How do I create a custom profile for Media Encoder 4.1?

[Dan Sumption]

(Actually, my problem goes a little deeper than just profiles, but if
I could create a custom one then I would be home and dry)

I am creating ASFs using Media Encoder 4.1.0.3920. I have about 800 to
convert from MP3s, hence I want to automate it.

I have managed to adapt a VBScript to do this, but unfortunately it
only works with the built-in profiles. I need to amend the audio 56k
modem profile so that it is 22kbps at 32KHz (instead of the usual
32kbps at 22KHz).

I have tried everything I can think of - have created custom PRX files
using Media Encoder 7.01, but that only lets me use Windows Media
Audio codec V8 (I need V2) and still doesn't let me set the
bandwidth/sample rate combination I need. I have tried hacking the
PRXes by hand, and had some success, but usually I get the error
message "The profile's media content doesn't match the media content
defined in the source group".

I think that the problem is with the codecdata field of the prx file -
this is a long hex number which obviously contains flags for the
codec, but which I've been unable to decipher. Anyone know how to
interpret it?

In summary, what I need to help me is any of the following:
- A way of creating a new PRX file, like the 56k audio one but with
bit rate and sample rate swapped over.

- A way of loading in an ASD file and using the profile information
from that instead of from the PRX file.

- A way to hook into an already running session of Media Encoder and
grab the profile information from that (I tried using the WMEncoderApp
object, but it complains that there are no SourceGroups present)

- Any other way (magic, anyone?) of batch-creating 800 ASFs using
Network Bandwidth = 56K (37 actual), 22kbps/32Khz Stereo, WM Audio V2,
Automatic Indexing.

HELP!

Dan Sumption
www.pernoctator.com

[Dan Sumption]

d...@sumption.org (me) wrote in message news:<c1ba27de.02030...@posting.google.com>...

> I am creating ASFs using Media Encoder 4.1.0.3920. I have about 800 to
> convert from MP3s, hence I want to automate it.

I managed to solve the problem without resorting to messing with the
profiles. Here's how...

Download the Windows Media Services SDK 4.1 at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?url=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/000/961/msdncompositedoc.xml

Install it, and then install the "Batch Encode" sample utility.

Create an ASD file for the first of the files you want to encode,
using the custom profile.

Run the Batch Encode Utility, use the ASD you just created and specify
as many source files as you want. Then start the batch...

Dan Sumption
http://www.sumption.org