FLASH: Making something thats close to DVD quality....

[Imagemodels]

Oh boy.... DVD uses an amazingly higher data transfer rate than you can get 

from a CD-ROM, which is the whole reason that you tolerate a DVD in the first 

place... its so much better at pulling data off the disc and onto the screen. 


I'm guessing that what they're trying to do is digitize their "reel" for 

distribution electronically... on a CD-ROM or online. You should probably 

have a "reduced expectations" meeting with these clients if they think they 

can get DVD quality on a CD-ROM. I'm doing a similar project for a web site 

now, and getting TV executives to accept the limitations of web-delivered 

video is not easy.


Director isnt going to be the tool that does what you need, though you might 

end up making a Flash or Director movie to showcase the video when you're 

done with the video portion.


Without getting into DVD too much, full-quality TV signals would mean either 

29.97 (US) or 25 (PAL) frames per second, and on a computer, 640 pixels wide 

by 480 pixels high. Sure, TV is a little different.. but thats the 

conventional "full screen" size for video on computers. If you use 16-30 bit 

color, and uncompressed stereo sound, you're looking at something like 130 

megabytes for a THIRTY SECOND clip... like a TV ad. So that would be what DVD 

could do... without DVD, you're going to have to compress the bejezus out of 

it, and make some sacrifices.


You're going to have to pick accepting a lower frame rate, say 10 or 15 

frames per second, and maybe a smaller size... 320 x 240 (half size) is 

common... and compression. The Codec (compressor) you use will depend on 

other comprimises youre willing to make.. if youre willing to say "bye" to 

older PCs and Macs, and go for the newer faster generation, you can get 

better compression. Then there's the audio... there are many options right 

there. I find that I can get a 30-second clip down to 3 Mb or so and still 

meet their very high expectations... and lower if you dont mind watching a 

jerky, moving, postage stamp.


Look into Media Cleaner Pro, from Terran. Its one of the very best utilities 

for fine tuning and compressing media from video or film to computer-ready 

files. 




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