QuickTime X stretches QT Text tracks poorly

I was surprised at how poorly QT X enlarges text in QT Text tracks. Look at the comparison from the same movie transposed over each other in QT 7 and QT X. It seems to bitmap the text and make it very fuzzy. I expected better. Check it out: http://www.personal.psu.edu/pzb4/QT7vsQTX.png

I've noticed the same thing. This is pretty serious as Quicktime+SMIL combination provided a great way to created captioned video.
A number of universities have used this approach for their online captioning and there are how-to guides to do just this from WGBH's NCAM as well as www.webaim.org.
Is there an explanation somewhere or will there be one pertaining to future support for SMIL?
Alternately, can we rely on Quicktime 7 being installed in all macs running Snow Leopard? Finally, what about Windows and Quicktime X and SMIL ?
From an accessibility perspective, SMIL offered a flexibility for creating captioned content. Without it, a lot of content will be potentially lost.
Any information is appreciated.

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Export H264 pass-through movie with embedded text track QuickTime Pro 7 Windows?

Using QuickTime Pro 7 for Windows, I add a text track with closed captions to my H264 .mp4 videos.
The text track works great until I try to export it. After I've added the text track, the text track is displayed as long as the track is selected to be active using the Movie Inspector track GUI.
My movies are encoded as H264 for cross-platform compatibility, and need to remain in this format. The only way to save them in QuickTimePro 7 for Windows is to Export Movie to MPEG-4. I select Pass-Through mode to retain the resolution and bandwidth parameters that I initially encoded the video with.
Unfortunately, after I export to MPEG-4, the caption track is lost. It disappears. When I open the newly exported MPEG-4 caption file, and select Movie Inspector, the caption track is missing. Inspector only shows video and audio tracks.
If QuickTime Pro 7 for Windows correctly exported my text track with the video and audio tracks, then users would be able to view the closed captions upon playback in QuickTime Player by selecting View--> Show Closed Captioning (Ctrl+Alt+T).
Anyone been able to export to MPEG-4 pass-through movie with embedded text track QuickTime Pro 7 Windows?
Thank you!

Sorry here is the code
<body>
div id="myAlternativeContent"
a href="videofolder/video.mov"
img src="videofolder/video-poster.jpg"
/a
/div
</body>
videofolder/video
Message was edited by: SFlocation
Message was edited by: SFlocation

Text tracks no longer visible in Quicktime Pro for Windows 7.7.2?

I opened a text track in Quicktime Pro 7.7.2, and none of the text was visible. I verified with a text track that I know used to work a few months ago, and it also was not visible.
I rolled back to Quicktime Pro 7.6 for Windows, and re-opened the files, and they worked again. Has anyone else encountered this issue? I know the 7.7.2 update involved a security patch to the way text tracks were handled.
Thanks.

I love computers.
Have managed to fix this already. Been working the issue for a few days now, and a few minutes after writing the above post I decided to reset the Time Capsule to factory default settings.
After entering all my details again (used same network names, passwords etc) the Time Capsule was rebooted. When it came back on line - guess what? Yep, the MyBook WD drive is now visibile. I can connect via the network from my other machines to the drive, and iTunes is back.
So - thought I would post my resolution in case it helps others.

Quicktime Chapter and Text Tracks

Hello,
I've got loads of video that I would like to subtitle and add chapters. It has taken me more then a week to complete the above task with a 20 minute video with iMovie (not counting the previous week of work lost when iMovie somehow mangled the video beyond recognition [save more often!].)
Needless to say, I'm looking for alternative methods that might make things easier to revise without having to worry about re-rendering everytime I make a revision.
Quicktime Pro does have the ability to add Chapter and Text tracks (that can be used for subtitling).
Will a Quicktime 7 file with a text track and a chapter track added to an iDVD (HD) project inherit the chapter markers and subtitles? (I really don't mind if the subtitles are always displayed.)
I'll probably try the above with a test file, but I was hoping that someone could let me know if it'll be wasted effort?
Thanks.

I've done a few tests and it appears that it does not import the chapters or text tracks.
Oh well, back to iMovie.

Quicktime text track doesn't display

I have numerous QT files that I created in QT 5 & 6 that have text tracks. Now, on my laptop, running QT 7, the text tracks don't display. They are there, according to "Movie Properties," but aren't showing. They do show in my desktop, also running QT 7, but I can't figure out which codec my laptop is missing. Unfortunately, I'm supposed to speak at a seminar tomorrow, and need my laptop to show the QT files.
Does anyone have any ideas of which codec I'm missing for the text track?

I am working with copies of the originals. I'm not even sure where the original files are. But I haven't recompressed or exported or imported anything, just copied the files onto a removable hard drive and then onto other computers. The movies originally were compressed using Sorenson Squeeze.
I looked in "Movie Properties," and the text track is at the bottom. But I can't figure out how to move it to the top of the list to see if that works.
Also, the movie works fine on my desktop, which as far as I can tell is running the same software and has the same codecs available. It's only the laptop that can't display the text track.

Text Track font is missing on one computer, but not on another

I brought in a text track into my QT movie, then saved the whole thing as "self-contained". The font that I set for the text track (with QT descriptor) is Verdana. The problem is that on one computer, the text shows up fine, yet on another laptop, the text shows up as a bunch of boxes instead of characters.
I know that laptop has Verdana as a font on the system, so I am not sure what's going on.
has anyone had that problem before?
Thanks!

I use a lot of text tracks in my "movies". Since mine are made on a Mac I also use Mac "specific" fonts for some of them. When viewed on a PC the Mac only font always defaults to an appropriate substitute and no one is the wiser.
If there is an issue with a PC only font it should also revert to a similar substitute.
Other issues could be a corrupt font or even duplicates or a conflict.
You may want to experiment a bit with some text track QT files.
Create your plain text (.txt) file and import into QuickTime.
Export it (with text descriptors) back to a text file so you can edit the font. Make a few versions and test the file onvarious computers (Mac and PC).
More info:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/textdescriptors.html

Use of textbox in text tracks

I'm learning now how to add text to a Quicktime movie. In fact I can add text, and change some parameters in the text descriptor.
What I don't yet understand is how to use textbox: it seems to me that it doesn't behave as described in the QT Tutorial - Texty Descriptors:
Used to set the dimensions and location of the textBox relative to the other visible tracks. Example: {textBox:0, 0, 80, 320} top left of the movie window.
In fact whatever value I use the text always appears on top of the QT window, unless I manually modify the Offset values in the cmd-J window...
What am I missing ?
Thanks in advance
Piero

Thanks Kirk,
I know, and I saved and reloaded it every time into QT (7.1.6) and the target movie.
As an example, I list below the text file I'm testing. Its purpose is to show the timecode, and this works... just I'm not able to position it within the window using textbox. It seems the textbox descriptor has no effect: the rectangle (360x48) with the counter is always on the top left of the window whatever value I write in textbox. I also loaded 2 text tracks into the same movie, that are identical with the exception of the textbox values: and the counters overlap perfectly (you see only one of them). Only if I change the Offset value in the Property window for one of them I can see them in different positions.
{QTtext} {font:Geneva} {plain} {anti-alias:on} {size:16}
{textColor: 48400, 48400, 48400} {backColor: 0, 0, 0} {justify:center}
{timeScale:25} {width:360} {height:48} {textBox: 0, 0, 80, 720}
{timeStamps:absolute} {language:0} {textEncoding:0} {keyedText:on}
[00:00:00.00]
00:00:00
[00:00:01.00]
00:00:01
[00:00:02.00]
00:00:02
[00:00:03.00]
00:00:03
[00:00:04.00]
00:00:04
BTW: is there a better way than using a text track to display the timecode in QT Pro ?
Thanks again
Piero

Unicode support for QT text tracks?

Does Quicktime NOT support unicode text? Is it not possible to create a text track with Chinese, Korean or other subtitles? I have a unicode file, but the text gets garbled when I try to open it in QT Pro. I have tried the language descriptor {language:23}, but no luck, and putting {textencoding:256} does not help either. That is for UTF-16, but it does not display correctly. There does not seem to be a descriptor for UTF-8. I tried {textencoding:64} but no luck either.

hi,
Use atinav.com driver. I hope it will solve ur problem......
regards,
Shaan

QT movie will not pre-load text track for chapters when streaming

We have been trying to stream quicktime files with chapters for some time and have followed every tutorial, message board advice and trick to get this to work but with no luck. I am unable to get the chapters to show up in QTplayer when the video is streaming. I am trying to accomplish exactly what you see on this web page http://media.law.unimelb.edu.au/kalt/
Basically, we have successfully created our movie file (with fast start enabled), successfully created our text track, copied it onto our movie file, and set it to preload, as in the instructions at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/chaptertracks.html (I had to roll-back QT Pro as the Preload checkbox has disappeared from 7.4.5!!).
Then we have saved it as a self-contained movie, and it works perfectly, with drop-down chapters in the right places, etc.
As soon as we put the file on our quicktime streaming server however, the file streams great but there are no chapters. If I look at the movie properties of our streaming file, there is no text track listed. The properties of the streaming file on the above web page DOES show the text track listed, so I am guessing that mine is simply not pre-loading the text file, even though I have checked the box to do just that and the chapters work great if I simply open the file locally, just not when it is streaming. I have tried this with many test files, large and small.
Could anyone let me know how I can get that text track to pre-load in the stream and therefore have the chapters appear in the drop-down list in quicktime player when streaming? I would be eternally grateful!

First, you don't have to roll-back QT Pro, as what you want to do can be accomplished with the latest QuickTime.
Second, skip down to the bottom of that page you linked to. You'll find a Step 1 and Step 2 that applies to Streaming QuickTime movies with chapters. This was sort of confusing when I first tried it, but the way you accomplish Step 1 is to start the stream using a computer that has QuickTime Pro, then save the stream as "Self-Contained" (NOT the original movie that resides on your Streaming Server). As when you save any QuickTime stream as Self-Contained, you'll end up with a really tiny movie that simply points to the streaming server.
Once you have that movie, you add the chapters to it (again, not to the movie that resides on your QTSS), then when someone clicks that link (or even if they download that tiny movie to their desktop), the chapter loads immediately (because it's right there) and choosing chapters in it commands the QTSS to begin playing from that point. I've got an example I posted here.
http://www.keynoteuser.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/macworld2008.mov

How do I print a movie with a text track to video?

Hello,
How can I get the subtitles in a text track to appear on a file in iMovie or Final Cut so it can be printed to video? Or put differently, how can I render that information so it becomes a part of the video track? The best I can do is print the clip with the subtitle area intact, but the area is filled in with white. I'm using QTP7.
Thanks!

I'm not sure how to do this with Quicktime, but VideoLAN can do it by using the "soverlay" module with the output transcoder.
http://www.videolan.org/
http://www.videolan.org/doc/streaming-howto/en/ch03.html#id291629
http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=14570
Hope this helps

Problems adding Text track to .mov file

I am having a problem adding a text track to a quicktime file. I want to overlay text onto a PAL DV file. The original file size is 720 x 576 but when I add the text (as per the instructions in the QT Player Help) instead of having the text overlaid, it appears next to the Video image and gives me an image size of 1325 x 577. If I now export this as a "PAL DV" file, QT Player shows the whole 1325x577 frame whilst FCP accepts the file but shows only the video part of the frame.
I'm running QT 7.4.5 on a MacBook Pro with OS10.5.2. I have tried re-installing QT without success - this maybe because the Preferences seem to stick when upgrading/re-installing (?)
Any thoughts, help or, better still, a definitive answer to my problem would be most welcome.

Use the Movie Properties window to size your added text track to match the 720 width.
For viewing a DVD on a TV size it even smaller (700) and set an offset value of 10 pixels so your text doesn't get cut off during playback.

How to increase the size of text boxes in FCPX without stretching the text inside?

How to increase the size of text boxes in FCPX without stretching the text inside?

There are two basic Title formats — I should say Layouts — available: Text (plain) and Paragraph. (The plain text version usually does not appear with the blue dot controls — those generally appear for the paragraph type control.)
If the Title is using a Paragraph layout, it's like having a mini version of Text Edit available inside FCPX. You can tell when you click on the text (when the title is selected) -- a rectangle will appear around the text like so:
double clicking on the text will give you the bounds controls which you can use to redefine the text area without distorting the text. Once selected, notice the button that appears in the top right corner of the canvas:
Pressing that will activate the ruler. You can right click on the ruler and add Tab Stops (left, right, center and decimal.)
So if the title uses paragraph formatting, you can create a very WYSIWYG type of display text (use the Text inspector to alter text selections within the paragraph bounds.)

Exporting and importing text tracks

When I export a text track (to text with descriptors) all the descriptors appear normally in the .txt, but the actual caption is somewhat inverted. For example ABCD appears BADC, even though the '{textbox ...}' descriptor on the same line is untouched.
When I go to import this .txt file, the caption that appears on the video is very jumbled. (Not anything close to BADC.) It resembles asian characters.
Finally if this text track is exported, the entire caption line in the .txt, including the '{textbox . . .}' descriptor looks like this: '‘çæ¨³¥âç© Œ„æç ¥‘ç´.' The rest of the descriptors and the time stamps look normal.
What am I doing wrong? I have a video including the captions finished. All I want to do is make the captions bigger.

{QTtext}{font:Geneva}{plain}{size:12}{textColor: 65535, 65535, 65535}{backColor: 0, 0, 0}{justify:center}{timeScale:1000}{width:160}{height:48}{timeStamps:absolute}{l anguage:0}{textEncoding:0}
Above is a sample of a QT text track exported with descriptors. You need only change the number in the {size:XX} to your desired font size.
Text track are also vector based files. Changing the dimension (after import) in the Movie Properties Visual Settings tab window will "scale" your text to a larger size.
I think the error in your text to text (with descriptors) export was the original source. You must also create text tracks as "plain text". Saving a Word file as Rich Text would cause the QT import to bring in garbage characters.

Copying and pasting attributes and styles of text track

Simple question,
I have two text tracks and would like to copy and pasts the attributes and style tabs in "inspector" to another text track. How could I do this without having to manually set each individual track as I create it.
Thanks,

Did you check the opacity value in the paste attributes dialog?

Text tracks change video levels

Does anyone know why turning on any text tracks like the chapters track, darkens the displayed video in the QT player?
You can observe this, by first (if your text tracks are on already) open the properties editor window, (command+J) and turn off any text tracks, then save and close the movie.
Re-open the movie and the video will be brighter, open the properties window again and while watching the video, turn on any text track and you will see the video in the QT player darken. Turning off any text tracks at this point will not return the video to brighter levels, you will have to leave the text tracks off, close the movie and reopen them, to see any change.
Also, does anyone know why when a video is RTSP streamed over the internet, this same issue arises, only this happens to QT movies that have no text track at all, when streamed over the internet, via RTSP, (not progressive download.)
Any ideas would be welcome.

FYI for QuickTimeKirk
As to RTSP QT streaming and captioning, I actually have hinted the caption text track of a streaming movie and via RTSP, have had the captioning show up in a browser window, I know, it was a surprise to me as well.
I actually use SMIL files to add captioning over RTSP streams, which includes the following, if anybody is interested on how to do it. The original QT streaming file has to be captioned, because we also allow progressive download of the same files, so the captioning text track has to be there for QT player to show captioning.
Anyway, the files that are needed to stream QT captioning along with the movie are as follows:
QT movie
QT movie containing and extract of the the text track only, from the original movie being streamed, or a text file, containing timecode and text for captioning. I use the the first one, it's just easier for my work flow.
HTML embedded web page, with the proper QT coding.
.SMIL file, which controls the playback of the QT movie and captioning text file or captioning text movie. This file loads both the movie and captioning file in sync and controls where the captioning window is located in relation to the movie window, which is embedded in the html web page.
I know, it seems complicated, but once you have done one, it's easy! If anyone needs more details, I'd be glad to impart more detail.

QuickTime X stretches QT Text tracks poorly

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