Custom configuration

When you custom configure Windows Media Encoder you must identify the bandwidth of the network you are using, the media that make up the ASF stream, the codecs that you use to make your media fit within the network bandwidth, and other details of the encoding process.

After you configure the encoder, click Start to begin streaming ASF information. However, if the Windows Media server is going to use the output from Windows Media Encoder, you must save the configuration as an .asd file. The .asd file contains all the settings and specifications for the ASF stream. To broadcast this ASF stream, make the .asd file available to the system administrator who is setting up the Windows Media server. In setting up the broadcast, the system administrator imports configuration data from the .asd file. When you create a configuration using a template stream format (TSF), the Windows Media component services are pre-configured with the setting and specifications of the ASF stream, so an .asd file is not required.

Note

• The custom configuration method is provided for advanced users and assumes detailed knowledge of bandwidth capacity, media settings, and codec usage. Windows Media Services can use a wide variety of audio and video codecs. We recommend the Windows Media Audio codec version 2 for audio content and Microsoft MPEG 4 version 3 for video content. The format bit rate that you select with the audio codec determines how much of your bandwidth is left for video content. If you increase the bandwidth you devote to your audio content, your audio quality will improve but will be offset by a decrease in video quality.