I had an interesting mail today from another film maker complaining about Quicktime – apparently the trailer for Gone Fishing would not play on his computer. And this is not the first occurrence of this, so if you have had problems playing back the Quicktime trailer, drop me a line – it would be useful to know if this is a 1 in a 100 problem, or 1 in 10 problem.

We decided to encode a Windows Media file too, so anyone with a QT hiccup would still be able to view the trailer (it’s on the trailer page now). On balance, Quicktime yields a more defined image, but it also has less contrast and colour saturation (after trawling the forums, it appears that this is apparently a big problem with Quicktime with no real solution as yet). The Windows Media file (which is the same physical dimension as the QT and the same data rate) is softer, and denser in both saturation and contrast. Personally, I still favour Quicktime, but if visitors have problems with it, they can now at least watch a Windows Media file that should be fairly bullet proof.

These problems serve to illustrate the bigger problem we all face when trying to deliver our work in excellent quality but with a guarantee that it will work. I guess the promise of HD over the web is not really there just yet.

Onward and upward!

Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author
www.livingspirit.com
mail@livingspirit.com