Manual

Activating Media Center Transcoder

Before you can make use of Media Center Transcoder, you have to activate it.
Please do so the first time you start the application.

More information about activating our Media Center applications can be found here.

Video conversion settings

Now you can use Media Center Transcoder to convert your recorded TV programs to other video formats.
But before you do so, please take a moment to view and change the settings that are used for the video conversion.
To do so, please:

• go to the Program Library page of the Media Center application
• and click the option called "TV Transcoder Settings":
  

That will take you to this page:

Here you can specify:

• The folder in which the converted video(s) will be stored.
• Whether you want to preserve meta information about the recorded TV program(s).
  If you choose to preserve this information, each converted recorded TV program will be stored in its own sub-folder, along with a thumbnail and an XML file that contains the metadata.
• The video format the recorded TV program(s) should be converted to.
• The size for the converted video(s).
• The aspect ratio for the converted video(s).
• The video bitrate for the converted video(s).
• The audio bitrate for the converted video(s).

The settings shown above are very useful if you want to convert recorded TV programs to your mobile phone.
When you're done changing the settings, you can save them by pressing the button.

Converting recorded TV programs

When you've configured the conversion settings, you can start converting recorded TV programs.
To do so, please:

• go to the Program Library page of the Media Center application
• and click the option called "TV Transcoder":
  

The pages that follow are the same that are used for burning recorded TV programs to a DVD.
That is the reason why some of the terminology used on these screens refers to burning DVD's.

The first page you'll be taken to is this one:

When you're burning recorded TV programs to a DVD, this is the page where you can enter the title for the DVD.
But since we're not going to burn recorded TV programs but convert them to another format instead, you can skip this step and simply press the "Next" button.

That takes you to this page:

Here you can select the recorded TV programs that must be converted, simply by checking them.
When you've checked all the programs that must be converted, you can press the "Next" button.

That takes you to the last page:

This page gives an overview of the TV programs that you want to convert.
As you can see, there still is sufficient opportunity to change your mind.

By pressing the button called "Convert" you start the actual video conversion process.
A popup will be shown to inform you about the progress of the conversion:

You can abort the conversion by pressing the "Stop" button.
You can hide this progress popup by pressing the "OK" button.

When the conversion is done, you'll be informed in another popup.
If, in the meantime, you want information about the progress, simply re-click on the TV Transcoder icon in the Program Library.

ATI Avivo

More recent ATI graphics cards help your PC converting videos from one format to another. This means that the conversion is done much faster.
That is the reason why Media Center Transcoder makes use of ATI Avivo for converting recorded TV programs to other video formats.
So you need to have ATI Avivo installed on your PC, before you can make use of Media Center Transcoder.

More information about downloading ATI Avivo can be found on the download page.