CompuServe Thread

FLC to Quicktime

11 messages in this thread
#113465From: John EllisJul 18, 1994 2:55 PM
I've seen questions about FLC to AVI et al but has anybody had any experience converting FLC's to Quicktime. Apparently Macs don't have the Delta throughput of PC's. At least that's what I've been told. I created a small FLC animation and they were using Macromind Director with some other CODEX and it was not only large but slow. If anyone has some insight into this, I'd be interested in hearing your experience. And if you know of a PC program that will convert them efficiently, that too would be good to know about. Fortuneately this wasn't my headache… this time. <g> -JE
#113558From: GARRY HARGREAVESJul 19, 1994 6:38 AM
Use Razor:- AVI 2 FLC & FLC 2 AVI from digimation (I think) abouit $200.00 – looks good GH in OZ
#113591From: John EllisJul 19, 1994 10:45 AM
Garry, >> Use Razor… << Thanks, I've got Razor but I needed to go Quicktime. (Mac) -JE
#113642From: Brian Rudolph [Adesk]Jul 19, 1994 4:32 PM
John, Debabilizer by equilibrium technologies. Runs on the Mac. 415-332-4343. -Brian
#113661From: John EllisJul 19, 1994 7:22 PM
Brian, >> Debabilizer by equilibrium technologies. << That's what the group I'm working with is using and my GIF images (I gave them both GIF and FLC) were converted then converted again to Quicktime but apparently QT can't push pixels like FLC's or AVI. They expected to be able to get 15fps with their own Codex (which they have been able to get with the PC) but were considerably limited by QT. I know very little about QT but I'm very suprised that it appears to have these limitations. If there is a way around this, or a technique which works with the Mac to make it possible to get frame rates like this, I would be most interested, as it is really crimping their ability to produce reasonably decent results without severly limiting the motion. I'll call Equilibrium and see what they have to say. Thanks, -JE
#113580From: Carlton NewtonJul 19, 1994 9:27 AM
John- We've occasionally used the program Debabelizer to convert numbered PICS, live video we've captured with a SuperMac Digital film card, and QT movies we've made on the MAC (using Premier and Photoshop) to the flc format that we've viewed through 3ds. Folks here claim it will convert the other way too. (i.e. pc to mac). Debabelizer is not a PC based program but its very good (smooth, clean, and steady). Hope this helps. Carlton
#113592From: John EllisJul 19, 1994 10:45 AM
Carlton, The people I'm working with used Debabelizer to convert a GIF animation which they got from me. The problem is that the throughput on the Mac seems to severly limited. So that when they had done the conversion and put them into Mac Premier they could get nowhere near the kind of throughput we've come to expect from programs like SMACKER et al. They've written their own Compression Codex (codec?) for a cross platform Kiosk and the lowest common denominator appears to be the limitations of the Mac. So the animation and intro have become severly limited to the point that they can't even fly a logo over the top of a low delta 640×480 animation. I just wondered if you or anyone else had experienced that same kind of lack of performance with CD's on the Mac. Seems odd to me as I've heard a lot of hype about how the Mac was an ideal Kiosk creation platform among other things. Thanks, -JE
#113670From: Carlton NewtonJul 19, 1994 8:41 PM
John, I'm afraid I really can't help you much here. Ever since we got 3DS in house its been the program of choice. We are rather new to digital imaging and I've been having too much fun with 3ds flcs to begin to push at Macromind Director and Premier software. We run our mac stuff on a 68040 33mhz, and our 486/66 just outruns it so much I haven't wanted to leave 3DS for even a minute. Macromind Director is neat but I havent been impressed with the play speeds, and MacroModel can't hold up to 3DS. We're waiting for a 6100 PPC to join in the battle of the chips. I bet over in the MAC forum or even the Multimedia forum… Carlton
#113721From: John EllisJul 20, 1994 3:52 AM
Carlton, >> Ever since we got 3DS in house its been the program of choice. << I can definitely relate to that. The people I'm working with have come to the same conclusion. Basically they're Mac people but have quite a few PC's and also had R2 sitting on the shelf more or less untouched for a year. 🙁 After seeing my work they've become quite excited about the prospects and plan to upgrade to R3. Now you know its got to be a good program if it can convince a Mac person to work on a PC. But we knew that. 🙂 >> Macromind Director is neat but I haven't been impressed with the play speeds… << That was the confirmation I needed. Thankyou very much. Glad to hear you're enjoying 3DS so much. I do too. -JE
#113765From: Jeff RobertsJul 20, 1994 10:18 AM
John: QuickTime is the worst possible compressed file format. Deltas are not encoded well at all, and the data is stored in 24 bit format, so flics usually get larger rather than smaller. ->Jeff P.S. BTW, we'll have a MacSmack by the end of the year.
#113788From: John EllisJul 20, 1994 11:39 AM
Jeff, >>… so flics usually get larger rather than smaller. << That's exactly what happened. 🙁 >> we'll have a MacSmack by the end of the year. << That's excellent. Keep us posted. Thanks, -JE P.S. What a great name BTW <g> MacSmack!