Is it possible to use an Expression Encoder 4 registration key for Expression Encoder 2?

Question

Is it possible to use an Expression Encoder 4 registration key for Expression Encoder 2?

I need to encode several videos for IIS Smooth Streaming and have been told that the files produced are different between encoder 2 and 4.

Is it possible to encode a video for IIS Smooth Streaming in Encoder 4 that will produce the following files once complete?

default.html
mediaplayertemplate.xap
.ism
.ismc
settings.dat

Any assistance with the above would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You can't use a v2 to activate a v4 product. Only some v3 SKUs are actually eligible for the free upgrade (see FAQ above for more information). Please note that VC-1 Smooth Streaming is available on the free version of Encoder 4. But you'll need to purchase a copy of Encoder Pro if you need Live or H264-based Smooth Streaming. The SS output is similar to v2 in terms of files, but the player has been updated and isn't backward compatible.

Answer 2

Is it possible to activate it the other way around. I have purchased encoder 4 with a valid registration key. Is it possible to use encoder 2 also?

Answer 3

While you can have all 4 versions of Encoder (v1, v2sp1, v3 and v4) installed on the same PC and working independently of each other, a v4 product key won't work on any other versions of Encoder.

Answer 4

And to answer your original question a little better: yes, the files produced between v2sp1 and v4 for Smooth Streaming are different and not compatible. We've revved the file format twice since v2sp1 and made major modifications to the XAP files, as well as adding a few files to our output.

Answer 5

Thanks for your response Eric.

To summarise, will I need to purchase expression encoder 2 to use it even though I have purchased expression encoder 4?

Am i entitled to free upgrades? If so, is it also possible to have a free downgrade? As odd as that sounds, the files produced in Encoder 2 are essential to what I need right now.

 

Thanks for your help.