Producing Windows Media 9 streams in OS X?

[adriantoll]

Does anybody know a way of producing Window Media 9 streams on OSX? The only way I've found to produce WM so far is Discreet Cleaner 6, but that only exports WM7, and doesn't seem to allow allow multiple streams.

Real Networks have at least released a RealMedia 10 export plugin for OS X, which works with Final Cut, Premiere, iMovie, Avid, After Effects, and even Cleaner 6 for batch processing: http://www.realnetworks.com/products/realexport/specifications.html

If I want to produce any decent Windows Media content this means that I have to dig out my little Sony Vaio and produce the video on that if I want decent Windows Media content for my clients, which is incredibly time-consuming as it's much slower.

Will Discreet update Cleaner to incoporate WM9, or will Microsoft release an OSX version of Windows Media Encoder? You'd think that given the proportion of people in the "creative" industries who use a Mac it would make sense...

 

[crazzyeddie]

I think the reason M$ doesn't release the WMV codec for Mac is because its not a professional codec, which most Mac video producers are. Why don't you use DiVX? Its not streaming... but it sure beats the crap out of WMV. If you really want streaming, for $20 you can get Quicktime Pro to let you stream MPEG4, although its not as good as RealPlayer, IMO.

 

[adriantoll]

Yeah, if it was up to me I'd tell MS to go stick it where the sun don't shine and use RealMedia instead, but unfortunately my client wants me to use Windows Media instead. In terms of the kind of clients they're trying to reach I think they're probably right too - large companies with a locked-down IT system that is very unlikely to include Real or even QuickTime...

 

[slooksterPSV]

Ok, I tried doing a search for that, because I wanted to convert some files. No luck. If you have a PC you can get WMEncoder, that works well. Other than that, you're stuck. Oh, depending on how fast of a Mac you have, I'd get Virtual PC 6 or 7(7 if you have a PowerMac G5)

 

[scan300]

This may be a little late, but there is a new product coming in 4Q 2004 that will allow you to use your quicktime install to encode wmv.

It's called fip4mac and it can be found here:
http://www.wm4mac.com/wmv_mac.htm

A beta may be available sooner: here's a post from the company's CEO

"... yes the site is a bit brief, we will fix that over the next several weeks. We plan on releasing the WMV exporter by the end of Oct. and will have a beta available shortly. I will post to 2-pop when it's ready, hopefully we can enlist some help in testing. If you want to see some samples, open these links from WM9 player on the mac:

http://www.flip4mac.com/video/sfbayarea500.wmv
http://www.flip4mac.com/video/sfbayarea1300.wmv

these were exported directly from FCP to WMV9 using the SF Bay Area 720p24 HD sample footage (note: to play on the PC you need to download them first).

Regards, Shawn
CTO, Telestream"

 

[adriantoll]

This may be a little late, but there is a new product coming in 4Q 2004 that will allow you to use your quicktime install to encode wmv.

It's called flip4mac and it can be found here:
http://www.wm4mac.com/wmv_mac.htm

This looks great - exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for, and almost exactly the same as the RealMedia plugin. Thanks

The only thing it doesn't seem to do in the same way as the RealMedia plugin is produce multiple streams within the file, but perhaps WM9 does that automatically or something. I'll have a delve into it...