| Step 1: Installing the required
software The video format for the
VideoHelp.com
Short Film Competition is DivX 5/6 or XviD AVI with MP3 audio. The
recommended video specs are here.
This particular format was chosen because it is already popular on
the internet, it provides excellent compression and quality and probably has the best
cross-platform compatibility (Windows, MacOS, Linux). Furthermore, there are now a
number of stand-alone devices including several DVD players that can play DivX video clips
directly off a CD-ROM!
The required specifications of the submitted films should play well
in all DivX capable DVD players.
Microsoft in its wisdom supplied Windows with only a limited MP3 ACM
codec (at best only encodes to 56 kbit/s 24 kHz stereo audio). Even at this bitrate,
the audio quality is substandard -- probably approx. FM radio. Luckily, the free
(and probably the best) MP3 encoder (LAME) is also available in the form of an ACM codec
(i.e., can be used as the compression for a "wav" file) and is unrestricted.
More recommended software can be found here.
It is highly recommended that you at least install VirtualDub.
Step 1b: What video editing program are you using?
What step two is for you will depend on the video editing program
you are using.
If you are using a good quality NLE (non-linear editing) program
(e.g., Adobe Premiere, Ulead Media Studio Pro, etc.) -- or at least one that can directly
output to AVI, where you have a choice of video and audio codecs, then click here.
If you are using Windows Movie Maker 2, or some
other program that can only output to DV-AVI and some non-editable format (e.g., WMV),
then click here.
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