Saturday, September 22, 2007

QuickTime Download - Prepare for Internet "Fast Start"

This is the second (if not third) time I've had trouble with getting QuickTime movies to "fast start" on download (and it pains me to say because I love QuickTime ;o) -- but I need to post something here, so I'll remember next time what I need to do to get it to work! Even though I save the movies in QuickTime pro, with the Fast Start flag toggled on, when I test downloading them, the Fast Start feature does not kick in; meaning that visitors get the big blue Q while waiting for the download, and unless they notice the "transferring" message in the status bar, they may think the download is not working.

I finally got it to work and am close to knowing why this is happening -- normally I compress the video and then use QuickTime Pro to enter the Movie info (copyright, description, keywords, etc) and use "save" -- it is possible that this is removing the Fast Start. The other possibility is that I really need to use "Fast Start - Compressed Header" via Compressor. The version that is working for me now, was created in Compressor with "Fast Start - Compressed Header" and I did not open it to re-save it in QuickTimePro with the additional Movie Info. I need to figure out how to add that via Compressor.

On to the DVD.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I stumbled onto your article from google, thanks for helping me solve my fast-start problem. If you want to include QT metadata (title, author, copyright info, etc.) all you have to do is first export a full resolution version of the clip from fcp, and add the metadata to the exported file using QT pro. Resave the file, and then compress it down for web (using compressor), with fast start enabled. After that, you will be left with a fast-start enabled web video that includes all the metadata embedded in the file.

Teresa said...

Hey Ryan B! Thank you for posting a comment! I will try your method next time... it's been a while since I've even bothered trying to add Movie Info, I was happy to get the Fast Start working ;o)