Pandoras Box > User Interface - Master > Tabs Overview

To open the Audio and Video Export tab, please click on "Tabs" in the Toolbar and choose "Audio and Video Export". Please note that this feature requires an activated Encoding option on the PB Master.

The Audio and Video Export tab allows you to define all settings for exporting audio and video from a sequence.
Set the Preview tab to preview the specific output that should be exported. Note that not the Preview itself is exported. It is rather the image the camera sees, not the one from the output. As a result all changes made in the output are not included in the exported video. That includes effects on the output layer and parameters like softedge and keystoning.
If you would like to change the aspect ratio of the exported video select a camera layer and change the camera aspect ratio.
To change the resolution of the exported video, please make the according changes in the encoding settings.
If you export an uncompressed image sequence the resolution is adopted automatically to the current screen resolution the local system is set to.

Please note that incoming active values will be ignored, e.g. Widget Designer and Art-Net data. This is because the export is not running in real time, thus the incoming data cannot be allocated to a specific frame. Same applies to containers that are not locked to the timeline. Free-run containers behave differently than during normal play back as the time reference is missing.

The Export feature is designed to work with MPEG2 videos, images and ASIO WAV tracks. Exporting other formats such as MOV and AVI might lead to unexpected behavior. Please see the File Inspector for adjusting colorspace settings.

Also encrypted media cannot be exported. On the other hand you may encrypt your exported video afterwards.

[Export]:
Click [Export] to start the video export. Please not that the user interface is locked while the export is in process. To abort the export, press the shortcut [Ctrl + Q].
Please note that the video export won't be done in real-time. The higher the quality and resolution set in the encoder the export will take a longer time to be finished.

[In]:
Define the timecode at which the export should start in the format hh:mm:ss:ff.

[Out]:
Define the timecode at which the export should end in the format hh:mm:ss:ff.

[Max. Duration]:
You may define the maximum duration of the exported video file in the format hh:mm:ss:ff. By default the max. duration is set to 2 hours.
Example: Having the inpoint set to 00:00:00:00 and the output set to 03:00:00:00, the video export will stop after 2 hours.

[Target Name]:
Enter the name for the video file you are going to export.
By default the video will be named "'Project name'_video".
If the option "Ensure Unique Name" is checked, the video file will be enumerated serially if the chosen name already exists.

[Target Directory]:
By default the video will be saved to the directory of your project file. Click [Browse Directory] to browse to a new directory if you want to change this path.

[Encoder Settings]:
In this section you may choose the settings of the file you're going to export.
There are several predefined profiles:

Profile Name	Output Type	Mpeg Settings		Resolution, px	Bitrate (constant), kbit/s	Audio Processing
Profile Name	Output Type	Profile	Level	Resolution, px	Bitrate (constant), kbit/s	Audio Processing
SD NTSC 720x480	MPEG-2	High	High	720x480	8000	separate wav
SD PAL 768x576	MPEG-2	High	High	720x576	8000	separate wav
XGA 1024x768	MPEG-2	High	High	1024x768	10000	separate wav
HD 1280x720	MPEG-2	High	High	1280x720	12000	separate wav
HD 1408x1056	MPEG-2	High	High	1408x1056	15000	separate wav
HD 1920x1080	MPEG-2	High	High	1920x1080	20000	separate wav
2048x1080	MPEG-2	High	MXL	2048x1080	80000	separate wav
4080x2160	MPEG-2	High	MXL	4080x2160	80000	separate wav
Uncompressed	Uncompressed Frame Images (.png)			Computer's resolution		none

These profiles are not editable. You may choose one of these profiles from the drop-down list or create a new profile by clicking on [New].

[New]:
Click [New] to create a custom encoding profile and name it.

[Output Type]:
Choose between MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and an image format to export an image sequence.
When using MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 go on with the MPEG settings. Pandoras Box Encoder allows to encode files larger than 1080p to our proprietary MXL format. The maximum resolution is 4094 x 2800 px, though it is recommend set 4080 x 2800 px as this conforms with the MPEG standard. The encoding process depends on available graphics card RAM.
If you would like to export an image sequence, you may choose between three image formats: PNG as an lossless compression format, BMP as an uncompressed format and dds as an lossy compression format. For more information please see the chapter "Image Sequences".
Now, simply enter the resolution for the final image sequence and tick the "Export Alpha" check box if you need transparent image parts. Adjust the audio processing as described below.

[Profile]
Set the MPEG Profile and Level.
Please note that you will need High Profile (Profile 4:2:2:) and High Level for HD 1920x1080 px resolution. The Level automatically changes to MXL if you encode files to a format bigger than 1920 x 1080 px.

[Resize Video]:
As long this option is not checked the video resolution will have the size of your windows desktop. Check [Resize Video] and insert a custom resolution for X and Y (in px) if necessary.

[Bitrate (constant)]:
Choose the bitrate (in kbit/s). Recommended are about 8.000 kbit/s for SD and 20.000 or higher for HD.

[GOP-Length]:
The length of the Group Of Pictures is editable from 1 to 100. The higher the GOP-Length the better the compression rate gets at the expense of quality. GOP set to 1 will use I-frames only.

[Number of B-Frames]:
Choose a value between 0 and 7.

[Motion Estimation Level]:
Set a value between 0 (no motion search) and 15 (high quality). The higher the value, the better the quality, the longer the encoding process.

[Motion Estimation Range]:
Set a value between 0 (no motion search) and 15 (high quality).

[Scene Change Detection]:
Choose between None, Fast and Refined.

[Audio Processing]:
Please note that only the first and second ASIO channel are processed.
Choose between the options to...
- discard the audio information, it is simply not present in the resulting export files
- split to separate WAV (stereo file) to render one WAV file with two channels; the file is created in the same export folder
- split to separate WAV (mono files) to render two WAV files each with one channel; the files are created in the same export folder
- include the audio as a Audio Track; this is only possible for MPEG videos. Please see further information and why it is sometimes not recommended to include Audio Tracks in the MPEG format.