How to use high definition video in Keynote 3

Feb 16, '06 05:57:00AM

Contributed by: HugovanRhijn

Now that both iMovie HD and Final Cut Pro HD / Final Cut Studio allow you to work with the new high definition video (HDV) 1080i video format, it has become relatively easy and inexpensive to produce high-quality video material to include in your Keynote presentations. Keynote 3 even includes a number of HD templates in the HDV native 16:9 format. It takes a bit of figuring out how to best scale HDV, though, in order for it to fit into your presentation. Once you've done that, though, you'll see a perfect presentation coming along on your Mac's monitor.

However, when showing the videos in Keynote on a regular business beamer, you are likely to encounter a nasty little problem. 1080i is a so-called interlaced format that produces jaggies (disturbing and unpleasant artifacts in the picture with a lot of horizontal motion) when viewed on a beamer. So what you need to do is to de-interlace the video. In QuickTime Player, you can open the HDV QuickTime file, then go to Window: Show Movie Properties, and then click on the Video Track.

In the lower right hand corner, you'll see a de-interlace box. That is useful as it will de-interlace the video and offer perfect playback of the HDV on a beamer. In fact, it clearly and visibly improves the video's picture quality. However, it will only do so within the QuickTime player application. As soon as you export the video to Keynote, this adjustment does not "travel" with the QuickTime file as it is imported into Keynote. So it appears to be of no use for your Keynote purposes.

Ticking the 'Single field' box, however, will do the job nicely. That is, it will not offer the exact same eye-pleasing picture improvement, but the video will play nicely and as it already has the sharpness and brilliance of HDV, it will look great. If your Powerbook or G5 is fast enough, you may also like to tick the 'High Quality' box.

One additional tip: Videos in Keynote tend to freeze for a split second before starting to run. In Keynote, many templates have a lot of white in them. If your have choosen one of them, you can produce a very smart looking way of starting your videos within Keynote. When editing a video meant to be used in Keynote, start with a few frames of "white" (an entirely white screen). Then make a cross-dissolve between the white and the first (or last) picture.

Now, in Keynote, use a similar cross-dissolve as a transition between your slide and the video (and between the slide with the video and the next slide). It will give you a fluent and very slick and professional-looking presentation, where you and the HDV content will get all the well-deserved compliments.

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