Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro HD (version 2.1.1) solves an important workflow issue for those of you who need to get your video and audio content in the Windows Media format for downloadable, real-time streaming, mobile devices and other output formats. This is a terrific tool that does one-pass and two-pass encoding and imports and exports Windows Media content. It also does HD Windows Media encoding from QuickTime-based applications- easily converting DV, Motion JPEG-A, Motion JPEG-B and Photo-JPEG QuickTime videos. If you’re working in a nonlinear editor, such as Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro, you can export to Windows Media directly from your timeline. Flip4Mac also lets you export Windows Media content from applications such as iMovie, Cleaner, Sorenson Squeeze, QuickTime Pro and Compressor.

Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro HD comes with a host of compression presets for creating Windows Media content. The included presets range from low-bit rate dial-up to high-bit rate HD. If you know your target audience, you can easily select a preset and then export your files. Flip4Mac caters nicely to both beginners in compression as well as to more advanced users. Beginners will love the included presets, while advanced users should appreciate the ability to create custom Windows Media presets.

If you need to input metadata with the video and audio files you’re encoding, you’ll find a tab for this within Flip4Mac. In the Content tab, you can include information such as title, author, description, copyright and rating. Each compression preset can save specific metadata information.

Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro HD also features advanced settings for keyframe, every frequency, buffer size, B-frames and frame input/output type. One of the biggest benefits here is that users can have control over how fast their media files encode by adjusting the coding complexity in the Advanced options for video. Again, this is a terrific tool with a reasonable price point that squarely delivers on promised features.