[MacDV] Audio for the web.

[Aaron]

You didn't say what format the video is in, or what audio formats you know how to extract it to.

There's a free video program called 'D-Vision 3' that is a GUI interface for many OS X/UNIX video tools. It includes a tool for extracting audio from a '.avi' or .mpg' movie, as well as a tool for converting audio from various formats to mp3 or ac3, with many settings options. Unfortunately, its interface is confusing and finding the tool you want for a particular job may require a bit of effort until you get used to the program.

If you're starting with MPEG or DVD files, you can also use D-Vision 3, but MPEG Streamclip is a lot easier to use. (It's also free.)

If you do convert it to mono mp3 and have a decent encoder, 48 kbps should be more than adequate for spoken word. That would mean about 6 - 7 MB for a 20 minute monologue. You could probably get away with 32 kbps if you need to. Also, you could consider providing two versions, say 24 kbps for dialup users and 64 kbps for broadband users.

 - Aaron
 
>From: Karl Hayden <khayden at iol.ie>
>Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 02:57:28 +0000
>
>Hi,
>
>Sorry if this seems a bit away from the normal stuff discussed on the 
>list, but I am looking for advice on something. I video recorded a 
>charity show last Sunday at which there was an opening monologue 
>which ran for about 20mins. A number of people have asked if the 
>audio part of the recording can be extracted and used on the web. I 
>know how to extract the audio, but I am not sure what way to format 
>the audio for use on the web.
>
>I will be using QuickTime to do this. I know the audio file needs to 
>be as small as possible without losing so much quality that is can 
>not be understood. First thing I guess is to convert it from stereo 
>to mono, next what format is best for the web... wav, mpg, aiff..... ???
>
>What settings do you suggest I should use in the 'Sound Settings' 
>options.
>
>Any advice would be welcomed as this is my first time to use a 
>recoding for the web.
>
>Karl Hayden