[Steve Ritter]

I'd like to add some video captured from the computer screen to an iMovie (the movie also includes some camera video). My process has been:

1 - capture the screen using SnapzPro (with Cinepak compression, though I've tried others)
2 - use Quicktime Pro to convert the quicktime video into a DV stream
3 - import the DV stream file into iMovie.

Although the screen video looks great, converting it to a DV stream makes it so blurry that the text is unreadable. Am I doing something wrong here? Is there a better way to do this?

[ 12-21-2001: Message edited by: Steve Ritter ]

[ph@lmi.net]

your process seems somewhat like making a billboard out of a postage stamp.

i do not use snapz pro, so i cannot say how well or what it does for compression, or if using higher-quality codecs would limit the frame rate grabbed, but at the fx i house i work at, we use animation codec with no compression when moving between image formats. it doesn't even try to squash the quality or file size. and we use 640x480 - which is then matted at 720x480 for DV conversion (@29.97 fps).

file dimensions and codec choice will be critical in your conversions. good luck, and maybe a snapz-head will come to your rescue soon.

[Steve Ritter]

Thanks. I don't think this has anything to do with Snapz Pro, though I'm willing to try something different if that will help. I should say that that the output is to be distributed on CD (Quicktime), so maybe the best option is to edit the video in iMovie and then splice in the quicktime video of the screen, but then I'd have to worry about inserting a soundtrack and subtitles over the quicktime. I don't want to have to go to new and/or expensive tools -- this is just supposed to be a quick project for work.

[C.J. Moof]

I've done Snapz videos, and found Graphics codec to work best. I have hour long 800x600 movies with sound that are only 125 megs, with a PureVoice soundtrack. Recording in 256 colors helps a lot too.

I too saw the squishy problem in iMovie. I ended up trimming tracks just using QT Pro instead. I didn't need to combine my screen video with DV camera source footage, so I just left it at QT Pro.

FWIW, I just did a quick test by importing my Graphics codec source material into FCP3, and it looks pretty good. Unfortunately, iMovie only brings in DV video.

[Steve Ritter]

After browsing through Apple's Quicktime boards, I've discovered the answer. In the "video track" properties of the DV file, you need to check "high quality enabled". This instantly makes the text in the movie readable (still not as clear as the original, but acceptable).

I'm a novice at this, but this seems so bizarre to me that I'm hoping someone can explain what's really going on here. Checking "high quality" doesn't change the file size. Why wouldn't you always want high quality? Even if high quality does have some negative consequences (requires higher playback resources?), why wouldn't it be the default?

[Steve Ritter]

Originally posted by Steve Ritter:
<STRONG>After browsing through Apple's Quicktime boards, I've discovered the answer. In the "video track" properties of the DV file, you need to check "high quality enabled". This instantly makes the text in the movie readable (still not as clear as the original, but acceptable).

I'm a novice at this, but this seems so bizarre to me that I'm hoping someone can explain what's really going on here. Checking "high quality" doesn't change the file size. Why wouldn't you always want high quality? Even if high quality does have some negative consequences (requires higher playback resources?), why wouldn't it be the default?</STRONG>

Well, this is really frustrating. If I check the "high quality" box, then iMovie won't let me import the DV stream!

Is this deliberate (and maybe FCP allows importing DV streams with high quality) or is there something fundamental about "high quality" that makes it incompatible?

Any other suggestions?

[Steve Ritter]

Originally posted by Steve Ritter:
<STRONG>

Well, this is really frustrating. If I check the "high quality" box, then iMovie won't let me import the DV stream!

Is this deliberate (and maybe FCP allows importing DV streams with high quality) or is there something fundamental about "high quality" that makes it incompatible?

Any other suggestions?</STRONG>

I've managed to answer my own question (turns out that Apple's iMovie bboard was the place to look -- also see this knowledgebase article). "High quality" is just a playback option; it doesn't affect the quality of the underlying data. Quicktime can't normally keep up with the data requirements of "high quality" DV, so quicktime apps (including iMovie) use the low quality mode. When you export to DV, everything looks good (or else, you can check off "high quality" in the resulting QT movie). So, basically, I should just ignore the fuzziness, since I can make it go away in the final product.