Chapter 9: Modifying Default Settings

In this chapter, you learn how to modify the RealProducer preferences, which determine where RealProducer stores files, and how it logs error and informational messages. This chapter also explains how to change the default audience settings, or create new audiences, to customize how RealProducer encodes streams.

Adjusting RealProducer Preferences

You can adjust the RealProducer preferences to determine how and where RealProducer stores support files. These preferences affect all jobs.

For More Information: You can modify the RealProducer preferences manually as described in Appendix E.

Changing the File Location Preferences

You can change the default setting for where RealProducer creates the output files, as well as where it stores temporary files and its audience and server templates.

File Location Preferences

To change the default file locations:

1. Select Edit>Preferences to open the preferences dialog.
2. Choose the File Locations category.
3. The default selection of Automatically create a file for each job causes RealProducer to define an output clip that uses the same base file name as the input clip you select. When you use this feature, you can automatically save the output in one of the following locations:

• Same Location as Source File—Save the encoded output clip in the same directory as the input media file.
• Other—Save all encoded clips in the directory you specify. Either enter the full path to the directory, or click Browse and navigate to the directory you want to use.

Note: If you choose not to define an output clip automatically, you must always set up the output clip destination. When you use this automatic output feature, you can always change the name or location of the clip destination manually. For instructions, refer to "Modifying a Clip Destination".

4. Under User Directories, you can choose where RealProducer stores its audience and server templates:

• In the Audience Template field, enter the full path name of the directory that stores audience files. Or, click the Browse button and navigate to the directory you want to use. Appendix C explains audience files.
• In the Server Template field, enter the full path name of the directory that stores server files. Or, click the Browse button and navigate to the directory you want to use. Appendix D explains server files.

Note: If you change the storage location of audience or server files, manually move any existing files that you want to continue using to the new location.

5. RealProducer uses a temporary directory to save data that it uses during encoding. To change this preference, select one of the following options in the Temporary Storage Directory section:

• Same Location as File Destination—Saves the temporary data in the same directory as the destination clip.
• Other—Saves temporary data in the directory you specify. Either enter the full path to the directory, or click Browse and navigate to the directory you want to use.

Note: If you use %TEMP% in this field, RealProducer uses the same directory specified by the Windows TEMP variable. After you close and restart RealProducer, this field lists the full path to the %TEMP% directory.

Tip: RealProducer operates faster if the temporary directory resides on the local RealProducer machine, rather than a network drive.

6. Click OK to save the preferences.

Changing Log File and Log Viewer Preferences

RealProducer automatically logs information about encoding jobs in a text file. Through the preferences, you can turn off logging or modify the log file settings. You can display and filter log messages on-screen with the log viewer, which the section "Viewing Log Messages" describes.

Log File Preferences

To modify log file settings:

1. Select Edit>Preferences to open the preferences dialog.
2. Choose the Log File category.
3. To disable logging, uncheck the Enable logging to file box. You can set the remaining preferences only if logging is enabled.
4. In the Log Location field, enter the full path name of the directory that stores the log file. Or, click the Browse button and navigate to the directory you want to use. Along with the path, choose a name for the log file, using .log as the file extension. The default location is the main RealProducer installation directory.
5. For Log Contents, you can specify the events that you want to log:

• For the log format, you can choose Short to log only the job name and message. The Detailed format logs more information, such as the message category, functional area, time, and message number.
• Under Messages, you can choose any combination of the following message types:

  Errors	Error messages are severe problems that typically cause the encoding operation to fail.
  Warnings	Warning messages indicate possible problems that did not cause the encoding to fail.
  Information	Informational messages convey important messages about the encoding operation.
  Diagnostic	Diagnostic messages convey non-critical messages about the encoding operation. An encoding operation may generate many diagnostic messages, so including this message type may cause your log file to grow quickly.

• Under Functional Areas, the default is Show all, meaning that RealProducer logs messages from all areas of operation. If you want to log messages for just some areas, such as broadcasting or video codec operations, click Show selected and choose the appropriate functional areas.

6. By default, RealProducer logs all messages to the specified file, allowing the file to grow indefinitely. If you encode clips or broadcasts frequently, or you include diagnostic messages in the log, you should check Enable log file rolling. Then, choose a maximum log file size in Megabytes, or a time limit:

   month	Create a new log file at midnight of the last day of each month.
   week	Set up a new log file at midnight of Sunday of each week.
   day	Write a new log file at midnight of each day.
   hour	Roll the log file at the top of each hour.

RealProducer creates a new log file under a new name when the current log file reaches the size or time limit. The file extension includes a numeric designation to indicate the order of the log files. For example, if your log file is named producer.log, the first rolled file is named producer.log1, the second is producer.log2, and so on.

7. Click Log Viewer to change the number of messages from the log file that the log viewer displays. The default is 1000. The section "Viewing Log Messages" explains how to use this viewer.
8. Click OK to save the preferences.

Creating and Editing Audiences

You can fine-tune the audience templates installed with RealProducer. This section explains how to change audience settings for a single job, or all jobs. It also provides instructions and tips for creating your own audience templates.

Changing Audience Values for the Active Job

Using RealProducer Plus, you can change the audience properties for an active job. First, add the audience to your job as described in "Choosing Audiences". Then, click the audience name in the Audiences palette to display the Audience Properties dialog. You can then change the audience settings as described in the following sections. Optionally, you can click Save as Template to save the audience modifications permanently.

Change Audience Properties for a Job

Editing, Creating, or Deleting an Audience Template

When you use RealProducer Plus, you can edit any audience template to change it permanently. You can also create a new template from an existing one to define your own audiences. (With RealProducer Basic, you can create one new template.) These changes are recorded in the template and the active job, but not in any previous jobs that also used the audience template. To update an older job, edit the job file manually. Or, open the job in the graphical application, delete the existing audience or audiences, then add the new audiences.

For More Information: The section "Choosing Audiences" explains how to add and remove audiences from a job using the graphical application. See "Audiences Section" for details about how a job file stores audience information.

Edit Audience Templates

To edit or create an audience template:

1. Select Edit>Audience Templates to list all available templates.
2. Select a template from the list. This displays the template's settings in the right-hand side of the dialog.

Tip: Within the list, templates are ordered according to the audience's average streaming speed or quality setting.

3. You can then perform any of the following actions:

1. Edit the settings for the template as described in the following sections.
2. Click the "duplicate" icon at the bottom of the template list to copy the selected template. Then, edit the settings fields. This allows you to create a similar template quickly.
3. Click the trash icon to delete the selected template.

4. Click Apply to save changes to the template. Click OK to exit the dialog and save any changes.

Tip: If you have altered and saved an original, default template, you can restore the default values to the template by selecting the template clicking Restore Selected Template. Click Restore All Templates to reset default values to all predefined templates. These buttons have no effect on templates you have created.

Choosing a Template Name

When you edit a template or create a new one, you specify a name in the Template name field. The graphical application uses this name to identify the template. You can also use this name to specify the audience with the command-line application, as described in "Audience Definitions or Audience Files (-ad)". RealProducer uses the template name as the file name for the audience file, appending the .rpad extension automatically.

Setting CBR or VBR Encoding

In an audience template, you can specify that the audience uses constant bit rate (CBR) or variable bit rate (VBR) encoding. For background on these choices, refer to "Constant Bit Rate Video" and "Variable Bit Rate Video". With the exception of the RealAudio Lossless codec, which you cannot select in the graphical application, you can use any RealAudio codec in a CBR or VBR template.

CBR Maximum Bandwidth

For a CBR audience, you specify the total, maximum streaming speed. This should be less than the raw bandwidth of the connection type. For example, you should not set an audience template for 56 Kbps modems to stream at 56 Kbps. These modems do not actually provide that much usable bandwidth. The following table lists maximum streaming rates for common Internet connections.

For any other connection speed, calculate the maximum streaming speed as:

• Approximately 75 percent of the connection bandwidth for analog connections such as dial-up modems.

–Or–

• Approximately 90 percent of the connection bandwidth for high-speed digital connections such as DSL or cable modems.

VBR Settings

For a variable bit rate audience, you set a maximum bit rate along with an average bit rate or a quality target. The maximum bit rate should be 50 to 100 percent higher than an average bit rate. A VBR clip with an average bit rate of 300 Kbps should have a maximum bit rate of 450 to 600 Kbps, for example.

For More Information: The section "VBR Encoding Settings" explains the relationship between maximum bit rate, average bit rate, and quality.

Video Settings

The Target frame rate field sets the ideal maximum video frame rate for the audience, measured in frames per second (fps). A higher frame rate creates smoother motion. Cinematic film uses 24 fps, for example, while NTSC video uses 30 fps. The section "Encoded Frame Rates" explains frame rates and their relationship to visual clarity.

For bandwidths under 150 Kbps, RealNetworks recommends a maximum frame rate of 15 fps. This provides acceptably smooth motion without sacrificing too much visual clarity. At higher bit rates, you can select up to 30 fps. For mobile devices that have slower processors than desktop machines, you may want to choose a slower maximum rate, such as 5 to 7.5 fps.

Note: The frame rate setting specifies an ideal maximum only. Other factors, such as available bandwidth and video size affect the final frame rate. The monitoring utility, described in "Monitoring Statistics", shows actual frame rate encoded into a stream.

Advanced Video Stream Options

Click Advanced Video Options to change specific parameters about how RealProducer encodes video clips. In general, the default values work well for most audiences, and you should not change these settings unless you have specific reasons to do so and understand the possible, negative effects of your choices. For information about these options, refer to the following sections:

• "Encoding Complexity Modes"
• "Video Startup Latency"
• "Maximum Time Between Keyframes"
• "Loss Protection"

Adjusting Audio Stream Settings

For audio encoding, you select four RealAudio codecs from the pull-down lists. For each clip that includes audio, RealProducer selects one of these codecs depending on the clip type, such as whether it is audio-only or video, and whether the audio track is voice or music. The section "Audio Encoding for Audiences" explains these choices. For explanations of all RealAudio codecs, refer to "RealAudio Codecs". Keep the following points in mind:

• When you set the RealAudio codecs used with a video clip, you must leave appropriate bandwidth for the visual track. For tips on balancing audio and video bandwidth use, refer to "Soundtrack Bandwidth".
• When encoding a clip that uses voice, you typically use one of the voice codecs described in "Voice Codecs". At higher bandwidths, however, you can use a music or stereo music codec to provide greater fidelity.
• Never use a voice codec for music.
• The audio codec should match the expected audio input. Do not use a multichannel codec for traditional stereo input, for example.
• Your choice of audio codec (as well as video codec) determines which versions of RealPlayer can play the clip. The codec descriptions in "RealAudio Codecs" describe RealPlayer compatibility.

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