movies [1]: Compression minimal settings
If it is the first time you are going to create a QuickTime movie, please be aware that this is not an easy matter. Since there is already a lot of information written on QuickTime movies, we recommend you take a look at these other sources. The best thing you can do, is to download the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about QuickTime from Charles Wiltgen. You will find most of the information you need to know in this document.
Then you need a good compression tool. The best on the market, and believe me there is no competition, currently is Movie Cleaner Pro. Advantages:
- Is very accurate in compression: when you set the maximum transfer rate (ex. 180 Kbytes) it will come very closely to this value.
- Very easy to use, even for first time users.
- Batch compression
- Support for IMA sound compression.
Important: Also on their site they have an excellent introduction on how to create fantastic movies: http://terran-int.com/QTInfo/MMMIntro.html
movies [1]: Compression minimal settings
If your minimal configuration will be a double speed CD-ROM drive PC, be sure that the data rate of your movie doesn't surpass the maximum settings, like 185 Kbytes/sec. The easiest way to verify this is to use MoviePlayer:
Figure 12: Movie Player Get Info windowBe aware that this is an average value. If you want to be completely sure, use more dedicated tools like, MovieAnalyzer, because they will show a graph of the complete movie. This allows you to locate transfer rate peaks.
movies [2]: Compression codec 
Most of the time you will choose Cinepak compression because this will give you the best value for video. But if you're working with computer generated animations, the Graphics or Animation codecs may give better results.
movies [3]: Scaling. 
When you see slow performance with a QuickTime movie, verify that the width and height of the movie object on screen matches the real width and height of the movie. When a movie needs to do scaling during playback it takes more CPU time. You will notice this especially on the Windows platform.
Some scaling factors are allowed: Pixel Doubling (double the size) and half the size. These scaling factors are optimized by QuickTime. If you playback in double size there is a lot more data to be moved to the screen. Always verify the speed on the minimum configuration you have chosen.
movies [4]: Width/Height position. 
Some of these compression algorithms play back faster if the width and height of your movie is a multiple of 4. So always verify which compressor you are using and what its best settings are. The same is true for the position on the screen; it is the same with pictures so please take a look at tip picture[10].
movies [5]: Movies open slow. 
QuickTime movies are always slow in opening. When QuickTime opens a movie it needs some vital information before it gives back control to your AMT title. When your movie is stored as a flattened cross-platform movie, this vital information is stored at the end of the movie. On a CD-ROM it means that we are dealing with the seek problem. Thanks to the Internet the QuickTime engineers saw this problem too, and in QuickTime 2.5 this will be fixed. QuickTime movies, however, will always be slow in opening.
The best way to avoid this problem is to not open too many movies on the same AMT screen.
In some circumstances you can do better. For example, if your movies all have the same resolution, create only one movie, and play the necessary sections. What to do:
- place a picture of the first frame of every movie on your background image
- place the movie at the right position of the screen.
- with the Go to Time command go to the right section of the movie
- show the movie
- play the movie until a certain frame.
movies [6]: Sound Track Only movie
If your QuickTime movie contains only a sound track please take a look at the Sound section, because maybe you can use ambient sounds.
movies [7]: Don't place buttons above your QuickTime movies.
When buttons need an update, all the media that intersects with this media needs to be redrawn. In most cases this is the background image. If it is a QuickTime movie this can take some time.
movies [8]: When you playback avoid doing screen updates.
This is more a remark for AMT PE developers, because you can't access this command in AMT. In AMT PE you can call the function InvalidateAll(), if you do this it will mark the complete object for redraw. If this happens on a background image, the complete screen will be redrawn. When this happens while you are playing back a movie this can interrupt the movie.
movies [9]: Use QuickTime 2.5 for flattening movies.
Since QuickTime 2.5, flattening of movies is done in the correct way: the vital information that QuickTime needs to open a movie is stored in the beginning of the file. This results in better performance when opening a movie from CD-ROM.
http://www.QuickTimeFAQ.org/ Charles Wiltgen's Frequently Asked Questions about QuickTime, current version is 0.45. This is a must for any beginner. http://www.terran-int.com/ The web site of Terran Interactive the developer's of Movie Cleaner Pro. It contains some useful links to other Internet sites about QuickTime. You can download a Shareware version of Movie Cleaner Pro 1.2. http://quicktime.apple.com/ Apple Computer's official QuickTime site. The QuickTime home page contains the latest version of QuickTime, developer information, sample QuickTime content, and more. http://www.film.queensu.ca/310/310Cinepak.html This page shows still frames from Cinepak files rendered in slightly different ways from the same source material. http://www.horizons.com/ This site contains some information about a third party compression codec for QuickTime: TrueMotion-S. This codec can give you, in certain conditions, better compression. So if you are not satisfied with the free codecs, check this out. On their web-site you can find a list of helpful tips on how to compress your QuickTime movies for good playback on different configurations. QuickTime: The Official Guide for Macintosh Users Book and CD-ROM enable you to create, edit, and play QuickTime movies on your Macintosh. Get started with basics then move to advanced tasks.
MoviePlayer 2.1 Most of you may not know this, but MoviePlayer not only plays back movies it is also a very powerful QuickTime editing program. Please make sure you have the complete MoviePlayer package. Besides the application MoviePlayer, you have to store in the same folder the plug-ins "Authoring Extras" and "Goodies". These plug-ins give you a lot more information when you analyze your QuickTime movies. (free) Movie Cleaner Pro 1.2 From Terran Interactive, this is the best QuickTime compression tool on the market. Very easy to use even for beginners in QuickTime. It allows you to do batch compression. If you go to their home page you can download a Shareware version. This version is not PowerPC native and lacks some advanced features. (Price: look at their web site) Used by all professional QuickTime developers. Adobe Premiere 4.2 From Adobe, Video Editing program. Adobe AfterEffects 3.1 From Adobe, Video Editing program. Strata VideoShop From Strata, Video Editing program. Dumpster 1.0 From Apple Computer, this tool allows you to analyze special movie data. Only used by programmers, and QuickTime hackers. (free) MovieInfo Pro 3.0.1 Powerful tool to analyze your movies' playback capabilities. (Shareware) MovieAnalyzer V1.1.5 From Apple Computer, tool to analyze your movies' playback capabilities (free)
