Crude Technologies

The download package includes:

• wvc1dmoe.dll - WMV9 Advanced Profile Encoder DMO BETA
• wvc1dmod.dll - WMV9 Advanced Profile Decoder DMO
• WMCmd.vbs - Updated WME9 command-line encoder script

Install requirements:

• Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 SP1
• Windows Media Format SDK 9.5 or Windows Media Player 10

As you can see, this release is aimed primarily at XP users who want to try the new WVC1 encoder beta but don't want to install the full WMP11 beta, and Server 2003 users who can't install WMP11 beta anyway. You can't install this update over WMP11 (XP or Vista) - nor do you want to. WVC1 encoder is already a part of WMF11 runtime.

The package also includes an update to WMCmd.vbs, the first since Windows Media Encoder 9 Series was released 3.5 years ago. The update to WMCmd.vbs will only be installed if you already have WME9 installed on your system! It will overwrite your existing WMCmd.vbs in your WME9 folder, so if you really really really want to keep the old one for some reason - make a backup of it prior to installation.

If you have already installed WMP11 beta and would only like to get the WMCmd.vbs update, I have made it available as a separate download:

http://www.citizeninsomniac.com/WMV/WMCmd_20060519.zip

So what's new about the WMCmd.vbs? Here's the changelog:

5-19-2006:

• Added support for WVC1 encoding (WMV9 Advanced Profile video codec).
• Added support for WMA10 Professional low-bitrate encoding and changed WMA codec identifiers to be version-agnostic (i.e. WMASTD instead of WMA9STD)
• Added command-line parameters for advanced video settings otherwise exposed only through the registry. For details, see: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/codecadvancedsettings.aspx
• Added support for Avisynth (.avs) script sources and worked around a related duration bug in the source plugin.
• Rewrote the encoding progress screen so that it estimates encoding time, ETA and encoding speed.
• Added command-line parameters for music centric metadata such as album, track number, release year, genre, etc.
• Added metadata summary to the output screen.
• Added documentation for the new advanced video settings to the inline help.
• Reorganized inline help documentation and grouped settings in a more intuitive way.
• Fixed bug where encoder script would sometimes hang at the end of encoding process.
• Improved error handling for bad source files.

Yep, the encoder script now supports .avs inputs. The truth of the matter is that it always did. You see, WME9 has a concept of source plugins which allows it to treat file inputs, screen captures and device captures in a very similar fashion. It uses its own AVI source plugin to read AVI files, and that plugin cannot retrieve the duration property from AVS scripts - for one reason or another. So the AVS workaround was to retrieve the duration using some other method. Wmcmd being VBScript based, it wasn't possible to use DirectShow or VfW, so I used the next best thing: WMP ActiveX control. So the first time you use WMCmd.vbs to encode an Avisynth script you might get a dialog box from WMP asking you if you're sure you want to open an .avs file in WMP. Just click the 'Don't ask me again' check box, say Yes, and you'll never be bothered by the question again. If for some reason the duration can't be retrieved again (i.e. XP with absolutely no WMP present), you'll still be able to encode - you just won't have the pretty progress bar to tell you how long you need to take the lunch break for. :)

Finally... If you have questions or comments regarding either this install package, this specific encoder DLL (wvc1dmoe.dll) or the updated WMCmd.vbs - please post them here. If you have comments and questions about WMV9 AP encoding in general, they might be better suited for this thread.