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Appendix A | Appendix B | Appendix C | Glossary | Index | Legal Stuff | License


Chapter 4 - Compressing for CD-ROM Tutorial


Before We Start

Before we get started, we'd like to point out a couple of very useful features in Media Cleaner.

System Configuration Log

Media Cleaner can check your hardware and software to create a System Configuration Log. This log tells you what version of QuickTime you have, how much memory is installed, your MacOS version, and more.

Once you launch Media Cleaner, try choosing the "Save system configuration log" option from the Apple Help menu (the little question mark near the far right of the menu bar). This will prompt you for a name and location, and then create a text file with the information in it. Double click this log file to view the details of your system configuration. If you don't have the latest version of QuickTime, you may wish to install it from the Media Cleaner Pro 2.0 CD-ROM.

The log also displays your serial number. If you ever need to contact Terran for a technical support issue, make sure to have this log handy - we'll need the information on it to help us track down your problems. If you email or fax us, be sure to include it there as well.

Online Resources

The Internet menu in Media Cleaner allows you easy access to several online resources. This menu contains useful items such as "Tech support", "Register/Update Address", "Codec Central", and "Terran's WWW site".

NOTE: If you haven't registered yet, please choose the "Registration" option now. This will launch your browser and take you to our short online registration form. Once you fill this out, you don't need to mail your registration card. You must be registered in order to get free technical support, so don't delay!

The other items in the Internet menu are useful for answering your support questions and showing you what new technologies are available. In fact, you may be eligible for special discounts as a Media Cleaner Pro owner in "Codec Central". Terran's WWW site is a very informative resource for multimedia developers and we recommend checking it out periodically.


Starting Tutorial 1

This tutorial will walk you through the basic steps needed to optimize and compress a movie for CD-ROM playback. The files you need are in the "Tutorial" folder on the Media Cleaner Pro 2.0 CD-ROM.


1. Starting up

The Media Cleaner Wizard will discuss your movie and desired results with you, and then create compression settings based on your needs.

After you launch Media Cleaner, the Media Cleaner Wizard window should be open. If it isn't, open it from the Windows menu.

The Wizard is now ready to guide you through the compression process. First you must select a movie to work with. To do this, click the "Open..." button. Media Cleaner will open a dialog box allowing you to locate the movie you want to compress. Choose the "Tutorial 1 - Source" movie from the "Tutorial" folder on the Media Cleaner Pro CD-ROM.

After you select this movie, Media Cleaner will analyze and open it. A warning may appear telling you that your settings cannot be saved to the movie because it is on a CD-ROM. This is normal when you open a source movie that can't be modified, such as a locked file, or one from a CD. Press "OK" to continue.

A Source Movie window will then appear, and you can see the original movie's data rate, compression method, etc. See Chapter 8 for more information on this movie data.

NOTE: If you try to play this movie, it will be "jerky" because the data rate of this movie is very high (about 1.3 MB per second), and the JPEG codec is not suited for real-time playback of high data rate movies.



2. Interview

The Wizard will now ask you a series of questions. These questions will help Media Cleaner determine specific information about the movie you want to compress and the computer system on which you intend to play the movie. Each page of questions is grouped by topic.

There are two buttons at the bottom of the Wizard window to help you navigate through the interview. "Go Back" will return you to the previous page, so that you can change your answers. "Continue" will accept the current answers and move on to the next page. You can also press the "Enter" key to move to the next page.

Notice that on the left side of the window the Wizard explains some general information about the questions it is currently asking you.

On the first page, select "CD-ROM" for your desired movie use.

Then, answer the questions as you like, moving through the interview with the "Continue" button.



3. Compress

After you've answered all its questions, the Wizard creates the appropriate settings for your movie. When the Wizard shows you a summary of these settings, you are ready to begin compression. Click the "Start" button to begin the compression process.

Media Cleaner will prompt you for a name and destination for the final compressed movie. Use the "New Folder" button to make a folder on your desktop called "Tutorial 1 results," and name the movie "T1.mov". Media Cleaner will start compressing your movie.



4. Suspending Compression

Once the compression begins, the "Suspend" and "Resume" buttons in the Status Bar will become active. Chapter 10 explains in detail how to use the suspend and resume features of Media Cleaner.

After waiting for about half of the movie to compress, press the "Suspend" button. Notice how the controls under the movie change from the Before/After Preview slider to the standard QuickTime controls. You can play back the portion of your movie that has been compressed up to the point at which you suspended the compression.



5. Watching Your Movies

You can view your movie after it is suspended or finished compressing by using the standard QuickTime controls below the movie.

NOTE: As mentioned earlier, the uncompressed Source movie will not play smoothly, due to the high data rate of the file. However, the final compressed Output movie should play smoothly.



6. Resuming Compression

When you are done watching the partially compressed movie, press "Resume" to continue the compression until it is done.

Notice how Media Cleaner starts back up where you originally left off, instead of starting over. Media Cleaner will chime when it has finished the whole compression.



7. That's It!

By following these simple steps, you've created a compressed movie that is ready for inclusion on a CD-ROM product. You can watch this movie on the desktop by double-clicking it ­ this will launch Apple's MoviePlayer.




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