Compressing video for 68k Macs
- Thread starter IIfx
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I went through and tried to do this a year ago. The answer to your question is of course entirely going to depend on what video you're compressing and what your expectations are.
I wrote down some of my thoughts on the subject from that time, here: http://synack.net/~bbraun/68kvideo.html Unfortunately, they're probably not in a very usable form for you, but the gist of it was I was unable to achieve a playback framerate I found acceptable at 320x240, which was about the minimum resolution I found acceptable, all on a Q630.
FWIW, the content I was encoding was random TV content from the 68k era.
I wrote down some of my thoughts on the subject from that time, here: http://synack.net/~bbraun/68kvideo.html Unfortunately, they're probably not in a very usable form for you, but the gist of it was I was unable to achieve a playback framerate I found acceptable at 320x240, which was about the minimum resolution I found acceptable, all on a Q630.
FWIW, the content I was encoding was random TV content from the 68k era.
Since I haven't really done much with Quicktime on 68k, the first thing you should do is see what it can handle. If you open an .mov on your 68k, what does Quicktime offer for output formats? If I am not mistaken, Cinepak and animation codecs are maybe old enough to work, but can't be sure. Also don't disregard MPEG1, or MotionJPEG. MotionJPEG is a good tradeoff that you can really dial it down to essentially no compression at all, which results in big files but drastically reduces CPU load. This might be of some help depending on what, if any, acceleration your machine has for video.
If I had to guess I would say you will have more options and success encoding with a PowerPC running Quicktime 4-6. Around QT6 and 7 Apple started to jettison many of the older codecs which would be particularly helpful on an older system. You can probably still get it to work on a modern Mac in QT7, but it might take a bit more effort.
1991
QuickTime 1.0 works on all color-capable Macintosh computers running Color QuickDraw (models with either a 68020 or 68030 processor) and either System 6.0.7 or System 7.0
a later version will add QuickTime support for monochrome, 68000-based Macintoshes.
As a result, you, the developer, can take it for granted that QuickTime will be available on any Macintosh running your software.
QUICKTIME 1.0: "YOU OUGHTA BE IN PICTURES"
Original movie
Merry_go_round.mov
1989 demo
A parody of the end scene of Michael Jackson's music video, "Black or White." This is from the 1992 QuickTime Version 1.0 CD.
QuickTime 1.0 works on all color-capable Macintosh computers running Color QuickDraw (models with either a 68020 or 68030 processor) and either System 6.0.7 or System 7.0
a later version will add QuickTime support for monochrome, 68000-based Macintoshes.
As a result, you, the developer, can take it for granted that QuickTime will be available on any Macintosh running your software.
QUICKTIME 1.0: "YOU OUGHTA BE IN PICTURES"
Original movie
Merry_go_round.mov
1989 demo
Interesting, I will go even further and try to generate mov-videos for my LC.
I made a first attempt but the video does not look good. I have make a direct transfer from the DVD.
I made a first attempt but the video does not look good. I have make a direct transfer from the DVD.
Using a 2.0 ghz intel Mac mini with Snow Leopard and QuickTime 7 legacy codecs a year ago, I followed all the instructions from the link bbraun posted to convert existing files to play on my Mac Iisi, SE/30, and Classic II. I had great results using Cinepack at 320x240 12-15 fps and IMA 4:1 audio.
Keep in mind that they used AV SCSI hard disk drives back then, optimized for bursts. Storage space was at a premium as the files get rather large Some apps back then segmented larger files as to not go beyond 2 GBs in file size.
A good amount of real RAM is needed and it’s best to turn off Apple File Sharing and Virtual Memory and keep a plain background for the desktop. I’ve always used real hard drives so I’m not sure about results using scsi> sd . I have a 23 Gb scsi drive stuffed with videos for my vintage Macintosh computers. They do not play well over the 10 MB network best to play them locally.
Keep in mind that they used AV SCSI hard disk drives back then, optimized for bursts. Storage space was at a premium as the files get rather large Some apps back then segmented larger files as to not go beyond 2 GBs in file size.
A good amount of real RAM is needed and it’s best to turn off Apple File Sharing and Virtual Memory and keep a plain background for the desktop. I’ve always used real hard drives so I’m not sure about results using scsi> sd . I have a 23 Gb scsi drive stuffed with videos for my vintage Macintosh computers. They do not play well over the 10 MB network best to play them locally.
Thx, I am thinking about 80's anime that should look OK on 256colors and 15fps.
I will change from G4MiniPPC 10.3.9 to 2,66 C2D Mini 10.6 with QT legacy codecs active to produce the content from the dvd. What player should I use on System6 and what fileextension MPG or AVI or MOV ?
I will change from G4MiniPPC 10.3.9 to 2,66 C2D Mini 10.6 with QT legacy codecs active to produce the content from the dvd. What player should I use on System6 and what fileextension MPG or AVI or MOV ?
So for System 6 QuickTime is going to be limited in which compressors are available. I suggest System 7 with 32 bit addressing and QuickTime 4.0.3 Use Movie Player and the files will be “. mov”
Thx, machine has IIe card, so 24Bit adressing, System6 because of single finder. Best regards.
I did some experimenting with some Quicktime files I converted on a modern Mac mini with legacy codecs installed. I converted some shows and movies to Cinepak 320x240 at 15 fps, 8 bit Unsigned little endian pcm stereo audio at 22.050 kHz. I limited them to download no more than 900 kbps. Tested in System 6.0.8 on Mac IIsi with 65 MB RAM installed. I was actually able to play them from a file server over lan via ethernet. The IIsi did well with the Asante Mac Con PDS Ethernet as the videos played well in Mac OS System 6 no issue. They did not do so well playing over the lan with the Apple Nubus ethernet card with FPU on Nubus adapter. It seems the Nubus card demanded more power and was causing video issues.
I then placed all the files on a loud power hungry 23GB SCSI 5.25" Seagate server drive and connected it to the IIsi. They played well that way as expected. These movie files get rather large for example a 20 minute program takes 160 MBs. Roughly 8 MB per minute. Luckily I can connect that 23 GB Seagate to my Power Mac G4 with SCSI card for placement of files and connect it to the IIsi to play them as not many of the files will fit on the internal HDD of the IIsi. Playing over the lan works but not everyone can do that. You can raise it to 15 fps and go to smaller size but at 160x120 what's the point.
I basically installed my SuperMac Video Spigot into the Mac IIsi and used The Screen Play app it came with to see what it would record at for specs and used that as a base. I also noted the specs of the sample files it came with.
I also used the tips from http://synack.net/~bbraun/68kvideo.html as well.
I'm using Movie Player 1.1d2 to play the files and Quicktime 1.6.2 is installed on the IIsi.
I then placed all the files on a loud power hungry 23GB SCSI 5.25" Seagate server drive and connected it to the IIsi. They played well that way as expected. These movie files get rather large for example a 20 minute program takes 160 MBs. Roughly 8 MB per minute. Luckily I can connect that 23 GB Seagate to my Power Mac G4 with SCSI card for placement of files and connect it to the IIsi to play them as not many of the files will fit on the internal HDD of the IIsi. Playing over the lan works but not everyone can do that. You can raise it to 15 fps and go to smaller size but at 160x120 what's the point.
I basically installed my SuperMac Video Spigot into the Mac IIsi and used The Screen Play app it came with to see what it would record at for specs and used that as a base. I also noted the specs of the sample files it came with.
I also used the tips from http://synack.net/~bbraun/68kvideo.html as well.
I'm using Movie Player 1.1d2 to play the files and Quicktime 1.6.2 is installed on the IIsi.
Thank you, I did not get a working video on my LC, I should make a new attempt.
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