MacVCD Read Me

About MacVCD

System Requirements

• Macintosh™ PowerPC
• Mac OS® 8.5 or later, or Mac OS® 9.x
• QuickTime® 4 or later

To play a movie in full screen, you need:

• Macintosh™ PowerPC 300 mhz or faster

To play a movie in fast motion, you need:

• Macintosh™ PowerPC 500 mhz or faster

To display a movie on a second screen, you need:

• Macintosh™ PowerPC with a video out port (to determine if your computer supports this, see your Owner's Manual)

To use the "hands free" feature, you need:

• Macintosh™ PowerPC 300 mhz or faster
• The Apple Speech Recognition module installed on your computer. This has to be installed and configured before the "hands free" feature will work. For further information, see http://www.apple.com/macos/speech/
• a USB stereo Headset (headphone and microphone)
  we used the Plantronics DSP-300 Headset

Controls

MacVCD Demo

How to Install and Run the MacVCD Demo

Once you have tried it, you can get a fully functional version of the program by purchasing a Registration Key. (For further information on buying a key, see the "Buy Me" file included in this folder.)

1. If you haven't already done so, download MacVCD onto your computer.
   
   If you're not sure you have the latest version, compare the version number on our Download Page (http://www.mireth.com/pub/download.html) to the version number of the MacVCD application in this folder (Highlight the program icon and select "Get Info" from the "File" menu.)
   
   
2. Open the MacVCD folder.
   
   
3. Double click the MacVCD Icon. The Registration Dialog Box will be displayed, showing the following items:
   
   Registration Key - A Registration Key is not required for the DEMO version.
   
   Click "Run Demo" to try the unregistered program.
   
   
4. To play a movie, see the "How to Play a VCD" section of this document.

How to Uninstall the MacVCD Demo

If you are planning on buying MacVCD, don't uninstall the demo. If you don't plan on buying MacVCD, you can uninstall MacVCD by doing the following:

1. Drag the preferences files to the trash
   • "System Folder:Preferences:MacVCD Prefs"
   
   
2. Move the MacVCD folder to the trash.
   
   
3. Empty the trash.

Installing/Uninstalling MacVCD

How to Install MacVCD

1. If you haven't already done so, download MacVCD onto your computer.
   
   If you're not sure you have the latest version, compare the version number on our Download Page (http://www.mireth.com/pub/download.html) to the version number of the MacVCD application in this folder (Highlight the program icon and select "Get Info" from the "File" menu.)
   
   
2. Drag the MacVCD folder to wherever you keep application software.
   
   
3. Register MacVCD. To register MacVCD, double click the MacVCD Icon. The Registration Dialog Box will be displayed, displaying the following items:
   
   Registration Key - Enter the Registration Key supplied when you paid for MacVCD and press the "Register" Button.
   
   If you need to enter a key, the easiest way to do this is to copy (zC) your Registration Key from the email and paste it (zV) it into the Registration Key field.
   
   If you don't have a key yet, you can press the "Buy Now" button to purchase a key online now.
   
   
4. Update the preferences. From the "Edit menu, select "Preferences". Configure the following items:
   
   Auto Play - Tick this box to have MacVCD automatically play a VCD when it is inserted in the drive. Default value is "on". (For this feature to work, MacVCD must running as the foreground application.)
   
   Auto Eject - Tick this box to have MacVCD automatically eject the VCD when it has finished. Default value is "on".
   
   Auto Hide Menu Bar - Tick this box to automatically hide the Menu Bar. Default value is "off". (To hide the Menu Bar during play, use the "Hide Menu Bar" toggle on the "Controls" menu.)
   
   Auto Hide Movie Controller - Tick this box to automatically hide the Movie Controller. Default value is "off". (To hide the Movie Controller during play, use the "Hide Controller" toggle on the "Controls" menu.)
   
   Auto Enable "Hands Free" Controller - Tick this box to automatically turn on the speech recogniton controls. (To turn off Hands Free during play, use the "Hands Free On/Off" toggle on the "Controls" menu.)
   
   Present Movie on Display 2 - Tick this box to automatically present the movie on a second display (like a TV) if it is connected to your computer. If there is no second display then MacVCD will present the movie on your primary display even if this option is selected.
   
   
5. Quit from MacVCD.
   

How to Uninstall MacVCD

1. Drag the preferences files to the trash
   • "System Folder:Preferences:MacVCD Prefs"
   
   
2. Move the MacVCD folder from wherever you keep application software to the trash.
   
   
3. Empty the trash.
   

Playing Movies

How to Play a VCD

1. To run MacVCD, double click the MacVCD icon.
   
   
2. Insert a Video CD into the CD drive. It will appear in the VCD menu.
   
   
3. If Auto Play is enabled, the VCD will play automatically.
   If Auto Play is not enabled, you need to manually start movie playback using any of the available controls.
   
   
4. Adjust the volume and click the play button (4 ). For more information, see the "Controls" section of this document.
   

How to Play a Multi Language Soundtrack VCD

• To play only one language soundtrack, select Mono Left or Mono Right from the Sound Menu.

• If you select Stereo, you will hear both language tracks at the same time.

How to Play a Karaoke VCD

• To play the soundtrack without the vocal track, select Mono Left or Mono Right from the Sound Menu. Depending on the VCD one of these settings will eliminate the vocal track.

• To play both the vocal and instrumental tracks, select Stereo from the Sound Menu.

How to Play a QuickTime Movie

1. To run MacVCD, double click the MacVCD icon.
   
   
2. Open the movie using File>Open, navigate to the QuickTime file and click the Open button.

How to Display the movie on a second screen

1. Connect the second display to your computer, following the instructions in your Owner's Manual.
   
   
2. To run MacVCD, double click the MacVCD icon.
   
   
3. In File>Preferences, check "Present Movie on Display 2" .
   
   
4. Insert the VCD.
   
   
5. Play the Movie.

How to Use the "Hands Free" feature

You can use the Macintosh built-in Speech Recognition feature to play a movie "hands free". In order to take advantage of this feature you need the following:

• The Apple Speech Recognition module installed on your computer. This has to be installed and configured before the "hands free" feature will work. Most Macintosh computers come with this module already installed. If you don't have it, you can get it from Apple. Please note that this document does not cover how to install or how to configure Apple Speech Recognition. For further information on Apple Speech Recognition, refer to the Apple site at http://www.apple.com/macos/speech/
  
  
• Because of noise interference caused by the hard drive, we recommend that you use an external microphone when using the "Hands Free" feature of MacVCD. We used a USB stereo Headset (headphone and microphone), specifically the Plantronics DSP-300 Headset

To use the "Hands Free" feature, do the following:

1. Ensure that you know which listening method you are in so that you can give commands that will be listened to. For ease of use, we recommend you set you Speech control panel Listening method as follows:
   
   Open the Speech control panel
   From the "Option"s Pop-Up menu, select "Listening"
   From the "Method" radio button options, select "Key(s) toggle listening on and off"
   From the "Name is" Pop-Up menu, select "Optional before commands"
   Close the Speech control panel
   
   
   For further information about listening methods, refer to "Speech" in Mac Help
   
   
2. Plug in the microphone. For further information, refer to your Owner's Manual
   
   
3. To run MacVCD, double click the MacVCD icon.
   
   
4. From the Control Menu , turn "Hands Free"on.
   
   
5. Insert the VCD.
   
   
6. Play the Movie.

When you enable the "Hands Free" feature, the Speech Recognition Feedback Window will open. This will allow you to verify that MacVCD has understood your spoken command. If MacVCD encounters a problem understanding your spoken command, it will advise you in the Feedback Window. If MacVCD encounters a problem understanding 5 of your spoken commands, it will turn "Hands Free" Off but will continue to play the movie. If this happens, either use the other controls (menu, controller, keyboard) to watch the movie, or turn "Hands Free" on and try again.

Editing/Saving Feature

Editing Controls

About the Save Feature

You can use the save feature to make a QuickTime movie, using either an existing QuickTime movie or a VCD as the input. The advantage of doing this is that once you have converted a VCD to a QuickTime movie, you can edit it. You can use this feature to make a QuickTime movie of only your favourite clips from a movie.

There are three types of saves you can do:

• Save as Self-Contained Movie. This allows you to create a movie file that contains all of its movie data. Because a Self-contained movie contains all of the movie, the created file will be large.
  
  Note: There is a known Apple bug that results in a clip file saved as a Self-contained movie to be as large as the original movie. (e.g. If you take a 400 meg movie, make a 30 second clip that is 15 megs in size and save it as a self-contained movie, the self-contained movie will only show the 30 second clip, but will store the entire 400 meg file.)
  
  
• Save as Movie File. This allows you to create a movie file that only contains references to sections (or clips) from a movie that is stored separately. You will need the original movie to play the Movie "clip" file. to insert the VCD into the drive to play the Movie "clip" file (or have the original QuickTime movie on your hard drive.)
  
  
• Save. This allows you to save a QuickTime movie.
  

How to Use MacVCD to make a Self-Contained Movie

To convert a VCD to a Self-Contained Movie:

1. Play the VCD. Pause.
2. Select the entire movie.
3. From the File menu, select Save As Self Contained Movie.

To save an existing QuickTime movie as a Self-Contained Movie:

1. Play the QuickTime Movie. Pause.
2. Select the entire movie.
3. From the File menu, select Save As Self Contained Movie.

To create a Self-Contained Movie Clip File from a VCD or QuickTime movie:

1. Play the VCD or QuickTime Movie. Pause.
2. Toggle to Original Movie Size. This will allow you to see both windows at the same time.
3. From the File menu, select New to create a new movie file.
4. Select the first clip you want to save to the clip file.
5. From the Edit menu, select Copy.
6. Select the new movie window and movie the Scroll Slider to where you want to insert the clip in the new movie. (Typically, this would be at the end of the new movie).
7. From the Edit Menu, select Paste.
8. Repeat steps 4 through 7 for each clip you want to paste in to your new movie.
9. From the File menu, select Save As Self Contained Movie.

How to Use MacVCD to make a Movie File

To create a Movie Clip File from a VCD or QuickTime movie:

1. Play the VCD or QuickTime Movie. Pause.
2. Toggle to Original Movie Size. This will allow you to see both windows at the same time.
3. From the File menu, select New to create a new movie file.
4. Select the first clip you want to save to the clip file.
5. From the Edit menu, select Copy.
6. Select the new movie window and movie the Scroll Slider to where you want to insert the clip in the new movie. (Typically, this would be at the end of the new movie).
7. From the Edit Menu, select Paste.
8. Repeat steps 4 through 7 for each clip you want to paste in to your new movie.
9. From the File menu, select Save As Movie File.

TroubleShooting

Email us at support@mireth.com

Known Problems

• In Full Screen mode, the Volume Slider works but does not display the volume setting correctly. The Volume Slider works as expected in Original Screen Size mode.
  
  
• There are some problems playing VCDs on a Macintosh. For further information, see the "MacVCD FAQ".
  
  
• There is a problem with saving a QuickTime movie as a self-contained movie file.
  
  
• Please report any bugs found in this program or problems with this documentation to support@mireth.com
  
  
• Speech recognition works best if you are wearing headphones and have an external microphone. These are limitations of the Macintosh hardware and software.

Version History

Other Products

NetShred

ShredIt

Copyright ©2001-2005, The Mireth Technology Corporation
MacVCD Read Me 1 Nov 2005