QuickTime Tutorials

From DreamsteepWiki

Garbled QuickTime Video in Windows XP

Problem: I have Windows XP with QuickTime 7.x installed. When I try to view a QuickTime movie I can hear the sound clearly, but the video is scrambled.

Explanation: The problem is likely caused by Direct X using hardware acceleration to decompress the video. Graphic acceleration for video is generally a good thing because it means your computer's CPU has less work to do to render video. However, the type and quality of graphic acceleration varies among different graphics cards, and with some configurations it can cause the color values of the video to shift, thus producing a "scrambled" video image. Turning on "Safe Mode" disables all QuickTime video hardware acceleration in the display adapter and avoids the problem. The CPU may have to work harder to render large format QuickTime video files, but you will at least be able to see the video.

Here are the Steps to Fix this Problem:

1. Open the QuickTime 7.X player. (You may also go to the Start menu -> Control Panel -> QuickTime, and skip to step 3).

2. Click on the Edit tab and go to Preferences -> QuickTime Preferences.

3. Click on the Advanced tab. You will see a screen like this:

4. Unclick the Direct X radio button, and click on Safe mode(GDI only).

5. Click on Apply, then OK.

6. Restart QuickTime and play a movie. The movie should play with normal video.

How to Crop a Movie in QuickTime Pro

1. Open the movie in QT Pro.

Movie -> Get Movie Properties

Select the video track from left pop-up menu

Choose Mask from right pop-up menu

2. Open a new file in a graphics program, like GraphicConverter or Photoshop

Create a black rectangle with the same pixel dimensions as the movie

Make a white border on the edges where you want the video cropped (the white areas will be eliminated)

[OR, to line things up better, click the video image in QT Pro, copy, then paste it into the graphics program. Create a new layer to make the mask.]

3. Save the graphics file as GIF.

4. In QT Pro, click Set button and select the GIF file. It should now be cropped.

Good Description of this method - http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2006/05/the_mask_of_quicktime.html