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Question: Once again.. thank you. I need to save the video in QT, so Im doing a screen recording to recapture it... sound OK?
Asked by William Rosenblatt on 2010-08-05 12:41:02

Answer: If VLC can open it, it can export it directly in a wide range of formats including H264.

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Question: I have a video file which was recorded on a propriety system (Karl Storz Medical) which I can play on a windows machine with WMP, but can not open on my MAC with the following QT10, QT7pro, FCE, WMP for mac, MPEG streamclip. Any idea?
Asked by William Rosenblatt on 2010-08-05 09:19:36

Answer: Try VLC. It can be downloaded at www.videolan.org/vlc. If that doesn't open it, it's not likely anything will.

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Thank you.. your solution worked!
Asked by William Rosenblatt on 2010-07-23 13:53:49

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Question: Suddenly, director refuses to open my external editor for photos (CS3), and I want to try removing CS3 from my external editors list, and then re-adding it to the list.- and try again. But director wont let me remove it. - any ideas ? CS3 is otherwise working great (independent of director)
Asked by William Rosenblatt on 2010-07-23 12:54:43

ANSWER: Short of deleting your Director preferences, try this. You have to fool Director to get it to forget an external editor. Choose Preferences>Editors and click on the file type in question. Click Edit. Click Browse, and browse to a different App other that Photoshop CS3... an older version of Photoshop or even Preview. Click OK and OK again. You can then repeat that action and Browse to Photoshop CS3 on your hard drive. Be aware that there are multiple file types you may have to do this for: PSD, TIFF, Pict, JPG, BMP, etc.

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Question: What's the best file or format for giving someone raw video footage on a dvd? I have someone requesting 2 hours of video on a 4.7 GB dvd. Should I use the quicktime conversion format that you recommended previously?
Asked by David D on 2010-05-27 12:19:34

ANSWER: If they are asking for the "raw footage", that indicates the video in it's original format, not recompressed. Typical SD video is about a GB per 5 minutes. Since a formatted DVD holds only 4.4GB, that's only a 22 minute capacity. A small portable harddrive is a better answer. 160GB bus powered drives start at about $70.

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Question: I'm working for a business that wants to upload high school aged soccer games on platforms such as Vimeo and Viddler. I followed your advice and exported my video in FCP (which was a 25 minute video) with Quicktime Conversion. The whole process was much quicker than using Compressor but it turned out to be 5 GB. I believe the original video is about 8 GB. Is it realistic to compress to 500 MB? Also, when using Quicktime Conversion, in options, do you keep the box "prepare for internet streaming" checked or uncheck it?
Asked by David Dikranian on 2010-05-18 13:58:00

ANSWER: The complexity of the video can have a big imapct on the final file size. Movement and complex backgrounds, (which you have) do not compress nearly as well without a greater loss in quality. Try this option: In Final Cut Pro, choose File>Export>Using QuickTime Conversion. Set the format to iPod (which uses the H264 codec). This is good quality and should be under 500mb for 30 minutes. It compresses in about real-time.

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Question: How can I compress a 25 to 30 minute video to under 500 MB with good quality? I'm editing in FCP
Asked by David Dikranian on 2010-05-12 15:37:23

ANSWER: A good quality codec to try is the H264 codec. You can access it within a program like Final Cut Pro under Edit>Export>Using QuickTime Conversion. Choose QuickTime movie. Click options. Click video settings and choose H264. Set to best quality. Click audio settings and set to stereo, 44kHz. Click OK then save the file.

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Question: How do you make PDFs from InDesign? Do you need to use Adobe Acrobat?
Asked by K. Philips on 2009-04-22 12:17:24

ANSWER: You can make excellent PDFs right from InDesign. First choose File>Export. Set the format to Adobe PDF. Name the file and choose where you want to save it and click Save. Choose a PDF preset from the dropdown menu (like Web or Press) or modify the settings yourself.

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Question: Our TV monitor(s) won't display the canvas video from FCP edited footage. Tried many drop down sett(...)
Asked by Patrick Vingo on 2009-01-14 23:18:59

ANSWER: In order for video to display on a TV, there are several conditions that must be met. 1. A camera, deck or other D/A converter must be Firewired (assuming DV footage) into the computer and turned on prior to launching FCP. If camera, make sure it is on VTR mode. 2. Your sequence preset (Sequence>Settings) must be set to the DV/DVCPro-NTSC Compressor. 3. Under the View Menu, make sure External Video is set to All Frames and Video Playback is set to Apple Firewire NTSC.

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Question: What is a layer mask?
Asked by Chris Wilson on 2009-01-10 13:53:16

ANSWER: A layer mask is a grayscale image that can be attached to any layer. It is used to create complex transparency on that layer. Black, white or shades of gray can be added or painted on the layer mask to create varying levels of transparency. Black = transparent, white= opaque, gray=translucent.