifies the bit depth of the encoded luminance samples. Available values are 8
bits and 10 bits. The 10 bits value is only available for High 10 profile and higher.
Bit-depth Chroma specifies the bit depth of the encoded chrominance samples. Available values
are 8 bits and 10 bits. The 10 bits value is only available for High 10 profile and higher.
In the black field of the dialog, the encoder shows possible errors which might be caused by wrong
settings, because some parameters are not allowed in a specific combination.

The Bitrate area offers the following options:
The drop-down menu Bitrate Mode offers four options: Constant Bitrate offers a fixed bitrate (the
relevant input prompt will be enabled if selected). Choosing Variable Bitrate option defines the
maximum value of the bitrate range the encoder should stay within while encoding. The average
value is the desired average bitrate of the video stream. The relevant input prompts will be enabled
if selected. Const. Quality - Constant Quantization is the third option. It offers quantization
parameters for the different slice types (I, P and B). Using this function, the bitrate can vary without
any limitation in contrast to VBR and CBR mode. A lower value for any slice quantization parameter
will result in better quality. The value range is between 1 and 52. The last option is Const. Quality -
Average Quantization. It is similar to the previous option, but the encoder will use an average
quantizer instead of a constant one.
Under Target Bitrate (bps) you define a fixed average bitrate for the encoding process (in bits per
second). The Main profile offers a higher quality here. It is only available for Variable Bitrate.
The Max Bitrate (bps) input prompt is only available in VBR mode (in bits per second). Here you
specify the maximum bitrate for the encoder, it should not exceed.
Under Buffers you have different options on how to specify the corresponding values:
Under Units you see three checkboxes that specify how the different buffer values should be
calculated and displayed. Depending on the option they can be set in bytes, percent, bits, etc.
Bitrate buffer specifies the size of the virtual buffer verifier in bytes or bits. This value should be
adjusted to bitrate (Constant Bitrate) or to maximum bitrate (Variable Bitrate), to avoid DTS/PTS
underflows during muxing.
VBV buffer initial specifies the initial state of the HRD buffer in percent, bits or 90 kHz clock.
VBV buffer target specifies the target state of the HRD buffer in percent, bits or 90 kHz clock.
The checkbox HRD conformance controls applying HRD conformance in the encoder. In most
cases it is recommended to disable this parameter whenever possible. However, some video
formats may require HRD conformance, such as Blu-ray, Sony PSP, Apple iPod, etc. For general or
custom presets, it is always disabled.

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Depending on the Bitrate Mode, the following settings can differ:
Maximum I-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each I-
frame.
Maximum P-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each P-
frame.
Maximum B-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each B-
frame.
Maximum Br-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each
B-frame used as reference.
Quantizer I-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for I-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Quantizer P-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for P-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Quantizer B-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for B-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Maximum Quantizer defines the maximum quantization parameter that should be used. The value
range is 0 - 51.
Mainimum Quantizer defines the minimum quantization parameter that should be used. The value
range is 0 - 51.
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The Advanced Settings Pane
The Advanced Settings pane offers settings for adjusting the Profile and Level. Moreover, you
find several options for the GOP Structure, Motion Estimation, Rate Distortion and a section for
Miscellaneous options here.
The drop-down menu Profile enables you to
change the H.264 profile if necessary. The available
options are Baseline, Main and High.
The parameters under Level define the limits for the
settings. A higher level results in more available
settings. The H.264 spec (specification) allows for a
large number of variations in the settings, e.g. the
frame resolution can theoretically be as large as 2
14

x 2
14
. The Profile and Level just set limits on what
the values of some of the other settings can be.
Under GOP Structure you find several checkboxes:
Ticking the checkbox Enable scene detection
activates the visual content scene detection (vcsd)
that can be used for getting better quality on scene
changes.

The I-frame settings sections offers several
options:
I-frame interval specifies the number of frames
between I-frames or the number of frames in a
GOP. If this value is 1 only I-frames are generated.
Min. I-frame distance specifies the minimum GOP
length, i.e. the difference to the previous I-frame.
Mark every n-th I-frame as IDR allows you to mark
every n-th I-picture as IDR.
The Fixed I-frame distance means that there is
always an I-frame at the multiple of a GOP length.
So e.g. when the GOP length is 30, you can set an I-frame at a scene cut this way.

The B-frame settings sections offers several options:
Allow adaptive B-frame placement allows the user to specify even B-slices as reference.
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Allow pyramidal structure for B-frames allows the usage of pyramid B-pictures coding. For
example when encoding 3 B-frames, such as IbBbP, B will be encoded before b, and B will be used
as reference for both b pictures.
Number of B-frames specifies the number of B-frames between consecutive I- and P-frames.
When the B-frames as reference frames checkbox is enabled you can specify in what intervals a
reference frame appears (P-frames). Under Baseline there are no B-frames.

Under Motion Estimation you find the following options:
Under Macroblock search block size you specify the search mode for the macroblocks. In these
areas the encoder predicts inter-coded macroblocks in P-slices. The inter-prediction creates a
prediction model from previously encoded frames. It can be combination of the following flags: 8x8
and 16x16.
The drop-down menu Subpixel search depth enables you to choose the subpixel motion search
depth. Full means that only the full pixel position will be examined. When choosing Half, only half-
pixels positions will be added to the search. Quarter means that both half and quarter pixel
positions will be added.
Using the spinbox Reference Frames you specify the maximum number of reference frames you
want to search for, in order to encode a picture. The value range is 1 .. 128.
Motion vector search range specifies the motion vector range from a spatial point of view.
Weighted Prediction for P-frames can be used supplementary to motion compensation and
reference picture selection for prediction of the current picture content. When Weighted Prediction
in P-slices is utilized, customized weights can be applied as scaling and offset to the motion-
compensated prediction parameter before its usage as a predictor for the current picture samples. It
can be very useful for fading scenes. You can enable the option with On or turn it off by setting it to
Off.
Enable Fast multi-reference frame search offers a heuristic search mode which is significantly
quicker, but can result in a loss of quality. Disabling the checkbox offers a greedy search mode. It is
slower, but can result in better quality.
Enable Fast sub-block search offers a heuristic search mode which is significantly quicker, but
can result in a loss of quality. If it is disabled a greedy search mode is used. It is slower, but can
result in better quality.



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Under Rate Distortion you find the following options:
The checkbox Fast Intra Decisions allows the encoder to use fast intra coding decision metrics, in
order to speed up the encoding process. This option can slightly decrease picture quality, but will
result in a significant speed improvement.
The checkbox Fast Inter Decisions allows encoder to use fast inter coding decision metrics, in
order to speed up the encoding process. This result can be a decrease in picture quality, but at the
same time it leads to some speed improvement.
The Simplified RD Optimization checkbox allows you to enable the optimization for rate distortion.
The rate distortion specifies the trade-off between quality and bitrate. If the checkbox is enabled is a
heuristic rate distortion optimization mode is used which is significantly quicker, but can result in a
loss of quality. If it is disabled a greedy optimization mode is used. It is slower, but can result in
better quality.
The Hadamard transformation option enables and disables the Hadamard Transformation. This is
an optimized cosine transformation. Activating the option, the clip will be encoded in better quality,
and it will have a smaller file size.
Under Adaptive quantization you find several sliders:
When using Brightness based macroblock-adaptive quantization the macroblock quantization
scale depends on the average brightness level. 0 means that the option is not used. Positive values
denote coarser quantization for macroblocks with brightness higher than the average value for the
current picture.
When using Contrast based macroblock-adaptive quantization the macroblock quantization scale
depends on the contrast level. 0 means that the option is not used. Positive values denote coarser
quantization for macroblocks with contrast higher than the average value for the current picture.
When using Complexity based macroblock-adaptive quantization the macroblock quantization
scale depends on the complexity level. 0 means that the option is not used. Positive values denote
coarser quantization for macroblocks with complexity higher than the average value for the current
picture.

Under Miscellaneous you find the following options:
The Deblocking Filter option enables you turn on and off the deblocking filter for smoothing video
frames. Ticking the option enables the deblocking filter.
Entropy coding mode allows you specify this mode. The CABAC option is only available for the
Main and High profile. CABAC is the abbreviation of Context-Based Adaptive Binary Arithmetic
Coding. Using this option only binary decisions are encoded. A non-binary item is binarized or
converted into binary code. When CABAC is disabled the encoder automatically switches to
CAVLC (Context-Adaptive Variable Length Coding). In general, we recommend to use the CABAC
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option, if it is available. Although it is slower, it offers a higher compression and much better quality
than CAVLC.
Threads specifies the number of threads to be used during encoding. Auto mode will automatically
find the optimum number of threads, 1 means single threaded encoding, more threads will use more
CPUs/cores.
Slices per picture specifies the number of slices that should be used per picture.


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The Advanced VC-1 Encoder Settings
The Basic Settings pane
In this dialog you specify different basic video settings for Video Format, GOP Structure and Bitrate.
Under Video Format you find the following options:
The spin boxes under Resolution are disabled
here, because you can specify the desired
resolution in a previous dialog.
The checkbox Keep Aspect Ratio you can only
change in the previous dialog, too. For that reason,
it is disabled here. The drop-down menu next to it
enables you to change the aspect ratio of the clip.
The Frame Rate drop-down menu is disabled
again, because you can define the appropriate
frame rate in one of the earlier dialogs.
Pixel aspect ratio allows you to choose one of the
predefined parameters here. When you select
Custom here, you have the opportunity to specify a
free value using the corresponding spinboxes that
are now available.
The drop-down menu Picture Structure enables
you to define whether the VC-1 Encoder should
work in Progressive and Interlaced MBAFF mode.
In progressive mode the video is encoded frame-
based, i.e. frames will be saved which include field
information. These will be used to combine the
individual fields to one frame. Using this method
the temporal aspect of the fields is considered, i.e.
whether the top field or the bottom field is saved
first. For Interlaced MBAFF (MacroBlock Adaptive
Frame/Field), a frame may include both frame and
field coded macroblocks.
Field Order specifies the field order of the video.
The available options are Use Top Field, and Use Bottom Field.
The parameters under Pulldown convert 23.976 fps (frames per second) to 29.97 fps, or 24 fps to
30 fps, and it is supposed to be done only on progressive frame video (like film). The movie studios
slow their films from 24 fps to 23.987 and then encode using pulldown to display at 29.97 fps. The
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video encoder manipulates the Top Field First (tff) and Repeat First Field (rff) flags to convert 4
frames (8 fields) to 5 frames (10 fields) like this:
(T = top field, B = bottom field)
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
frame 2: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 4: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
So you get the sequence of fields: TB TBT BT BTB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB TB. The
above would be considered 2:3 pulldown as it is 2 fields, 3 fields, 2 fields etc.
3:2 is the reverse:
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 2: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
frame 4: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
In this case you get the sequence of fields: TBT BT BTB TB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB
TB.
In most cases the VC-1 Encoder adjusts the necessary settings automatically, so that the Pulldown
option remains disabled.
Under GOP Structure you find these options:
Max. I frame interval specifies the maximum number of frames between I-frames or the number of
frames in a group of pictures.
Min. I frame interval specifies the minimum number of frames between I-frames or the number of
frames in a group of pictures. If this value is 1 only I-frames are generated.
B frame distance specifies in what intervals a reference frame appears (P-frames). Under Baseline
there are no B-frames. The value range is 0 .. 10.
The checkbox Closed entry for B frames allows the user to specify even B-slices as reference.

The Scene Change Detection must be enabled by clicking the corresponding checkbox before you
can use it. The Sensibility slider is used to trigger detection. Higher values will lead to detection of
even small changes in video content. Lower values will lead to detection of only big changes. The
valid range of the option is 0..50. The default value is 25.
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Under Bitrate you find the following options:
The drop-down menu Bitrate Mode offers three options: Constant Bitrate offers a fixed bitrate (the
relevant input prompt will be enabled if selected). Choosing Variable Bitrate option defines the
maximum value of the bitrate range the encoder should stay within while encoding. The average
value is the desired average bitrate of the video stream. The relevant input prompts will be enabled
if selected.
Under Average Bitrate (kbps) you define a fixed average bitrate for the encoding process. The
Main profile offers a higher quality here. It is only available for Variable Bitrate.
The Maximum Bitrate (kbps) input prompt is only available in VBR mode. Here you specify the
maximum bitrate for the H.264 Encoder, it should not exceed.
Bitrate buffer specifies the size of the virtual buffer verifier. This value should be adjusted to bitrate
(Constant Bitrate) or to maximum bitrate (Variable Bitrate), to avoid DTS/PTS underflows during
muxing.
It controls the size of the buffers needed to encode video. If it is too low, you will get buffer
overflows, which could show up as stuttering video. Software decoders usually ignore the buffer
sizes, but most hardware players will have problems if the buffer size is not correct.
Encoded pictures from the VC-1 stream are placed into the buffer (hypothetically) and removed
from buffer at regular intervals. The VC-1 video stream is supposed to be constructed by varying
the size of the encoded frames, so that the buffer does not underflow (i.e. becomes empty where
there are no frames in buffer when it is time to decode one) or overflow (i.e. becomes full where no
space is available for more encoded pictures).
Under VBV buffer you find several options on the buffer handling:
Units specify whether you want to set the VBV buffer in percent (%), bits or time (90 kHz clocks).
Depending on the chosen parameter the input prompt below change.
Initial fullness defines the initial state of the VBV buffer used by bitrate controller.
Target fullness defines the final state of the VBV buffer used by bitrate controller.
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The Advanced Settings Pane
The Advanced Settings pane offers settings for adjusting the Profile and Level. Moreover, you
find several options for the Picture Coding Style and Motion Estimation here.
The drop-down menu Profile enables you to
change the VC-1 profile if necessary. The available
options are Simple, Main and Advanced.
Currently, Simple and Main Profiles are not
available.
The parameters under Level define the limits for
the settings. A higher level results in more
available settings. The VC-1 spec allows for a large
number of variations in the settings, e.g. the frame
resolution can theoretically be as large as 2
14
x 2
14
.
The Profile and Level just set limits on what the
values of some of the other settings can be.

Under Picture Coding Style you find several
sliders for settings the Adaptive quantization:
When using Brightness based macroblock-
adaptive quantization the macroblock quantization
scale depends on the average brightness level. 0
means that the option is not used. Positive values
denote coarser quantization for macroblocks with
brightness higher than the average value for the
current picture.
When using Contrast based macroblock-adaptive
quantization the macroblock quantization scale
depends on the contrast level. 0 means that the
option is not used. Positive values denote coarser
quantization for macroblocks with contrast higher
than the average value for the current picture.
When using Complexity based macroblock-
adaptive quantization the macroblock quantization
scale depends on the complexity level. 0 means that the option is not used. Positive values denote
coarser quantization for macroblocks with complexity higher than the average value for the current
picture.


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Under Motion Estimation you find the following options:
Under Mode you specify the search mode for the macroblocks. In these areas the encoder predicts
inter-coded macroblocks in P-slices. The inter-prediction creates a prediction model from previously
encoded frames. It can be combination of the following flags: 8x8 and 16x16.
The drop-down menu Subpixel Mode enables you to choose the subpixel motion search depth.
Full means that only the full pixel position will be examined. When choosing Half, only half-pixels
positions will be added to the search. Quarter means that both half and quarter pixel positions will
be added.
Search Range specifies the motion vector range.
Ticking the checkbox Allow 4 motion vectors per macroblock specifies whether the encoder may
use 4MV mode for P-frames.
Ticking the checkbox Use intensity compensation for P frames specifies whether the encoder
may use the intensity compensation tool for P-frames.
Enable variable sized transform allows the encoder to perform 8x8, 8x4, 4x8 and 4x4 transforms.
If the checkbox is disabled, the encoder uses 8x8 transform only (default).

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The Advanced MPEG-4 Part 2/H.263 Encoder Settings
The Basic Settings pane
In this dialog you specify different basic video settings for Video Format, GOP Structure and
Bitrate.
Under Preset you see the current MPEG-4 Part
2/H.263 profile that has been chosen in the main
window of TotalCode Studio.

Under Video Format you find the following options:
The spin boxes under Resolution allow you to
specify the desired resolution.
The checkbox Keep Aspect Ratio allows you to
force the aspect ratio of a stream. The drop-down
menu next to it offers some predefined aspect ratios
for the clip.
The Frame Rate drop-down menu allows you to
define the appropriate frame rate.
Pixel aspect ratio allows you to choose one of the
predefined parameters here. When you select
Custom here, you have the opportunity to specify a
free value using the corresponding spinboxes that
are now available.
The drop-down menu Picture structure enables
you to define whether the transcoder should work in
Frame coding (progressive) or Field coding
(interlaced) mode. In interlaced mode, the video
footage is encoded field-based, i.e. the whole
picture is saved, but no fields or field information will
be used. In progressive mode the video is encoded
frame-based, i.e. frames will be saved which include
field information. These will be used to combine the
individual fields to one frame. Using this method the
temporal aspect of the fields is considered, i.e. whether the top field or the bottom field is saved
first.
Ticking the checkbox Deinterlace input applies the deinterlacing option to the input stream.
Ticking the checkbox Alternate scan enables the alternative vertical scan.
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Under GOP Structure you find the following options:
Max. I-frames specifies the distance between I-frames (the number of frames in GOP). Larger
numbers frequently provide better compression. Smaller numbers provide better error recovery and
better access to the frames for editing.
B-frames count specifies the number of consecutive B-frames.
Ticking the checkbox Adaptive B-VOP count enables the mode for auto calculation of B-VOP's
count.
Scene change detection specifies the use of the scene change detection (SCD) algorithm. This
option causes the Encoder to insert I-frames when new scenes are detected.

The Bitrate section offers the following parameters:
The drop-down menu Bitrate Mode offers three options: Constant Bitrate offers a fixed bitrate (the
relevant input prompt will be enabled if selected). Choosing Variable Bitrate option defines the
maximum value of the bitrate range the encoder should stay within while encoding. The average
value is the desired average bitrate of the video stream. The relevant input prompts will be enabled
if selected. Constant Quality is an optimal quantizer (restricted with profile) for the specified
quality. It offers a quality level from 1-15. Constant Quantization is the last option. The quantizer
value set in the Quantizer field is used for I, P-VOPs. Quantizer + 1 is used for B-VOPs.
Under Target Bitrate (bps) you define a fixed average bitrate for the encoding process (in bits per
second). The Main profile offers a higher quality here. It is only available for Variable Bitrate.

The Max Bitrate (bps) input prompt is only available in VBR mode (in bits per second). Here you
specify the maximum bitrate for the encoder, it should not exceed.
VBV buffer (b) specifies the size of the virtual buffer verifier in bytes. This value should be adjusted
to bitrate (Constant Bitrate) or to maximum bitrate (Variable Bitrate), to avoid DTS/PTS underflows
during muxing. It controls the size of the buffers needed to encode the video. If it is too low, you will
get buffer overflows, which could show up as stuttering video. Software decoders usually ignore the
buffer sizes, but most hardware players will have problems if the buffer size is not correct.
Ticking the checkbox Don't limit bitrate by level disables the restriction of the target bit-rate by
level.

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The Advanced Settings pane
The Advanced Settings pane offers settings for adjusting the Profile and Level. Moreover, you
find several options for the Picture Coding Style and Motion Estimation here.
The drop-down menu Profile enables you to
change the MPEG-4 Part 2 profile if necessary. The
available options are Simple and Advanced
Simple.
The parameters under Level define the limits for
the settings. A higher level results in more available
settings. The Profile and Level just set limits on
what the values of some of the other settings can
be.
Under Picture Coding Style you find the following
options:
Quantisation type specifies whether you want to
generate an H.263 or MPEG compliant stream.
Quantizer I-VOP specifies the macroblock
quantization value for the I-VOP.
Quantizer P-VOP specifies the macroblock
quantization value for the P-VOP.
Quantizer B-VOP specifies the macroblock
quantization value for the B-VOP.
Min Quantizer specifies the lower limit of the
quantizer for variable bitrate control mode.
Max Quantizer specifies the upper limit of the
quantizer for variable bitrate control mode.
Ticking the checkbox Adaptive quantization
enables the adaptive quantization mode.

Under Motion Estimation you find the following options:
Ticking the checkbox Allow 4 motion vectors per macroblock allows the usage of four motion
vectors per macroblock.
The drop-down menu Sub pixel mode specifies the support of motion vectors with half-pixel
accuracy. The available options are Full pixel, Half pixel and Quarter pixel motion vectors.
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The drop-down menu Motion Vector range specifies the f_code value to restriction of motion
vectors.
The drop-down menu Rounding Control specifies the rounding type value: Varying and Zero.
The drop-down menu Predictors offers some speed/quality control parameters: Easy, Standard
and Check additional predictors in motion search.
Ticking the checkbox Speed optimization enable some search speed optimizations.

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The DVCPRO 25/50/100 Encoder Settings
In this dialog you specify different DVCPRO 25, 50 and 100 (HD) video settings. Simply tick the
corresponding checkbox to enable the desired option.

The option Invert field order reverses the field order of a frame.
Fast encoding encodes in fast computing mode. Although this option enhances speed it is prone to
errors.
If the checkbox Do not create H0 header (DIF-H0) is enabled the encoder does not create a DIF-
block with H0 header.

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The Advanced JPEG2000 Encoder Settings
In this dialog you specify different JPEG2000 encoder video settings for Quality Layers, DCI,
Progression Order etc.

The Preset profile option displays the current profile which has already been set among the
options of the Video tab in the main window of TotalCode Studio.

Under Wavelet transform you specify the DWT (Discrete Wavelet-Transformation). The Wavelet
Transformation divides the picture into different pieces of information which can be compressed
easier and more efficiently as the whole picture.
The Type option specifies the wavelet type used: Parameter 9-7 is faster and always lossy, 5-3 is
slower and may be lossless.
The # levels option defines the number of wavelet transformation levels. The value range is 1-6, but
we recommend to choose parameters 3 or 4.

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Using drop-down menu Acceleration you specify the acceleration level for encoding. For levels are
available: None, Light, Normal and Strong. The higher acceleration levels use a less precise
bitrate estimation, thus result in lower quality (depending on target bitrate). The default parameter is
Normal, as it provides the optimal quality/speed results. If lossless encoding is required, the
acceleration level must be set to None.
Using the Max. bit-depth spinbox, you limit the precision of the encoded image. If you want to
encode only 6 bits of color, then you set it to 6. This results in some speed-up, but loose color
quality. The value range is 4-16.

When D-Cinema encoding is selected, the encoder produces streams in accordance with
JPEG2000 profile-3 (2k digital cinema profile) or profile-4 (4k digital cinema profile). These DCI
(Digital Cinema Initiatives) profiles are defined in: ISO/IEC 15444-1:2004/Amd.1:2006.
2k: In this case the input parameters are restricted to DCI's 2K distribution (2048x1080). Output
stream is in accordance with JPEG2000's profile-3.
4k: In this case the input parameters are restricted to DCI's 4K distribution (4096x2160). Output
stream is in accordance with JPEG2000's profile-4.
When D-Cinema mode is selected, the encoder allows for a restricted set of input parameters, in
accordance with the DCI specifications. These restrictions are as follows:
DCI Restrictions
Mode Mode-specific restrictions Common restrictions
2k J2C output
9/7 mode
Precincts size = 256x256
Code block size = 32x32
CPRL progression order
1x subsampling
One quality layer
X'Y'Z' input color space, 12bit
precision
4k 25 fps

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There are also requirements regarding maximum allowed size of compressed output:
2k 24fps - max of 1.302.083 bytes/frame and max of 1.041.066 bytes/component.
2k 48fps - max of 651.041 bytes/frame and max of 520.833 bytes/component.
4k 24fps - both 4k and its 2k subset must satisfy requirements of 2k 24fps.
Enabling the checkbox XYZ->RGB turns any color space into RGB prior to ICT (Irreversible Color
Transform). This option is only available for DCI mode. Please refer to JPEG 2000 specification
ISO/IEC 15444-1 for further details on ICT.

Precinct size and Code-block size are both elements of the image data structure:
Code-block partition is used during encoding and it defines maximal size of a image block encoded
as a whole. During encoding steps, image is partitioned in code-blocks, and all code-blocks may be
processed in a parallel (on some hardware implementation). As the MainConcept encoder is
completely software implementation, this parameter won't make any visible change in speed. The
recommended setting for Code-block size is 64x64.
Final bit stream is made of packets, in which a group of code blocks is put together in a so called
precinct. Packets are key to error resilience, i.e. if some packets is damaged during e.g. wireless
transmission, rest of packets won't be affected and only part of decoded image will be damaged.
So, smaller precincts result in smaller packets and for that reason in better error resilience. This
parameter may be important when using non-ideal transmission channels, e.g. GSM, wireless etc.
The recommended parameter for Precinct size is Maximal.

Progression: Right now two progression orders are supported: LRCP (Quality Layer - Resolution -
Component - Position) and CPRL (DCI) (Component - Position - Resolution - Quality Layer). DCI
specification explicitly requires CPRL progression order with 2x subsampling for 4K content. By
using this you get that all low-res data is ordered prior to hi-res data in compressed output. This way
the decoder that is capable of only 2k decoding can easily decode only first part of 4k material and
skip the rest. LRCP can also be used, but data is interleaved in different way. The recommended
option is LRCP here.
The CPRL subsampl. option defines the subsampling factor when CPRL progression order is
used. It must be set to 1x for DCI 2k encoding, and must be set to 2x for DCI 4k encoding.

Under Quality you find the following encoding options:
The drop-down menu bit-rate format allows you to specify the mode how the bitrate is distributed
through the layers. The options Relative [%] and Absolute [bytes] are two mutually exclusive
ways of specifying layer size:
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If you have chosen Relative [%] layer size, you must specify each layer size in percent value of
original image size here, e.g. if you write: 1, 3, 5 it means that you will have three layers, first will be
of size max 1% of original, second will be additional 2% of size (layers 1+2 will not be more than
2%), third layer will be additional 2%. The total size of output will not be more than 5% of input
image size.
If you have chosen Absolute [bytes] layer size, you must specify the bitrate as a number of bytes,
e.g. 10000 means that you will have one layer at a size which is not more than 10000 bytes.
Each layer size is in fact a maximum value. The final output may be smaller than specified,
depending on the image's content. Moreover, the final output will never be exactly the same as
specified, but very close. The encoder tries to keep it below limit, but there may be few hundred
bytes of surplus.
Under # Layers you define the number of quality layers in the output image. The encoded image
can be segmented into quality layers. Each layer offers additional quality. If you want to decode
image in lower quality, you do not have to decode whole stream. The default value is 1, and the
overall value range is 1-6. Depending on the number of layers you have chosen, you can enter the
desired relative or absolute values in the input prompts Layer 1 to Layer 6.
The CBR checkbox enables the constant bitrate mode for encoding.
The Force Lossless mode allows you to use lossless encoding in 5/3 mode.

The Wrapping option specifies the wrapping mode. When you select JPC, the encoder outputs a
JPC stream. The abbreviation JPC stands for "JPEG2000 codestream". When you choose JP2, the
encoder outputs a jp2 stream. The recommended setting is JPC. If you use the JP2 option, the
encoder wraps additional metadata, but not all decoders are able to read this format.

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The Advanced CUDA H.264/AVC Encoder Interfaces
The advanced windows for TotalCode Studio CUDA H.264/AVC are similar to TotalCode Studio
H.264/AVC, but offers less features: Basic Settings, and Advanced Settings. Some options are
only available when certain parameters are in effect.

The Basic Settings pane
In this dialog you specify different basic video settings for Video Format, and Bitrate.
The drop-down menu CUDA Device allows you
choosing the desired Nvidia graphics board that
should be used for GPU based hardware
accelerated H.264/AVC transcoding. This can be
useful if you have more than one Nvidia board with
CUDA support installed on your system.
Under Video Format you find the following options:
The spin boxes under Resolution are disabled
here, because you can specify the desired
resolution in a previous dialog.
The checkbox Keep Aspect Ratio you can only
change in the previous dialog, too. For that reason,
it is disabled here. The drop-down menu next to it
enables you to change the aspect ratio of the clip.
The Frame Rate drop-down menu is disabled
again, because you can define the appropriate
frame rate in one of the earlier dialogs.
Pixel aspect ratio allows you to choose one of the
predefined parameters here. When you select
Custom here, you have the opportunity to specify a
free value using the corresponding spinboxes that
are now available.
The drop-down menu Picture Structure enables
you to define whether transcoder should work in
Frame coding (Progressive) or Field coding
(Interlaced) mode. In Interlaced mode, the video
footage is encoded field-based, i.e. the whole
picture is saved, but no fields or field information
will be used. In Progressive mode the video is
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encoded frame-based, i.e. frames will be saved which include field information. These will be used
to combine the individual fields to one frame. Using this method the temporal aspect of the fields is
considered, i.e. whether the top field or the bottom field is saved first. The third option is MBAFF.
MBAFF is the acronym for MacroBlock Adaptive Frame/Field coding. Using this option, the encoder
in each case writes two fields as one frame in the stream, i.e. it uses interlaced frame coding.
Field Order specifies the field order of the video. The available options are Top Field First, and
Bottom Field First.
The parameters under Pulldown convert 23.976 fps (frames per second) to 29.97 fps, or 24 fps to
30 fps, and it is supposed to be done only on progressive frame video (like film). The movie studios
slow their films from 24 fps to 23.987 and then encode using pulldown to display at 29.97 fps. The
video encoder manipulates the Top Field First (tff) and Repeat First Field (rff) flags to convert 4
frames (8 fields) to 5 frames (10 fields) like this:
(T = top field, B = bottom field)
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
frame 2: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 4: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
So you get the sequence of fields: TB TBT BT BTB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB TB. The
above would be considered 2:3 pulldown as it is 2 fields, 3 fields, 2 fields etc.
3:2 is the reverse:
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 2: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
frame 4: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
In this case you get the sequence of fields: TBT BT BTB TB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB
TB.
In most cases the H.264/AVC Encoder adjusts the necessary settings automatically, so that the
Pulldown option remains disabled.

The drop-down menu Chroma Format allows you to specify the chrominance sampling. Available
parameters are 4:0:0, 4:2:0, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4. The latter is currently not supported.
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Bit-depth Luma specifies the bit depth of the encoded luminance samples. Available values are 8
bits and 10 bits. The 10 bits value is only available for High 10 profile and higher.
Bit-depth Chroma specifies the bit depth of the encoded chrominance samples. Available values
are 8 bits and 10 bits. The 10 bits value is only available for High 10 profile and higher.
In the black field of the dialog, the encoder shows possible errors which might be caused by wrong
settings, because some parameters are not allowed in a specific combination.

The Bitrate area offers the following options:
The drop-down menu Bitrate Mode offers two options: Choosing Variable Bitrate option defines
the maximum value of the bitrate range the encoder should stay within while encoding. The average
value is the desired average bitrate of the video stream. The relevant input prompts will be enabled
if selected. Const. Quality - Constant Quantization is the third option. It offers quantization
parameters for the different slice types (I, P and B). Using this function, the bitrate can vary without
any limitation in contrast to VBR and CBR mode. A lower value for any slice quantization parameter
will result in better quality. The value range is between 1 and 52.
Under Target Bitrate (bps) you define a fixed average bitrate for the encoding process (in bits per
second). The Main profile offers a higher quality here. It is only available for Variable Bitrate.

Depending on the Bitrate Mode, the following settings can differ:
Maximum I-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each I-
frame.
Maximum P-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each P-
frame.
Maximum B-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each B-
frame.
Maximum Br-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each
B-frame used as reference.
Quantizer I-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for I-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Quantizer P-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for P-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Quantizer B-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for B-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
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Maximum Quantizer defines the maximum quantization parameter that should be used. The value
range is 0 - 51.
Mainimum Quantizer defines the minimum quantization parameter that should be used. The value
range is 0 - 51.


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The Advanced Settings Pane
The Advanced Settings pane offers settings for adjusting the Profile and Level. Moreover, you
find several options for the GOP Structure, Motion Estimation, Rate Distortion and a section for
Miscellaneous options here.

The drop-down menu Profile enables you to change the H.264 profile if necessary. The available
options are Baseline, and Main.
The parameters under Level define the limits for the settings. A higher level results in more
available settings. The H.264 spec (specification) allows for a large number of variations in the
settings, e.g. the frame resolution can theoretically be as large as 2
14
x 2
14
. The Profile and Level
just set limits on what the values of some of the other settings can be.
Under GOP Structure you find several checkboxes:
Ticking the checkbox Enable scene detection activates the visual content scene detection (vcsd)
that can be used for getting better quality on scene changes.

The I-frame settings sections offers several options:
I-frame interval specifies the number of frames between I-frames or the number of frames in a
GOP. If this value is 1 only I-frames are generated.
Min. I-frame distance specifies the minimum GOP length, i.e. the difference to the previous I-
frame.
Mark every n-th I-frame as IDR allows you to mark every n-th I-picture as IDR.
The Fixed I-frame distance means that there is always an I-frame at the multiple of a GOP length.
So e.g. when the GOP length is 30, you can set an I-frame at a scene cut this way.

The B-frame settings sections offers several options:
Allow adaptive B-frame placement allows the user to specify even B-slices as reference.
Allow pyramidal structure for B-frames allows the usage of pyramid B-pictures coding. For
example when encoding 3 B-frames, such as IbBbP, B will be encoded before b, and B will be used
as reference for both b pictures.
Number of B-frames specifies the number of B-frames between consecutive I- and P-frames.
When the B-frames as reference frames checkbox is enabled you can specify in what intervals a
reference frame appears (P-frames). Under Baseline there are no B-frames.
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Under Motion Estimation you find the following options:
Under Macroblock search block size you specify the search mode for the macroblocks. In these
areas the encoder predicts inter-coded macroblocks in P-slices. The inter-prediction creates a
prediction model from previously encoded frames. It can be combination of the following flags: 8x8
and 16x16.
The drop-down menu Subpixel search depth enables you to choose the subpixel motion search
depth. Full means that only the full pixel position will be examined. When choosing Half, only half-
pixels positions will be added to the search. Quarter means that both half and quarter pixel
positions will be added.
Using the spinbox Reference Frames you specify the maximum number of reference frames you
want to search for, in order to encode a picture. The value range is 1 .. 128.
Motion vector search range specifies the motion vector range from a spatial point of view.
Weighted Prediction for P-frames can be used supplementary to motion compensation and
reference picture selection for prediction of the current picture content. When Weighted Prediction
in P-slices is utilized, customized weights can be applied as scaling and offset to the motion-
compensated prediction parameter before its usage as a predictor for the current picture samples. It
can be very useful for fading scenes. You can enable the option with On or turn it off by setting it to
Off.
Enable Fast multi-reference frame search offers a heuristic search mode which is significantly
quicker, but can result in a loss of quality. Disabling the checkbox offers a greedy search mode. It is
slower, but can result in better quality.
Enable Fast sub-block search offers a heuristic search mode which is significantly quicker, but
can result in a loss of quality. If it is disabled a greedy search mode is used. It is slower, but can
result in better quality.

Under Miscellaneous you find the following options:
The Deblocking Filter option enables you turn on and off the deblocking filter for smoothing video
frames. Ticking the option enables the deblocking filter.
Entropy coding mode allows you specify this mode. The CABAC option is only available for the
Main and High profile. CABAC is the abbreviation of Context-Based Adaptive Binary Arithmetic
Coding. Using this option only binary decisions are encoded. A non-binary item is binarized or
converted into binary code. When CABAC is disabled the encoder automatically switches to
CAVLC (Context-Adaptive Variable Length Coding). In general, we recommend to use the CABAC
option, if it is available. Although it is slower, it offers a higher compression and much better quality
than CAVLC.
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Threads specifies the number of threads to be used during encoding. Auto mode will automatically
find the optimum number of threads, 1 means single threaded encoding, more threads will use more
CPUs/cores.
Slices per picture specifies the number of slices that should be used per picture.

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The Advanced OpenCL H.264/AVC Encoder Interfaces
The advanced windows for TotalCode Studio OpenCL H.264/AVC are similar to TotalCode Studio
H.264/AVC, but offers less options: Basic Settings and Advanced Settings. Some functions are
only available when certain parameters are in effect.

The Basic Settings pane
In this dialog you specify different basic video settings for Video Format, and Bitrate.
The drop-down menu OpenCL Device allows you
choosing the desired ATI graphics board that
should be used for GPU based hardware
accelerated H.264/AVC transcoding. This can be
useful if you have more than one ATI board with
OpenCL support installed on your system.
Under Video Format you find the following options:
The spin boxes under Resolution are disabled
here, because you can specify the desired
resolution in a previous dialog.
The checkbox Keep Aspect Ratio you can only
change in the previous dialog, too. For that reason,
it is disabled here. The drop-down menu next to it
enables you to change the aspect ratio of the clip.
The Frame Rate drop-down menu is disabled
again, because you can define the appropriate
frame rate in one of the earlier dialogs.
Pixel aspect ratio allows you to choose one of the
predefined parameters here. When you select
Custom here, you have the opportunity to specify a
free value using the corresponding spinboxes that
are now available.
The drop-down menu Picture Structure enables
you to define whether transcoder should work in
Frame coding (Progressive) or Field coding
(Interlaced) mode. In Interlaced mode, the video footage is encoded field-based, i.e. the whole
picture is saved, but no fields or field information will be used. In Progressive mode the video is
encoded frame-based, i.e. frames will be saved which include field information. These will be used
to combine the individual fields to one frame. Using this method the temporal aspect of the fields is
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considered, i.e. whether the top field or the bottom field is saved first. The third option is MBAFF.
MBAFF is the acronym for MacroBlock Adaptive Frame/Field coding. Using this option, the encoder
in each case writes two fields as one frame in the stream, i.e. it uses interlaced frame coding.
Field Order specifies the field order of the video. The available options are Top Field First, and
Bottom Field First.
The parameters under Pulldown convert 23.976 fps (frames per second) to 29.97 fps, or 24 fps to
30 fps, and it is supposed to be done only on progressive frame video (like film). The movie studios
slow their films from 24 fps to 23.987 and then encode using pulldown to display at 29.97 fps. The
video encoder manipulates the Top Field First (tff) and Repeat First Field (rff) flags to convert 4
frames (8 fields) to 5 frames (10 fields) like this:
(T = top field, B = bottom field)
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
frame 2: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 4: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
So you get the sequence of fields: TB TBT BT BTB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB TB. The
above would be considered 2:3 pulldown as it is 2 fields, 3 fields, 2 fields etc.
3:2 is the reverse:
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 2: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
frame 4: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
In this case you get the sequence of fields: TBT BT BTB TB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB
TB.
In most cases the H.264/AVC Encoder adjusts the necessary settings automatically, so that the
Pulldown option remains disabled.

The drop-down menu Chroma Format allows you to specify the chrominance sampling. Available
parameters are 4:0:0, 4:2:0, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4. The latter is currently not supported.
Bit-depth Luma specifies the bit depth of the encoded luminance samples. Available values are 8
bits and 10 bits. The 10 bits value is only available for High 10 profile and higher.
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Bit-depth Chroma specifies the bit depth of the encoded chrominance samples. Available values
are 8 bits and 10 bits. The 10 bits value is only available for High 10 profile and higher.
In the black field of the dialog, the encoder shows possible errors which might be caused by wrong
settings, because some parameters are not allowed in a specific combination.

The Bitrate area offers the following options:
The drop-down menu Bitrate Mode offers two options: Choosing Variable Bitrate option defines
the maximum value of the bitrate range the encoder should stay within while encoding. The average
value is the desired average bitrate of the video stream. The relevant input prompts will be enabled
if selected. Const. Quality - Constant Quantization is the third option. It offers quantization
parameters for the different slice types (I, P and B). Using this function, the bitrate can vary without
any limitation in contrast to VBR and CBR mode. A lower value for any slice quantization parameter
will result in better quality. The value range is between 1 and 52.
Under Target Bitrate (bps) you define a fixed average bitrate for the encoding process (in bits per
second). The Main profile offers a higher quality here. It is only available for Variable Bitrate.
Depending on the Bitrate Mode, the following settings can differ:
Maximum I-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each I-
frame.
Maximum P-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each P-
frame.
Maximum B-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each B-
frame.
Maximum Br-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each
B-frame used as reference.
Quantizer I-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for I-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Quantizer P-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for P-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Quantizer B-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for B-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Maximum Quantizer defines the maximum quantization parameter that should be used. The value
range is 0 - 51.
Mainimum Quantizer defines the minimum quantization parameter that should be used. The value
range is 0 - 51.
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The Advanced Settings Pane
The Advanced Settings pane offers settings for adjusting the Profile and Level. Moreover, you
find several options for the GOP Structure, Motion Estimation, Rate Distortion and a section for
Miscellaneous options here.
The drop-down menu Profile enables you to
change the H.264 profile if necessary. The
available options are Baseline, and Main.
The parameters under Level define the limits for
the settings. A higher level results in more
available settings. The H.264 spec (specification)
allows for a large number of variations in the
settings, e.g. the frame resolution can theoretically
be as large as 2
14
x 2
14
. The Profile and Level just
set limits on what the values of some of the other
settings can be.
Under GOP Structure you find several
checkboxes:
Ticking the checkbox Enable scene detection
activates the visual content scene detection (vcsd)
that can be used for getting better quality on scene
changes.

The I-frame settings sections offers several
options:
I-frame interval specifies the number of frames
between I-frames or the number of frames in a
GOP. If this value is 1 only I-frames are generated.
Min. I-frame distance specifies the minimum
GOP length, i.e. the difference to the previous I-
frame.
Mark every n-th I-frame as IDR allows you to
mark every n-th I-picture as IDR.
The Fixed I-frame distance means that there is always an I-frame at the multiple of a GOP length.
So e.g. when the GOP length is 30, you can set an I-frame at a scene cut this way.
The B-frame settings sections offers several options:
Allow adaptive B-frame placement allows the user to specify even B-slices as reference.
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Allow pyramidal structure for B-frames allows the usage of pyramid B-pictures coding. For
example when encoding 3 B-frames, such as IbBbP, B will be encoded before b, and B will be used
as reference for both b pictures.
Number of B-frames specifies the number of B-frames between consecutive I- and P-frames.
When the B-frames as reference frames checkbox is enabled you can specify in what intervals a
reference frame appears (P-frames). Under Baseline there are no B-frames.
Under Motion Estimation you find the following options:
Under Macroblock search block size you specify the search mode for the macroblocks. In these
areas the encoder predicts inter-coded macroblocks in P-slices. The inter-prediction creates a
prediction model from previously encoded frames. It can be combination of the following flags: 8x8
and 16x16.
The drop-down menu Subpixel search depth enables you to choose the subpixel motion search
depth. Full means that only the full pixel position will be examined. When choosing Half, only half-
pixels positions will be added to the search. Quarter means that both half and quarter pixel
positions will be added.
Using the spinbox Reference Frames you specify the maximum number of reference frames you
want to search for, in order to encode a picture. The value range is 1 .. 128.
Motion vector search range specifies the motion vector range from a spatial point of view.
Weighted Prediction for P-frames can be used supplementary to motion compensation and
reference picture selection for prediction of the current picture content. When Weighted Prediction
in P-slices is utilized, customized weights can be applied as scaling and offset to the motion-
compensated prediction parameter before its usage as a predictor for the current picture samples. It
can be very useful for fading scenes. You can enable the option with On or turn it off by setting it to
Off.
Enable Fast multi-reference frame search offers a heuristic search mode which is significantly
quicker, but can result in a loss of quality. Disabling the checkbox offers a greedy search mode. It is
slower, but can result in better quality.
Enable Fast sub-block search offers a heuristic search mode which is significantly quicker, but
can result in a loss of quality. If it is disabled a greedy search mode is used. It is slower, but can
result in better quality.
Under Miscellaneous you find the following options:
The Deblocking Filter option enables you turn on and off the deblocking filter for smoothing video
frames. Ticking the option enables the deblocking filter.
Entropy coding mode allows you specify this mode. The CABAC option is only available for the
Main and High profile. CABAC is the abbreviation of Context-Based Adaptive Binary Arithmetic
Coding. Using this option only binary decisions are encoded. A non-binary item is binarized or
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converted into binary code. When CABAC is disabled the encoder automatically switches to
CAVLC (Context-Adaptive Variable Length Coding). In general, we recommend to use the CABAC
option, if it is available. Although it is slower, it offers a higher compression and much better quality
than CAVLC.
Threads specifies the number of threads to be used during encoding. Auto mode will automatically
find the optimum number of threads, 1 means single threaded encoding, more threads will use more
CPUs/cores.
Slices per picture specifies the number of slices that should be used per picture.


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The Advanced MVC Encoder Interfaces
The advanced windows for TotalCode Studio MVC are similar to TotalCode Studio H.264/AVC, but
offer an additional pane: Basic Settings, Advanced Settings, and Views. Some options are only
available when certain parameters are in effect.
The Basic Settings pane
In this dialog you specify different basic video settings for Video Format, and Bitrate.
The drop-down menu Video Preset shows the
current encoding preset for H.264/AVC. There are a
few differences between the options we like to
explain to you briefly. Using H.264 Baseline the
encoder does not use B-slices. For the Baseline
profile only progressive and for coding mode only
CAVLC are available. The H.264 Main profile
enables you to use B-slices and CABAC as coding
mode, too.
Under Video Format you find the following options:
The spin boxes under Resolution are disabled
here, because you can specify the desired
resolution in a previous dialog.
The checkbox Keep Aspect Ratio you can only
change in the previous dialog, too. For that reason,
it is disabled here. The drop-down menu next to it
enables you to change the aspect ratio of the clip.
The Frame Rate drop-down menu is disabled
again, because you can define the appropriate
frame rate in one of the earlier dialogs.
Pixel aspect ratio allows you to choose one of the
predefined parameters here. When you select
Custom here, you have the opportunity to specify a
free value using the corresponding spinboxes that
are now available.
The drop-down menu Picture Structure currently
only offers Frame coding (Progressive). In
Progressive mode the video is encoded frame-based, i.e. frames will be saved which include field
information. These will be used to combine the individual fields to one frame. Using this method the
temporal aspect of the fields is considered, i.e. whether the top field or the bottom field is saved
first.
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Field Order specifies the field order of the video. The available options are Top Field First, and
Bottom Field First.
The parameters under Pulldown convert 23.976 fps (frames per second) to 29.97 fps, or 24 fps to
30 fps, and it is supposed to be done only on progressive frame video (like film). The movie studios
slow their films from 24 fps to 23.987 and then encode using pulldown to display at 29.97 fps. The
video encoder manipulates the Top Field First (tff) and Repeat First Field (rff) flags to convert 4
frames (8 fields) to 5 frames (10 fields) like this:
(T = top field, B = bottom field)
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
frame 2: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 4: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
So you get the sequence of fields: TB TBT BT BTB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB TB. The
above would be considered 2:3 pulldown as it is 2 fields, 3 fields, 2 fields etc.
3:2 is the reverse:
frame 1: tff = 1, rff = 1 fields displayed: TBT
frame 2: tff = 0, rff = 0 fields displayed: BT
frame 3: tff = 0, rff = 1 fields displayed: BTB
frame 4: tff = 1, rff = 0 fields displayed: TB
In this case you get the sequence of fields: TBT BT BTB TB or grouped as frames: TB TB TB TB
TB.
In most cases the H.264/AVC Encoder adjusts the necessary settings automatically, so that the
Pulldown option remains disabled.

The drop-down menu Chroma Format allows you to specify the chrominance sampling. Available
parameters are 4:0:0, 4:2:0, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4. The latter is currently not supported.
Bit-depth Luma specifies the bit depth of the encoded luminance samples. Available values are 8
bits and 10 bits. The 10 bits value is only available for High 10 profile and higher.
Bit-depth Chroma specifies the bit depth of the encoded chrominance samples. Available values
are 8 bits and 10 bits. The 10 bits value is only available for High 10 profile and higher.
In the black field of the dialog, the encoder shows possible errors which might be caused by wrong
settings, because some parameters are not allowed in a specific combination.
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The Bitrate area offers the following options:
The drop-down menu Bitrate Mode offers four options: Constant Bitrate offers a fixed bitrate (the
relevant input prompt will be enabled if selected). Choosing Variable Bitrate option defines the
maximum value of the bitrate range the encoder should stay within while encoding. The average
value is the desired average bitrate of the video stream. The relevant input prompts will be enabled
if selected. Const. Quality - Constant Quantization is the third option. It offers quantization
parameters for the different slice types (I, P and B). Using this function, the bitrate can vary without
any limitation in contrast to VBR and CBR mode. A lower value for any slice quantization parameter
will result in better quality. The value range is between 1 and 52. The last option is Const. Quality -
Average Quantization. It is similar to the previous option, but the encoder will use an average
quantizer instead of a constant one.
Under Target Bitrate (bps) you define a fixed average bitrate for the encoding process (in bits per
second). The Main profile offers a higher quality here. It is only available for Variable Bitrate.
The Max Bitrate (bps) input prompt is only available in VBR mode (in bits per second). Here you
specify the maximum bitrate for the encoder, it should not exceed.
Under Buffers you have different options on how to specify the corresponding values:
Under Units you see three checkboxes that specify how the different buffer values should be
calculated and displayed. Depending on the option they can be set in bytes, percent, bits, etc.
Bitrate buffer specifies the size of the virtual buffer verifier in bytes or bits. This value should be
adjusted to bitrate (Constant Bitrate) or to maximum bitrate (Variable Bitrate), to avoid DTS/PTS
underflows during muxing.
VBV buffer initial specifies the initial state of the HRD buffer in percent, bits or 90 kHz clock.
VBV buffer target specifies the target state of the HRD buffer in percent, bits or 90 kHz clock.
The checkbox HRD conformance controls applying HRD conformance in the encoder. In most
cases it is recommended to disable this parameter whenever possible. However, some video
formats may require HRD conformance, such as Blu-ray, Sony PSP, Apple iPod, etc. For general or
custom presets, it is always disabled.

Depending on the Bitrate Mode, the following settings can differ:
Maximum I-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each I-
frame.
Maximum P-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each P-
frame.
Maximum B-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each B-
frame.
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Maximum Br-frame size defines a value which limits the maximum number of frame bits for each
B-frame used as reference.
Quantizer I-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for I-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Quantizer P-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for P-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Quantizer B-frames specifies the macroblock quantization value for B-slices, that are used in
constant quality/quantization mode. The value range is 0 - 51.
Maximum Quantizer defines the maximum quantization parameter that should be used. The value
range is 0 - 51.
Mainimum Quantizer defines the minimum quantization parameter that should be used. The value
range is 0 - 51.


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The Advanced Settings Pane
The Advanced Settings pane offers settings for adjusting the Profile and Level. Moreover, you
find several options for the GOP Structure, Motion Estimation, Rate Distortion and a section for
Miscellaneous options here.
The drop-down menu Profile enables you to
change the H.264 profile if necessary. The available
options are Baseline, Main and High.
The parameters under Level define the limits for the
settings. A higher level results in more available
settings. The H.264 spec (specification) allows for a
large number of variations in the settings, e.g. the
frame resolution can theoretically be as large as 2
14

x 2
14
. The Profile and Level just set limits on what
the values of some of the other settings can be.
Under GOP Structure you find several checkboxes:
Ticking the checkbox Enable scene detection
activates the visual content scene detection (vcsd)
that can be used for getting better quality on scene
changes.

The I-frame settings sections offers several
options:
I-frame interval specifies the number of frames
between I-frames or the number of frames in a
GOP. If this value is 1 only I-frames are generated.
Min. I-frame distance specifies the minimum GOP
length, i.e. the difference to the previous I-frame.
Mark every n-th I-frame as IDR allows you to mark
every n-th I-picture as IDR.
The Fixed I-frame distance means that there is
always an I-frame at the multiple of a GOP length.
So e.g. when the GOP length is 30, you can set an
I-frame at a scene cut this way.

The B-frame settings sections offers several options:
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Allow adaptive B-frame placement allows the user to specify even B-slices as reference.
Allow pyramidal structure for B-frames allows the usage of pyramid B-pictures coding. For
example when encoding 3 B-frames, such as IbBbP, B will be encoded before b, and B will be used
as reference for both b pictures.
Number of B-frames specifies the number of B-frames between consecutive I- and P-frames.
When the B-frames as reference frames checkbox is enabled you can specify in what intervals a
reference frame appears (P-frames). Under Baseline there are no B-frames.

Under Motion Estimation you find the following options:
Under Macroblock search block size you specify the search mode for the macroblocks. In these
areas the encoder predicts inter-coded macroblocks in P-slices. The inter-prediction creates a
prediction model from previously encoded frames. It can be combination of the following flags: 8x8
and 16x16.
The drop-down menu Subpixel search depth enables you to choose the subpixel motion search
depth. Full means that only the full pixel position will be examined. When choosing Half, only half-
pixels positions will be added to the search. Quarter means that both half and quarter pixel
positions will be added.
Using the spinbox Reference Frames you specify the maximum number of reference frames you
want to search for, in order to encode a picture. The value range is 1 .. 128.
Motion vector search range specifies the motion vector range from a spatial point of view.
Weighted Prediction for P-frames can be used supplementary to motion compensation and
reference picture selection for prediction of the current picture content. When Weighted Prediction
in P-slices is utilized, customized weights can be applied as scaling and offset to the motion-
compensated prediction parameter before its usage as a predictor for the current picture samples. It
can be very useful for fading scenes. You can enable the option with On or turn it off by setting it to
Off.
Enable Fast multi-reference frame search offers a heuristic search mode which is significantly
quicker, but can result in a loss of quality. Disabling the checkbox offers a greedy search mode. It is
slower, but can result in better quality.
Enable Fast sub-block search offers a heuristic search mode which is significantly quicker, but
can result in a loss of quality. If it is disabled a greedy search mode is used. It is slower, but can
result in better quality.
Under Rate Distortion you find the following options:
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The checkbox Fast Intra Decisions allows the encoder to use fast intra coding decision metrics, in
order to speed up the encoding process. This option can slightly decrease picture quality, but will
result in a significant speed improvement.
The checkbox Fast Inter Decisions allows encoder to use fast inter coding decision metrics, in
order to speed up the encoding process. This result can be a decrease in picture quality, but at the
same time it leads to some speed improvement.
The Simplified RD Optimization checkbox allows you to enable the optimization for rate distortion.
The rate distortion specifies the trade-off between quality and bitrate. If the checkbox is enabled is a
heuristic rate distortion optimization mode is used which is significantly quicker, but can result in a
loss of quality. If it is disabled a greedy optimization mode is used. It is slower, but can result in
better quality.
The Hadamard transformation option enables and disables the Hadamard Transformation. This is
an optimized cosine transformation. Activating the option, the clip will be encoded in better quality,
and it will have a smaller file size.
Under Adaptive quantization you find several sliders:
When using Brightness based macroblock-adaptive quantization the macroblock quantization
scale depends on the average brightness level. 0 means that the option is not used. Positive values
denote coarser quantization for macroblocks with brightness higher than the average value for the
current picture.
When using Contrast based macroblock-adaptive quantization the macroblock quantization scale
depends on the contrast level. 0 means that the option is not used. Positive values denote coarser
quantization for macroblocks with contrast higher than the average value for the current picture.
When using Complexity based macroblock-adaptive quantization the macroblock quantization
scale depends on the complexity level. 0 means that the option is not used. Positive values denote
coarser quantization for macroblocks with complexity higher than the average value for the current
picture.

Under Miscellaneous you find the following options:
The Deblocking Filter option enables you turn on and off the deblocking filter for smoothing video
frames. Ticking the option enables the deblocking filter.
Entropy coding mode allows you specify this mode. The CABAC option is only available for the
Main and High profile. CABAC is the abbreviation of Context-Based Adaptive Binary Arithmetic
Coding. Using this option only binary decisions are encoded. A non-binary item is binarized or
converted into binary code. When CABAC is disabled the encoder automatically switches to
CAVLC (Context-Adaptive Variable Length Coding). In general, we recommend to use the CABAC
option, if it is available. Although it is slower, it offers a higher compression and much better quality
than CAVLC.
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Threads specifies the number of threads to be used during encoding. Auto mode will automatically
find the optimum number of threads, 1 means single threaded encoding, more threads will use more
CPUs/cores.
Slices per picture specifies the number of slices that should be used per picture.

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The Views Pane
The Views pane offers some specific MVC settings that define the number as well as the
parameters of the individual views.
Number of additional views specifies the total
number of views. The current TotalCode Studio
MVC version supports three views only.
Split views enables you to create two streams, i.e.
one for each view (left and right). If the checkbox is
disabled, TotalCode Studio MVC generates one
stream only that includes both base and dependent
view.


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The Advanced DivX Encoder Settings
In this dialog you specify different video settings for the DivX Encoder.
Under Profile you can specify the desired DivX preset again, such as DivX Mobile, DivX, Home
Theater, DivX HD 720p and DivX HD 1080. However, normally you have already chosen a preset
in the TotalCode Studio Export Settings window of DivX Elements before, but here can you select a
more specific profile.
The Basic Settings pane
In this dialog you specify different basic video settings for Video Format and Bitrate.
Under Preset you can specify the desired DivX
preset again, such as DivX Mobile, DivX, Home
Theater, DivX HD 720p and DivX HD 1080.
However, normally you have already chosen a
preset in the TotalCode Studio main window.
Under Video Format you find the following options:
The spin boxes under Resolution allow you to
specify the desired resolution.
The checkbox Keep Aspect Ratio allows you to
force the aspect ratio of a stream. The drop-down
menu next to it offers some predefined aspect ratios
for the clip.
The Frame Rate drop-down menu allows you to
define the appropriate frame rate.
Pixel aspect ratio allows you to choose one of the
predefined parameters here. When you select
Custom here, you have the opportunity to specify a
free value using the corresponding spinboxes that
are now available.
The drop-down menu Picture structure enables
you to define whether the transcoder should work in
Frame coding (Progressive Frame) or Field coding
(Interlaced Frame) mode. In interlaced mode, the video footage is encoded field-based, i.e. the
whole picture is saved, but no fields or field information will be used. In progressive mode the video
is encoded frame-based, i.e. frames will be saved which include field information. These will be
used to combine the individual fields to one frame. Using this method the temporal aspect of the
fields is considered, i.e. whether the top field or the bottom field is saved first.
Ticking the checkbox Deinterlace input applies the deinterlacing option to the input stream.
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The Bitrate section offers the following parameters:
The drop-down menu Bitrate Mode offers three options: Constant Bitrate offers a fixed bitrate (the
relevant input prompt will be enabled if selected). The relevant input prompts will be enabled if
selected. Constant Quality is an optimal quantizer (restricted with profile) for the specified quality.
It offers a quality level from 1-15. Constant Quantizer (strict VBV) is the last option. The quantizer
value set in the Quantizer field is used for I, P-VOPs. Quantizer + 1 is used for B-VOPs.
Under Target Bitrate (bps) you define a fixed average bitrate for the encoding process (in bits per
second). The Main profile offers a higher quality here. It is only available for Variable Bitrate.

The Max Bitrate (bps) input prompt is only available in VBR mode (in bits per second). Here you
specify the maximum bitrate for the encoder, it should not exceed.
VBV buffer (b) specifies the size of the virtual buffer verifier in bytes. This value should be adjusted
to bitrate (Constant Bitrate) or to maximum bitrate (Variable Bitrate), to avoid DTS/PTS underflows
during muxing. It controls the size of the buffers needed to encode the video. If it is too low, you will
get buffer overflows, which could show up as stuttering video. Software decoders usually ignore the
buffer sizes, but most hardware players will have problems if the buffer size is not correct.
VBV buffer initial specifies the initial state of the HRD buffer in percent, bits or 90 kHz clock.




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The Advanced Settings pane
The Advanced Settings pane offers settings for adjusting the Profile and Level. Moreover, you find
several options for the GOP Structure, Picture Coding Style and Motion Estimation here.
The drop-down menu Profile enables you to change
the DivX profile if necessary. The available options
are Simple and Advanced Simple.
The parameters under Level define the limits for the
settings. A higher level results in more available
settings. The Profile and Level just set limits on
what the values of some of the other settings can
be.
Under GOP Structure you find the following options:
Max. Inter frames is used to control the maximum
number of inter frames that can be encoded before
an intra frame is mandated. It is constrained by
1000000 value. The recommended maximum value
is 300.
Max. Bi-Dir. Frames allows the user to control the
maximum permissible number of consecutive bi-
directionally predicted video frames (B-frames).
Setting this parameter to zero guarantees that no
B-frames will be generated by the encoder.
Because the B-frame insertion algorithm is
adaptive, this parameter is a maximum constraint.
There is no guarantee that the specified number of
consecutive B-frames will occur in any particular
given video sequence. Possible values are 0, 1, 2,
3.
Under Picture Coding Style you find the following
options:
Quantization type specifies the type of
quantization. Selecting H.263, a basic H.263
quantization algorithm will be used. When choosing MPEG a basic MPEG quantization algorithm
will be used. The third option is H.263 PSNR, where a H.263 quantization algorithm optimized for
PSNR will be used.
Psychovisual specifies the psycho-visual enhancement algorithm that should be used by the
encoder. When choosing None (best PSNR), no psycho-visual enhancements will be performed by
the encoder. We recommend to selecting this mode for best PSNR values. Noise shaping selects
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the noise-shaping psycho-visual algorithm (fast). Noise masking offers a noise-masking psycho-
visual algorithm (slow).
Under Motion Estimation you find the following options:
The drop-down menu Sub pixel mode specifies the support of motion vectors with half-pixel
accuracy. The available options are Full pixel, Half pixel and Quarter pixel motion vectors.
Global Motion Compensation (GMC) controls whether or not the encoder generates a bitstream
that requires GMC at the decoder side.
Allow INTER4V controls whether or not the encoder is permitted to make use of the INTER4V
motion compensation mode. When the option is enabled, the encoder may use INTER4V, although
the actual use of INTER4V macroblocks depends on the video source and other encoder settings.





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The Advanced Audio Codec Interfaces
Depending on the installed TotalCode Studio codec plug-in, the application offers advanced audio
settings interfaces for the corresponding codec: MPEG, AAC, Dolby Digital Professional and Dolby
Digital Plus Pro. The advanced interface offers even more settings, primarily for professional users
in highly specialized environments.

The MPEG Audio Encoder Settings Window
This pane offers professional adjustments for MPEG audio export.
Under Preset you can select the appropriate audio preset you want to use for transcoding. This
option is normally specified in Audio tab of the main window, and therefore disabled.
The Audio Format section include the following
options and parameters:
Under Layer you can specify the adequate MPEG-1
audio layer:
MPEG-1 Layer 1: Normally not used
MPEG-1 Layer 2: Used for VCD, SVCD and PAL
DVD
The drop-down menu Mode offers the following
parameters:
Stereo: Standard stereo
Joint Stereo: This option can convert the sound to
mono in the lower frequency range (which can
hardly be perceived by the human ear). This results
in an enhancement of the stereo quality in the
median and higher frequency ranges. The setting is
useful if the audio bitrate is below 200 Kbps.
Dual Channel: In this case both audio channels are
output separately as mono channels; it is normally
used for two-channel sound. The compression of
the channels takes place separately.
Single Channel: Another expression for mono
audio.
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Bitrate (kbps): This specifies the bitrate of the audio stream. Depending on the MPEG type
selected, some values may not be available. Increasing the bitrate will yield better sound quality and
result in larger files, or if the total bitrate is limited it will mean less of the total bitrate is available for
the video.
There are two different Psychoacoustic models (Model 1 and Model 2) specified by the MPEG-1
audio spec to compute the "just noticeable noise-level".
Emphasis is a flag to the player whether emphasis is to be applied to all audio samples from the
start of the audio stream.

Set private bit: Just a spare bit in the audio headers, which is user defined. DVD specifies it shall
be 0.
Set copyright bit: Specifies whether the audio is copyrighted or not, this setting is completely
arbitrary; it has no effect whatsoever.
Set error protection bit: Specifies whether a CRC is embedded in each audio frame, both SVCD
and DVD specify enabled.
Set original bit: Specifies whether the audio is a copy or an original, this setting is completely
arbitrary; it has no effect whatsoever.


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The LPCM Audio Encoder Settings Window
This pane offers professional adjustments for LPCM audio export.
Under Preset you can select the appropriate audio preset you want to use for transcoding. It is
normally specified in the main windows Audio tab and therefore disabled.
The Audio Format section include the following
options and parameters:
Under Layer you can specify the adequate PCM
audio layer:
DVD (LPCM): For NTSC DVDs use LPCM (Linear
PCM) audio (or AC3) as the standard audio type
instead of MPEG Layer2. LPCM is an
uncompressed audio format, which offers higher
quality but it also uses far more of the total bitrate
(consequently less bitrate is available for the video
stream). PCM is only available for MPEG-2 type
streams, and is seldom used for PAL DVDs.
HDMV (LPCM): Used for AVCHD and Blu-ray
Discs.
AES3 (SMPTE 302M) is also a PCM format that is
used for MPEG transport streams only. You must
choose AES3 (SMPTE 382M) when you want to
mux (optional) DVCPRO HD MXF files. The number
in brackets defines the SMPTE spec. AES3
(SMPTE 331M) is used for MPEG-2 MXF files that
are compliant with Sony XDCAM HD camcorders
and decks. AES is the abbreviation for Audio
Engineering Society.
Under Mode you specify the number of output
channels. The value range is 1 - 8.
Bits per channel specifies number of bits per sample: 16 bit, 20 bit or 24 bit.
Emphasis describes the state of emphasize the decoder should use. This is only a flag for the
decoder, it does not affect encoding at all.
Mute flag: Flag to the player whether to mute or not when all samples in an audio frame are zero.
Dynamic range control is a recommended gain value which can be applied to all audio samples
decoded from the first access unit. The setting does not affect the encoding of the audio at all. It is
simply a value decoders may use when playing the audio. The Gain (dB) value (X and Y) is a
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recommended gain value to be applied to all audio samples by the player, where: Gain = 24.082 -
6.0206 * X - 0.2007 * Y.
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The AAC Encoder Settings Window
This pane offers professional adjustments for AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) export. The demo
version of TotalCode Studio has an AAC audio encoding limitation of 30 seconds, i.e. the audio
conversion process stops after this period of time.
AAC Type specifies if High Efficiency (HE) should
be used for converting a file. Low Complexity does
not enable High Efficiency at all and the low
complexity audio object type is used. High
Efficiency ver.1 (SBR) uses HE v1 for encoding and
implicitly signals this in the bitstream. High
Efficiency ver.2 (SBR and PS) uses HE v1 for
encoding and implicitly signals this in the bitstream.
Please see also the Appendix for details when HE-
AAC can be used.
The Bitrate control field offers two options:
Under Mode you specify whether TotalCode Studio
should use Constant or Variable bitrate mode.
Moreover, you can define the target quality level for
the variable bitrate mode by selecting the adequate
parameter.
The drop-down Target bitrate (kbps) enables you to
set the appropriate constant audio bitrate. The
default value is 160000.
Using the Header function you can specify the
header type you want to use for encoding. The
available options are none, ADTS (Audio Data
Transport Stream) or LATM.
The High frequency cut-off checkboxes and input
prompt define the cut-off frequency value in Hertz.
The Default option specifies the default value for
given sampling frequency. When you choose Not
cut-off, the cut-off frequency is not used and all frequencies are kept. The Custom option enables
the Cut-off frequency spinbox, so you can manually define a value that removes all frequencies
above the specified frequency.
MPEG version allows you to set the output format: MPEG-4 (ISO/IEC 14496-3) or MPEG-2
(ISO/IEC 13818-7).
The Enable CRC checkbox in the Protection field specifies whether the audio stream contains
CRC protection (enabled) or not (disabled).
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The Dolby Digital Professional Encoder Settings Window
This pane offers many settings for Dolby Digital Professional export. It is the sound for DVDs
worldwide, found in DVD players, broadcasted HDTV channels, IPTV solutions, etc. The AC-3
standard is based on the ATSC A52 Revision B specification.
Sample rate displays the current sample
rate which can be specified in the Audio
tab in the main window of TotalCode
Studio.
Input channels displays the source files
number of channels.
Output channel configuration specifies
the number of channels and how they
are distributed.
Input-output channel mapping enables
you to distribute the channels differently.
You can choose on of the presets in the
drop-down menu or choose Custom to
distribute the channels on your own.
Simply select the corresponding channel,
right-click it and select the desired option
from the list.
Bitrate (bps) defines the bitrate that
should be used for encoding (in bits per
second).
Bitstream mode specifies the audio
service embedded in the bitstream.
Dialog normalization specifies the dialog normalization. It allows you keep a constant volume in
the center speaker throughout a complete movie, so you can also rise or lower the audio level.

On the right side of the Dolby Digital Professional window, you see three different tabs:
Preprocessing, Bitstream info and Mixing.
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The Preprocessing tab offers the following options:
Under Input filtering you find several checkboxes that
perform the following functions:
Digital deemphasis decreases the higher frequencies to
improve the overall signal-to-noise ratio
DC filter applies a DC-blocking 3 Hz highpass to the input
channels.
Bandwidth filter provides low frequency signals, but
reduces the signals with higher frequencies than the cutoff
frequency.
LFE lowpass filter applies a 120 Hz eight-order lowpass
filter to the LFE input channels. This option is only
available when the LFE (subwoofer) channel is enabled.

Under Surround channel processing you find
checkboxes that perform the following functions:
90 degree phase shift specifies if a 90 degree phase shift
is applied to the surround channels.
3 db attenuation specifies if a 3 dB attenuation is applied
to the surround channels.

Under Dynamic range compression you find two drop-
down menus:
Line mode compression allows you to choose the appropriate line mode dynamic range
compression profile.
Rf mode compression allows you to choose the appropriate RF compression profile. In this case
high-level and low-level compression is not allowed.


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The Bitstream info tab offers the following options:
Under Audio production information you find several options:
A/D converter (analog-to-digital converter) provides audio
that has gone through a specific A/D conversion. Standard
simply uses the default conversion. HDCD (High-Definition
Compatible Digital) improves the audio quality of standard
CDs.
The Mixing level/Room type checkbox enables the
corresponding options.
Mixing level specifies the audio production mixing level. It
controls the peak Sound Pressure Level (SPL) that is used
during the mixing process.
Room type specifies the audio production room type. It
controls the equalization that is applied during the final
stage of mixing. Large defines a dubbing stage with
standard X-curve equalization. Small room offers a flat
equalization. Not indicated does not care about the Room
Type.

Under Metadata you find several options:
The drop-down menu Dolby Headphone mode to enable
and disable this mode for special headphones supporting
this feature. Not indicated does not care about this mode.
The checkbox Original material specifies whether the
audio material is original or a copy.
The checkbox Copyright material specifies whether the audio material is copyright protected or
not.



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The Mixing tab offers the following options:
Under Levels you find several options that perform the
following functions:
Center mix level (Lt/Rt) specifies Lt/Rt center mix level.
Center mix level (Lo/Ro) specifies Lo/Ro center mix level.
Surround mix level (Lt/Rt) specifies Lt/Rt surround mix
level.
Surround mix level (Lo/Ro) specifies Lo/Ro surround mix
level.

Under Metadata you find several options that perform the
following functions:
The drop-down menu Dolby Surround mode indicates to
a Dolby Pro Logic decoder whether or not the stereo
encoded bitstream includes a Dolby Surround (Lt/Rt)
program that requires Pro Logic decoding. Disabled
includes information which will not be encoded in Dolby
Surround. Enabled contains data which was encoded in
Dolby Surround. The bitstream can be decoded using
Dolby Pro Logic. Not indicated does not care about the
Dolby Surround mode.
The drop-down menu Dolby Surround EX specifies
whether audio should be encoded in Surround EX
(Enabled) or not (Disabled). The option can only be used
when the audio has two surround channels. Not indicated does not care about Dolby Surround
EX.
The drop-down menu Preferred downmix specifies whether the encoder should apply a Lt/Rt or
Lo/Ro downmix to the output stream. This is very useful for 5.1-channel soundtracks to play in
Lo/Ro mode. None means that no downmix should be performed. Lt/Rt performs a Lt/Rt downmix,
and Lo/Ro performs a Lo/Ro downmix.

NOTE: The demo version of TotalCode Studio has an Dolby Digital Professional audio encoding
limitation of 30 seconds, i.e. the audio conversion process stops after this period of time.


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The Dolby Digital Plus Pro Encoder Settings Window
This pane offers many settings for Dolby Digital Plus Pro export. This standard is also known as E-
AC-3. Dolby Digital Plus Pro is the sound for DVDs successor Blu-ray Disc as well as for HDDVD.
It offers a significant better quality in comparison to a similar bitrate when using other Dolby Digital
technologies. It is the upcoming standard for broadcasted HDTV channels, IPTV solutions, A/V
system support etc. It will be one of the major standards for satellite, cable and broadcast content
delivery in the near future.
Although Dolby Digital Plus Pro is a
relatively new standard, the underlying
base is the ATSC A52 Revision B
specification. It is backward compliant to
other Dolby Digital decoders.
The demo version of TotalCode Studio has
an Dolby Digital Plus Pro audio encoding
limitation of 30 seconds, i.e. the audio
conversion process stops after this period
of time.

Sample rate displays the current sample
rate which can be specified in the Audio tab
in the main window of TotalCode Studio.
The checkbox 2x sample rate specifies if
the audio was sampled at the indicated rate
or twice the indicated rate.
Input channels displays the source files
number of channels.
The drop-down menu Output type
specifies the encoder mode for creating
compliant audio streams. The following parameters are available: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby
Digital, Dolby Digital Plus / HDDVD, and Dolby Digital / Blu-Ray.
Output channel configuration specifies the number of channels and how they are distributed.
Input-output channel mapping enables you to distribute the channels differently. You can choose
on of the presets in the drop-down menu or choose Custom to distribute the channels on your own.
Simply select the corresponding channel, right-click it and select the desired option from the list.
Bitrate (bps) defines the bitrate that should be used for encoding (in bits per second).
Bitstream mode specifies the audio service embedded in the bitstream.
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Dialog normalization specifies the dialog normalization. It allows you keep a constant volume in
the center speaker throughout a complete movie, so you can also rise or lower the audio level.

On the right side of the Dolby Digital Plus Pro window, you see three different tabs: Preprocessing,
Bitstream info and Mixing.
The Preprocessing tab offers the following options:
Under Input filtering you find several checkboxes that
perform the following functions:
Digital deemphasis decreases the higher frequencies to
improve the overall signal-to-noise ratio
DC filter applies a DC-blocking 3 Hz highpass to the input
channels.
Bandwidth filter provides low frequency signals, but
reduces the signals with higher frequencies than the
cutoff frequency.
LFE lowpass filter applies a 120 Hz eight-order lowpass
filter to the LFE input channels. This option is only
available when the LFE (subwoofer) channel is enabled.

Under Surround channel processing you find
checkboxes that perform the following functions:
90 degree phase shift specifies if a 90 degree phase
shift is applied to the surround channels.
3 db attenuation specifies if a 3 dB attenuation is applied
to the surround channels.

Under Dynamic range compression you find two drop-
down menus:
Line mode compression allows you to choose the
appropriate line mode dynamic range compression profile.
Rf mode compression allows you to choose the appropriate RF compression profile. In this case
high-level and low-level compression is not allowed.

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The Bitstream info tab offers the following options:
Under Bitstream type you find several options:
Stream type specifies the bitstream type (Independent or
Dependent).
Substream ID specifies if the alternate bitstream syntax is
used. The value range is 0 - 7.

Under Audio production information you find several
options:
A/D converter (analog-to-digital converter) provides audio
that has gone through a specific A/D conversion.
Standard simply uses the default conversion. HDCD
(High-Definition Compatible Digital) improves the audio
quality of standard CDs.
The Mixing level/Room type checkbox enables the
corresponding options.
Mixing level specifies the audio production mixing level. It
controls the peak Sound Pressure Level (SPL) that is
used during the mixing process.
Room type specifies the audio production room type. It
controls the equalization that is applied during the final
stage of mixing. Large defines a dubbing stage with
standard X-curve equalization. Small room offers a flat
equalization. Not indicated does not care about the
Room Type.


Under Metadata you find several options:
The drop-down menu Dolby Headphone mode to enable and disable this mode for special
headphones supporting this feature. Not indicated does not care about this mode.
The checkbox Original material specifies whether the audio material is original or a copy.
The checkbox Copyright material specifies whether the audio material is copyright protected or
not.

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The Mixing tab offers the following options:
Under Levels you find several options that perform the
following functions:
Center mix level (Lt/Rt) specifies Lt/Rt center mix level.
Center mix level (Lo/Ro) specifies Lo/Ro center mix
level.
Surround mix level (Lt/Rt) specifies Lt/Rt surround mix
level.
Surround mix level (Lo/Ro) specifies Lo/Ro surround
mix level.

Under Metadata you find several options that perform the
following functions:
The drop-down menu Dolby Surround mode indicates to
a Dolby Pro Logic decoder whether or not the stereo
encoded bitstream includes a Dolby Surround (Lt/Rt)
program that requires Pro Logic decoding. Disabled
includes information which will not be encoded in Dolby
Surround. Enabled contains data which was encoded in
Dolby Surround. The bitstream can be decoded using
Dolby Pro Logic. Not indicated does not care about the
Dolby Surround mode.
The drop-down menu Dolby Surround EX specifies
whether audio should be encoded in Surround EX
(Enabled) or not (Disabled). The option can only be used
when the audio has two surround channels. Not
indicated does not care about Dolby Surround EX.
The drop-down menu Preferred downmix specifies whether the encoder should apply a Lt/Rt or
Lo/Ro downmix to the output stream. This is very useful for 5.1-channel soundtracks to play in
Lo/Ro mode. None means that no downmix should be performed. Lt/Rt performs a Lt/Rt downmix,
and Lo/Ro performs a Lo/Ro downmix.



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The Advanced Multiplexer Interfaces
Depending on the installed TotalCode Studio codec plug-in, the application offers advanced
multiplexer settings interfaces for the corresponding codec: MPEG and MP4. The advanced
interface offers even more settings, primarily for professional users in highly specialized
environments.
The MPEG Multiplexer Settings Window
In this pane you can control whether your exported
MPEG files will be multiplexed (also referred to as
muxed). Multiplexed output means that the video
and audio are exported in a single file. This pane
also offers some more professional settings for
muxing. It is divided in several sections: General
Options, Delay Options, Pack Options and Video
Options. In general, the basic settings for this pane
and the other advanced panes are set by the
options in the Output format section of the main
window.
Under Preset you find the appropriate multiplexing
file format for your transcoding aim. The drop-down
menu offers the options MPEG-1, VCD, MPEG-2,
SVCD, DVD, TS (transport stream), Cable Labs,
None and many more parameters, such as HDV
HD1, HDV HD2, DVB (which can also be used for
transport streams), and MircoMV. The settings are
usually defined by the parameters of the MPEG
Encoder.

The General Options section offer the following
settings:
VBR muxing: This option sets the muxing mode to
variable or constant bitrate. If it is turned off
(constant bitrate), the output data stream will
contain padding packets (if needed) to maintain the
constant bitrate. In variable bitrate muxing no
padding packets are added.
Align Sequence Headers: When enabled, the
sequence headers present in the video stream are
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placed at the beginning of a PES packet, this makes it easier to find the sequence headers and the
start of a GOP. When a sequence header is aligned, it is possible that the previous video PES
packet will need to be padded to make it the correct size, so this option can consume a little of the
total bitrate. This option is required for SVCD and DVD.
Write Program End Code: When enabled, sequence and program end codes are written to the old
file when switching to a new file. If the files are meant to be played one after another, the streams
should not be terminated. This option only applies to the files that are split; it does not apply to the
last (or only) file generated.
Pad VCD Audio: Some VCD burning programs require this flag to be set and some do not. VCD
video packs are 2324 bytes long, but the audio packs are only 2304 bytes long. When the data is
written to a VCD disk, the audio packs are put in normal 2324 byte sectors. Some VCD burning
programs deal with the extra 20 bytes themselves, while others require the extra 20 bytes to be
present. When this setting is enabled, the audio packs are padded with 20 zero bytes so they are
2324 bytes long, if not enabled the audio packs are only 2304 bytes long. This setting is only
meaningful for VCD.
Add SVCD scan offset: SVCD defines some navigation information that is put into the video
stream to help players jump back and forth or skip ahead easily. The info is called scan offsets, this
option is normally required for SVCD. This option also consumes a little of the video bitrate. Note:
this option will be ignored if the user mux rate is set higher than allowed for SVCD.

The Delay Options section offer the following settings:
The Sector Delay (ms) value specifies the starting timecode of the muxed stream (this can be
different than the starting timecode of the video stream). It is the starting SCR (= System Clock
Reference) in ms of the program stream. The Video Delay (ms) and Audio Delay (ms) delays are
respective to the Sector Delay.
For example, if you set the Sector Delay to 500 ms, and the Video Delay as well as the Audio
Delay to 300 ms, the first SCR of the stream would be 500 ms, and the first video and audio PTS (=
Presentation Timestamps) would be 800 ms.
If you make the Sector Delay five seconds (5000 ms) and the Audio/Video delays 400 ms the first
SCR would be 5000 ms and the first audio/video PTS would be 5400 ms.
The Video and Audio delays actually specify the starting time of the respective stream (relative to
the pack delay). If these settings do not match, the streams will start at different times. Normally
they are the same, but say you have a video stream and an audio stream where you know the
audio actually starts 500 ms after the video, you would set the video delay to some value and set
the Audio Delay to Video Delay + 500, this would then synchronize the two streams when played.
For example, if you specify the Sector Delay as 0 ms (the normal case), the Video Delay as 200
ms and the Audio Delay as 300 ms, the first SCR will be 0, the first video PTS would be 200 ms
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and the first audio PTS would be 300 ms. This would shift the audio/video synchronization, so the
audio is 100 ms behind the video.

The Pack Options section offer the following settings:
Under this heading you find the options Sector Size (bytes) and Packets per pack. Sector size is
the number of bytes in each pack (or sector); VCD and SVCD use 2324 bytes, DVD uses 2048 and
general MPEG-1/2 can use up to 4096 bytes (4096 is our limit, not MPEG's limit). The muxed
bitstream is broken up into these 'packs' with a pack header starting each one and they contain 1 or
more PES (= Program Elementary Stream) packets (chunks of the video or audio stream). The
Packets per pack setting specifies the number of PES packets that are placed in each pack. VCD,
SVCD and DVD always want 1 PES packet per pack.
The Mux Rate (kbps) is the total bitrate, i.e. video bitrate plus audio bitrate plus muxing overhead
bitrate. This option specifies the bitrate of the multiplexed program stream.
Extra packets (per sec) defines how many 0 packets are added to the Transport Stream.
The Video Options section offer the following settings:
Timestamps: You find All frames, Only I and P and Only I in this menu. Here you can choose
which frames in the stream have a timestamp attached. The timestamps are needed for
synchronization of video and audio. In general, it is enough to set this option to I Frame. For
particular formats the values are clearly defined.
Under Miscellaneous Options you find the following settings:
PCR Limit (ms) specifies the maximum time interval (in ms) before a new PCR is written. Set it to
0, so the multiplexer can compute a value. The specified value can be overwritten with the internally
assigned value for the output profiles which have strict limitations of PCR repetition rate.
PSI Limit (ms) specifies the maximum time interval (in ms) before a new PCR is written. Set to 0 to
have the multiplexer compute a value. The specified value can be overwritten with the internally
assigned value for the output profiles which have strict limitations of PCR repetition rate.
Network ID specifies the transport stream network ID.
Transport ID specifies the transport stream ID.




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The MP4 Multiplexer Settings Window
When you choose an H.264 preset and AAC in the main window, you can choose MP4 file format
under Muxer. Clicking the wrench button, opens the MP4 Muxer dialog, which offers the following
options:

Under Compatibility you specify the device or standard, for which the encoder shall produce MP4
compliant streams. Standard generates the normal MP4 file format. Ticking the checkbox Sony
PSP lets you produce MP4 streams, which are compliant with the Sony PlayStation Portable. Apple
iPod generates streams which can be played back on the latest Apple iPod generation. ISMA
generates MP4 file that meets the Internet Media Streaming Alliance (ISMA) requirements. QT
allows you to create streams that are compliant with the Apple QuickTime Player. XDCAM allows
you to create streams that are compliant with Sony XDCAM EX camcorders and devices.
Under Audio/Video interleave you find a spinbox which enables you to specify how many
audio/video frames are written one after the other. It the option set to 3, so the field on the right
displays: VVVAAAVVVAAA... etc. (Video, Video, Video, Audio, Audio, Audio etc.).
The option MP4 Atom ordering allows you to specify the appropriate atom order in the muxed file.
MDAT before MOOV writes the MDAT atom before the MOOV one. MOOV before MDAT does it
exactly the other way round. When the MOOV atom is before the MDAT one, the playback of the
file can be started before the actual stream is completely downloaded from its location on a server.
The Title (Sony PSP only) option is only available for the Sony PSP preset. It enables you to
define a name for the encoded clip, which is displayed on your Sony PlayStation Portable later on.


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The Elementary Stream Settings Window
The Elementary Stream Settings are available when you do not choose a muxing type, but want
to output video and/or audio elementary streams only.
Under Split video you find two options:
Ticking the checkbox Split video to frames
allows you to write each frame into a separate
image file. This option is useful where standalone
frames can be used, such as RAW export or
JPEG2000 DCI export. The latter enables you to
generate DCP (Digital Cinema Presentation)
compliant files.
Enabling the Compress raw frames to PNG
writes all RAW frames into separate PNG files.

Under Split audio you find one option:
Ticking the checkbox Split audio to channels allows you to write each audio channel into a
separate WAV file. This option is useful where WAV (RAW) audio output is required.


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Appendix
Raw File Import
TotalCode Studio offers a specific Raw File Import dialog for this kind of media. It only appears
when you try to open a streams, such as *.raw, *.rgb, *.yuv or similar, and if you have defined their
file extension before in the Import Modules section of the Modules dialog. When trying to load a
raw file, the dialog automatically appears on the screen.

In the General field you find different options:
The drop-down FourCC enables you to specify the appropriate color space of the raw video you
like to import.
Offset (bytes) defines the offset when the import module should start reading the file. This can be
useful if the clip has a header at the beginning which needs to be skipped.
Ticking the checkbox Upside down rotates the video 180 degrees.
Under Frame rate you set the frame rate of the raw input video.
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The Dimensions field offers several options on the resolution of the input clip:
The drop-down menu Common offers a list of presets with common resolutions for the raw input
media.
The slider under Width enables you to set the width manually. Alternatively, you can enter the
appropriate value in the input prompt at the end of the slider.
The slider under Height enables you to set the height manually. Alternatively, you can enter the
appropriate value in the input prompt at the end of the slider.

Under Interlaced video you specify whether the raw input is Progressive, Interlaced/top first or
Interlaced/bottom first. If necessary, you can define if the Input are fields by enabling the
corresponding checkbox.

The Info field displays some general information of the raw input video:
Total frames displays the overall number of frames in your raw video.
Duration shows the overall duration of the clip in h:m:s:ms.

The Preview frame slider enables you to preview the raw input clip before finally importing it into
TotalCode Studio. The current frame number is displayed at the end of the slider.

Click OK to start the import process by using the raw import module.
Click Cancel to abort without importing the file.
Click Other Importer when you want to try to import the media clip with another import module.



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HE-AAC Usage
High Efficiency AAC (HE v1 and HE v2) is allowed only for certain bitrates, while LC (Low
Complexity) has no limits regarding bitrates. Which bitrates are allowed for HE depends on the
number of channels and sampling frequency. See Table 1. for HE v1 bitrates and Table 2. for HE v2
bitrates.
Table 1: HE v1 allowed bitrates

sampling
frequency
number of
channels
minimum bitrate maximum bitrate
16000 1 10000 40000
22050 1 10000 48000
24000 1 10000 48000
32000 1 16000 56000
44100 1 16000 64000
48000 1 16000 64000
16000 2 16000 56000
22050 2 16000 64000
24000 2 16000 64000
32000 2 24000 80000
44100 2 32000 96000
48000 2 32000 96000
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16000 3 28000 80000
22050 3 28000 96000
24000 3 28000 96000
32000 3 48000 128000
44100 3 56000 128000
48000 3 56000 128000
16000 4 40000 112000
22050 4 40000 128000
24000 4 40000 128000
32000 4 64000 160000
44100 4 80000 192000
48000 4 80000 192000
16000 5 48000 128000
22050 5 48000 160000
24000 5 48000 160000
32000 5 80000 192000
44100 5 96000 224000
48000 5 96000 224000
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16000 6 48000 128000
22050 6 48000 160000
24000 6 48000 160000
32000 6 80000 192000
44100 6 96000 256000
48000 6 96000 256000


Table 2: HE v2 allowed bitrates

sampling
frequency
number of
channels
minimum bitrate maximum bitrate
16000 2 10000 40000
22050 2 10000 48000
24000 2 10000 48000
32000 2 16000 56000
44100 2 16000 64000
48000 2 16000 64000


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The TotalCode Studio Import Modules
For most of the Import Modules in TotalCode Studio, you can only change the priority and the file
extensions that should be supported by the specific importer. Some of the Import Modules offer
some additional options for loading files into TotalCode Studio. We will introduce these options in
the following paragraphs.

QuickTime Import Module
The QuickTime Import Module allows you to modify some MOV import settings for files that are
predominantly used on Mac OS X, but are also widespread under Windows.
Under Video import options you find some
features for Gamma correction. When working
with streams on Mac OS X, the gamma value
might differ depending on the operating system
you have (e.g. Leopard vs. Snow Leopard). The
result is that the colors are darker than they should
be. Using the slider you can specify the correct
gamma value for such streams, so that they do not
cause a color shift anymore. Clicking the Estimate
button allows calculating the gamma value
automatically. The Reset button sets all
parameters back to their default value.
The checkbox Join multiple mono streams into one
multichannel stream under Audio import options
allows you to mix the various mono channels into
multichannel audio stream.



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MPEG Import Module
The MPEG Import Module allows you to modify some import settings for MPEG streams.
The checkbox Remove top blanking from
imported XDCAM IMX files under Video import
options allows you skip the top 26 (or 32) lines of
the stream. The XDCAM IMX standard requires
that the top 26 lines be left black, and video starts
on line 27 for NTSC (for PAL 32 lines are black). In
this cases it makes sense when decoding such a
file to skip those top black lines since they are not
part of movie anyway.
The checkbox Join multiple mono streams into
one multichannel stream under Audio import
options allows you to mix the various mono
channels into multichannel audio stream.
The drop-down menu Preferred sample format is
required for AAC, because this audio format does
not have bits per sample. AAC uses floating point
internal representation. For that reason it cannot
be detected what format was used when encoding
AAC file from the file itself. So if you know that your
AAC file was encoded using 24-bit samples you
set 24 and vice versa. The available parameters are Default (i.e. import the audio as it is), as 16-bit
or as 24-bit.
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XDCAM Import Module
The XDCAM Import Module allows you to modify some MPEG import settings for Sony XDCAM
files.
The checkbox Join multiple mono streams into
one multichannel stream under Audio import
options allows you to mix the various mono
channels into multichannel audio stream.


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Technical Support
TotalCode Studio Support
If you want more information about TotalCode Studio, visit our website at www.mainconcept.com.
Visit the Support section for a variety of resources.
If you need additional assistance, the MainConcept Technical Support team is standing by to help.
Send an e-mail to [email protected], and well assist you as quickly as possible.


Thank you for choosing TotalCode Studio!