MPEG-FAQ 4.1:
Qt2MPEG
From: Rainer Menes <menes@statistik.tu-muenchen.de>
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1993 13:20:08 +0100
Dear qt2mpeg users,
I like to announce a new version of my qt2mpeg util. This version is a
beta version but should be very stable I hope.
The best news about the new version is that it supports Quicktime to MPEG
conversation of any length. The last version, as some of you have
reported, had a very seriuos bug which crash your mac very badly. Now
this shouldn't happend any more.
I putted the stuff on my ftp site suniams1.statistik.tu-muenchen.de in the
dir incoming/qt2mpeg.
What will you need? It depends if you are a firsttime user or you are
using the older version right now.
1. Firsttime user should get qt2mpeg1.1b.sit.bin. This includes all you
need to do the qt to MPEG conversation.
2. To update your older version get only qt2mpeg_update.sit.bin. This
will save bandwidth on internet (Thank you),and replace the old files
with the new once.
Some fun stuff is also in this dir. To test my new qt2mpeg I made a mpeg
movie with a realtime length of 1 min. The size is 192x144 with 25 fps.
The movie was produced from some videos I made 1992 in Italy while
skiing there. The cut was done with Adobe Premiere 3.0 and than converted
with qt2mpeg 1.1b to a mpeg movie. The first scenes show myself and the
last two show me and Claudia a good friend of mine (Thanks Claudia). Hope
you find this movie fun to watch. (I will try a second one next year in
382x288 with 25fps) The file is called SkiRainer.mpg and is about 1.2
MByte in size. The compression rate is 1:102 and the quality is still
very good I think.
This is beta version qt2mpeg 1.1!
If you find my utils usefull please send me nice postcard!!!!! You will
find address below at the end of this readme file.
This is my second beta version of Quicktime to MPEG, so you will find bugs.
Changes from the version 0.1
- The qt2yuv converter now runs even when used on non truecolor screens.
Sorry for this former bug. I allway run my Quadra in truecolor and never
tested it in an other mode.
- The MPEG encoder now is version 1.2 and not 1.0 alpha. (mpeg)
- The MacMiNT version is updaten to the lastest status. The background
feature now work great.
- The old version only runs on a 68040 with FPU so all users without a
full blow Quadra where not able to run the software. Now you can run
this software on an 68030 with 68882. Hopefully with softfpu the
Centris machines with a 68LC040 will be able to run this converter too.
Please let me know if not.
- added a new MPEG converter to the software. After alot of pproblems
I got the mpeg encoder from Berkeley running (mpeg_encode).
- added a new program called qt2yuvBerkeley. This will generate the
different yuv files and an other shell script to make conversation
as easy as possible.
Changes from the version 0.5b
- removed the stanford encoder from the distribution. Only takes space
and isn't as fast the berkeley encoder. (Also it produces three times
as mutch files as the berkeley once. For big movies this might get a
problem).
- change berekeley encoder to the new version 1.2. It works now with alot
better quality. (Now all feature of the UNIX version). Thanks to Larry
Rowe and his team.
- dropped the qt2yuv program, because it only produces stanford encoder
files.
- qt2yuvBerkeley got some bug fixes. Main changes:
1. For some reasons the display window does show the movie centered.
This bug is fixed now. All movies should work without problems.
I also tested it with Adobe Premiere 3.0 which produce multiple
segment files with differned compressor and it worked.
2. The bug which cause a unrecoverble crash when reaching the heaplimit
is fixed. The converter stops when the heapspace get below 100 KByte.
3. Added support for YUV conversation of qt movies of any length.
First the converter will count all frames in the qt movie and inform
you in its statuswindow about it. Now you have to enter the startframe
on which the converter starts with it conversation. Next you will be
asked if you want continuemode or not.
Yes = if you convert multiple segment keep the overall startframe
in the parameter file allways 0.
No = The overall startframe is set to the actual startframe!!! Might
be usefull when converting only a special part of the movie.
y or n is ok to select on of this options!!!
After you have reached the end of the conversation you will be
informated how many frames the converter could convert in this
session. If you didn't reach the end write down the number of the
continue startframe and quit the converter. Now restart it and use the
same parameters and set the new startframe to the number the last
run told you.
- removed sources of the encoder because it took alot of space. All of
you with ftp access are able to get the source from toe.cs.berkeley.edu.
Software you will need too: You could use either mpeg player 0.3 (no
suppport for it anymore. Stop because Sarkle is far better and Apple will
bring MPEG playing support next year for Quicktime) or Sparkle 1.6. If you
love a good Mac interface Sparkle is the way to go.
Because this is a beta version I like to get your feedback. So if you find
something you don't like, problems or what ever, sende me a mail and tell
me about. Thank you.
Here first some short intro to my approche to convert Quicktime movies to
MPEG's. First the Quicktime to YUV converter is a FutureBasic program which
reads in any Quicktime movie and converts it to a three seperate Y,U,V
files. YUV is color model used in video technics as for example MPEG. This
program should be really mac like to use. Sadly I couldn't make this
program
ran in background. I contacted the developers of FutureBasic, but they
still
don't know why my code wont run in background. I hope I could fix this in
a future version. The YUV to MPEG conversation is handled under MacMiNT,
a multitasking UNIX like development enviroment. I prefer to use MacMiNT
because the MPEG converter which might run for hours, could run easy in
background with out modifing the source code. This version of MacMiNT now
has a stable background feature. I hope you will love MacMiNT as much as
I do. I have also a version of the MPEG encoder which runs under MPW shell,
but without the background feature. (If you are interested in this code
send mail to me).
The MPEG converter is based on the Berkeley mpeg 1.2 encoder you will find
on
toe.cs.berkeley.edu. The YUV converter was done by me as said befor in
FutureBasic to speedup development time alot. As you see this software is
first approche to help you using MPEG. I hope a friend of mine who has
writen Sparkle will continue to work on a MPEG encoder integrated into
Sparkle.
You will find this software on:
URL=ftp://suniams1.statistik.tu-muenchen.de/pub/mac/MPEG/encoder/or ] ]
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