RevolverHD for Mac FAQ
General
System Requirements
What are the current issues with RevolverHD?
What does RevolverHD do?
What file format does RevolverHD use?
What are the demo restrictions for RevolverHD?
Why does the iMovie QuickTime Export take so long?
Activation
I've just bought an activation key but haven't received it
I've received my activation key, but RevolverHD won't accept it
I've lost my activation key. What do I do?
Troubleshooting
My exports from Final Cut have lines all through them. What's wrong?
I've burnt an AVCHD DVD from an iMovie export, but it doesn't play right on a Blu-ray player
System Requirements
For burning AVCHD DVDs:
- OSX 10.4 or 10.5 (Intel or PowerPC)
For iMovie exports to PlayStation3:
- QuickTime (current version)
- iMovie08, iMovieHD, Final Cut Express/Pro
- Playstation3
- A HD TV hooked up to your PS3
What are the current limitations of RevolverHD?
We currently have no known technical issues with RevolverHD.
Support for iMovie/Final Cut Express/Pro exports on AVCHD disks is a work in progress.
What does RevolverHD do?
RevolverHD does three things. Firstly, it converts your iMovie08 movie export into AVCHD. AVCHD is the video format used on your AVCHD video camera and Blu-ray players.
Next, RevolverHD can burn a DVD data disk. Note that these are simple DVDs which you can easily burn yourself. These DVDs will not play on Blu-ray players, but will be recognised by the PlayStation3.
Finally, RevolverHD can create an AVCHD DVD which will play on any compatible Blu-ray player (which is most of them).
What file format does RevolverHD use?
RevolverHD converts QuickTime movies back into AVCHD (hence the name Revolver!) AVCHD is the underlying format used in Blu-ray players, so compatible devices can easily play these clips.
What are the demo restrictions for RevolverHD?
In demo mode you can create projects up to 250Mb in size, and burn/export 3 times. This gives you enough samples to determine whether or not RevolverHD will work on your system.
Why does the Quicktime Export take so long?
The Quicktime export from your editor (iMovie or Final Cut) is converting the Apple Intermediate Codec footage into the H.264 codec. Blu-ray players (and pretty much everything else now) use the H.264 codec. H.264 is a compressed format, so your movie is being compressed as well as having its codec changed.
With HD video, this conversion step just takes time. There is no way around this other than higher performance hardware.
I've just paid for a activation key but haven't received it.
Your activation key is emailed to you as soon as your payment clears. Some of the free email services (such as Yahoo, GMail and Hotmail) have very aggressive SPAM policies which result in the activation key email being filed in your SPAM folder.
If you paid via eCheck at PayPal, your payment will not clear for a few days (usually 4). As soon as your payment clears, your activation key will be sent to you automatically.
Also if you have not heard back from us within 4 days, it is likely your ISP is blocking our responses. Try sending us an e-mail from an alternate account.
I've received my activation key, but RevolverHD won't accept it
If your activation key is not accepted please send your RevolverHD log file to support, along with any error messages that were displayed.
I've lost my activation key. What do I do?
If you've successfully registered RevolverHD you don't need your activation key anymore.
If you want to get a copy of your key for backup purposes, click here to have your activation key re-sent to you.
My exports from Final Cut have lines all through them. What's wrong?
Whenever you see strange 'lines' in your video, this is interlacing. Interlacing is a common technique in video recording to increase the frame rate of the captured video.
Interlacing is a complex topic of its own. We have a basic overview of the problem in our Interlacing article.
The short explanation on interlacing is that older TVs are interlaced while new High Definition TVs and all computer monitors are progressive.
If you dont care how the lines got there, but just want it fixed, here's what you do (for Final Cut):
- Go to the Sequence that you want to export
- Select all video clips from the camera on the sequence
- Go to Effects->Video Filters->Video->Deinterlace
This applies the built-in Final Cut Deinterlace filter to the selected clips. By clever use of image processing rules, the interlacing problems are fixed, creating a progressive scan video sequence.
For an even better Deinterlacing result, try the free Final Cut effects package from Mattias Sandström, called Too Much Too Soon. In this plug-in set you will find an effect called Smart Deinterlace. Use this in place of the built-in Deinterlace filter for a better result.
This sequence can now be exported to H.264 as per the User Guide and the interlacing will be gone.
Note that deinterlacing will always reduce the quality of the final output a little.
To avoid the interlacing problem in the first place, try shooting in progressive mode, if your camera supports it. Progressive scan is more 'HD friendly', as this is the way computer monitors and new HD TVs work anyway. New HD TVs have interlaced playback capability built in for backwards compatibility only.
I've burnt an AVCHD DVD from an iMovie export, but it doesn't play right on a Blu-ray player
The burning of AVCHD DVDs containing iMovie (or Final Cut) exports is still in the experimental stage. Our iMovie to AVCHD conversion does work to a degree, but it is not fully compliant with the AVCHD spec, which is why playback using an AVCHD DVD does not work properly.
Our current AVCHD creation process in RevolverHD takes the QuickTime H.264 export, pulls out the H.264 and audio streams, then re-wraps them in the AVCHD transport container. The problem with this is that the H.264 variant used by Apple in the QuickTime export is a simplified version that is not fully compatible with AVCHD. The variant used by QuickTime is simplified and not as compressed as the variant required by AVCHD.
Our next development step is to take the H.264 stream from the QuickTime and re-convert it to the correct AVCHD H.264 variant, so that it can be played by all Blu-ray players.
