A Short Review on QuickTime

Apple QuickTime is perhaps the most ubiquitous media player in the personal computer world today, which makes it a good overall choice for your audience. QuickTime is available for Macintosh and Windows systems and is included with Mac OS 9 and higher. QuickTime can play MPEG and QuickTime media. The QuickTime Player also supports progressive download, where files begin playing as soon as enough has been downloaded to allow continuous playback.
Apple also offers an upgraded version of QuickTime called QuickTime Pro.
QuickTime Pro costs about $30 (the regular QuickTime Player is free). Key
features of QuickTime Pro include

• Full-screen playback
• Additional media management features
• Simple audio and video creation and export tools
• Advanced import/export options If you already have iMovie (and therefore regular QuickTime), you don’t absolutely need the extra features of QuickTime Pro.

Your audience really doesn’t need QuickTime Pro either (unless of course they want to watch movies in full screen). The standard QuickTime Player should suffice in most cases. Apple iMovie exports QuickTime-format files. If you’re a Windows user, QuickTime Pro allows you to convert MPEG files to QuickTime format. Some advanced Windows editing programs (such as Adobe Premiere) can also export files in QuickTime format.

Streaming your video

Doing stuff on the Internet usually means downloading files. For example, when you visit a Web page, files containing all the text and pictures on that Web page are first downloaded to your computer, and then your Web-browser program opens them. Likewise, if someone e-mails you a picture or a document with yucky work stuff, your e-mail program actually downloads a file before you open it.
Downloading files takes time, especially if they’re big video files. You sit there and you wait. And wait. And wait. Finally the movie file is done downloading and starts to play, but by then you’ve left the room for a cup of coffee again. But software designers are crafty folk, and they’ve devised methods of getting around the problem of waiting a long time for downloads. They’ve come up with two basic solutions:

• Streaming media: Rather than downloading a file to your hard drive, streaming files can be played as the data streams through your modem. It works kind of like a radio, where “data” streams through in the form of radio waves, and that data is immediately played through the radio’s speakers as it is received. With streaming audio or video, no file is ever saved on your hard drive. To truly stream your movies to other people, your movie files need to be on a special streaming server on the Web. There is a remote possibility that your Internet service provider offers a streaming media server, but most service providers do not.
• Progressive download: Newer video-player programs can “fake” streaming pretty effectively. Rather than receiving a movie signal broadcast over the Internet like a radio wave, viewers simply click a link to open the movie as if they were downloading the file. In fact, they are downloading the file — but as soon as enough of the file has been received, the player program can start to play. The program doesn’t need to wait for the whole file to download before it starts. Current versions of QuickTime, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Player all support progressive download. The really cool thing about progressive download is that you don’t need any special kind of server to host the files. Just upload the video file to any server that has enough room to fit it in.

I’m actually being kind of picky about terminology here. Many people now refer to progressive download video files as “streaming video,” and because they basically function the same way, why not? The good news is that you don’t need to do anything special to stream (or progressively download, or whatever you want to call it) your movies to your audience. Just output your movie in QuickTime, RealVideo, or Windows Media Video format, and let the player programs do the rest.

Choosing a Video Format for Internet

Many different video formats are available for the movies you edit on your computer. Each format uses a different codec. (I explain codecs in greater detail in Chapter 13, but a codec, short for compressor/decompressor, is a software tool used for making multimedia files smaller.) Common video file formats include MPEG and AVI, but these two formats are usually not suitable for movies you plan to share online because they have big file sizes. Three other popular formats, however, are perfectly suited to the online world:

• QuickTime (.QT): Many Windows users and virtually all Macintosh users have the QuickTime Player program from Apple. QuickTime is the only export format available with iMovie. Pinnacle Studio cannot export QuickTime movies, but some more advanced Windows programs like Adobe Premiere can.
• RealMedia (.RM): This is the format used by the popular RealPlayer, available for Windows and Macintosh systems, among others. Pinnacle Studio can export RealMedia-format video.
• Windows Movie Video: This format requires Windows Media Player. Almost all Windows users and some Macintosh users already have it. Both Pinnacle Studio and Windows Movie Maker can export Windows Media Video.

Each of these three video formats has strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately the format you choose will probably depend mainly on the editing software you’re using — for example, if you’re using iMovie on a Mac, QuickTime is your only option.

Setting MPEG settings

I like the MPEG format because it is easy to use and — most importantly —widely supported among Mac and PC users. MPEG is actually a family of multimedia file standards. There are currently four MPEG standards:

• MPEG-1: This is the oldest version of the standard. A drawback of MPEG-1 is that it has a maximum picture size of 352 by 240 pixels.
• MPEG-2: This standard offers much higher video quality and full-size video. In fact, MPEG-2 is the format used by DVD movies, so if you burn your movies onto DVD, this is the format you’ll use. MPEG-2 files require special MPEG-2 player software, such as a DVD player program.
• MPEG-3: Usually abbreviated MP3, this file format only contains audio and is a popular file format for music files today.
• MPEG-4: This newer standard is a cross of MPEG video and Apple QuickTime to produce video with very, very small file sizes. Support for this format is still limited. Studio’s MPEG settings dialog box is a lot simpler than the AVI settings. Review the following settings as you get ready to export your movie in MPEG format:
• Presets: Studio provides a selection of presets based on how the file will be used. For example, if you plan to record the movie on a VCD, choose the VideoCD preset from the Presets menu.

If possible, I recommend that you stick with one of the presets, but if you absolutely must fiddle with the rest of the MPEG settings, choose Custom from the Presets menu. If you use one of the presets, you can simply click OK to close the Setup Options dialog box. Additional settings can only be adjusted if you choose Custom.

• Include video: You’ll want to leave this option checked unless you only want to generate an audio file.
• Filter video: If you’re working with a smaller frame size, check this option to smooth the appearance of the video image.
• Draft mode: Check this option if you just want to quickly produce a low-quality file for previewing purposes.
• Compression: Choose MPEG1 or MPEG2. Again, MPEG-2 can provide higher quality, but it requires special player software. MPEG-2 is used on movie DVDs.
• Width and height: Select a frame size for your video image here. Smaller frame sizes mean smaller files.
• Data rate: Most of the time you can leave these sliders alone, but you can use them to fine-tune the quality and file size.

The slider on the left controls video data rate, and the slider on the right controls audio data rate. The Make MPEG File tab of the Setup Options dialog box also includes a couple of audio settings. Audio options are

• Include audio: Uncheck this option if you only want to output video.
• Sample rate: 44.1 kHz is CD quality, but most digital camcorders can record at 48 kHz. The higher the sample rate, the higher the audio quality (and file size).
• Data Rate: Use this slider to fine-tune the quality of the audio. Slide it left to reduce quality and file size, or slide it right to increase quality and file size. As you adjust the slider, you see the number in the Kbits/sec box change. Generally I recommend leaving the Data Rate slider alone unless you really need to squeeze a couple more kilobytes of file size out of your movie file.

Decoding codecs

Digital video contains a lot of data. If you were to copy uncompressed digital video onto your hard disk, it would consume 20 MB (megabytes) for every second of video. Simple arithmetic tells us that one minute of uncompressed video would use over 1GB. Even with a 60GB hard drive, you would have room for only about 50 minutes of uncompressed video, assuming that big drive was empty to begin with. Dire though this may seem, storage isn’t even the biggest problem with uncompressed video. Typical hard drive busses and other components in your computer simply can’t handle a transfer rate of 20MB per second, meaning that some video frames will be dropped from the video.
To deal with the massive bandwidth requirements of video, digital video is compressed using compression schemes called codecs (compressor/decompressor). The DV codec, which is used by most digital camcorders, compresses video down to 3.6MB per second. This data rate is far more manageable than uncompressed video, and most modern computer hardware can handle it without trouble. When you capture DV video from a camcorder using a FireWire interface, a minute of video consumes just over 200MB of hard disk space. Again, most modern computers can manage that. Why do codecs matter to you? When you choose a file format for exporting your movie, you’re also usually choosing a codec to compress your movie (whether you realize it or not). Usually your export software automatically chooses a codec for you, but as you’ve seen in this chapter, you can also usually choose a specific codec if you wish. Some codecs compress video more than others. Generally speaking, the more video is compressed, the more quality you lose. In most cases I recommend you use the default codec chosen by Studio (or whatever program you are using) when you select an export format.

Choosing AVI Settings in Pinnacle Studio

The AVI format was developed several eons ago by Microsoft as the file format of Video for Windows video files. AVI files can use one of several codecs to compress video. Codecs control exactly how the audio and video is compressed. As you can see in Figure, Studio’s Setup Options dialog box makes it pretty easy to choose a codec or modify other settings.
The video settings include

• Include Video in AVI File: I’m guessing you’ll want to leave this option checked for 99.9975% of all your projects. If you uncheck this option, only audio will be included in the file.
• List All Codecs: I recommend you leave this option unchecked. Many multimedia programs install codecs on your computer, and if you check the “List all codecs” option, each and every codec installed on your PC will appear in the list, even ones that aren’t compatible with Studio.
• Options: Some codecs have further options you can adjust. I generally recommend that you don’t mess with these options.
• Compression: This menu allows you to choose a codec. Many multimedia programs install codecs on your computer, so the list of codecs may vary depending on what is installed on your computer. The Cinepak codec (which comes with Studio) is pretty good for all around use, and is particularly recommended for movies that will be recorded onto a CD.
• Width and Height: These indicate the size of your video image in pixels. Full-size DV-format video is 720 by 480 pixels. Reducing the size of the picture can greatly reduce the file size, but make sure you keep the ratio between the height and width the same, or your video image may look distorted.
• Frames/Second: This controls the frame rate of the video file. Full-quality DV-format video uses a frame rate of 29.97 frames per second (fps). Reducing the frame rate decreases playback quality, but it also greatly reduces file size.
• Quality or Data Rate: This slider control isn’t available with all codecs, but when it is available, it allows you to adjust the quality up or down to control file size. A smaller data rate greatly reduces file size.

Exporting Your Movie to an AVI or MPEG with Pinnacle Studio

If you’re using Apple iMovie, QuickTime is the only file format available for export. If you’re using Pinnacle Studio, you have more options. To export your movie to an AVI or MPEG file:

1. In Studio, choose View➪Make Movie. The Make Movie screen appears.
2. Click either AVI or MPEG on the left side of the Make Movie window. Choose the format to which you want to export. Generally speaking, AVI (Audio Video Interleave) files are a little bigger than MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) files. Anyone with a semi-modern Windows PC should be able to view either format. Another benefit of choosing MPEG is that Macs can usually open them, whereas AVI files are usually not Mac-compatible.
3. Click the Settings button. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box appears, as shown in Figure. If you chose AVI in Step 2, the Make AVI File tab will be in front. If you chose MPEG in Step 2, the Make MPEG File tab will be in front.
4. Adjust settings and click OK. I’ll describe the various AVI and MPEG export settings in the following two sections.
5. Review the estimated file size above the Settings button in the Make Movie window. The estimated file size is just that — an estimate. It’s usually pretty close to what the final file size will be, but seldom exact. If the file seems too big, adjust settings so that the video picture is smaller or the audio quality is lower.
6. Click Create AVI File or Create MPEG file to create your movie.
7. In the dialog box that appears, choose a folder in which to save your movie, and give it a filename.
8. Click OK.

The export process will probably take a few seconds or even minutes, depending on the length of your movie and the number of effects. One reason you might want to export a movie as an AVI or MPEG file is if you plan to edit it using other software. For example, if I want to export a movie for the Web in Windows Media Video (WMV) format, I prefer to use the export feature in Windows Movie Maker. When I’m done editing in Studio, I export the movie in AVI format, which can be easily imported into Movie Maker. After the AVI file is imported into Windows Movie Maker, I use that program to export a WMV file.
AVI is a good format to use if you want to export video for many Windowsbased video-editing programs, including Windows Movie Maker or Adobe Premiere for Windows, but you may find that some editing programs prefer MPEG. Pinnacle’s Hollywood FX Pro, for example, works better with MPEGformat video. And of course, if you plan to use the exported file on a Mac, you’ll find that the MPEG format will be much more compatible with Mac multimedia software.
If you aren’t sure whether you have a specific need for one format or the other, it probably doesn’t matter very much which one you choose. AVI files are usually a little bigger than MPEG files, but as I said earlier, if you’re concerned about file sizes — say, for example, you plan to share the movie on the Internet — you really ought to be exporting the movie in a Web-friendly format like RealVideo or Windows Media.