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From:
James Womack Date: Fri Mar 10, 2000 10:47 am Subject: Re: Making QuickTime Video Clips | ||||||||||||||||
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----- Original Message ----- From: "Valerie Sutton" To: Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 10:44 AM Subject: Making QuickTime Video Clips > On 3/9/00, Angus B. Grieve-Smith wrote: > > To create a video clip your computer needs a video capture card; I > >don't know if Mark has one or not. Most cards come with software to edit > >the clips and convert them to QuickTime or .avi format. True, for Mac machines, with IBM however, the mostly used format is MPEG. The mostly found hardware to insert into an IBM compatible can be found in almost any store from Wal-Mart to CompUSA. Matter of fact, I have the Dazzler Kit. However, I will replace this with something else after I investigate other options more. Dazzler is good but for me, too awkward and inconsistent in function. The short time I used Quicktime ( a time limited sample I got off some site ), I experienced the same inconsistencies I did with Dazzler. But when either worked, they both did well. Suggestion: Video card should be 32MB memory to handle the graphic demands other the CPU will work harder = slower machine. > > I've been emailing video files to my professor at UNM, and I've > >found that they can get pretty big: depending on the frame rate, > >resolution and color depth they can be over a megabyte for a few seconds > >of video. It turns out that by using a compression program, I can reduce > >that to under 100KB per second of video. Zip compression works for > >Windows and Unix, and Mac users can use Stuffit. > -Angus B. Grieve-Smith For IBMs again, I think the best programs for compressing really large files is LHA (aka LZH), a Japanese program. I don't use it much now but it was always superior at compressing files. Friends on Fidonet (the few I keep in touch with via BBS) assure me, the best just got better with a new version calld LHA260, I think. ARJ also does a better job than zip last time I bothered to check. The easiest archiving shell to use is Winzip (the full version which I finally got) but advise to get its companion, Winzip Extractor so you can make compressed files open themselves and operate in case the receiving party doesn't have an uncompression program or doesn't know how to use it. > --------------------------------- > > SignWriting List > March 9, 2000 > Thank you, Angus, for this great information. It was just what I > needed to know. > So a computer has to have a video card to be able to create the > QuickTime movies? - that makes sense. Let me not dare to presume to know more than Angie about Quicktime or Macs. However, I do believe that like IBMs, you must have a video editing program married to your video card. The card can't do anything without instructions from the software. To this end, I have Dazzler Video Creator, which came with its own video editing software, plus ULEAD Studio. Remove these and my 16MB Diamond video card, Dazzler itself, and my VCR to computer connection (for transferring video from analog into digital form on computer) would be just junk. > I guess other computers can still read the QuickTime movies, even if > they don't have a video card?...they just can't create them, without > a video card...is that correct? Well, two things here. Read the movies and craete the movies are two different beasts. All computers have a video card. That's how you are able to see what is on the monitor. Think of your card as an interpreter who translate computerese into monitorian. Without it, you'd be looking at a black screen. Now, creating videoes requires something with more muscle or functionality. You're talking about handling graphic data which gets huge and fast and I think a different set of data signals. A little 1MB video card will get swamped, 8MB card would do better but still be hard pressed, 16MB card can probably handle a lot (like mine) for most uses, but a 32MB card is what you'd prefer fo a smoother display and less burden on your CPU. Humbly accepting any correction Angie might offer, here's how it works in a nutshell. Creation: You either have a videotape and a VCR to computer link via hardware like an external device or yoru video card has this built in function so you only poke in the proper wire terminal. VCR feeds the video onto your hard drive or directly into the program. You use the program to edit the video and play it back to test your editing. You can add special effects, remove frames, add frames from other clips etc. OR you can do all this via a direct videocamera to computer link into the same card or external device. Short talk: Somethibng must put the video into teh computer before you can fiddle with it. The video card doesn't create. It translate data for the monitor to display it. It reducing the CPU's workload in this aspect. It determines how well your digitalized video will display. Example, my home computer with 16MB on teh card, videos are nearly life like. At office with 8MB card, videos have a micro-slow motion quality thats is not distracting but can be seen an depending on what is on video, can get jerky in spots. Warning: Video files are inherently large, I mean huge, I mean gigantic, I mean cosmic-sized. Usually, you have to put them on your hard drive first before you begin editing them. So you better have plenty of hard drive space to work with any video editing you do. > Since the files are likely to become very large, I personally vote > not to get into making Quicktime movies for the SignWriting List > work, since .GIF's and attached .SGN files seem to be working...do > you agree with me? Any other suggestions? I am inclined to agree, but with a really good compression program and enough people who understand how to use it, maybe having Quicktime or MPEG files is not wholly bad. Maybe instead of putting them onto the list, put them on reserve in the SW website for people to download, thatway you can probably put two versions (QT and MPEG) so IBM and mac folks can use them. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ squirrel (\__/) .~ ~.)) /O O ./ .' {O__, \ / . . ) \ |-| '-' \ ( _( )_.' https://www.education.eku.edu/Sed/faculty/womack/default.htm | ||||||||||||||||
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