Chapter 2: Editing a RealMedia Clip
This chapter shows you how use the RealMedia Editor to edit a RealMedia clip. You will learn how to edit out the beginning or end of a clip, how to change clip information, how to merge either an image map or an interactive event to a clip, and how to append another clip to the current clip.
Editing a Clip's Beginning or End
With RealMedia Editor, you can edit out the beginning or the end of a clip. This section shows you how to mark the points for editing and gives you tips on editing out sections of your clip.
To edit out the beginning or end of a clip:
- Open a RealMedia file.
- Navigate to the point at which you want to mark the beginning of the edited clip.
- Click the Mark In button.
On the timeline, the beginning of the clip is marked by a bracket ( [ ), and the rest of the clip that remains has a darker grey color. The new beginning time of the clip is also shown.
- Navigate to the point at which you want to mark the end of the edited clip. See "Navigating Along a Clip" for instructions on different navigation methods.
- Click the Mark Out button.
On the timeline, the end of the clip is marked by a bracket ( ] ), and the clip that is between the two brackets has a darker grey color. The new ending time of the clip is also shown.
- Click the Play Selection button to play the marked section of the clip and verify that the clip is edited properly.
- If you are satisfied with the new clip, select File>Save RealMedia File As and give the newly edited file a new name.
Editing Tips
Follow these tips to get the best out of your edited clip:
If you mark an image in between keyframes, the resulting video may have a black or frozen image, or it may simply begin at the next keyframe.
Video clips must contain at least one keyframe. If you create a clip without a keyframe, you will be unable to save it.
You can type in times directly for current clip position using the format: days:hours:minutes:seconds.milliseconds
.
Changing Clip Information
Clip information tells the audience about a clip and allows the audience to find a clip more easily. With RealMedia Editor, you can add clip information if none exists or you can change clip information that is attached to a file.
To change clip information:
- Open a RealMedia file.
- In the Clip Info area, enter new information for the clip:
- Title-the title of the clip
- Author-the name of the clip's creator
- Copyright-year and owner of the clip's copyright
- Keywords-words that you think your audience would use to search for your clip.
- Description-a brief summary of the clip's contents
- To enter more information, click the Clip Info button.
The Edit Clip Info and File Properties dialog opens.
- Select the Allow Recording preference if you want to give RealPlayer Plus users the option of recording the playback of your RealMedia clip onto their computers. When your clip is played, the user clicks the Record button and your clip is saved on the user's machine. Deselecting this preference disables the Record button.
- Select the Allow Download preference to give any user-even those without a RealPlayer-the ability to download your RealMedia clip directly onto their hard drive.
- You can also select an audience rating. You have the following choices:
- General - All Ages-suitable for viewing by all audiences; the default setting
- Parental Guidance Recommended-might not be suitable for children 13 or under
- Adult Supervision Required-not suitable for children under 18
- Adults Only-should not be watched by anyone under 18
- Select Files Should not be Indexed by Search Engines if you don't want your presentation to be available to people searching for content.
Not selecting this option assigns a unique number to the presentation that allows it to be quickly identified by search engines. All presentation information is assigned to the unique number and sent to RealNetworks.
- Click OK to return to the main window.
- To save the new clip, select File>Save RealMedia File As and give the newly edited file a new name.
Merging Image Maps or Events
Image maps are text files that create clickable fields within a RealMedia file. When clicked by the audience, a certain action-such as opening a company's Web site-occurs. Events are similar to image maps, except the action happens automatically during playback without any audience interaction.
For an image map or an event to work during playback, they must be "merged" to a RealMedia file. RealMedia Editor gives you the ability to merge these files to a RealMedia file.
To merge an image map into a RealMedia file:
- Open a RealMedia file.
- Select Merge Image Maps from the Tools menu.
The Merge Image Map File dialog opens.
- Locate the image map text file that you will merge, select it, and click Open.
RealMedia Editor merges the image map to the RealMedia file, creating a new, "Untitled" clip; the original clip is closed.
To merge an event into a RealMedia file:
- Open a RealMedia file.
- Select Merge Events from the Tools menu.
The Merge Events File dialog opens.
- Locate the events text file that you will merge, then select it and click Open.
RealMedia Editor merges the event to the RealMedia file, creating a new, "Untitled" clip; the original clip is closed.
Appending Other Clips to Your Clip
RealMedia Editor also allows you to combine one RealMedia file to another, thus "appending" a file to the current file. Appending only works when the number and type of streams in each file is identical. Therefore, this feature works best when the source files are all encoded with the RealProducer using the exact same settings.
Because of RealMedia Editor's 2 GB limit for the size of files it can open, the combination of appended files can not be over this limit.
To append a file:
- Open a RealMedia file.
- Select Append RealMedia File from the File menu.
The Open RealMedia File dialog opens.
- Locate the file you want to append, then select it and click Open.
RealMedia Editor appends the file to the currently open file. This process can take some time, depending on how large the appended file is.
- When the appending process is complete, you can edit the combined files as a new clip; the original clip is closed.
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RealNetworks
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This file last updated on 03/23/00 at 16:33:08.