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With input/output support for the Grass Valley Canopus HQ and DV codecs, plus the ability to function as an export plug-in for Grass Valley's Edius Pro version 4, ProCoder 3 ($499) should be strongly considered by any Edius users who require batch transcoding capabilities. With plug-in support for Adobe Premiere Pro 2.x and beyond, as a standalone product, ProCoder also makes a strong case for a more general audience; although, as with all transcoding products, there are strong and weak points.
Strengths include excellent encoding speed for most formats, a strong ability to leverage multi-core processors, plus good quality for every format tested - once I produced the desired data rate. Automation features are also excellent: There's support for Watch Folders and Droplets. Weaknesses include slow Flash encoding, some usability issues with H.264, a preview feature that needs tightening, and generally weak HD presets.
Grass Valley installs four programs upon installation: ProCoder itself, where you create encoding presets and batch-encoding runs; the Job Queue Manager, where you manage your encodings; the Watch Folder setup application, where you perform its namesake function; and the ProCoder Wizard, which can set up encoding runs and help with your Watch Folder selection. Overall, the programs are so simple to use and the wizard so limited that I recommend ignoring the wizard and jumping right into ProCoder.
Before we actually jump right into ProCoder, here are a couple of notes to bear in mind that illustrate the simplicity of automating your encoding workflow with ProCoder: You can create multiple watch folders using the Watch Folder Manager. These encode any file copied into that folder to any preset or profile, which is a collection of presets. This obviously is a highly useful bit of technology that lets anyone on the network with access to these folders compress his own files.
There are also Droplet icons that sit on your desktop. Drag and drop a file onto a Droplet and it triggers encoding to any preset or profile, which for many users will condense their daily encoding chores to a four-second drag-and-drop operation. Together, Watch Folders and Droplets give ProCoder some exceptional automation features.
OK, now let's dig into ProCoder itself. In ProCoder, workflow is driven by three tabs: Source, Target,...