Macintosh viewing options?

[Dusty]

I need to make a show on my site available for Mac users. Does anyone else convert their PTE shows for those users? If so, how and what do you use? Quicktime Pro is giving me problems.

[JRR]

Dusty

this has been dioscussed many times on the forum.

To the best of my knowledge no one has a MAC version working as .exe files don't work on MACs

[Dusty]

I know that about EXE files, but PTE can export as an AVI file as well which can then be converted to something that Macs can read. Quicktime is one option, but I'm wondering if there are others. Does anyone have experience with MPEG-4? There are 3 options (I'm using v4.20 beta #7) for MP4 and I don't know what the difference is.

Anyone?

[Ken Cox]

dusty

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...=2472&hl=mac+pc

ken

[Dusty]

I was finally successful in converting the AVI file to a QT movie, then to an MP4 which will play on a variety of players, including QuickTime and Windows Media Player. It's not as great as an .exe file (full screen), but at least Mac users can see the show.

~Cindy

[Ken Cox]

Cindy

please describe your method for the others that may be faced with your situation

ken

[ContaxMan]

Sounds good, Cindy - let us know how please.

[Dusty]

I downloaded the latest QuickTime, then paid $29.99 for the unlock key to upgrade it to the Pro version which has the conversion and editing features. I ended up needing a codec for the AVI conversion that was not included, but downloaded it for free from 3ivx. It was the "filter suite" that was needed.

In PTE, I selected "create custom AVI", interlaced video. Width 320 x 240. Audio Codec, "no compression" (I tried others and had problems at replay. Also, OGG did not work, but MP3 did) Video Codec, "3ivx". From that window select "configure". That will bring up the downloaded 3ivx window. Select "single pass - constant quality" and select the level of compression. Anything less than 95% is a drastic decrease in quality which I found unacceptable for this file. Now create the AVI. It will take a bit longer than preparing for a DVD. This show of mine took just over 2 minutes.

Open Quicktime, "open movie in new player", find your AVI file and select "convert". Play to check if the quality is acceptable. In that window, go to file, save as, "make a move self-contained". It will give you a file size that will be higher than you want, but that will not be the final size. The extension will now be .mov. Save. File>Export. Export to MPEG-4. In "Options" I chose General, Improved, 320x240, Music. The file will then be compressed to an MP4 which takes a few minutes.

The show I did was just over 6 minutes. It can be found on this page of my site if you want to see what these setting did for me. Considering it's for promoting my wedding photography, I wanted it availabe to all viewers, even though you just can't compare 320x240 to the full screen!

I know there is a way to compress it with more control and have it availabe for full screen viewing. I did not try all the options availabe, but could not get it larger than the small window without having a file size of 110 MB. Streaming video is also an option but I did not pursue that. There are people on this forum much more tech savy than myself that I'm sure could figure it all out. MP4 will play in various players and seems to be the best thing for video on the web.

If someone gets it mastered, please let us know!

~Cindy

[Ken Cox]

thanks Cindy

we will quite likely send many people to "Cindy's Mac Method"

It really helps all when somebody has the answer to unique problems and are willing to share their experience. So many times we give possible solutions to problems and never hear whether they worked or not. The beauty of the forum is the free echange of information and ideas and then Igor can take the solutions and make a better Beta

ken

[cherokee40]

Thanks bunches Cindy. This is probably the solution to my dellima too.

[Jason]

Has anyone tried using DARWINE to run their .exe presentations?

"The Darwine project intends to port and develop WINE as well as other supporting tools that will allow Darwin and Mac OS X users to run Windows Applications."

http://darwine.opendarwin.org/