QTCoffee How To
Here are some quick pointers about how to perform common operations with QTCoffee. The Read Me file (type "open /usr/local/share/doc/QTCoffee/Read\ Me.rtf" to access it) has detailed information on the command-line options.
1. How to join some AAC tracks from iTunes to a new AAC file:
(You may wish to look into iTunesJoin, our shareware scripts for doing this easily from within iTunes.)
catmovie -timescale -sameAsTrack "Sound Track" -fix-roundoff-error song1.m4a song2.m4a song3.m4a ‑mp4 ‑o bigsong.m4a
2. How to join some AAC tracks from iTunes to a new AAC file with chapters:
(You will need Apple's ChapterTool. You may wish to look into iTunesJoin, our shareware scripts for doing this easily from within iTunes.)
catmovie -timescale -sameAsTrack "Sound Track" -fix-roundoff-error song1.m4a song2.m4a song3.m4a -auto-chapters ‑mp4 ‑o bigsong_temp.m4a -chapter-tool-xml bigsong.xml
ChapterTool -x bigsong.xml -a bigsong_temp.m4a -o bigsong.m4a
3. How to modify previously joined AAC tracks so that they work with iTunes 5:
iTunes 5 has a bug in which AAC files joined without the -remove-edit-list option will only play the first joined file. The following should modify those files so they play in iTunes 5 (although we recommend upgrading to iTunes 6).
catmovie -remove-edit-list song.m4a -mp4 -o song-for-itunes-5.m4a
4. How to join MP3 (or Apple Lossless) music:
(You may wish to look into iTunesJoin, our shareware scripts for doing this easily from within iTunes.)
catmovie song1.mp3 song2.mp3 song3.mp3 ‑self‑contained ‑o bigsong.mov
iTunes will play with this file, but if you wish to use it on iPod, you will need to use the "Convert" function from iTunes' "Advanced" menu. If you convert to AAC or MP3 there will a slight loss of quality.
5. How to join protected AAC files (from the iTunes Music Store)
If you don't need to play the result on iPod, then:
catmovie song1.m4p song2.m4p song3.m4p ‑self‑contained ‑o bigsong.mov
If you need to play on iPod, there is no way to convert the resulting movie. You will need to decrypt the protected AAC files first.
6. How to join several movies together into a new movie:
catmovie movie1.mov movie2.mov movie3.mov ‑self‑contained ‑o bigmovie.mov
7. How to play video from one file with an audio track from another file:
muxmovie video.mp4 audio.mp3 ‑self‑contained ‑o movie.mov
8. How to multiplex MPEG-4 video from one file with MPEG-4 audio (AAC) in another file and output the result as an MPEG-4 movie:
muxmovie video.mp4 audio.m4a ‑mp4 ‑o movie.mp4
9. How to split a long movie in one-minute segments:
splitmovie bigmovie.mov ‑duration 1:00 ‑self‑contained ‑o smallmovie.mov
10. How to split a long movie at certain points:
splitmovie bigmovie.mov ‑splitAt 1:32.6 ‑splitAt 2:30 ‑splitAt 5:43.2 ‑self‑contained ‑o smallmovie.mov
11. How to add a semi-transparent logo/watermark to movie:
Create your watermark as a PNG graphic, which can handle transparency. Make sure the background is fully transparent and the rest of the logo is, e.g., 50% transparent. Photoshop can do this easily. Then:
muxmovie ‑scale movie.mov logo.png ‑transparency‑mode straight‑alpha ‑htranslate 300 ‑vtranslate 200 ‑self‑contained ‑o logomovie.mov
12. How to add a semi-transparent logo/watermark to part(s) of the movie:
Create a watermark as above. Then:
muxmovie movie.mov logo.png ‑transparency‑mode straight‑alpha ‑htranslate 300 ‑vtranslate 200 ‑placeAt 1:00 ‑scaleTo :15 ‑self‑contained ‑o logomovie.mov
will show the logo for 15 seconds starting 1 minute into the movie.
If you want to show the logo multiple times, using two steps is easier:
modmovie logo.png ‑htranslate 300 ‑vtranslate 200 ‑scaleTo :15 ‑o logo.mov
muxmovie ‑transparency‑mode straight‑alpha movie.mov logo.mov ‑placeAt 1:00 logo.mov ‑placeAt 4:00 logo.mov ‑placeAt 6:00 ‑self‑contained ‑o logomovie.mov
will place a 15 second logo at 1 minute, 4 minutes, and 6 minutes.
13. How to create a slideshow with music
First put all the pictures together. Then create the sound track. Then combine them.
catmovie photo1.jpg photo2.gif photo3.psd photo4.jpg ‑o photos.mov
catmovie music1.mp3 music2.m4a music3.mp3 ‑o music.mov
muxmovie ‑scale music.mov photos.mov ‑self‑contained ‑o slideshow.mov