Avid ProEncode 1.0 User guide

a

tools for storytellers®

Avid

®

ProEncode

™

Setup and User’s Guide

Release 1.0

2

Copyright and Disclaimer

Product specifications are subject to change without notice and do not represent a commitment on the part of Avid Technology, Inc.

The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement. The software may not be reverse assembled and

may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the license agreement. It is against the law to copy the software on any

medium except as specifically allowed in the license agreement. Avid products or portions thereof are protected by one or more of

the following United States patents: 4,746,994; 4,970,663; 5,045,940; 5,063,448; 5,077,604; 5,245,432; 5,267,351; 5,309,528;

5,325,200; 5,355,450; 5,396,594; 5,440,348; 5,452,378; 5,467,288; 5,513,375; 5,528,310; 5,557,423; 5,568,275; 5,577,190;

5,583,496; 5,584,006; 5,627,765; 5,634,020; 5,640,601; 5,644,364; 5,654,737; 5,701,404; 5,715,018; 5,719,570; 5,724,605;

5,726,717; 5,729,673; 5,731,819; 5,745,637; 5,752,029; 5,754,180; 5,754,851; 5,781,188; 5,799,150; 5,812,216; 5,828,678;

5,842,014; 5,852,435; 5,883,670; 5,889,532; 5,892,507; 5,905,841; 5,912,675; 5,929,836; 5,929,942; 5,930,445; 5,930,797;

5,946,445; 5,966,134; 5,977,982; 5,986,584; 5,987,501; 5,995,079; 5,995,115; 5,999,190; 5,999,406; 6,009,507; 6,011,562;

6,014,150; 6,016,152; 6,016,380; 6,018,337; 6,023,531; 6,023,703; 6,031,529; 6,035,367; 6,038,573; 6,052,508; 6,058,236;

6,061,758; 6,072,796; 6,084,569; 6,091,422; 6,091,778; 6,105,083; 6,118,444; 6,128,001; 6,128,681; 6,130,676; 6,134,379;

6,134,607; 6,137,919; 6,141,007; 6,141,691; 6,157,929; 6,161,115; D352,278; D372,478; D373,778; D392,267; D392,268; D392,269;

D395,291; D396,853; D398,912. Additional U.S. and foreign patents pending. No part of this document may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, for any purpose without

the express written permission of Avid Technology, Inc.

Use of this product is subject to a software license agreement. You can obtain a copy of that license by visiting Avid's Web site at

www.avid.com. The terms of that license are also available in the product in the same directory as the software.

The following disclaimer is required by Apple Computer, Inc.

APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT,

INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE

EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

THIS WARRANTY PROVIDES YOU WITH SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. THERE MAY BE OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE WHICH

VARY FROM STATE TO STATE.

Attn. Government User(s). Restricted Rights Legend

U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS. This Software and its documentation are “commercial computer software” or “commercial

computer software documentation.” In the event that such Software or documentation is acquired by or on behalf of a unit or agency

of the U.S. Government, all rights with respect to this Software and documentation are subject to the terms of the License Agreement,

pursuant to FAR §12.212(a) and/or DFARS §227.7202-1(a), as applicable.

Trademarks

AirPlay, AudioVision, Avid, Avid Xpress, CamCutter, Digidesign, FieldPak, Film Composer, HIIP, Image Independence, Marquee,

Media Composer, Media Recorder, NewsCutter, OMF, OMF Interchange, Open Media Framework, Pro Tools, Softimage, and

tools for storytellers are registered trademarks and 888 I/O, AirSPACE, AirSPACE HD, AniMatte, AudioSuite, AutoSync, AVIDdrive,

AVIDdrive Towers, AvidNet, Avid Production Network, AvidProNet, AVIDstripe, Avid Unity, AVX, DAE, D-Fi, D-fx, D-Verb,

ExpertRender, FilmScribe, HyperSPACE, HyperSPACE HDCAM, Intraframe, iS9, iS18, iS23, iS36, Lo-Fi, Magic Mask, Matador, Maxim,

MCXpress, MEDIArray, MediaDock, MediaDock Shuttle, Media Fusion, Media Illusion, MediaLog, Media Reader, MediaShare,

Meridien, NaturalMatch, OMM, Open Media Management, ProEncode, QuietDrive, Recti-Fi, rS9, rS18, Sci-Fi, Sound Designer II,

SPACE, SPACEShift, Symphony, Vari-Fi, Video Slave Driver, and VideoSPACE are trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc.

3

Acrobat and Adobe are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Incorporated. Apple, Mac, Macintosh, and Power Macintosh are

trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries, and QuickTime is a trademark used under license

from Apple Computer, Inc. Media Cleaner is a registered trademark of Media 100 Inc. Netscape and the Netscape N and Ship's

Wheel logos are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Netscape

Navigator is also a trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation and may be registered outside the U.S. Pentium is a

registered trademark of Intel Corporation. RealSystem is a trademark of RealNetworks, Inc. Terran and Cleaner 5 are trademarks of

Terran Interactive, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media 100 Inc. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are registered trademarks

and Windows Media is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their

respective owners.

Footage

Saturn “Calvin Egg” — Courtesy of Cossette Communications.

Avid ProEncode Setup and User’s Guide • Part 0130-04737-01 Rev. A • April 2001

4

Contents

Using This Guide

Who Should Use This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

If You Need Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Related Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

If You Have Documentation Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

How to Order Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 1 ProEncode Overview

ProEncode Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Software Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

ProEncode Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

DMS Broker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

ProEncode Provider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

ProEncode Registration Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

DMS Administration Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Cleaner 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Configurations and Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Avid Unity MediaNet Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Network Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Local Area Network (LAN) Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Network Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

5

Encoding Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

QuickTime Reference Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Using Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter 2 Installing and Configuring ProEncode

Installation and Configuration Check List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Preparing the Network Environment for ProEncode . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Setting the Location of the Temporary File Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Sharing Folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Sharing Folders in an Avid Unity MediaNet Environment . 37

Sharing Folders in a LAN Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Attaching the Application Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Setting Up the DMS Broker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Installing the DMS Broker Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Configuring the DMS Broker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Setting Up the DMS Administration Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Setting Up an Encoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Installing and Configuring Cleaner 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Installing the ProEncode Provider Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Registering a ProEncode Provider with the DMS Broker . . . . . . 49

Configuring the ProEncode Provider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Setting Up a ProEncode Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Installing the ProEncode Client Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Configuring a ProEncode Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Checking the Installation and Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Chapter 3 Using ProEncode

Encoding a Clip or Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Sending a Clip or Sequence to ProEncode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Adding a File to ProEncode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Monitoring the Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Canceling Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Adding Custom Settings to ProEncode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

6

Chapter 4 Using the DMS Administration Tool

The DMS Administration Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Opening the DMS Administration Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Exploring the DMS Administration Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Using the DMS Jobs Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Opening the DMS Jobs Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

DMS Jobs Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Customizing the Jobs List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Navigating the Jobs List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Updating the Jobs List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Purging the Jobs List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Viewing Details About a Job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Canceling a Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Retrying a Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Using the DMS Providers Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Opening the DMS Providers Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

DMS Providers Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Customizing the DMS Providers Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Deleting Providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Using the DMS Profiles Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Opening the DMS Profiles Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

DMS Profiles Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Deleting Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Using the DMS Administration Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Opening the DMS Administration Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Setting Up User Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Editing User Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Deleting User Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Reassigning Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Appendix A Exporting QuickTime Reference Movies

Exporting QuickTime Reference Movies to ProEncode. . . . . . . . . . . . 95

QuickTime Reference Export Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

7

Appendix B Troubleshooting ProEncode

Finding Solutions for Specific Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

General Troubleshooting Procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Checking the Log File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Index

8

Figures

Figure 1-1 ProEncode Components in an Avid Unity MediaNet En-

vironment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Figure 1-2 ProEncode Components in a LAN Environment . . . . 27

9

Tables

Table 2-1 ProEncode Installation and Configuration

Check List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Table 2-2 ProEncode Provider Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Table 2-3 ProEncode Client Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Table 4-1 ProEncode Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Table 4-2 DMS Jobs Page Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Table 4-3 Display Job Details Page Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Table 4-4 DMS Providers Page Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Table 4-5 DMS Profiles Page Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Table A-1 Export Settings Dialog Box

QuickTime Reference Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Table B-1 Troubleshooting ProEncode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

10

Using This Guide

Congratulations on your purchase of an Avid

®

ProEncode

™

system.

ProEncode takes a QuickTime

™

reference movie, matches it with the

parameters of your choice, and then sends it to multiple encoding

stations for the simultaneous creation of different output formats, such

as MPEG-2, RealSystem

™

, and QuickTime. The creation of output

formats (encoding) is performed by Terran

™

Cleaner 5

™

.

Who Should Use This Guide

This guide is intended for all editors or assistant editors who are

familiar with Avid editing systems.

About This Guide

This guide is designed to provide all the information you need to

install, configure, and use ProEncode. It does not include information

about setting up individual computers, a network, or an Avid Unity

MediaNet environment.

11

Symbols and Conventions

Unless noted otherwise, the material in this document applies to the

Windows NT

®

, Windows

®

2000, and Macintosh

®

operating systems.

When the text applies to a specific operating system, it is marked as

follows:

• (Windows) or (Windows only) means the information applies to

the Windows NT or Windows 2000 operating system.

• (Macintosh) or (Macintosh only) means the information applies to

the Macintosh operating system.

The majority of screen shots in this document were captured on a

Windows system, but the information applies to both Windows and

Macintosh systems. Where differences exist, both Windows and

Macintosh screen shots are shown.

The ProEncode documentation uses the following special symbols and

conventions:

1. Numbered lists, when the order of the items is important.

a. Alphabetical lists, when the order of secondary items is

important.

• Bulleted lists, when the order of the items is unimportant.

- Indented dashed lists, when the order of secondary items is

unimportant.

t One arrow indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple arrows in a

list indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

Courier Bold font identifies text that you type.

Look here in the margin

for tips.

In the margin, you will find tips that help you perform tasks more

easily and efficiently.

n

A note provides important related information, reminders, recommendations,

and strong suggestions.

12

c

A caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to

your computer or cause you to lose data.

If You Need Help

If you are having trouble using ProEncode, you should:

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that

task in this guide.

2. See Appendix B, “Troubleshooting ProEncode.”

3. Check the documentation that came with your hardware for

maintenance or hardware-related issues.

4. Check the release notes supplied with ProEncode for information

on accessing the Avid Web site and the Avid Knowledge Center.

5. For customer support, contact your local Avid Reseller, or contact

Avid Customer Support directly:

• Broadcast customers — call 800-NEWS-DNG (639-7364).

• Postproduction customers — call 800-800-AVID (2843).

Related Information

For important information that is not included in this guide, see the

Avid ProEncode Release Notes.

For information on setting up and using an Avid Unity MediaNet

client, see:

• Avid Unity MediaNet Setup Guide

• Avid Unity MediaNet for Windows NT Clients Quick Start Card

• Avid Unity MediaNet for Macintosh Clients Quick Start Card

13

An electronic version of this guide is installed with each ProEncode

component. For example, on a ProEncode Client system, you can find

the guide in the following path:

•(Windows) drive:\Program

Files\Avid\ProEncode\Client\ProEncode User’s Guide.pdf

• (Macintosh) Avid:ProEncode:Client:ProEncode User’s Guide.pdf

You can view this document with Adobe

®

Acrobat

®

Reader, which is

available from the Adobe Web site at www.adobe.com.

If You Have Documentation Comments

Avid Technology continuously seeks to improve its documentation.

We value your comments about this guide, the Help, and other

Avid-supplied documentation.

Simply e-mail your documentation comments to Avid Technology at

T[email protected]

Please include the title of the document, its part number, revision, and

the specific section you are commenting on in all correspondence.

How to Order Documentation

To order additional copies of this documentation from within the

United States, call Avid Telesales at 800-949-AVID (2843). If you are

placing an order from outside the United States, contact your local

Avid representative.

14

CHAPTER 1

ProEncode Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the ProEncode application. It

includes the following sections:

• ProEncode Basics

• Software Components

• Configurations and Requirements

• Encoding Workflow

• QuickTime Reference Movies

• Using Help

15

ProEncode Basics

Today’s production houses face a rising demand for translating media

into formats suitable for distribution via the Web, DVD, or CD-ROM

— often at the same time. ProEncode software automates this

computing-intensive process and lets you move the encoding

operation to lower cost, dedicated workstations. These workstations,

connected in a network and working simultaneously, serve as your

“encoding farm.” Distributing the encoding frees editing workstations

to perform other tasks and allows you to generate two streams of

revenue-producing work in parallel.

For example, you can use ProEncode to send a single sequence from

your Media Composer

®

system to multiple encoding workstations,

which then simultaneously create a QuickTime movie, an MPEG-2

movie, and any other formats available from Terran Interactive’s

Cleaner 5 product. While these workstations are encoding, you can

work on your next Media Composer sequence.

You can use ProEncode in an Avid Unity

™

MediaNet environment,

where the editing station and the encoding stations are connected in a

Fibre Channel network. You can also use ProEncode in a local area

network (LAN), such as an Ethernet network, that uses an

Avid Xpress

®

DV system or Avid NewsCutter

®

XP system as the

media source.

ProEncode is a service that is layered on top of the Avid Distributed

Media Services (DMS) software infrastructure. The DMS Broker and

the DMS Administration Tool manage all services that use DMS. As

Avid develops new services, it will use the same components to

manage these additional services.

16

Software Components

ProEncode consists of the following software components:

• ProEncode Client

• DMS Broker

• ProEncode Provider

• ProEncode Registration Tool

• DMS Administration Tool

This section describes each component and how it functions. This

section also describes the Cleaner 5 streaming media tool. For

complete information about using the software components, see

Chapter 3.

ProEncode Client

The ProEncode Client software resides on the Avid editing system.

The Client starts the encoding process by placing your jobs in a batch

and submitting them to the DMS Broker for further processing. The

Client user interface includes the Add Jobs dialog box and the

ProEncode Client window.

17

The Add Jobs dialog box allows you to select the source movie and

other specifications for the job.

The ProEncode Client window displays information about the jobs

that you have added to your batch.

18

DMS Broker

The DMS Broker software resides on a computer other than the

computer running the Client software. In most cases, this computer

also performs the encoding, although you can install the Broker on its

own computer. The Broker serves as a go-between: it matches

encoding jobs and their corresponding settings with a suitable

encoding station. The Broker chooses an encoding station based on

which stations are available for use and which stations are configured

for a particular type of encoding.

The Broker also functions as a Web server for the DMS Administration

Tool (see “DMS Administration Tool” on page 21). DMS (Distributed

Media Services) is the software infrastructure on which ProEncode is

layered. For more information about DMS, see “ProEncode Basics” on

page 15.

The DMS Broker window displays information about the status of the

Broker and the jobs in the batch.

19

ProEncode Provider

The ProEncode Provider software resides on the computer that

performs the encoding (the encoding station or encoder). The Provider

starts the Cleaner 5 application and sends it information about a job.

The Provider then monitors the job and sends information about the

job status to the DMS Broker.

The ProEncode Provider window displays information about the

status of the Provider and the job.

20

ProEncode Registration Tool

The ProEncode Registration Tool resides on each encoder. You run the

ProEncode Registration Tool to provide information to the Broker

about each encoder. This information includes a name for the encoder

and the Cleaner settings that exist on that encoder.

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Avid ProEncode 1.0 User guide

Avid ProEncode 1.0 User guide

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