The guide is located here (http://www.mediafire.com/?d3qstnnebn1), let me know if there are any problems downloading it. Help from someone with a Rapidshare account would be appreciated.
UPDATED LINKS:
link (http://www.mediafire.com/?fmzxnj3fywj) to the newly revised guide. The size of the guide is approximately 1.7MB
I also saved the document in the Word 97/2000/XP format if anyone is interested, here is the link (http://www.mediafire.com/?3c94n2ch09c). The size of the document is approximately 2.6MB
Re: Nero Recode 2 GuideThis guide provides a great starting point. Any newbie looking to make nice videos for either an iPod or iPhone, from both DVDs and computer video files, should review this. (assuming they've got recode).
A few notes based on my experiences:
- My Nero screens and smartstart look nothing like yours, but the basic startup steps and getting into Recode2 are the same. If you don't see exactly whats shown in the guide, just work it out. Get into Recode2 and Video mode, and follow the guide along. The rest of it is still applicable.
- Video Bitrate: You may wonder why when you set it to Unsorted, max bitrate is 1.5Mbps (1500Kbps). That's the most an iPod video or iPhone can play. Anything above that isn't useable, as far as this guide and iPod video conversion is concerned. I've been encoding video at about 800 Kbps for animated content and 1100 Kbps for movies and live action. This is more than enough to provide solid video quality (in my opinion, yours may differ. experiment to see.) while helping to keep down file sizes as well, if file size is a concern. I use it for iPhone purposes, and keeping sizes down means more content for me. I only have about 4gb free on my iPhone after music and pictures.
- Settings: I disagree on some of your setting choices. These are merely a preference and will differ by person, but I find 2 pass encoding to be unnecessary in recode. Yes, it does come out marginally better, but nothing like upping the bitrate. My computer isn't exactly bleeding edge (actually its 4 years old, yikes) so it takes a long time to encode. Cutting the time in 1/2 by using 1 pass is worth it to me, especially since I can't tell the difference once the media has been transferred to my iPhone. Same opinion on "decision quality". Just leave it in the middle and it will speed up encoding time. Also of note: Recode does a GREAT job of detecting interlacing and handling it appropriatly. If you don't know what it is, just leave that setting alone and trust Recode. Same with auto-crop, but that has just been my experience so far.
Great Guide. This should be sticky'd or linked into the Recode2 review thread to help people. I wished this existed a month ago when I got my iPhone and started learning how to do all this. Recode2 really is the best all-in-one encoding utility for iPod / iPhone at this time.
Re: Nero Recode 2 GuideNice work! I only really stumbled in one spot while reading: it's a bit confusing having Step 3's text appear on the first page, while its graphic appears on the next page. I kept checking the images on the first page, thinking, "Right arrow...right arrow...this little thing down here? Not sure...keep looking..." Of course, as soon as I turned the page it was obvious, but for a moment it was like, "Great, another Windows guide I'm too dumb to make sense of" ;-) Each step should appear directly atop its image.
Good spelling! Hooray! Just a few errors with number, articles, case, etc. Most don't make any difference to comprehension -- like these:
"...illegal in the US." s/b "...illegal in the U.S."
"...see a analysis screen..." s/b "...see an analysis screen..."
"...other Psychovisual enhancements." s/b "...other psychovisual enhancements."
But some do -- like this:
"You will see this windows pop-up." s/b "You will see this window pop up." (step 13)
(Is that a Windows pop-up, or a window that popped up into view? ;-)
To aid comprehension and add some text color to the page, maybe style command names/icon names in bold? (such as "Simply drag your mouse over the Photo and Video icon:"
Page numbers; even better, page numbers in a header or footer identifying the document (or the author, or the revision).
Even though I stay as far from Windows as possible, looking forward to the finished product! <g>
Re: Nero Recode 2 GuideThanks for all the input, I took everyone's advice into consideration and made changes to the guide. It always helps to have other people look at ones work. Feel free to butcher and tear it up all you like, I do not take criticism of my work personally. After working in a job where they analyze your work so closely, I learned to separate my job from my personal feelings. So feel free to add any more criticism you like.