 |
Dan LaValley
Manager
Biology New Media Center |
Thanks to Dan LaValley of Learning Technology & Distance
Education for creating this tutorial.
RealProducer can be used to compress:
- Audio (.au)
- Waveform audio (.wav)
- Video for Windows (.avi)
- QuickTime for Windows (.mov); requires DirectX 6.0
- MPEG-1, Moving Pictures Expert Group (.mpg); requires DirectX
6.0
Real Producer Plus takes your input media source and records
it into a RealMedia clip. Your clip can be saved as a file
to be streamed at a later time, or it can be sent directly
to a server as a live broadcast. The figure below shows how
RealProducer Plus converts your source into RealMedia.
RealAudio
A RealAudio clip is created by converting an audio file or
by recording from a microphone (or other audio input) onto
your computer. RealProducer Plus uses various audio codecs
(compression/decompression algorithms) to convert your standard
audio into a format that can be streamed.
You also have various compression options based on the type
of audio you are converting: voice, voice with background music,
music only, or stereo music. As expected, the quality of the
original audio will have the greatest effect on the ultimate
quality of the compressed audio.
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RealVideo
A RealVideo clip is created by converting a video file or
by capturing from a video source, such as a video camera or
video cassette player, to your computer via a video capture
card. RealProducer Plus converts different attributes of the
video-such as frame rate, type of motion, and size of the image-into
a RealVideo clip using a video codec.
You can also set up RealProducer Plus to use a variety of
video filters that are designed specifically for creating streaming
video from different video inputs.
To create a RealMedia file from an existing file using the
recording wizard:
- Select New Session from the File menu.
(If the wizards are disabled, you can select File
| Recording Wizards | Record From File and go to
step 3.)
- The New Session - Choose Recording Wizard dialog
opens.
- Select Record from File and
click OK.
- The Recording Wizard opens to the Record
From File page.
- Use the Browse button to locate the audio
or video file that you will use as the source for your recording.
Or, simply type in the path and file name for the source
file.
- Click Next.
- The RealMedia Clip Information page opens.
- Enter the following information in the provided spaces.
This information will help your audience find your clip.
You may leave them blank.
Title: the title of the clip
Author: the name
of the clip's creator
Copyright: year
and owner of the clip's copyright
Description: a
brief summary of the clip's contents
Keywords: words that
you think your audience would use to
search for your clip.
- Click Next.
- The File Type page opens.
- Select the type of RealMedia file you want to create: SureStream or Single-Rate.
- Click Next.
- The Target Audience page opens.
- Select the connection speed for your audience. You may
make more than one selection if you are creating a SureStream
file.
- Click Next.
- The Audio Format page opens if your source
file contains audio. If not, skip the next step.
- Select the type of audio that your file consists of (if
applicable), and click Next.
Note: You can only select
the Stereo Music format if your audio source
is in stereo.
- The Video Quality page opens if your source
file contains video. If not, skip the next step.
- Select the video quality for your output file (if applicable),
and click Next.
Tip: These options are based
on the content of your video. You can choose
to sacrifice clarity for smoother motion, or
vice versa. Choosing Normal Motion is good
for most clips.
- The Output File page opens.
- Enter the name and directory of your final output file.
The output file must have a .rm extension
(for example, myfile.rm).
- Click Next.
- The Prepare to Record page opens.
- Review all information about the recording session. If
it is correct, click Finish. You can use
the Back button to reverse through the wizard
and change any information.
- After clicking Finish, you are returned
to the RealProducer Plus main window. Every option you selected
during the wizard appears in the window. If you are recording
video input, the Input Source viewer shows
the first frame.
- You can change any recording options at this point, or
simply click Start to begin recording.
- Click Stop to quit recording before the
source file ends. A dialog box opens asking you to confirm
ending the recording, but the session continues to record.
- Click Yes to close the dialog box and
stop the recording.
Tip: You can press the Shift key
and click Stop together to
stop recording instantly and bypass the confirmation
dialog box. Press Ctrl+Shift and
click Stop to quickly abort
the recording with no output file saved.
- The Processing Complete dialog box opens.
- You have the following choices:
- Click View Statistics to view complete
information about your recording session.
- Click Close to return to the main
window. In the RealProducer Plus main window, click
the Play button to open your RealPlayer
and play the RealMedia file.
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