Before you get started with Movie Cleaner, you should be familiar with using a Macintosh computer. If you are not up to speed on using a Mac, we would like to suggest that you take the time to read over your Macintosh manuals and experiment a bit with your computer before diving into Movie Cleaner. You will also find a general familiarity with the basics of QuickTime to be helpful when using Movie Cleaner.
Stop by Terran Interactive's World Wide Web page (http://www.terran-int.com) for links to more information on QuickTime.
System Requirements
In order to use Movie Cleaner you must have .i.System 7.0; or later and .i.QuickTime 2.0; or later. You should also have 8 Mb of free memory for Movie Cleaner to run in. (You can compress most half-screen movies with only 6 Mb of application RAM, but 8 Mb is recommended) You should always leave 1 Mb of memory free for QuickTime .
It is recommended that you run Movie Cleaner with your monitor set to thousands or millions of colors. You must have Sound Manager 3.2 or later to use IMA audio compression.
Movie Cleaner Basics
Movie Cleaner is a video compression tool. This means that Movie Cleaner takes a QuickTime Movie and reduces it in size using the standard QuickTime codecs. For more information on video compression see Chapter 3 - Introduction to Video Compression.
Movie Cleaner Lite offers a unique combination of powerful features including:
窶｢ Batch Processing
窶｢ The Movie Expert
窶｢ Suspend & Resume
窶｢ Advanced Setting
窶｢ "Talking Heads" Filter
窶｢ Before/After Preview
Batch Processing
Setting up a batch has never been easier - simply drag and drop up to 2,000 movies onto Movie Cleaner's program icon and a batch list is automatically created for you. You can specify a global setting for all your movies, and even set individual movies differently. You can create a batch log for future reference of your compression. If Movie Cleaner Pro encounters an error, it will go on to the next movie instead of stopping.
The Movie Expert
The Movie Expert is an expert system based on the knowledge of dozens of QuickTime professionals. It discusses your movie and desired results with you, and then creates compression settings based on your needs. If you are a beginning user, this means you don't have to provide Movie Cleaner with technical details you may not know, such as data-rates and codec choice. If you are an experienced user, the Movie Expert double-checks your settings to make sure they are correct for your target platform.
Suspend & Resume
Video compression can take many hours for large movies, even with an efficient tool like Movie Cleaner. Movie Cleaner allows you to suspend your movie compression at any point and use your computer for other applications, and then resume compression when you choose. Movie Cleaner will also let you view the partially compressed video without affecting your ability to resume the compression. You can even shut down your computer and resume the compression once you start it back up.
Advanced Settings
Movie Cleaner gives you quick access to all the settings you need to make a QuickTime movie, such as codec selection, movie size, audio rates, A/V fades, and more. All settings are shown so that you can see what you need at a glance. This saves you time and cuts down on mistakes. You can even save your settings for future use, ensuring consistency from movie to movie.
"Talking Heads" Filter
The "Talking Heads" filter allows you to specify areas of your video that don't change much, such as the static background behind a newscaster. Movie Cleaner then makes sure that these areas do not get updated in the compression process. This means that the changing parts of your scene, such as the newscaster, look better because the codec is focused just on them.
Before /After Preview
Movie Cleaner's Before/After feature lets you compare your original uncompressed movie with your new compressed movie while you are compressing, so you can see exactly what the selected codec is doing to your image quality.
