Tutorial: Pre-transcoding Files

Pre-transcoding your media files is a feature unique to Mezzmo where you can prepare any incompatible files before streaming them to your devices in your home. This allows for smooth playback on your devices and less CPU activity on your computer.

In general, you don't need to worry about pre-transcoding your files. Mezzmo looks after any incompatibility issues by transcoding your incompatible files on-the-fly. You only need to consider pre-transcoding your files when they are not playing correctly on your devices.

Reasons to pre-transcode your files:

• Your computer may not be able to transcode your files fast enough for real time streaming. This can result in stuttering or stopping when playing your files. You can know if transcoding on-the-fly is not fast enough by going to the Transcoding pane in Mezzmo and checking the status of the file that you are streaming. It will be marked red if it is too slow for real time streaming. In this case, pre-transcoding the file is your best option for smooth playback.

• You think your file(s) should be compatible and should be playable on your device, but for some reason they do not play at all or they it play badly (e.g. no video, no audio, audio out of sync, etc.). This can be due to your file being badly encoded or encoded in such a manner that your device cannot play it properly. Pre-transcoding the file to another format can fix these encoding problems in the original file and allow for correct playback on your device.

• Your device does not support displaying subtitles at all (e.g. you have a Sony Bravia TV or a Sony PS3) so subtitles must be burnt into the video. Burning subtitles into videos requires full transcoding of the video. You can reduce CPU activity when streaming your videos to these devices by pre-transcoding your video files beforehand so that your subtitles are already burnt into your video and are ready to be played.

1. Right-click on the file in Mezzmo and click Pre-transcode Files.
2. In the Pre-transcode Files dialog, select the device(s) you want to pre-transcode the file for.
   
   http://www.conceiva.com/products/mez...code-files.png
   
3. Click the Choose Formats link next to the device to display the Pre-transcode Formats dialog.
4. Select the formats that you want to pre-transcode to.
   
   http://www.conceiva.com/products/mez...de-formats.png
   
   Tip: We recommend selecting the bolded format as this format is known to play well on your device.
5. Optional: Select the Force full transcode of all channels checkbox if you suspect one of the channels is badly encoded. When this option is checked, Mezzmo will not copy (or remux) compatible channels but will fully transcode them. This takes longer to transcode, but may fix encoding problems in the original file.
6. Optional: Select the Force embedding subtitles checkbox to force subtitles associated with the selected video file to be embedded into the transcoded video as embedded subtitle channels. This is useful if your device lets you choose and display embedded subtitles using it's remote control.
7. Optional: Select Force burning subtitles checkbox to force a subtitle associated with the selected video file to be burnt into the transcoded video. This is useful if your subtitles are not displayed at all, or not displayed correctly by your device.
   For example, you may have Korean external subtitle files but your TV is not capable of displaying Korean fonts or characters. So burning your subtitles will let you see these Korean characters in their correct form.
8. Click OK to save your transcoded formats.
9. Click OK to start transcoding. All files that are queued for transcoding are listed in the Transcoding pane in Mezzmo. We recommend waiting until your file has been completely transcoded before streaming it to your device.

Tip: If you see the message - No files were queued for transcoding since they match formats that are supported by the selected devices, then Mezzmo will not transcode the file(s) since the original file(s) should be supported natively by your device. This is based on the device profile assigned to your device in the Media Devices dialog in Mezzmo. Device profiles contain the formats that your device supports and the formats that Mezzmo should transcode to. To override this, you can select the Pre-transcode files even if they match the device's supported formats checkbox and then click OK to start transcoding.

1. Select all the files you want to pre-transcode in Mezzmo using your mouse and the Ctrl key on your keyboard.
2. Right-click on one of the files and click Pre-transcode Files
3. Follow the steps in How to pre-transcode a file - see http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread...3382#post23382

1. Right-click on the folder or playlist in the tree on the left in Mezzmo and click Pre-transcode Playlist
2. Follow the steps in How to pre-transcode a file - see http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread...3382#post23382

1. Click Tools / Pre-transcode Library menu item
2. Follow the steps in How to pre-transcode a file - see http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread...3382#post23382

To remove the transcoded files for a particular file in your Mezzmo library, right-click on the file in Mezzmo and click Properties. In the Properties dialog, go to the Transcoding tab and click Delete All.

http://www.conceiva.com/products/mez...coding-tab.png

To remove all transcoded files that have been created for a device, go to the Media Devices dialog and edit your device. On the Device Settings dialog, go to the Transcoding tab and click Delete Transcoded Files.

http://www.conceiva.com/products/mez...coding-tab.png

To remove all transcoded files that have been created in your Mezzmo library, go to the Transcoding Settings dialog and click Delete Transcoded Files.

http://www.conceiva.com/products/mez...g-settings.png

Once you have transcoded a file to a particular format for a device, then that transcoded file will always be streamed to your device. If you wish to go back to streaming the original file or transcode to another format, then right-click on the file in Mezzmo and click Properties. On the Properties dialog, go to the Transcoding tab. The transcoding tab lists all the transcoded files for the file. You can select what transcoded file you wish to stream to a device. You can also choose to use the original file by clicking Use Original File. Deleting the transcoded files will remove them from disk and they will not be streamed to devices.

Mezzmo manages all your transcoded files in a special transcoding folder. You can set the location of this folder and maximum size of this folder in the Transcoding Settings dialog. When the maximum size is reached, Mezzmo removes older transcoded files.