14 DAY TRIAL // Expression Media Encoder was announced since mid April, but Microsoft only gave downloads the green light following the announcements of the first day of MIX07 conference in Las Vegas. Expression Media Encoder is a tool that Microsoft has placed under the Expression umbrella brand, designed to enable the publishing of Silverlight experiences.
The release of Expression Studio, yesterday "is also very important in terms of our vision for Silverlight, since Expression, along with Visual Studio, is part of the integrated toolset that will help designers and developers build Silverlight applications. In addition to announcing the availability of Expression at MIX, we are giving a first look at future tooling, including Expression Blend 2 May Preview and Silverlight Tools Alpha for Visual Studio "Orcas" Beta 1. Together, these give developers and designers access to tools to begin building Silverlight applications," revealed Forest Key, director of product management at Microsoft.
As a matter of fact, web developers and designers can not test drive integrating Silverlight into their online content via the preview version of Expression Blend 2.0 and the trial version of Expression Media Encoder.
A trial version of Expression Media Encoder is available for download from Microsoft. The initial free trial version is 30 days long and Microsoft informed that the tool is fully functional. Additionally, users will be able to get a product key from the Redmond Company and extend the trial period to no less than 180 days. A rather sweat deal designed to get you hooked on the new Microsoft product and forget all about Flash and SWF.