Hack 89. Play Your Movie on a Cell Phone

EvenifyouhaveinstalledQuickTimeonyourcomputer,youmostlikelydonot

havetheProfeaturesenabled.ToenableQuickTimePro,youneedtopurchasea

licensekeyfromAppleathttp://www.apple.com/quicktime/buy/.Afteryou've

steppedthroughthepaymentprocess,youwillreceiveyourpersonalkeyto

unlocktheProfeatures.

Inadditiontobeingabletocreatemoviesforcellphones,you'llalsobeableto

dosomeminorediting[Hack#39],createskins[Hack#76],andplaymoviesin

full-screenmode.Inordertoenablethefeatures,youwillneedtoenteryour

personalkeyintheQuickTimeRegistrationwindow.

7.15.1.2.Openingamovie.

FromwithintheQuickTimePlayerprogram,openamovieyouwouldliketo

convert.Foryourinitialtests,Irecommendconvertingashortmovie,because

theprocesscantakeawhile.ChooseFile OpenMovieinNewPlayer…and

thenlocatethemoviefromyourcomputer.

7.15.1.3.Convertingamovie.

Oncethemovieisopen,youwanttoexportit.Youcanbegintheprocessby

choosingFile export…,whichbringsupthedialogboxshowninFigure753.NameyourmoviewhateveryouwantandthenselectMovieto3Gfromthe

Exportpop-upmenu.Figure7-53showstheselectedsettingsinthedialogbox.

BeforeclickingSave,youshouldclicktheOptions…button,ifonlytosee

what'savailabletoyou.

Figure7-53.Exportingamoviefiletoa3G-formattedmoviefile



7.15.1.4.Changingthedefaultsettings.

Theoptionsfor3GexportincludesettingsforVideo,Audio,Text,Streaming,

andAdvanced.Eachofthesewillaffectthefinalsizeofyourmoviefile,aswell

asthefile'sconformancetothe3GPPstandard.

Ifyouchangeanysettingsandyourfileisnolongerwithinthe3GPP

specification,youwillbeabletotellbylookingattheConformancelistitem.

Figure7-54showsthe3GExportSettingswindow.

NoticetheFileFormatdrop-downmenuatthetopofthe3GExportSettings

window.Thismenucontainsthefollowingitems:3GPP,3GPP2,3GPP(Mobile

MP4),3GPP2(EZmovie),andAMC(EZmovie).Bychoosinganyofthesemenu

items,youwillenableordisablecertainfeatures.Irecommendspendingsome

timesimplybrowsingaroundthetabsinthiswindowasyouchangetheFile

Formatfromoneselectiontoanother.

Inparticular,takenoticeoftheAdvancedtab,whichallowsyoutoplace

restrictionsonthemovie.Forexample,ifyouselectoneoftheEZmovie

formats,youcansetthemovietoplayonlyonthehandsetwhereitis

downloaded.

Ifyouwantahigher-qualitymovie,thegreatestimpactwillcomefromgiving

yourfileahigherdatarate.Thedrawbackofhavingahigherdatarate,and

thereforeahigherqualitymovie,isthefilesize.Becauseyouwillbedistributing

thismovietoacellphone,youwanttokeepthefilesizesmall,soyouwillhave

toexperimentwithvariousdataratesanddeterminewhatisanacceptable

quality-to-filesizeratio.

Figure7-54.The3GExportSettingswindow



ThenewMPEG-4Part10codec,referredtoasH.264orAVC,

promisesamuchbetterimageatmuchlowerdatarates,andisan

internationalstandard.Manycellphonescan,orwillsoon,playH.264

video.



Whenyouarefinished,clickOK.Youwillthenbeabletosaveyourmovie.You

mightwanttoexperimentwiththedifferentsettingstofindouthowtheyaffect

thefilesize,thequalityoftheimage,andthequalityoftheaudio.Keepinmind

thatmostcellphonesdonothaveanabundanceofstorage.Inmyexperience,

peoplewilltolerateapoorqualityimageiftheaudioisgood,butnottheother

wayaround.

Yourmoviesshouldbeassmallinsizeaspossible,withoutmakingthemovie

unacceptabletowatch.



7.15.2.DistributingYourMovie



So,howintheworlddoyougetyourmovieontoacellphone?



Email

Ifyourphonecanreceiveemail,youcansendthemovietoyourphone

usingyourdesktopemailclient.



Disk

Ifyourphonehasamemorydisk,youcancopythemovietodiskusingthe

appropriatedrive.



Bluetooth

IfyourphoneandcomputerbothhaveBluetooth,youcancopythemovie

wirelessly.



Web

Ifyourphonehaswebaccess,andyouhaveawebsite,youcanmakethe

movieavailablefordownloadviayourwebsite.



Ifyouhaveastreamingserver[Hack#85]that'scapable

ofstreaming3GPPcontent,youcanjustplaceyour3GPP

moviefileontheserver.Youcanthenviewyourmovie

on-demand.



7.15.3.PlayingYourMovie

Aftertransferringyourmovietoyourcellphone,launchyourcellphone'smovie

playerandplayyournew,verysmall(butviewable!)movie.



Chapter8.RandomFun

Section8.1.Hacks90100

Hack90.RecordaStreamingVideo

Hack91.CreateaMovieUsingLEGOs

Hack92.SeeThroughWalls

Hack93.Rental-CarTipsandOtherAutoHacks

Hack94.SaveYourPresentationstoDVD

Hack95.WatchTVonaPalmPilot

Hack96.BackUpYourComputertoaDVTape

Hack97.Play"Movies"onaniPodphoto

Hack98.InventoryYourHome

Hack99.CaptureLife'sLittleMomentswithCamera-PhoneVideo

Hack100.WeekendProject:CreateaDocumentary



8.1.Hacks90100

Okay,somostofthesechaptershavebeenprettyseriousandfocusedon

creating,finishing,anddistributingavideoproject.Althoughthehacksinthis

chaptercanbeusedforreal,functional,andevenbusinesspurposes,they're

primarilyheretoprovidealittlefunandinspiration.(Thoughthat'snottosaythe

otherhacksinthisbookaren'tfunandinspirational.)Enjoy!



Hack90.RecordaStreamingVideo



VCRsandPVRshaveenabledustorecordlivevideocontent.Usingan

applicationcalledVLC,youcandothesamewithstreamingvideo.

Youcan'talwayssitandwatchastreamingvideofrombeginningtoend.When

thestreamislive,thisbecomesaproblem,becauseyoucan'tpausethestream

andhaveitstartwhereyouleftoff.UsingVLC(http://www.videolan.org;free,

opensource)youcansavethestreamandwatchitatyourconvenience.



8.2.1.FindingaStream

EverystreamingvideohasanInternetaddressassociatedwithit.Inorderfor

VLCtolocatethestreamingvideo,youneedtheentireaddress.Thisaddress

oftenbeginswitheitherrtporrtspandisformattedmuchlikeawebURL.

Thecompleteaddresswillmostlikelyincludethetypeofmovieyouare

downloadingasafileextension.Forexample,anaddressof

rtsp://www.domain.com/some_movie.mp4mightbeacompleteaddressfora

streamingvideofilenamedsome_movie.mp4.Althoughnotcompletely

necessary,knowingthefileextensionwillhelpyoulaterintheprocess.

Afteryouhavetheaddressforastreamingvideo,you'llneedtoconfigureVLC

toopenthestreamandsaveittoyourharddrive.



8.2.2.OpeningaStream

WhilerunningtheVLCapplication,chooseFile OpenNetworkStream…

(Windows)orFile OpenNetwork(Mac)toopenanewwindowinwhichyou

canenterthenecessaryinformationforVLCtolocatethestreamingvideo.You

willbeopeningastreamingvideo,soselecttheNetworktab,ifitisn'talready

selected.



First,selectaprotocol,dependingontheaddressyouareusing.Iftheaddress

startswithrtsp://,selecttheRTSPbutton.Then,enterthestreamingvideo's

addressintheURLorAddresstextfield.Althoughyoumightbeabletoenter

theaddresswithoutselectingaprotocol,itmightnotalwayswork.Figure8-1

showsVLCbeingconfiguredtoopenanRTSPstreamfromtheaddressof

rtsp://192.168.1.102:554/sample_300kbit.mp4.

Figure8-1.VLCconfiguredtoopenanRTSPvideo



Onceyou'veenteredtheaddress,youneedtoconfigureVLCtosavethestream

toafile.Todoso,check"Streamoutput"(Windows)or"Advancedoutput"

(Mac).ThiswillenabletheSettings…button.



8.2.3.SavingaStream

WhenyouclicktheSettings…button,anewwindowopens,allowingyouto

configurehowVLChandlestheincomingvideo.Becauseyouwanttosavethe

video,asopposedtorelayingit,youneedtoclicktheFilecheckbox/button.If

youwouldliketoviewthevideowhileitisbeingsavedtodisk(andI

recommenddoingso),alsoclickthePlaylocallycheckbox.

Tosavetheincomingvideo,youneedtosetafilename.UsingtheBrowse…