This tutorial will give you an overview of video compression and explain how to use Livid's Batch Export Utility.

In general, Union can play any file type that QuickTime does. This includes QuickTime movies, DV movies, mpeg2, mp4s, gif, jpeg, bmp, pict, png, flash and shockwave.

Given all that flexibility, your best frame rates will occur with movies compressed with a codec that requires little calculation for decompression. We've found that the PhotoJPG codec gives the best quality and performance. Other codec's require more calculation to display the image, leaving less cpu available for your effects and image manipulations. Although Union supports all resolutions, an image dimension of 320 x 240 works well for live performance as Union takes advantage of OpenGL interpolation.

The LIVID Batch Export Utility is a free program that can be found in your Union or Tactic Pro application folder. It is a simple program for recompressing and resizing an entire folder of QuickTime media to a different format. Movies downloaded from the internet, shot with a DV camera, or captured with a video digitizer will all be encoded in different formats: the Batch Export Utility lets you effortlessly unify your library.

	Step 1 Launch Batch Export Utility by clicking on the application icon located in the Livid folder.
	Step 2 Select the source folder with your QuickTime content files by clicking on the Select button
	Step 3 Select a destination folder by clicking on the select button. If you have not created a folder you may do so now by clicking on the new folder button.
	Step 4 Click the setting button to access your movie settings. Under video click on settings to set the compression. From the pull down menu select a codec (We advise using PhotoJPG for live performance) and set the quality (High is recommended over best). In motion, set the frames per second from the drop down menu. Depending on your codec, you may or may not have the option to set keyframes or limit the data rate. The Photo JPG compression for example keyframes every frame so this option is not available. When you are done setting the video compressions click OK. In the video settings, Standard QuickTime filters can also be applies to your clips using the Filter menu, however Unions built in effects are much more complex.
	Step 5 Click on the size button to specify a size. Full video resolution is 640x480, however to maintain better frame rates during performance 320x240 works best on PowerBooks, which Union will automatically double for output. Click on "enter custom size" and enter the height and width of your movies and click OK.
	Step 6 If your movies contain sound, the Sound option should be checked. Click settings to open the audio setting box. By default the sound compression will be set to Uncompressed, you can leave this setting to uncompressed since you will just be using it for playback. You can also select between bit rates and with mono or stereo. After you select your settings click OK.
	Step 7 Click Start to begin your batch and sit back while Batch Export Utility converts all of your files for you!