Quick Tricks with MPEG Streamclip

About the .mov files created by the Olympus Digital Cameras <>

Exporting a portion of a .mov file <>

Exporting an H.263 Web-Compatible QuickTime Movie (QT7 installed) <>

Exporting an H.263 Web-Compatible QuickTime Movie (QT6 installed) <>

Adjusting Image Brightness, Contrast and Color Saturation in QT movie <>

About the .mov files created by the Olympus Digital Cameras

Open one of the .mov files created by your Olympus digital camera in QuickTime Player. Under Window, select Get Movie Info. From the info in the window. one can ascertain that the .mov file is an Apple Photo JPEG format (movie) with a frame size of 320 pixels (wide) and 240 pixels (high). The frame rate is 15 frames per second and the data rate is about 2400 kbits/second. These “Photo-JPEG” format movie files are fairly web-compatible as-is. With a free program called, MPEG Streamclip, one can create “best of” clips for uploading to Pantherfile without having to import them into another video application such as AvidFreeDV or QuickTime Pro. When clips are made this way, the original format is retained—and the quality of the copy is identical to the original.

Exporting a portion of a .mov file and maintaining original file format

1. Its best to first make a “safety” copy of the .mov file you are exporting a segment from. Do this by highlighting it in the Finder and pressing Command-D (or Right-Click Copy + Paste in PC). Rename the copy usefully. Open the .mov file in Streamclip.

2. Place the current position marker at the moment where you want your exported segment to BEGIN.

and press the “i” (for “In”) key.

3. Place the current position marker at the moment where you want your exported segment to END.

and press the “O” (for “Out”) key.

4. The darkened area along the progress line is the portion you have marked.

5. Under the Edit menu, select, “Trim.” This excludes everything but the portion you have marked in the timeline.

6. Under File, select “Save-As.” Enter a modified name in the “Save-As:” cell. Leave the setting at “MOV” in the Pull-Down window at the bottom. Navigate to the folder where the original files are and click “Save.”

7. Open the movie in QuickTime Player or MPEG Streamclip and make sure it plays etc. Make sure it has the “.mov” extension at the end. This file can by uploaded to your pubic/media folder and linked to your blog.

Exporting an H.263 Web Compatible QuickTime Movie (QuickTime 7.1 installed)

Because QuickTime is at its core, you can also use MPEG Streamclip for some of the tasks you might perform with AvidFreeDV and QuickTime pro including exporting a movie in the H263 format that is very web-compatible. Once you enter the QT interface, the steps are indentical.

The following Steps apply only when you have QuickTime 7.1 on your computer.

Steps for QuickTime version 6.5 are here.

1. Open-up the movie you wish to export in the H.263 format in MPEG Streamclip. It can be a large QuickTime movie file in the DV format, a .mov file from your camera—any of these: MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AVR, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2**, MPA, AC3... For MPEG-2 and DivX and WMV playback and conversion see the MPEG Streamclip site info under requirements in the Mac and Windows sections [htm]

2. Under File, select Export to QuickTime Movie: (or APPLE+E or COMMAND+E)

3. In the window that opens, make the following settings:

3. Click on “Make Movie.” In the navigation/save window that opens, give the movie a name making sure it ends with the extension “.mov” and navigate to the location where you wish to store the movie. Click, “Save,” and check the resulting movie to make sure it plays correctly. If the movie needs overall adjustment in lightness or darkness of color correction, it is possible to make these alterations as you export the movie. The steps for this are in the next section.

4. If you upload this QuickTime movie to a server like your PantherFile account, when you navigate to it with your browser, it will play embedded in a plain gray window with controls including volume.

Above: A 320 X 240 QuickTime movie” embedded” for playback in a browser window.

The volume control may be activated by clicking on the small speaker icon in the bottom left

Adjusting Exported QuickTime Movie Image Brightness, Contrast & Color Saturation

1. If your movie is too bright or to dark or the colors are too dull or overly saturated, open up your movie as instructed above, but before you click “Save,” click on the “Adjustments” button to open up some image settings.

2. Unlike QuickTime Pro, there is not a way to see what the changes do until you perform a Preview, so make the adjustments, click OK and then click on “Preview.” An “Exporter Preview” window will open and a test movie will be generated in this window for you to evaluate.

3. Click on Adjustments again and change settings as needed. Below is an example of a original footage of snow on the left and a brightness adjusted copy of it on the right.

4. Compare your settings to these overall settings before you click, “Make Movie”

Exporting an H.263 Web Compatible QuickTime Movie (QuickTime 6.5 installed)

3. Play a little bit of the to make sure it plays with sound etc. If so, under “File,” select, “Export to QuickTime.” In the window that opens, click on the “Compression” pull-down menu at the top. From the list that opens, select “Apple MPEG4 Compressor.”

3. If the project has sound, under “Sound” select, IMA 4:1, Stereo and “Auto.” If it has no sound, select “No Sound.”

2. Under “Frame Size” make sure that “320 X 240 (unscaled)” is checked.

5. Leave the “Frame Rate” cell blank if you do not want to change the frame rate. One exception might be to reduce the file size of a 720X480 movie that was made in AvidFreeDV or Final Cut Pro. In this case enter “15” for 15 frames per second which a very common web movie frame rate.

6. Click Make Movie. In the navigation window that opens, select the location you wish to save your movie. Note that Streamclip has assigned the movie file a .mov suffix. Do not change this!

7. Click “Save” to create your movie. Them H.263 encoding progress will be displayed on the screen. Make sure he movie has a “.mov” extension in the file name, it plays correctly and looks good before uploading it.

Rob Danielson Mar 2007