Best format for help file

I am creating only my second modest help file ever. We will
be distributing via CD as a demo of our product utilizing
programming to launch the help file upon insertion of cd. What is
the best format (I have it in WehHelp now)? Also any
demo's/guidelines/topics that might be useful in formatting
different topics to add interest and force the user thru the
screens in a specific order. Maybe the whole thing can initially be
"self-running"? I follow instructions well but have limited
knowledge at this stage.

Hello patdod -
Need more info.
Is this for Linux, Mac, Windows, Unix, or cross-platform?
Does this go to government customers / government suppliers?
If so, your customer(s) may not be permitted to use some file
formats (such as Flash / Shockwave, video or audio files, etc.).
Regards,
GEWB

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Best Format for Archiving Video Files

I am importing old VHS and 8mm family videos for my cousin, to both burn them to DVD, and to archive the movies in case he wants to edit them later.
I am planning on purchasing for him, a "write once," external HDD, probably firewire, (though I am open to suggestions), to put both the backup Video TS folders on, as well as the Quicktime movies themselves.
My guess is, the best format for the QT movies would be their original DV-NTSC, but at around 13GB an hour, this can add up pretty fast.
The h264 .mov codec looks great, takes forever to render, and it seems the file size difference to DV-NTSC is nominal at best.
Obviously the future is some kind of HD, so these movies will never look great years from now, but I want them to be preserved for him at the best quality possible, at the smallest file size, if it will not compromise the quality too much.
I know I can render them significantly smaller as h264 .mp4 files, or as DIVX, (which also takes a long time), but I imagine they are of significantly reduced quality that would be visible in future video editing he might do.
If DV-NTSC is the only way to go, so be it. But if not, then any suggestions for what other format I could use to save these QT files, without visible loss of quality is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all the advice. And I mean everyone.
Here is my latest dilemma.
Though 15 years old, the original Vhs's play beautifully. Aside from some (expected) glitches in the beginning or end of some of the shots, the video has not degraded appreciably. This is great news, as my cousin wanted to make back ups before degradation begins.
First, I captured the Vhs movies and corrected some bad color, mostly due to poor white balancing, and on the computer, they looked great in comparison. I burned DVD's and they looked terrible in comparison with the originals. Now I know I am going to lose some resolution when going to DVD, but it seemed harsh, so I ran some tests.
I burned a DVD of the original capture, with no color correction, just the raw footage and the DVD did not look much better, so it wasn't the color correction.
Not satisfied, I made a copy from the FCP timeline straight to Vhs, (I should note, through the ADVC-110.) This looked significantly degraded as well.
Finally, I made a straight dub from Vhs to DVCam, figuring that had to look good, and that also looked significantly degraded, compared to the, (now looking pristine), Vhs original.
As the original Vhs looks so good, what good would a TBC do? Or a proc amp?
Is there some secret to capturing and exporting Vhs that I am missing? Or, will it always look significantly degraded, even straight to DVCam?
+David Murray wrote: There is an industrial way to get good VhS copies but it is extremely expensive+
I don't know what this is, but I am sure it is clearly out of our league, but David M., if you are still following this thread, I'm curious, would this ultra expensive method actually result in a dub that looks like the original? I am actually really shocked at how bad the straight DVCam dub looks. It really does not look much better than the color corrected, computer exported version.
The Vhs tapes of my cousins daughter are as precious to him as anything he has.
As they date back 15 years, he is concerned about the longevity of the tapes.
As there are over forty hours of them, he wants them to be in an editable format, so later he or his daughter can make a highlight reel, or whatever. So thus the QT movie archive/backup on HD.
Whether as Finalcutter said, that this drive, even if unused, and put in a cool dry safe, might not function years down the line, makes it iffy, but what other choice is there for editable versions, unless I break the QT movies up into 20 minute chunks and archive them to over a hundred DVD's instead. Perhaps that is the safest solution, though certainly time consuming.
As failure of the HDD somewhere in the future is likely, though not certain, I am still not sure that the HDD holding all his QT movies for future editing is the wrong way to go.
As it is a digital version, and not an analog copy, I get that a DVCam backup of the originals is the best option. I will suggest to him that we do this as well, even though he does not have DVCam himself. But again, is there something I am missing here? Why does the Vhs to DVCam copy look so degraded? Is there anything I can do to keep the original quality, or will it die with his original Vhs as it slowly degrades over time?

When bouncing- what's best method for smallest file size/highest quality?

I am in the process of embedding 3 mp3's into a PDF to submit as a portfolio. The PDF also has text, and two scores included, and with the 3 embedded mp3's it can't be more than 10mb.
So my question is: When bouncing a project out of Logic, what is the best method for getting the smallest file size, but retaining the best audio quality? And once it's out of Logic and it is an mp3 or other type of audio file, is there a best format for compressing it further, and still maintaining the relative quality?
I bounced out the three projects into wav's. Now I am using Switch for Mac to compress them down to smaller Mp3's. I basically need them to be about 3 mb each. Two of the recordings sound OK at that size, but they are just MIDI(one project is piano and string quartet, the other is just piano- all software instruments. The recording that combines MIDI and Audio and has more tracks (three audio tracks and 10 Midi/software instrument tracks)and sounds completely horrible if I get it under 5 mb as an mp3. The problem is that I need all three to equal around 9mb, but still sound good enough to submit as a portfolio for consideration into a Master's program.
If anyone can help I would really appreciate it. Please be detailed in your response, because I am new to logic and I really need the step by step.
Thank you...

MUYconfundido wrote:
I am in the process of embedding 3 mp3's into a PDF to submit as a portfolio. The PDF also has text, and two scores included, and with the 3 embedded mp3's it can't be more than 10mb.
So my question is: When bouncing a project out of Logic, what is the best method for getting the smallest file size, but retaining the best audio quality?
The highest bitrate that falls within your limits. You'll have to calculate how big your MP3's can be, then choose the bitrate that keeps the size within your limit. The formula is simple: bitrate is the number of kilobits per second, so a 46 second stereo file at 96 kbps would be 96 x 46 = 4416 kbits / 8* = 552 kBytes or 0.552 MB. (*8 bits = 1 Byte)
So if you know the length of your tracks you can calculate what bitrate you need to keep it within 10 MB total.
I consider 128 kbps the lowest bearable bitrate for popsongs and other modern drumkit based music. Deterioration of sound quality is often directly related to the quality of the initial mix and the type of instruments used in it. Piano(-like) tones tend to sound watery pretty quickly at lower bitrates, as do crash and ride cymbals. But don't take my word for it, try it out.
And once it's out of Logic and it is an mp3 or other type of audio file, is there a best format for compressing it further, and still maintaining the relative quality?
You can only ZIP the whole thing after that, but that is just for transport. You'll have to unzip it again to use it. And no, you cannot compress an MP3 any further and still play it.
I bounced out the three projects into wav's. Now I am using Switch for Mac to compress them down to smaller Mp3's.
That is silly, you could have done that in Logic, which has one of the best MP3 encoders built in. And how good encoders are will especially come out at bitrates around or below 128, which you might be looking at.
I basically need them to be about 3 mb each.
So, one more scrap of info we need here: how long are those three pieces, exactly? I'll calculate the bitrate for you - but please bounce 'm directly out of Logic as MP3's. They will very probably sound better than your WAV-conversions made with Switch.
!http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4084/4996323899_071398b89a.jpg!
Two of the recordings sound OK at that size, but they are just MIDI(one project is piano and string quartet, the other is just piano- all software instruments. The recording that combines MIDI and Audio and has more tracks (three audio tracks and 10 Midi/software instrument tracks)and sounds completely horrible if I get it under 5 mb as an mp3. The problem is that I need all three to equal around 9mb, but still sound good enough to submit as a portfolio for consideration into a Master's program.
Length of the piece? And does the .Wav bounce you have sound OK?

Best format for converting video

What is the best format for converting videos for your iPod? I am using handbrake but there are alot of settings. What is the best one? mp4,avi,ogm? and what about codecs? aac audio, mp3 audio,h.264 video mpeg 4 video, .mp4 video? Need help?

See this Wikipedia article for some encoders:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theora#Encoding

Best format for DVD studio pro??

I will be exporting from FCP4.5 and am wondering what is the best format to get the best possible quality from FCP to DVDSP? Also, should I go through compressor and what settings should I use?
I also want to make my own video transistions, what is the best format for those as well?
Thank You

The movie is 90 minutes.
You didn't mention your video format. You can export your movie as QuickTime Movie (not QT Conversion), same settings and self contained (my favorite flavor). The use that movie in Compressor and use the Best Quality DVD: 90 min presets encoding your video to MPEG2 and your audio to Dolby 2 (AC3).
That's the best standard workflow. With standard I mean that sometimes some kind of footage can need different treatment.
Hope that helps !
Alberto

Best Format For Front Row

Hi what is the best format for videos in front row? Most videos I have are avis so I had been saving them as .mov files instead until recently when I discovered I could export them to Mpeg4 and in the process make them widescreen - I also noticed that when I saved these videos as .mov they took up about 5 gb but as mp4 they took up 500mb. So anyone have any opinions on what is the best way to do it?
Cheers

AVI and MOV are both simply "containers". The video and audio files inside them can be many formats with less or more compression. The MPEG-4 compression can be very good, of course, depending on the quality of the original file. The MOV files you saved must be using a different type of video compression that may be better quality but takes up more hard drive space. The "best" type of compression is probably a personal choice. What type of software are you using to save the files? QuickTime Pro?
-Doug

Best format for ps3 and apple tv

What is the best format for viewing movies on a hdtv (1080p) via ps3 and apple tv?
Not sure what my best option would be in the sharing/export options, also should I make it 16:9 even though all the footage was 4:3?
Message was edited by: rwltrz4

Thanks.
I've posted up on their forum too (the folks over there are not as responsive as you guys, helpful, but not in the same volume )
I kinda hear what you're saying, but the encoding time (fps and time taken) is pretty slow on my PPC G5 iMac at the moment, and if the Turbo.264 is doing most of the processing then from what you say it'll stay the same on a new Intel Mac. I really hope not, or it'll be me throwing in the whole notion of recording TV on my Mac and heading off down the shop for a PlayTV for the PS3.
Either that or hope for a decent upgrade to the Mini at Macworld, sling the Apple TV on to ebay (film rental selection here in the UK is still pretty weak) and replace with a Mini, plug the tuner in that and watch native EyeTV recordings without the need for lengthy encoding. I reckon Front Row, and an iPhone Remote will do almost as good a job for my music as the Apple TV does.
One day we will look back and laugh at the notion of an hour long TV show being 'encoded' for playback at all, let alone waiting more than 2 minutes for the process to happen!

Best format for Premiere elements 12?

What is the best format for making movies on PRE 12? My clips are now .mov files, whether on iPhone 5 or Nikon 7000 SLR. Should I still convert them to .AVI files?

fish614
Are you working with Nikon D7000 as well as the iPhone video?
What are your settings for these devices when you record?
How do you want to view the export of your Premiere Elements Timeline after you edit this video on the Premiere Elements Timeline?
ATR

The best format for output

Hi All,
working in animation project to be broadcasted on a TV channel as HD1080 50i,
1- all the animation layers was rendered from TOONBOOM as .SWF to keep it in vector for compositing issue.
Dose SWF lose any quality? we always use TGA sequence with alpha in our past SD projects but now we found SWF is a smaller file size and allows zooming Because it keeps all vector lines.
2- compositing each scene in after effects cs6 and then render them.
What is the best format for output to deal with premiere cs6 as a real time playback ( my editing pc includes gtx680 4gb., many HGST 3tb with raid controller,64g ram, aja kona 3g) so do I go with TGA sequence (I think it will destroy the raid Because of the large number of small-sized files in read and write ) or MOV uncompressed (I'm afraid of the space size and don’t know it will play in real time ) or what is the best compressed format Maintaining video image quality as its now will be my only master source?
Many thanks,
sherif

Thanks Rick for your reply,
Regarding the SWF i moved to flash pro forums and they are supporting me now,
My system is a pc, win.64, I7-3930K, 64G RAM, EVGA GTX680 4G, Many HGST 3TB with raid controler,
Some advised me to go with Quicktime Prores HQ or DNXHD or DPX ,
In this year project my client's requirement for delivery is :
DNxHD 120 Codec, wrapped with QuickTime rapper, which means a file with MOV extension and the codec used is DNxHD 120 ( 1080@50i HD)
So do i work with dnxhd 120 from the beginning to the delivery? (and it will be my only master source) or another format encode it at the end to dnxhd 120? ( i will distribut this project to many channels after the first run exclusivity period end with different requirements).
Thanks,
Sherif

Is there a format for a file that I can use for attaching a one page document with photos embedded that will open in everyone's email automatically? I've tried PDF and Word, but worked only in Mail. Lost formatting when just copied and pasted in email.

Is there a format for a file that I can use for attaching a one page document with photos embedded that will open in everyone's email automatically? I've tried PDF and Word, but PDF worked only in Mail. Word worked in nothing. I also tried copying and pasting the document but lost all formatting when just copied and pasted in email. Is there a way to do this?

Are you sure PDF won't work? It should as what you're trying to do is pretty much what it is designed for (PDF - Portable Document Format). On a Mac anywone who receives the file should be able to see it in all its page layout glory by using the app Preview or Adobe Reader. Same on a PC, the file should be viewable as a PDF file using Adobe Reader and probably some other viewer (don't use PCs so not sure what other apps).
What application are you creating the file in and are you sure you're exporting it correctly in PDF format, fonts and images embedded?

Best format for upload to a website

i would like to know what is the best format for upload to a website, what i got now is an exported quicktime self contained movie from fcp 25 minutes in length.
the footage itself is shot on mini dv and edited on an uncompressed 8 bit sequence, when exported to quicktime it is 28 gb in size so it is kind of a heavy one.
is it possible to upload it in one piece ( apple recommends exporting to mpeg4 yet i got a bad quality out of this using mpeg streamclip.
what would be the best compreessor for this
than you very much

i got a bad quality out of this using mpeg streamclip.
Check the links that Cristina posted, then let us know if your quality improved, using Compressor...it should.
One question for you regarding quality...are you referring to overall quality of the full frame image, or are you displeased with text/graphics.
If this is the case, then I'd wonder if you edited in a DV sequence, then dropped the edited content into an 8bit timeline for exporting at better quality.
This can cause degradation of the image (particularly text/graphics), since you're taking a 720x480 frame and ever-so-slightly vertically scaling the frame up to 720x486.
Let us know what you did...and your results w/Compressor.
K

This is my first Mac, I need on best site for Help me.

This is my first Mac, I need on best site for Help me. Video is Better.

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/ (for PC-Windows switcher)
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/ (videos)
Stefan

Best format for SSD when i use os x and windows

Which is best format for my new SSD when i want use OS X and Windows together ? I mean when i will be in windows i can copy folders from windows to OS X folders and conversely ? Thank you for all info

Before you do anything make sure that anything you have on your external hard drive is moved somewhere else as all information will be lost in this process. Then make sure it is plugged into your mac
Here's what you need to do next. If you click on your Macintosh HD on your desktop then click on applications. Then scroll down and click on utilities. In there you need to click on disk utilities. When this opens you need to select your external hard drive from the list on the left.Then on the tabs at the top click on partition but just leave it all as is except you need to change the format from Mac Journaled to Fat 32 then click apply. It will then be ok for use on both Mac & PC but be warned they don't like each other so some stuff will work and some stuff won't. If it formatted for Fat 32 then mac will sometimes not read it through a wireless connection. (I am trying to figure this at the moment and can't seem to get it to work).
Good Luck

Best format for downconverted Quicktime file?

These are video files from a still camera that are running so slowly on my system as to make them unusable. I would like to downconvert them so I can work with them and edit in FCP. I'm in MPEG Streamclip. Initially it comes up as 1920x1080 unscaled. What is the best format to downscale to for editing? I converted some to Motion JPEG A 100% quality. Most of the files I have worked with are NTSC DV. This is the first file of this type. Thanks
Message was edited by: editgrrl

Googleing "Canon 5D and Final Cut Pro" is a good start. And then searching these forums for the same thing..."Canon 5D"... will bring up all the times people have asked "how do I work with Canon 5D footage in FCP?"
The biggest issue you have is that all the answers will be related to working with the 5D in FCP 6 or 7. Which you don't have. So ProRes will be the codec that is mentioned all the time. You don't have that. You have DVCPRO HD and Uncompressed HD. Best to go with DVCPRO HD. Or you can try Apple Intermediate Codec too. I think that is part of FCP 4.5. But DVCPRO HD might be the easier bet.
Time to upgrade, if you are going to try to keep up with the current formats. And yes, we too have to remain on the ball. How? I read these forums (and others) daily (obviously). THis way I see what people are shooting and trying to work with.
Shane

Format for Helpset file URL

I'm running on windows Windows XP.
I'm new to Javahelp and I downloaded a simple demo app (source at the end of this post).
I set up an Eclipse project and got the sample to compile fine.
I placed the help files in the parent of the folder where my compiled class resides. I started
the app and the help viewer displayed just fine.
I then moved the help files to another location, and changed the URL to point to the new location as follows:
URL url = HelpSet.findHelpSet(cl, "file://D:/D_ProgramFiles/JavaHelp/MyStuff/jhelpset.hs");This time a null pointer exception occurred and my debugger showed the "url" variable to be null.
I also tried the following with no success:
URL url = HelpSet.findHelpSet(cl, "file://localhost/D|/D_ProgramFiles/JavaHelp/MyStuff/jhelpset.hs");
URL url = HelpSet.findHelpSet(cl, "file:///D|/D_ProgramFiles/JavaHelp/MyStuff/jhelpset.hs");
URL url = HelpSet.findHelpSet(cl, "file://localhost/D:/D_ProgramFiles/JavaHelp/MyStuff/jhelpset.hs");
URL url = HelpSet.findHelpSet(cl, "file:///D:/D_ProgramFiles/JavaHelp/MyStuff/jhelpset.hs");What format should i use?
Thanks.
Sample App:
import javax.help.*;
import java.net.URL;
import javax.swing.*;
public class JavaHelpTest {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      JHelp helpViewer = null;
      try {
         // Get the classloader of this class.
           ClassLoader cl = JavaHelpTest.class.getClassLoader();
         // Use the findHelpSet method of HelpSet to create a URL referencing the helpset file.
         // Note that in this example the location of the helpset is implied as being in the same
         // directory as the program by specifying "jhelpset.hs" without any directory prefix,
         // this should be adjusted to suit the implementation.
           URL url = HelpSet.findHelpSet(cl, "jhelpset.hs");
         // Create a new JHelp object with a new HelpSet.
         helpViewer = new JHelp(new HelpSet(cl, url));
         // Set the initial entry point in the table of contents.
         helpViewer.setCurrentID("Simple.Introduction");
        } catch (Exception e) {
           System.err.println("API Help Set not found");
      // Create a new frame.
      JFrame frame = new JFrame();
      // Set it's size.
      frame.setSize(500,500);
      // Add the created helpViewer to it.
      frame.getContentPane().add(helpViewer);
      // Set a default close operation.
      frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
      // Make the frame visible.
      frame.setVisible(true);
}

Luca-Sanna,
Thanks for this help. My setup and probably my post are a little confusing. The helpset is on my D drive in this location:
D:\D_ProgramFiles\JavaHelp\MyStuffI changed the value of the second parameter to findHelpSet to:
"D:/D_ProgramFiles/JavaHelp/MyStuff/jhelpset.hs" But this did not work.
I placed the helpset files in the same directory as the compiled class and changed the parameter to:
"helptest/jhelpset.hs"where helptest is the package name and the viewer loaded fine.
However when it comes to a real application and help files, putting the help files in the same location as the compiled class files is probably not the best technique. I'll have other questions at that time I'm sure.
It still would be good to know why the first path I indicated above did not work.
Thanks.

Best format for help file

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