In July Microsoft took another major step towards releasing Silverlight by issuing the ‘release candidate’ - essentially a version of the software that’s ‘nearly’ ready for release.

Along with the Silverlight release, they also provided updates for Expression Media Encoder - the software needed to encode video.  And an updated release of its Expression Blend product - the software used by designers to combine graphics, animation and interactivity when building applications for Silverlight.

Here at Know It Use It we’ve just recorded a new video tutorial for our online business software ValuedClientSystem.com, so I thought I’d give the updated software a try - again using the FREE streaming account provided by Microsoft.

In my last step-by-step account of creating Silverlight video, I had to do lots of ‘fiddling’ in order to get the kind of output I wanted - the right mix of quality and size that would be supported by the free streaming account.  This time around, I simply chose the “WC-1 Web Server 256k” output and “WMA Low Quality” for the audio and set it to encode the full batch of videos… much easier this time around.  I’m assuming this is due to the updated encoder, but of course there would have been some element of my own familiarity simplifying things!

One challenge I did have was due to the batch encoding (I was encoding eight videos).  This produces separate video files, but only ONE set of scripts… the scripts that each video needs when uploading it to the streaming account (again see the step-by-step to read more about this).  This meant that I had to manually edit and create scripts for each video - which I wanted to show on separate pages.  So, there’s some room for improvement with the encoder there.

For the Flash version of the videos I was using Camtasia and its ‘batch’ encoding process creates a separate, self contained, directory for each video, which was perfect for my requirements.

The result… well, you can see for yourself..  The Flash version of the videos are slightly larger - no doubt with some fiddling in Camtasia and/or Media Encoder I could have made them the same size.

Check out our new tutorial videos in either Flash or Silverlight RC.  They’re not yet linked in to the site, because there’s still some testing and a welcome video to create, but I thought I’d give you a peek anyway.

I have to say that overall, I’m pleased with the Silverlight output!

-Mark

Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box