From: hlindley@alfred.carleton.ca (Hugh Lindley)
Subject: Re: QuickTime questions
Keywords: FAQ?
Organization: Carleton University
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 14:14:08 GMT

In <guest.26@dhhalden.no> guest@dhhalden.no (.GJEST) writes:

>Hi!

>I seriously considering getting into QuickTime movie making, but I still
>have a couple of questions that I hope some of you multimedia freaks can
>help me with:

>1. How many frames pr. second will the Videospigot LC card record on a Mac
>   LC II ("normal" window size, compression rate = ?)? What about the
>   IIsi card for the IIsi?

I have tried playing QT movies on an original LC and achieved a
playback rate of about 10 fps in a 320 x 240 window. I'm not sure what
the rates are on the LC II. For an Si I've been able to get 15 fps in
the same sized window. On the Quadra 700 I have been able to get a
playback rate of over 40 fps, this is with an original beta of the
MoviePlayer application that shipped with the first QT developers CD.
Therefore I cannot attest to its accuracy, although the program said
it was playing that fast. 

In terms of recording fps, I think the LC can only handle about 8 fps,
Si 12 fps, and the Quadra 24 fps. All of these rates were achieved
recording with sound and straight to disk. I would think higher frame
rates are possible if you try recording straight to RAM. I would give
you time estimates for this but I'm still saving for an extra 16 MB of
RAM. 
  
>2. Is the MediaTime card from Raster-Ops a NuBus card? Will this card fit
>   into the Mac IIsi? If yes, how many frames pr. second will it record,
>   and how good is the quality?

I think it will if you use a NuBus adaptor, then again I could be
wrong. I know that the RasterOps STV card will. In terms of the frame
rates I would expect about the same as those listed above depending on
the platform. None of these low end cards offer on board compression
or decompression yet which will increase frame rates to 30 fps on a
full screen. The STV board does have a slot for a yet to be release
compression/decompression daughter board called the QuickPak which
will retail for about $1000. However, I have not heard any rumours of
hardware solutions for the LC like this. 
 
>3. How many movie-clips can you use for putting together QuickTime movies
>   in Adobe Premiere? What about DiVA Videoshop?

I not sure what you mean by this question. My understanding is that
the number of movies that you can string together is only limited by
the amount of storage space you have on either program. However, if
you are asking how many video tracks can be mixed together (with
transitions or overlays) my experience has been with Adobe Premiere
and it has two video tracks, a superimpose track and four audio
channels. I have not used Diva's product so perhaps someone  else
could comment on that.
 
>4. How long (in seconds and MB) can these movie-clips be (is it a question 
>   of harddisk space, or RAM)?

If you are recording straight to disk then you are limited by your
online storage capacity. If you need the higher frame rate possible
with recording straight to RAM then a similar rule applies. Generally
the QT recording process is as follows. First you record raw
uncompressed video to disk and then you save it in its compressed
format. For instance when I record 30 secs of Raw video with a spigot
I'll take up about 20 MB of HD space, when I save it the file will be
about 1 MB.
 
>5. When is the new version of Adobe Premiere (2.0) released?

I think it is shipping as we speak. I've seen some mail order
companies already advertising it. 

>6. Which should I choose; Adobe Premiere or DiVA Videoshop?

The interface for Adobe is easy to use, but I'm biased I already own
the product and use it on a daily basis. I've only ever read reviews
on DIVA'a product, it seems to have some really useful features like
real time preview instead of Adobe Premiere 1.0's compile/preview
feature.
 
>7. How large should the harddisk be, and how much RAM ought I have?

Strickly speaking, the person with the biggest hard drive and the most
RAM wins. My personal preference would be at least a 640 MB HD and 64
MB of RAM. However, when I'm not dreaming I think that 8 MB of RAM is
a good size to work with Premiere (which requires a 4 MB systems when
running with system 7.0) and at least an 80 MB HD. It all depends on
how long the final QT movie you want to make is.
 
>I would also appreciate some feedback from QuickTime moviemakers, what
>they're experiences are (the good, the bad and the darn right ugly) and
>so on.

People are dreaming if they want to buy a video spigot to do real time
30 fps video production. There are higher end products (that have
price tags to match) that are comming soon that will make this a
reality. However, if all you want to do is make small screen QT movies
at low frame rates (which is perfectly acceptable for some
applications), then a product like the Spigot is a good deal...and a
lot of fun.

>Oivind Idso

>****************************
>* "Potatoe"   - Dan Quayle *
>****************************

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Hugh_Lindley@Carleton.ca
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Newsgroups: comp.multimedia