Forums | MacLife

Viking Zippy · 2005-07-28 3:45 pm

I've been making some movies in Halo with some of my clan members (using Snapz Pro X2), and after carefully adding music, editing the time, and creating credits (using QuickTime Pro and iMovie), I exported to MPEG4, which, while it was playable on the Macs that a few members are on, didn't work on any of the PCs.

I've got credits at the end that consist of only one frame (it all fits in one), and since these short (5-15 seconds) movies are going to go on our clan website, they need to be under 2 or so megs each. Problem is, I can do AVI and keep an 8 second movie at 2 megs (compared to MPEG4 at 800k), but it's impossible to read the text at the end and the general quality is horrible.

So, I was wondering, what should I export these movies as if I want them to be under 3 megs, have readable text, and playable on a PC?

Thanks again,

-- VZ

resedit · 2005-07-28 4:16 pm

Why can't the pc's play them?
Doesn't QuickTime work on PC's?

Superman · 2005-07-28 4:39 pm

yeah quicktime should work on a PC...

Viking Zippy · 2005-07-28 4:42 pm

I don't think it's QuickTime so much as MPEG4 ... are there any other decent formats I could possibly export to? Plain old MPEG isn't on the list.

the W'rkncacnter · 2005-07-28 6:31 pm

I think the problem is on the PC end, they need to get the correct plugins and everything. If they've had their PCs for a long time they probably have a pre-mpeg4 versions of quicktime.

Viking Zippy · 2005-07-28 6:41 pm

So, by all means, it should be compatible? I was wondering if there were any other decent formats.

the W'rkncacnter · 2005-07-28 6:46 pm

It should be, yes. You can use many other formats. There's .mpg, .avi, .mov... I would say that .mpg would be the most compatable across platforms. I think that's mpeg-1.

Viking Zippy · 2005-07-28 6:55 pm

That's the odd thing, because there's only MPEG4 on the list as far as I can tell.

unresort · 2005-07-28 9:10 pm

right, QTPro does not offer you the ability to export to mpeg1 or mpeg2, you need to get other software to do that.

for example, here's a popular one called MPEG2 Works-->
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17019
it's $30 and is probably the cheapest app that does this.

most others start at around $150 and go up from there in price.

Jill · 2005-07-28 9:27 pm

what is wrong with you people? no one uses mpeg on a website, unless it's compressed to smurf, because the files are huge. And mpeg4 requires quicktime... the majority of PCs do not have quicktime installed.

Get a dix encoder to encode your files to divx avi files. Every PC will play it fine, and the filesize will be much smaller

windigo · 2005-07-28 11:54 pm

Either avi or Mov

unresort · 2005-07-29 7:00 am

Jill you are correct 100%, i was simply answering the post above mine about QT and MPEG options.

smurf, i wouldn't put anything on the web unless it was a DivX encoded .mov or in rare cases .swf files (from well compressed .flv files)

the W'rkncacnter · 2005-07-29 4:14 pm

Jill wrote:
what is wrong with you people?

I was beaten as a child.

Viking Zippy · 2005-07-29 4:57 pm

I tried DivX AVI, but there's no sound to it -- it's a Halo video so people will need to hear the weapons and car crunches, and AVI is too big if I want it to look good. I'm stuck hmm

Nitrofox125 · 2005-07-29 6:12 pm

Yes, .mp4 files are playable by PCs, but they need to have (I think Quicktime 6 is the minimum), but they can't be played in the web browser. The user has to actually right click on the link, download it, and then open it with Quicktime.

You may want to look into Flash Video, like unresort said. It takes a bit of experimentation with the settings to get the compression to look good while keeping the file small, but once you embed it in a .swf file, it can be played by anybody that can view Flash. The encoding kit is free and works with Quicktime, though you'll need Flash (perhaps Pro) to create the .swf file. Or you may be able to find something on FlashKit that can take a video that you send it.

Viking Zippy · 2005-07-30 9:19 am

Hmm, all I was really wondering was what I should export as from QuickTime or iMovie; it would be great to do this all with the existing software I have.

Forums | MacLife

#1 2005-07-28 3:45 pm

If not MPEG4, then what?

#2 2005-07-28 4:16 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#3 2005-07-28 4:39 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#4 2005-07-28 4:42 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#5 2005-07-28 6:31 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#6 2005-07-28 6:41 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#7 2005-07-28 6:46 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#8 2005-07-28 6:55 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#9 2005-07-28 9:10 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#10 2005-07-28 9:27 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#11 2005-07-28 11:54 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#12 2005-07-29 7:00 am

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#13 2005-07-29 4:14 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

Jill wrote:

#14 2005-07-29 4:57 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#15 2005-07-29 6:12 pm

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

#16 2005-07-30 9:19 am

Re: If not MPEG4, then what?

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