> > He tried using codec Sorenson 3 and the result, in my opinon, was
> > disgusting.
> 
> You have to adjust the default settings.  This is much easier with the
> advanced commercial version rather than the basic version that comes with
> QuickTime for free.

I'm not sure, but I think he has a commercial copy of it.  There is
indeed some settings, like the bitrate, key frame, and fps.  But that's
about it...

> >  I tried to find out about MPEG-4 and sound compression in
> > iMovie doesn't seem to be pretty nice.
> 
> I am not sure what you what to say with this sentence and I don't use
> iMovie, but if you just have problems using it, I suggest to export as DV in
> iMovie and play with the compression in the Movie Player (aka QuickTime
> player).

Well, I meant that sound compression doesn't seem to keep a very good
quality, the best bitrate is 48 kbit/s.  But I have to say it is enough
for our needs.

Exporting to DV and playing with the compression;  you mean QuickTime
player can compress the DV better than iMovie? (iMovie uses quicktime to
compress its movies)

> MPEG-4 will create the best quality available if the result should fit on a
> CD.  Of course for MPEG-4 you should not use the default settings but the
> maximum video datarate (1.5 Mbit iirc) and for stereo at least 256 Kbit
> audio datarate.

Well, he told me there were some documents also on the CD and there is
only about 200Mbytes left on the CD.  In MPEG-4 compression, setting the
bitrate higher than 512kbit/s result in lagged playback.  And setting
the keyframe higher makes lots of artifacts...  As for audio, it can not
be set higher than 48kbit/s.

> Your other option is to use iDVD and put the result on a DVD.  Then you get
> MPEG-2 and full DVD quality.  Of course that requires a DVD-R drive...

Don't have such hardware...  

> MPEG-1, while most compatible with i.e. consumer DVD players, will create
> worse quality than Sorenson 3 (which proper settings).  Some CD burning
> programs support QuickTime to MPEG-1 conversion it as far as I recall.

For a good quality movie, MPEG-1 would be much too big for my use, so I
think my best option is to stay with MPEG-4 and play with the bitrate
and keyframe settings until I get a good quality and good speed movie.

Thanks for your answers!
  Simon

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