QUICKTIME

Here's your checklist:

1. You'll need at least QuickTime 6 to compress your film with these settings. We'd recommend upgrading to Quicktime Pro but it isn't necessary to export your film.
2. The Video Compressor should be MPEG4.
3. The Audio Compressor should be MPEG4.
If you don't have this option available then you can use uncompressed 32_floating point/ big endian/little endian audio. However this will make your file larger while not making any difference to the final sound quality. Remember that your file must be less than 130Mb, so if more of this is taken up with sound data less can be taken up with picture. If there is less data describing the picture it won't look as good, and that's not good.
4. The Video Bitrate should be either 3000 Kilobits FOR FOURDOCS (3-5 minutes), or 6400kilobits FOR MICRODOCS (under 59 seconds). Note that QuickTime 6 often asks for a bitrate in kilobytes not kilobits. If you get this wrong your file will be much too large (see our General tips page for more detailed info on this)
5. The Frame Size should be the default size, i.e. 720x576 for both 4:3 and 16:9 films.
6. Your video frame rate must be 25fps (DV PAL default)- NB You need to specify this as the frame rate, don't just assume it's right!. You should get the option to select this frame rate when you specify the other settings - for example in the Frame Rate dropdown under the Compression Type heading on this page
7. You should apply de-interlacing. This can mean either checking a box to say 'de-interlace', or sometimes setting the 'Field Order' to 'No Fields'. See our General tips page for why you'd want to do this.
8. If possible (e.g. in Avid) you should set the pixel aspect ratio to 4:3 if your film is in 4:3 or 16:9 if your film is in 16:9.
9. The audio should be at 48kHz, 16-bit stereo.
10. The audio bitrate should be 128kilobits. If you are using uncompressed audio then you won't get this option.

WINDOWS MEDIA

Here's your checklist:

1. You'll need at least Windows Media 9 to compress your film with these settings.
2. Often you can find a preset to do all this for you, such as 'Video for local playback 3MBits'.
3. The Video Codec should be Windows Media 9. We recommend using VBR compression.
4. The Audio Codec should also be Windows Media 9. We recommend using VBR compression.
. If you don't have this option available then you can use uncompressed 32_floating point/ big endian/little endian audio. But this will make your file size larger.
5. The (peak) Video bitrate should be 3MBits/s or 3000Kilobits/s. Sometimes you don't get this option. If so use the highest one available to you, e.g. 2.1MBits/s
6. The Audio should be at 48kHz, 16-bit stereo. The (peak) Audio bitrate should be 128kilobits/s. 7. You should apply de-interlacing. This can mean either checking a box to say 'de-interlace', or sometimes setting the 'Field Order' to 'No Fields'. See our General tips page for why you'd want to do this.
8. If possible you should set the pixel aspect ratio (using Advanced Settings) to 4:3 if your film is in 4:3, or 16:9 if your film is in 16:9.
9. If you are using Variable Bit Rate (VBR) encoding you will have more than one box for the bitrate. Set the peak bitrate to the one above and the average to something slightly below, i.e. 2.5MBit/s for video and 96KBit/s for audio.

NOW LOOK AT YOUR GUIDE

Looks complicated? Fortunately we've compiled step-by-step instructions for popular editing packages - choose yours here. Make sure you've read the General Tips before jumping into the relevant guide though.