Megan and Murray McMillan

Ever had a computer problem? The great thing about computer problems is that there is usually a fix, you just have to be patient enough to find it. Computers are becoming organic with their crazy number of preferences, options and settings. So many variables.

Here’s my problem: when I exported a dvd file from a standard video file, the copy would actually look better than the original. And it was an eighth the size. This defied logic. How can a copy have better resolution than the original? The technology I’m using is top of the line, but come on, this bested the second law of thermodynamics. Nobody beats a thermodynamics law.

This isn’t necessarily a bad problem to have–can you complain when the quality is higher than expected? I’ve been getting into all sorts of funky video tech stuff which sometimes gets me into trouble. At a recent lecture I was surprised when one of our videos broke into a spontaneous dance of compression abstraction–it looked really good and actually followed the theme. What do you say?

So I had this problem (see paragraph before last) and I did the thing I always do when I have a technical problem: unsuccessfully scour the net. I also ordered a video codec book from Amazon, it comes in a week.

But I found a new trick, and this actually worked: ask an online forum. I’ve been a member of a woodworking forum for several years (which is helpful when making tool purchases), but I’ve been slow to use forums for anything else. I found a great DV forum, signed up, posted my question and got the answer within 24 hours. I hadn’t selected the right setting in the Quicktime Player preferences. The quality had been there all the time.