Autodesk 64006-051108-9001 - Discreet Cleaner - Mac User Manual

from discreet

November 2000

© 2005 Autodesk Canada Co./Autodesk, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This publication, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose.

AUTODESK CANADA CO./AUTODESK, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES, OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING
THESE MATERIALS AND MAKES SUCH MATERIALS AVAILABLE SOLELY ON AN “AS-IS” BASIS.

IN NO EVENT SHALL AUTODESK CANADA CO./AUTODESK, INC. BE LIABLE TO ANYONE FOR SPECIAL, COLLATERAL,
INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IN CONNECTION WITH OR ARISING OUT OF PURCHASE OR USE OF THESE
MATERIALS. THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE LIABILITY TO AUTODESK CANADA CO./AUTODESK, INC., REGARDLESS OF THE FORM
OF ACTION, SHALL NOT EXCEED THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THE MATERIALS DESCRIBED HEREIN.

Autodesk Canada Co./Autodesk, Inc. reserves the right to revise and improve its products as it sees fit. This publication describes the state of this
product at the time of its publication, and may not reflect the product at all times in the future.

Auto des k, Inc . Tradem arks

The following are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries: 3D Studio, 3D Studio MAX, 3D Studio VIZ, 3ds
Max, ActiveShapes, ActiveShapes (logo), Actrix, ADI, AEC-X, ATC, AUGI, AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, Autodesk, Autodesk Envision, Autodesk
Inventor, Autodesk Map, Autodesk MapGuide, Autodesk Streamline, Autodesk WalkThrough, Autodesk World, AutoLISP, AutoSketch,
Backdraft, Biped, Bringing information down to earth, Buzzsaw, CAD Overlay, Character Studio, Cinepak, Cinepak (logo), Civil 3D, Cleaner,
Codec Central, Combustion, Design Your World, Design Your World (logo), EditDV, Education by Design, Gmax, Heidi, HOOPS, Hyperwire, i­drop, IntroDV, Lustre, Mechanical Desktop, ObjectARX, Physique, Powered with Autodesk Technology (logo), ProjectPoint, RadioRay, Re actor,
Rev it, VISION*, Vi su al, Visual Construct ion, Visua l Drainage, Visual Hydro, Visual Lands cape , Visual Roads, Vis ua l Sur vey, Visual Toolbox,
Vis ual Tug Boat , Visu al L ISP, Volo, W HIP! , an d WHI P! ( logo ).

The following are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries: AutoCAD Learning Assistance, AutoCAD Simulator,
AutoCAD SQL Extension, AutoCAD SQL Interface, AutoSnap, AutoTrack, Built with ObjectARX (logo), Burn, Buzzsaw.com, CAice,
Cinestream, Cleaner Central, ClearScale, Colour Warper, Content Explorer, Dancing Baby (image), DesignCenter, Design Doctor, Designer's
Toolkit, DesignKids, DesignProf, DesignServer, Design Web Format, DWF, DWFit , DWG Linking, DX F, Extending the D esign Team, G DX
Driver, Gmax (logo), Gmax ready (logo), Heads-up Design, ObjectDBX, Plasma, PolarSnap, Productstream, Real-time Roto, Render Queue,
Toxi k, Visual Brid ge, a nd Vi sual Syll abus .

Auto des k Ca nada C o. Tradem arks

The following are registered trademarks of Autodesk Canada Co. in the USA and/or Canada, and/or other countries: Discreet, Fire, Flame, Flint,
Flint RT, Frost, Glass, Inferno, MountStone, Riot, River, Smoke, Sparks, Stone, Stream, Vapour, Wire.

The following are trademarks of Autodesk Canada Co. in the USA, Canada, and/or other countries: Backburner, Multi-Master Editing.

THIRD-PARTY TRADEMARKS

All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE PROGRAM CREDITS

RealSystem® technology is provided under license from RealNetworks, Inc., copyright ©1995-2005 RealNetworks, Inc. and/or its suppliers. 1601
Elliott Avenue, Suite 1000, Seattle, Washington 98121, U.S.A. Patents Pending. All rights reserved. MPEG Layer-3 audio coding technology
licensed from Fraunhofer IIS and Thomson multimedia. Kinoma Producer Version 3.2 Copyright © 2005 Kinoma Inc. All rights reserved.
www.kinoma.com. Portions utilize Microsof t Windows Media Technologies, ©1999-2005 Microsoft Corporation. Portions use DivX Pro™ codec
copyright © 2005 DivX Inc. Portions use Flix Exporter copyright © 2005 On2 Inc. Portions use PixelTools Corporation copyright © 2005. All
rights reserved. Apple, Mac OS, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, QuickTime, iMovie, SoundManager and the respective Apple logos are either
registered trademarks or trademarks of Apple Computer Incorporated.

GOVERNMENT USE

The software and documentation is provided with RESTRICTED RIGHTS. Use, duplication, or disclosure by the United States Government or
any agency, department or instrumentality thereof is subject to the restrictions set forth in the Commercial Computer Software—Restricted Rights
clause at FAR 52.227-19 or the Commercial Computer Software—Licensing clause at NASA FAR Supplement 1852.227-86. Manufacturer is

Autodesk Canada Co./Autodesk, Inc., 10 Duke Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3C 2L7.

Title: Autodesk Cleaner 6.5 User’s Guide
Document Version: 1
Part Number: 64006-050000-5000A
Date: November 1, 2005

Contents

toc

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

What’s New in Cleaner 6.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Activating Cleaner 6.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Registration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Streaming Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Progressive Streaming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Real-Time Streaming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Standard and Streaming Servers . . . . . . . . . 5

Bandwidth Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Buffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Streaming Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Typical Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2

Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Capturing Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Digital Video Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Analog Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Choosing a Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Shooting Video for Streaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Shooting Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3

Batches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

The Batch Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Project Modification Icons. . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Batch Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Adding Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Importing from Audio CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Connecting Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Adding Numbered Stills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Replacing a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Removing Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Assigning Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

File Naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Processing Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Skipping Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Selecting Destinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Default Destination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Custom Destinations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Customizing Output File Names. . . . . . . . 27

Processing a Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Pausing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Stopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Changing and Restarting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Clearing Project Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Getting Project Status Details . . . . . . . . . . 30

The Batch Log. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4

Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

The Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

The Movie Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

The Source File Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

The Data Rate Graph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

The Settings, Modifiers, and EventStream

Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Cropping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Contentsiv

Manual Cropping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Numeric Cropping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Preventing Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Trimming Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Manually Setting In/Out Points. . . . . . . . . 42

Numerically Setting In/Out Points . . . . . . 43

The Cleaner Time System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Go to Frame/Go to Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Enhanced Movie Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

5

Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Using Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Choosing a Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Organizing Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Creating a Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Modifying Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Assigning a Setting to a Project . . . . . . . . . 55

Assigning a Setting to Multiple Projects. . 55
Assigning Multiple Settings to Multiple

Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Settings Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Previewing Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Sharing Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Using Aliases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Protecting Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Automating Setting Creation. . . . . . . . . . . 59

6

Pre-processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

The Image Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Crop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Image Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

De-interlace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Shift Fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Telecine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Blur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Sharpen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Adaptive Noise Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Static Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Watermark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

The Adjust Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Gamma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Contrast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Black Restore and White Restore . . . . . . . 73

Hue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Saturation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

QuickTime Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

The Audio Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Using Audio Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Sample Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Data Rate (only for MP3, MPEG Layer 1,

MPEG Layer 2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Speed vs. Quality (only for MP3) . . . . . . . 78

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Low Pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

High Pass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Noise Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Dynamic Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Noise Gate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Notch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Reverb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Experimenting with Audio Filters. . . . . . . 84

Begin/End Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Video Fades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Audio Fades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

High Quality First/Last Frames . . . . . . . . . 86

End Frame URL Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

In Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Out Point. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

7

Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Video Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Audio Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Still Image Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Animation and 3-D Formats . . . . . . . . . . . 88

AVI (Video for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . )89

Required Components for AVI. . . . . . . . . 89

Creating AVI Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

DivX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

DV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Working with DV Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Creating DV Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

v

Flash Video Formats (FLV, SWF) . . . . . . . . . . 93

Kinoma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Video Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Audio Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

MP3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Creating MP3 Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Choosing Encoding Parameters . . . . . . . . 95

MP3 and QuickTime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Copyright Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

MP3 Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

MPEG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

MPEG Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

MPEG Aspect Ratios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Group of Pictures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

MPEG Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

QuickTime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Preparing QuickTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

QuickTime Scalability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Required Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

QuickTime Version Compatibility . . . . . 104

QuickTime Codecs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Audio-only Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

QuickTime Movie Suffix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

QuickTime Streaming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Alternates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Creating Alternates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Organizing Alternates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Alternate Movie Fallbacks . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Single Version Fallback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Putting QuickTime Online. . . . . . . . . . . . 124

QuickTime MIME Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Special QuickTime Options . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Real 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Real 10 Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Streaming Real 10 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Downloadable Real 10 Files . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Audio-Only Real 10 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Viewing Real 10 Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Putting Real 10 Files on a RealServer . . . 135

Windows Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Windows Media formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Windows Media codecs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Creating Windows Media Files . . . . . . . . 137

Downloadable Windows Media Files. . . 137
Uploading to a Windows Media Server . 138
Adding Downloadable Files to a Web Page.

139

8

Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Output Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

The Format Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

QuickTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

MPEG-1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

MPEG-2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

AVI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Windows Media 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

DivX 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

JPEG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

PNG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

PICT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

QuickTime Image (QTIF) . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

3G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

AIFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

BMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

FLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Kinoma Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Hinted Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

MPEG Audio Layer-3 (MP3). . . . . . . . . . 166

RealMedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

QuickTime TeXML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

AU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

WAVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Wildform Flash Video (FLV, SWF) . . . . 171

DV Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

QuickTime Media Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Image Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

MPEG-4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Tracks Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Flatten Only Option (QuickTime) . . . . . 178

Track Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Other Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Encode Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Codec. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Bit Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Spatial Quality and Temporal Quality Sliders

Contentsvi

181

Frame Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Keyframes or Insert Keyframes . . . . . . . . 182

Compare Uncompressed Frames . . . . . . 184

Video Data Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Compression Buffer Window (Windows

Media only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Video Quality (Windows Media only). . 189
Encoding Speed (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 only) .

190

Frames or Fields (MPEG-2 only) . . . . . . 190

Video Buffer Verifier (MPEG-1, MPEG-2

only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Group of Pictures (GOP) (MPEG-1, MPEG-

2 only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

New GOP on Scene Change (MPEG-1,

MPEG-2 only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Open GOPs (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 only) . 190

Chroma Format (MPEG-2 only). . . . . . . 191

Output Field Dominance (MPEG-2 only). .
191

Frame Rate versus Frame Size . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Frame Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Display Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Variations for Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Processing Still Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Making Still Images from Movies . . . . . . 195

Enhancing Still Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Making Movies Out of Still Images. . . . . 196

Optimizing Stills for Encoding . . . . . . . . 196

Audio Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

AVI Audio Codecs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 Audio Codecs . . 198

QuickTime Audio Codecs . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Sample Rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Data Rate (only for MP3, MPEG Layer 1,

MPEG Layer 2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Speed vs. Quality (MP3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Low/High Pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Noise Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Dynamic Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Noise Gate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Notch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Reverb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Begin/End Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Video/Audio Fades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

High-Quality First/Last Frames . . . . . . . 202

End Frame URL Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

In/Out Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Metadata Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Summary Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Preview Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Dynamic Preview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

The Output Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

9

EventStream. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

EventStream Authoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Adding EventStreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Adding Markers in Real Time . . . . . . . . . 215

Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Exporting/Importing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Supported Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Playback Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Processing Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

10

Publishing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Setting Streaming Server Paths . . . . . . . . . . . 226

QuickTime Streaming Server Preferences. .
226

RealServer Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Windows Media Server Preferences. . . . 228

StreamPublisher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Specifying the Destination for Streaming

Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

11

Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Preproduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Watch Folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Context Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Improving Processing Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Upgrade Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Turning Off Video Display . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Minimize Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Helpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Using Helpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Opening Source Movies with Helpers . . 236
Opening Output Movies with Helpers . . 236

Using AppleScripts with Helpers . . . . . . 236

Helpers and Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

QT Alternates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Server Paths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

12

Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Common Problems and Solutions. . . . . . . . . 241

Hardware Codecs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Image Quality Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Older Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Progressive-streaming Movies. . . . . . . . . 242

Real-Time-streaming Movies . . . . . . . . . 242

Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Before You Contact Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

vii

Glossary 247

Index 277

Contentsviii

Introduction

Welcome to Autodesk® Cleaner® 6.5 for Apple® Macintosh®, the industry standard for
professional video encoding.

This user’s guide provides all the information you need to process, author, and encode video
and audio for Web, CD, and DVD delivery. Cleaner 6.5 is designed to integrate seamlessly into
your video editing and multimedia production workflow, speeding up your encoding process
while outputting the highest quality content in all popular delivery formats.

What’s New in Cleaner 6.5

The following is a list of new features in Cleaner 6.5:

OS X 10.4 (Tiger) support — Cleaner runs under both OS X 10.3 (Panther) and 10.4 (Tiger).

QuickTime 7 — Support for QuickTime 7, including the H.264 codec.

Wildform Flash Video Encoder — You can encode to both FLV and SWF formats.

DivX — You can produce video files using the DivX® codec.

3GP — You can encode 3GP files for playback on mobile devices.

MPEG-2 enhancements — MPEG-2 encoding now includes 4:2:2 chroma and 2-pass variable

bitrate encoding.

Updates to the Kinoma Producer — The Kinoma® Producer now supports MPEG-4 video, and
can encode video for playback on the Sony™ PlayStation Portable.

Real 10 — Support for Real® 10, including RealVideo® and RealAudio®.

iPod — Support for iPod video using MPEG-4 encoding.

Chapter 1: Introduction2

Installation

System Requirements

• Apple Macintosh computer with a PowerPC G4 or faster processor (single or dual processor
supported). G5 processor recommended.

• Mac OS X version 10.3 (Panther) or 10.4 (Tiger).

• QuickTime 6.5 or higher.

• 128 MB of available application RAM. 256 MB recommended.

• Graphics card that supports 1024x768 resolution at 16-bit color (24-bit color recommended).

• CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.

• 35 MB of available hard drive space.

To install:

1.

Insert the Cleaner 6.5 CD-ROM into the drive.

2. Double-click the Install Cleaner 6.5 icon.

The Cleaner 6.5 installer appears.

3. Click Continue to move through each panel of the installer.

4. Click Quit to exit the installer.

Installation 3

Activating Cleaner 6.5

The first time you launch Cleaner 6.5, it asks for your activation key, name and company. The
activation key is located on a sticker attached to the inside of the front cover of the user’s guide.
This key is required for future upgrades of Cleaner and also for obtaining technical support.

1. Enter your information and click OK.

If you are upgrading from a previous version, the previous Activation key window appears.

2. Enter your Cleaner 4, 5, or 6 activation key and click OK.

Registration

You can register your product online at http://www.autodesk.com/registration.

Alternatively, you may register your product by contacting Autodesk Media and
Entertainment worldwide:

United States, Canada and Latin America:

email: [e-mail]

phone: [phone] or 1.415.507.4690

fax: [phone] or 1.415.507.4937

Europe, Middle-East, Africa:

e-mail: [e-mail]

fax: [phone]

Asia Pacific:

email: [e-mail]

fax: [phone]

Chapter 1: Introduction4

Streaming Basics

There are two common approaches to streaming today: Progressive streaming and Real-Time
streaming. Media files that are served from a Web (HTTP) server are progressively streamed.
Real-Time streaming files are delivered using a streaming media server.

Cleaner also creates files that must be downloaded entirely to the hard drive before they can be
played. Downloading files is a common practice for MP3 and MPEG files, but can also be used
for other file types.

Progressive Streaming

Progressive streaming, also known as progressive download, refers to online media that users
can watch as the files are downloaded. The user can see the part of the file that has downloaded
at a given time, but can’t jump ahead to portions that haven’t been transferred yet. Progressive
streaming files don’t adjust during transmission to match the bandwidth of the user’s
connection like a Real-Time streaming format. Progressive streaming is often called HTTP
streaming because standard HTTP servers can deliver files in this fashion and no special
protocols are needed. The QuickTime fast start feature is an example of a progressive streaming
technology.

Progressive streaming delivery is well suited to short movies that you want to be viewed at
high quality, such as movie trailers and product advertisements. This method guarantees the
quality of the final movie because the viewed portion of the file is downloaded before it is
played. This means users will experience a delay before the movie starts, especially with slower
connections.

Progressive streaming is especially useful for modem delivery of short pieces because it enables
you to create a movie with a higher data rate than a modem could stream in realtime. Although
doing this causes the viewer some delay, it also enables you to present a much higher quality
movie.

Progressive streaming is not a good solution for long movies or material the user may want to
randomly access, such as lectures, speeches or presentations.

Streaming Basics 5

Real-Time Streaming

Real-Time streaming refers to technologies that keep the bandwidth of the media signal
matched to that of the viewer’s connection so that the media is always seen in real time.
Dedicated streaming media servers and streaming protocols are required to use Real-Time
streaming. Real 10, Windows® Media® and QuickTime all offer Real-Time streaming
capabilities.

Real-Time streaming also supports random access of material, so the user can fast forward to
other parts of the movie, which may be useful for presentations and lectures. In theory, real­time streaming movies should never pause once they start playing, but in reality, periodic
pauses may occur.

Real-Time streaming movies must match the bandwidth of the viewer’s connection, which
means the image quality is generally poor at modem speeds. Also, information that is lost in
the network due to errors is often ignored, so the video quality will suffer if the network is
congested or having problems.

Real-Time streaming media requires special servers, such as a QuickTime Streaming Server, a
RealServer or a Windows Media Server. These servers give you a greater level of control over
media delivery but can be more complicated to set up and administer than a standard HTTP
server. Also, Real-Time streaming uses special network protocols, such as RTSP (Real-Time
Streaming Protocol) or MMS (Microsoft® Media Server).

Standard and Streaming Servers

A standard Web (HTTP) server is designed to send text and graphics as quickly as possible and
in the largest data packets as possible. However, this is not the best method for streaming audio
and video.

Streaming media servers are designed to deliver smaller data packets just before they are
rendered and seen. Streaming servers enable a movie to be watched as it is downloading,
eliminating the long wait for a complete download. Dedicated streaming media servers and
streaming protocols, such as Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and Microsoft Media Server
(MMS), are required to enable real-time streaming.

Bandwidth Scalability

Bandwidth scalability refers to the ability of the streaming video server to adapt to fluctuating
network conditions. Since viewers use many different ways of connecting to the Internet, the
streaming server can deliver the source video at several rates for optimum streaming. This
enables users with slower 56K modems or fast T1 connections to view the Webcast at a size and

Chapter 1: Introduction6

data rate that is appropriate for their connection. If the Internet connection slows down, the
server can also deliver a slower data rate stream until the transfer speed returns to normal. The
streaming server and the player communicate constantly to determine which data stream to
use and switch streams as needed.

Buffering

Buffering is a technique used by media players to ensure that the movie plays smoothly. It does
this by saving a specified amount of movie data in the player’s internal memory, which allows
for smooth playback even when the network gets congested.

For example, a typical buffer stores about 10 seconds in its memory before the stream starts
playing. When you watch streaming movies on the Internet, you will typically see a
“Buffering” message displayed by the player, and you must wait until buffering is complete
before you can see the movie. If network congestion causes incomplete buffering, the player
rebuffers the file and begins playing as soon as it can store 10 seconds.

Streaming Architectures

QuickTime

QuickTime scalability is accomplished through the use of alternates. You can create alternate
versions for various connection speeds and other criteria. You can intermix real-time streaming
and progressive-streaming alternates within the same alternate group to provide the optimal
experience for a range of viewers. Often, it works well to make alternates for modems as
progressive-streaming movies and the higher bandwidth alternates (ISDN and above) for real­time streaming.

Real 10

Real 10 offers scalability through its SureStream feature™. With Cleaner, you can create up to
six different audio and video tracks that are encoded for the most common user connections.
In addition to SureStream, RealPlayer™ can drop frames/degrade the image quality to
maintain real-time playback over slower connections.

Windows Media

Using a Windows Media Server, the Windows Media Intelligent Streaming has bandwidth
scalability to support up to five alternate video streams and one audio stream. Cleaner
currently supports only a single video stream per Windows Media file. The Windows Media
Player can also drop frames to maintain real-time playback over slower connections.

Typical Workflow 7

Typical Workflow

• Capture:

Capturing involves transferring video from your camera onto your computer’s hard drive.
If the source video is in DV format you can use iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Since Cleaner also
reads a wide variety of video and audio formats, you can also use it to process previously
captured material in the AVI, MPEG and QuickTime formats.

•Edit:

Use your preferred non-linear editor to create your video master.

• Organize into:
Projects — A project is comprised of a source file and all the processing details associated

with it. Each row in the Batch window represents a project.
Batches — A batch is a group of projects. Cleaner makes processing many projects easy —

you can drag and drop hundreds of source files directly onto the Batch window and quickly
assign settings, destinations and other processing options.

Settings — Cleaner enables you to save the encoding and general processing parameters
you apply to a file as a group, called a setting. This makes it easy to assign these parameters
to other files you want to process in the same fashion. Cleaner comes with a wide variety of
factory settings to help you get started right out of the box.

• Pre-process:

Use Cleaner video and audio filters and adjustments, such as Adaptive Noise Reduction,
Gamma and Dynamic Range to optimize the movie for encoding.

• Add Events:

All the major streaming formats offer some level of interactivity or special features. Cleaner
EventStream authoring enables you to access these features to create stream navigation,
synchronize HTML to streaming media, embed links and interactive hot spots, and add text
tracks for inclusion in the streams.

•Encode:

Set the major encoding parameters, such as data rate, frame rate (fps), keyframe frequency
and image size.

•Publish:

The Cleaner StreamPublisher feature enables you to upload the files directly to a remote
streaming server or save them in a local folder on your hard drive after the file is encoded.

Chapter 1: Introduction8

Capture

Capturing Video

To work with video on a computer, you must first get it onto the hard disk drive. This is called
“capturing” the video and is the first step in the Cleaner workflow.

If the source material was shot with a D V camera, simply transfer the video to the computer vi a
the camera’s FireWire (IEEE 1394 port or i.Link) using an application that supports captures,
such as iMovie or Final Cut Pro. This results in very high-quality source video because there is
no analog-to-digital conversion when capturing DV to the computer.

Note: Many computers have built-in FireWire ports. However, if your computer does not have

a FireWire port, you can purchase a FireWire card to add this capability to your system.

If the source material was not shot on DV, you have two options. You can use a converter to
translate an analog signal to a digital signal and then capture it via an application. Or you can
capture the analog video with a video capture card or a system that can handle analog signals.

DV Camera
or Deck

Analog Camera
or Deck

IEEE 1394

A/D
converter

iMovie

Capture
Hardware

Hard Drive

Cleaner

Chapter 2: Capture10

Digital Video Capture

The MiniDV and DVCAM (DV25 format) are popular high-quality digital formats that
integrate well with computers.

The DV format offers higher image quality and resolution than Hi8, S-VHS and VHS. It is a
digital format, so DV does not suffer from generation loss — a copy of a DV tape is identical to
the original. DV equipment is reasonably priced for its level of quality. These attributes have
made DV the new format of choice for many Web and video professionals.

Some DV cameras offer a progressive scan feature. This records each frame as a single non­interlaced image instead of two separate interlaced fields. Progressive scan source material
may not play as smoothly on a television monitor as interlaced material, but it is superior for
streaming because it contains no interlacing artifacts. You should look for this feature when
buying a DV camera and use it when creating streaming content.

There are a wide range of DV cameras available. Lower-priced cameras generally have lower
image quality and fewer features. Higher-quality DV cameras usually have higher-quality
optics, image stabilization and many other features to deliver superior image quality.

Analog Capture

Analog consumer formats (Hi8, S-VHS, and VHS) produce noisier signals and lower-resolution
video than DV and the professional formats. Hi8 and S-VHS are superior to VHS. You need
either an analog-to-DV converter or an analog-compatible video capture system to work with
them on the computer.

If you are using an analog video system, you can do several things to improve the quality of
the captured video.

To get the highest-quality results, capture analog video at full-screen resolution — 640x480
(NTSC) or 720x480 (DV) — depending on the native resolution of the source. Even if you intend
to deliver smaller final movies, a full-screen capture generally gives better results for a number
of reasons. For example, capturing at full screen and scaling down the image tends to reduce
video noise and results in a smoother-looking image, which encodes better.

Full-screen capture is required to use Cleaner de-interlacing features. If the original source was
shot on film and transferred to video tape, capturing at full-screen resolution and full frame
rate is required to use Intelecine, which removes 3:2 pulldown frames and returns the material
to its original 24 fps.

Most captured video has black edges around the perimeter. This is called overscan or edge
blanking. To deliver professional results, you must remove these edges. Starting from a larger
image enables you to crop and then scale the image down. If you only capture at the final size
that you wish to deliver the video, removing edge noise requires you to crop and then scale up
the video, which degrades image quality.

Capturing Video 11

Finally, if you capture and edit the material at full-screen resolution and archive the source, you
can later repurpose the content for future codecs, architectures, and larger delivery sizes
without having to recapture and re-edit the project.

Capture with a High-Quality Setting

Many capture systems have an adjustable quality setting. This controls how much hardware
compression is used on the video during capture. Higher-quality settings produce larger files
with superior image quality by applying less compression. However, if you exceed the data
rate the system can handle by choosing too high a quality setting, the capture card drops
frames.

Capture at the maximum quality the system can properly handle (normally at least 3 MBytes/
sec). If you cannot capture at a very high-quality setting, seriously consider buying a faster
drive or a RAID. To find out the best way to capture full-screen material at a high-quality
setting, contact the capture card vendor.

Capture from Master Tapes

To maintain the absolute highest-quality video signal, capture directly from the master tapes,
not copies of the originals. Do not assemble a “rough cut” of the project on a new tape and then
digitize it. Because these clips are second generation, they have more noise than the original
masters.

Note: This advice only applies to analog formats. Because DV is digital, it does not suffer

generation loss in this fashion.

Also avoid excessive “scrubbing” (fast forwarding and rewinding) through the master tapes.
Playing tapes many times can degrade their quality, so you should only view the material a few
times prior to capturing it. If you need to view the material several times, make a duplicate and
view the dub instead of the master. This is particularly important with Hi8, which is a relatively
fragile tape format and can be damaged by excessive scrubbing.

Audio Capture Settings

As with the video, you should capture the audio at the highest possible quality. This is
generally 44-kHz, 16-bit, stereo. Capture in 16-bit audio depth if possible because 16-bit source
material generally gives you more options and higher final quality, even if the final movie is to
be delivered with 8-bit audio.

Make sure to test the capture system before capturing clips. Audio levels are often different
between capture and playback, so you should monitor and test the results before capturing the
whole project. Capture the audio through the video capture card, if possible. The built-in sound
hardware in most computers may introduce line noise and is often of lower quality than
dedicated capture hardware.

Chapter 2: Capture12

Dropped Frames

The biggest problem while capturing video is missing or “dropped” frames. The most common
cause of dropped frames is trying to capture the video at a higher data rate than the hard drive
can support. As it falls behind, the capture starts to lose frames. Dropped frames often appear
sporadically in the captured video, causing the video to randomly stutter or jerk.

Be sure to configure the capture system to warn you of dropped frames and to stop capturing
if you get errors. To avoid dropped frames, you may need to defragment the hard drive, buy a
faster hard drive or lower the quality (and hence data rate) of the capture.

Choosing a Camera

A common misconception is that because the final movie ends up small on the computer
screen, a cheap camera does not make a difference — this is absolutely wrong. Video noise
substantially degrades encoding, so a clean video signal produced by a high-quality camera
encodes much better than a noisy signal produced by a low-quality camera. Also, the resolution
and sharpness of the camera has a significant effect on the final stream quality. For more
information, see the following overview of two common camera classes used to create
streaming video.

Video-Conferencing Cameras

These types of cameras are designed to be connected directly to the computer. They usually do
not have any mechanism for storing the video within the camera, so they are not portable. They
are often sold with video-conferencing systems and are usually connected via a serial or USB
cable. Generally, these cameras produce lower-quality video than the other types of cameras
outlined here, so, use a better camera for higher-quality streams.

Professional Formats

These professional formats (Betacam, D1, studio/broadcast equipment) generally produce the
highest-quality results and often work with bluescreen better than the other types of cameras.
However, professional formats are expensive — unless you are a professional videographer,
you’ll probably have to rent this equipment.

Shooting Video for Streaming 13

Shooting Video for Streaming

Carefully shooting and editing video for streaming can substantially improve the final quality
of the video. The general tips that follow are aimed at creating video that encodes and streams
well. For details on choosing encoding parameters and using video and audio processing to
improve encoding, see “Encoding” on page 141 and “Pre-processing” on page 61.

The overall goal in producing video that encodes well is to create the highest-quality video
signal with the least amount of noise, camera movement and fine detail. This helps the source
encode as efficiently as possible and look good at smaller image sizes. In order to create a good
video source, you should use a high-quality camera, light the subjects well, and stabilize the
camera with a tripod when possible. When editing material for streaming, you can improve
encoding by avoiding certain types of transitions and keeping scene changes to a minimum.

For the best results, shoot tests of the source material and run it through the entire production
process before you shoot the whole project. It is important to view the final results on the
desktop as they will appear in the final project. Your image may look great when filmed and
edited, but might look less optimal after resizing and encoding. Early and thorough testing can
help spare you painful and expensive reshoots.

Shooting Techniques

Just as the camera makes a difference to the quality of the final stream, so does the way in which
you shoot the source material. Below are some of the more important things you can do to
produce higher-quality material.

Reduce Movement

Using a tripod makes a dramatic impact in the quality of the final movie. Tripods keep the
camera steady, which reduces the differences between frames and therefore improves the
compression of the video.

Be sure to use a sufficiently heavy tripod for the camera. If you plan to pan the camera during
filming, use a high-quality fluid-head tripod and keep the pan smooth and slow. Irregular or
jerky camera motion is hard to encode. Avoid zooms whenever possible — these are hard to
encode because they introduce a high level of change over the entire image.

Avoid hand-held shooting if possible. If you need to film a hand-held shot, a motion stabilizer,
such as a Steadicam® or gyro, can improve the results. If the camera has an image-stabilization
option (either optical or electronic), you should generally use this feature to reduce subtle
changes between frames from camera motion.

Chapter 2: Capture14

Keep Detail to a Minimum

Keeping the detail within the scene to a minimum helps the individual frames of video
compress more easily, giving you better results than video with lots of detail. It also makes the
video easier to see when the movie is reduced in size for desktop delivery.

If you are shooting an interview, keep the background simple — plain backdrops are often a
good choice. If you have the experience and equipment, bluescreen or greenscreen can work
very well for interviews.

It is fairly common to film people indoors in front of windows. If there is a lot of detail or
movement outside, you can throw the background significantly out of focus, which makes the
file easier to encode.

Trees are often used as backdrops for interviews filmed outside. The excessive detail of the
leaves poses a challenge for encoding and should be avoided if possible. If you must film
against a background that uses trees, use a shallow depth of field to blur the leaves and
improve the final movie. Beware of trees moving in a breeze — the high detail and subtle
changes between frames make both temporal and spatial compression very difficult.

Ask the subjects to wear clothes that do not have high-contrast patterns or lots of detail. Plain
colors are best — bold stripes or checked patterns can do very odd things when resized and
encoded.

Proper Lighting

Generally speaking, video that is well lit encodes better than under- or over-exposed material.
Most codecs work best with moderate-contrast material, and many codecs do not work well
with dark scenes.

Adequate lighting is critical to producing superior streaming movies because low-light
conditions also produce excessively noisy video signals that lack details in the shadows. Over­exposure is usually less of a problem but should also be avoided.

You should not shoot video that you know is incorrectly exposed and plan to fix it in post­processing. Missing detail and excessive noise can never be fully corrected after the fact.
Properly lighting the scene is the only way to ensure the highest-quality results.

Blue Screen and Green Screen

Properly executed blue screen or green screen can significantly improve the quality of
streaming movies. For example, if you use a bluescreen to composite an actor in front of a
digital still, make sure the background image is perfectly steady and noise-free. The lack of
video noise and movement in the background improves both temporal and spatial
compression of the movie, which produces higher-quality results.

Shooting Video for Streaming 15

However, blue screen and green screen work is technically challenging and should not be
attempted unless you have the experience and equipment to do it correctly. Simply shooting an
actor in front of a blue backdrop generally does not work. There are very specific ways you
must design the set and lighting to ensure good results. Proper testing is critical, and poorly
shot material cannot usually be fixed in post-processing. Using a professional camera is
required for good results.

Streaming Audio

Audio production values are often overlooked when creating streaming media, but are critical
to achieving professional results. As with video, the goal is to produce as high-quality and
noise-free an audio signal as possible.

You should use high-quality audio equipment and remote microphones whenever possible to
re duce camera noise. You should als o try to minimize any unnecessary noise in the audio signal
such as wind or street sounds (for example, cars or construction). Shotgun mics may be useful
for minimizing background noise, and lavalier mics often work well for interviews.

Use AIFF or WAV with high quality settings for mastering the audio.

If you are recording a voice-over in a studio, use professional equipment. The microphones that
come with computers cannot match the quality of a professional-grade microphone. If you are
recording directly into a computer, beware of hard drive noise. This is often hard to hear when
recording, but increases noise in the final audio signal. On many systems, the built-in sound
hardware also introduces noise, so it is usually better to record directly through the capture
card.

Editing for Streaming

To improve the encoding, you should avoid elaborate transitions. Hard cuts and simple wipes
are usually the easiest transitions to encode because they introduce the least amount of
sustained change. Fades are difficult to encode well, but are often unavoidable — in that case,
make fades as short as possible. Complex transitions, such as page curls, pinwheel wipes and
paint spatters are more difficult to encode and often look pixelated in the final encoded movie.

Frequent cuts between scenes make encoding more difficult, which is why many music videos
do not compress well. If possible, try to keep the number of cuts in the piece to a minimum.
Effects that add lots of minute/random detail to an image, such as film noise and explosions,
are especially difficult to encode and should be avoided if possible.

Of course, you often have no control over how an existing video has been edited, so these
guidelines are frequently hard to follow. When difficult transitions are inevitable, using
variable bitrate encoding can often help improve the final quality by giving the transition a
temporarily higher bitrate.

Chapter 2: Capture16

Batches

Cleaner makes processing many projects easy by processing in batches. You can group two or
more projects together to be encoded sequentially. This is especially useful if you are processing
many files since it is not necessary to manually encode each file separately.

Chapter 3: Batches18

The Batch Window

You can add files to the batch by choosing Batch > Add Files... or drag and drop source files
directly to the Batch window and then quickly assign settings and destinations. The list in the
Batch window is called a batch and can be saved for future use. Each row is a separate project.
The columns show information relating to each project.

Use the Batch window to manage projects and their settings, to monitor the status of the
projects, and to start or stop encoding.

Batch window columns include:

•Project — Displays the source file name and a thumbnail of the file, as well as icons to

indicate if cropping, In/Out points, Settings Modifiers & Metadata and EventStream
authoring have been set in the Project window. Double-clicking the file name opens the
Project window and enables you to edit the options indicated by the icons in this column.

•Setting — Displays the name of the setting assigned to the project. Double-clicking the file

settings opens the Settings window.

•Destination — Displays the location where the encoded file will be saved. Use Batch > Set

Default Destination to choose the default location for all items in the batch. Double-clicking
the file destination opens the Destination dialog and enables you to specify a unique
destination (either local or remote) for the file. You can also set a unique name for the file
with this dialog.

The Batch Window 19

•Priority — Displays the project’s priority. Double-clicking the project priority displays a

pop-up menu that enables you to choose a priority number between 1 and 10. Use this
feature to sort projects so that lower-numbered files are processed before those with higher
numbers. Also, clicking the Priority title bar reorders the batch in numerical order.

•Status — Displays the processing status of the projects in the batch, such as Done, Ready

and Error. It also shows the uploading status if you have specified a remote destination for
the file. Double-clicking the project status displays additional information about the status,
such as the error dialog text if a problem was encountered during processing.

Click and drag the bottom right corner to re-size the Batch window. Click and drag column
headings to re-order them. Click and drag the column heading dividers to resize the columns.

Click and drag
to re-order

Click and drag
to re-size

The Batch window has three processing buttons at the bottom right:

Pause Start Stop

•Start — Click to start encoding the projects in the batch.

•Stop — Click to stop encoding.

•Pause — Click to temporarily pause encoding.

The Batch window displays instructions in the lower left corner of the panel. Review this
information as you use Cleaner.

Chapter 3: Batches20

Project Modification Icons

Project modification icons appear under the project name in the Batch window. There are four
icons:

crop — Indicates a crop was applied to the project.
i/o — Indicates custom in/out points were set for the project.
evs — Indicates EventStreams were authored for the project.
mod — Indicates the project’s base setting was modified using Settings Modifiers.

Batch Files

The first time you open Cleaner, the Batch window is empty. When you drag files to this
window, you create a batch. To save time, whenever you launch Cleaner, the last batch you
were using automatically opens.

By default, the current list of projects is saved in an Untitled Batch file that is automatically
created in the Cleaner folder. You can also manually save a batch by choosing
File > Save Batch As. When you save a batch, you are prompted for a name and location.

You can open a previously saved batch at any time by choosing File > Open or by pressing

a O.

Opening a new batch replaces the current one. To return to the current batch, you must save it
prior to opening a new batch.

To process new files, you can delete the old files from the current batch or create a new, empty
batch. To create a new batch, choose File > New.

The Batch Window 21

Adding Files

To add files to a batch, do one of the following:

• Drag files to the Batch window.

• Double click an empty area in the Batch window.

• Choose Batch > Add Files.

• Control-click the Batch window, choose Add Files to Batch... from the context menu, and
select the files you want to add.

You can use Watch Folders to automate batch processing. See “Watch Folders” on page 232.

You can add QuickTime, AVI, MPEG, and DV source media files.

To add many files at once to a batch:

Drag and drop folders or volumes to the Batch window.
Cleaner searches up to six levels of folders deep and adds all files it finds to the batch.

Note: Cleaner adds all the files it finds to the batch, not just movies. To remove unwanted files,

select them in the Batch window and delete them.

Importing from Audio CDs

To import a track from an audio CD:

Drag tracks from the CD to the Batch window. You can also drag the entire CD onto the Batch
window to import all of the tracks at once.

Connecting Files

Some capture systems produce both a video file (such as M2V, MOV, or MPG) and a separate
audio file (usually AIFF). Cleaner can automatically reconnect these two different files so that
they can be processed into a single streaming movie.

Both files must have the same name, end with the correct suffix and reside in the same folder.
Drag the video file to the Batch window and Cleaner automatically finds the audio file and
links them into one listing in the batch.

Note: You can also use an alias that points to the audio file in another folder to connect it to the

video file. The alias must have exactly the same name as the actual audio file.

Chapter 3: Batches22

For example, the movie file tennis.mpg and sound file tennis.wav reside in the same folder. If
you drag tennis.mpg to the Batch window, Cleaner automatically adds tennis.wav and
combines them into one project listing in the Batch window. You can now apply any settings to
the file and process it as a single movie file.

Note: To process these files separately, uncheck Enable multifile sources in the Preferences

dialog or add the source files to the Batch window from different folders.

Adding Numbered Stills

You can process sequentially numbered still images as if they were a movie. Use this feature for
3-D and effects programs that output serialized stills instead of movies. For details, see
“Making Movies Out of Still Images” on page 196.

Replacing a File

If you are working with only one file at a time in the Batch window, it is often convenient to
replace the current file with a new file instead of adding the new file to the batch.

To replace the current file with a new one:

1.

Press the a key.

2. Drag the new file to the Batch window.

Removing Files

To remove files from a batch:

1.

Select the file(s) in the Batch window.

2. Choose Batch > Remove Selected Projects or press the Delete key.

The dialog “Remove this item from the list?” appears.

3. Click Yes.

To remove all the items in a batch:

1.

Choose Edit > Select All or press a A.

2. Choose Batch > Remove Selected Projects or press the Delete key.

The dialog “Remove all (n) items from the list?” appears.

3. Click Yes.

To create a new, empty batch:

Choose File > New.