One fat drunk guy's guide to .mov files

Okay, gather 'round and pour a Mountain Don't (4 ounces vodka and 12 ounces Dew in a canning jar). Here is the best that I have to come up with for making .mov files for streaming. This is all experimenting, so anyone who knows how to do it correctly, please add to the WIKI and stop folk like me from having to write bizzare stuff like this.

Animals were harmed in the course of writing this. That is, if you consider brain cells animals. Unfortunately, I've lost enough brain cells that I do *indeed* mix up vertebrate creatures and brain cells. I also think that Drano is a wonderful beverage. Luckily I haven't tested that assumption.
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For this bit I assume you are familiar with http://videohelp.com

Example. An episode of Invader Zim. As a Divx file.

I take the file and convert it as VCD using TMPGenc.

I take this new MPG and load into Virtualdub. I set audio to direct stream, and Save Wav. Once I have a PCM wave file, I convert it to an AIF. I use Cool Edit Pro to do this.

Now, I load the MPG file into Quicktime. I open another new instance of Quicktime to load the AIF file. In the AIF file window, I select all and copy. Then in the MPG file window, I select all and Add (yes, add). Now I have a merged file that I can export.

Now select File | Export, and select "To Movie". Personally, I change the size to about 75% of the original. You must play around with different settings to find the one that will fit your AV needs. Hint: use a small file to play with, 'cause like everything else Apple does, the export function is long and wrong.

At this point, if you have screwed up, which you are likely to do because Apple supplies no wizards and doesn't tell you crap during your 5 minute or 3 hour export process, you will want to open the video and see what mistakes you may have made. Then, tweak your process to make it better. Repeat until you either get a good conversion or bomb Apple HQ.

BTW: Google "Media Player Classic". It plays .mov and .ram files, has a low footprint, and is easier to work with. Using MPC will help you shave seconds off of the hours you will waste working with the Apple tools!

Cheers!

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