I used Canon digital camera to shoot a 1-minute video, imported it to iPhoto, and uploaded it to MobileMe Gallery. (I’m a newbie at all 3: digital photography, MM Gallery, and iPhoto.) I emailed a Gallery link but recipient can’t open it on his PC. He’s reasonably tech savvy but doesn’t use Mac. My video goal is communication, not art, so it doesn’t have to be highest possible quality. My questions are:
*Is there a way to compress the movie so it uploads faster?
*Is there a format I should be converting to that is more Windows friendly? The iPhoto file is .mov and 195mb.
*Does recipient have to download the file, or is it playable directly from MM Gallery? The latter is my preference because I presume it to be more efficient. If playable directly, please explain how.
— Carol Fortlage
The videos you upload to MobileMe gallery are in QuickTime format. If the Windows users doesn't have QuickTime, then they may not be able to view it. Many (most?) Windows users have QuickTime nowadays because it comes with iTunes, which Windows users add to their PCs when they get an iPod, most likely.
You can export from iMovie in smaller formats. Instead of using the Share, MobileMe Gallery from iMovie, use Share, Export Using QuickTime and export as MP4/h264 -- see episodes 374 (http://macmost.com/imovie-export-settings.html) The mp4 format may play back better on Windows and will be smaller. You can also use MPEGStreamClip (http://macmost.com/mpeg-streamclip.html) to take a large movie from iMovie and trim it down http://macmost.com/mpeg-streamclip.html.
The videos in the MobileMe gallery should play back inside the Web browser. However, another way to do this is to use Flash playback. You can do that by simply using YouTube instead of MobileMe. YouTube converts to Flash video. That might be a good option for you.