If the quality of the video leaves something to be desired, you can sometimes compensate by using a third-party video processing tool. Use one to make sure that the blacks are a full, dark black, the whites a full, bright white, and the colors true. TealPoint provides a link to the freeware program VirtualDub (at http://www.virtualdub.org), which has some powerful image processing and conversion functions, including the ability to convert MPEG files to AVI. A slight warning, though: VirtualDub's interface takes some getting used to. Video newbies might be more comfortable with a commercial package with a comprehensive manual like Adobe Premiere (at http://www.adobe.com), which is a pricey but powerful industry standard.

Audio source material
Finding a good audio source is just as important as video. Musical soundtracks work well on the Palm handheld, and there are many sources for music suitable for this purpose. If you plan to upload your work to the Web, you'll need to find a sound recording you can legally distribute. While there are almost no examples of genuine public domain sound recordings, there are many sources where you can license audio tracks for one-time fees of as little as $15 per track. To find some, search online for "royalty free music."

Audio source material can sometimes benefit from some processing as well. Voices, particularly deep ones, can be hard to understand on the Palm handheld's small speakers. To compensate, you can use any audio package to equalize or boost the volume of a sound file. Sound files on the PC are typically stored in .WAV format. The TealMovie Encoder can do some basic audio boosting as well and can read audio from either an AVI or a separate wave file. The Audio options screen is pictured in Figure B.

FIGURE B


The TealMovie Encoder gives you a few audio options. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Encoding options
The Encoding options screen, pictured in Figure C, lets you adjust the encoding speed, color, data rate, and frame rate.

FIGURE C


Adjust the encoding settings with the Encoding options screen. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The settings you choose depend on a number of factors that I'll outline below.

File size
TealMovie can compress videos to surprisingly small files. The nice thing about the compression scheme is that its data rate is variable, allowing you to adjust the trade off between file size and image quality. The TealMovie Encoder supports rates from 600 to 3000 bytes per frame. The default setting is 1600 bytes per frame, which gives good results and works out to about one megabyte per minute at 10 frames per second. While your tendency might be to always use the maximum bit rate setting, remember that if the file is too large, few people will be able to install and enjoy it.

Frame rate
TealMovie supports different frame rates, depending on the Palm handheld model. The Palm III can run up to 10 frames per second, while other models can run up to 15 or 25fps (frames per second) depending on video screen size and presence of audio. Selecting lower frame rates when encoding leads to smaller video files, while higher ones provide smoother video playback. Due to the screen persistence, movies on monochrome Palm handhelds look perfectly smooth at 10fps, while color Palm handhelds look fine at 10fps, but slightly better at 15fps.