what the heck is h.264?

if you've gotten this far with your blipvert, you're probably wondering what the heck is this h.264 that i keep talking about. h.264, at its simplest, is the best codec (coder/decoder) available at the moment which will compress your video into the smallest file with the best resolution possible. this helps mostly if you're going to be submitting your blipvert over the ftp site and you want to reduce the filesize. please note that at 30 seconds, your file size will probably be at about 100Mb at the DV codec - so if you're ok with that, then i'm ok with that. if 100Mbs is too big, then please use h.264 to shrink your file size down for uploading.

i'm sad to report that i only know about h.264 from the mac route. if you happen to use a pc, then get your blipvert to me in whatever way you can and i'll try to figure out how to use see it on my end. the only warning is that if i can't see it on my mac, i'll be harassing you for a different codec.

here's the easiest instructions i can think of if you're on the mac and you want to encode into h.264 before you upload it to ftp site.

export from imovie to DV:

goto file -->export

export: to quicktime

formats: full quality dv

once you've exported your quicktime, then go to quicktime

goto file-->open file (select your file)

file -->export

export: movie to quicktime movie

click on 'options'

click on 'settings'

compression type: h.264

frame rate: 30 (is probably good, but you might want to experiment - 15fps is generally good for animation/timelapse)

key frames: automatic

date rate: automatic

quality: high

encoding: best quality (multi-pass)

click 'ok'

filter: none

click 'ok'

size: ntsc 720x480 4:30 (note, this will be different if you are exporting at 16:9)

'prepare for internet streaming' should be un-checked

click 'ok'

click 'save'