Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I selected "Video for iPod" but the video won't open. What's going on?
A: You may need to change the extension on your video from .mov to .m4v before it will load in iTunes. We are working to correct this issue.
A: Once you've uploaded your video, you should see it in the Unprocessed Videos section of your My Videos page. Click on the Gear icon to enter some information about your video for example, the title and the credits. Once you've done that, you can start creating derivatives. A derivative is a compressed copy of your video. Click the film strip icon to create a new derivative.
Q: There are so many derivative options! Which one is right for me?
A: That all depends on what you want to use the video for. Remember that you can create as many derivatives as you want for each video you upload. Flash8 is a good choice if you want to include your video within a website, but you'll need a bit of experience with web design in order to do that. Quicktime is a good choice if you need a very high quality video to share. Using our Large or Very Large presets, you'll get video which is nearly indistinguishable from your original. The Streaming presets are for use with a Quicktime Streaming Server, which is a special kind of web server. If you don't know what that is, don't worry you can just ignore the streaming options.
Q: You don't have the preset I want. Will you add it?
A: We're always looking to make Media Mill more useful. Just send an email to mmill@umn.edu with information about the preset you'd like to see, and we'll investigate adding it. If you're a Macintosh user and have created a preset in Apple's Compressor application, you can send that to us as well.
Q: My video didn't process and gave me an error! What's wrong?
A: You may get an error message for a number of reasons. Usually, it's because you've uploaded a video in a format that we don't know about. We've tried to test Media Mill with most of the mainstream video formats, but there are surely some we've missed. There are also some source formats were not supporting yet, but are investigating for the future. Just send an email to mmill@umn.edu with some information about the error you received and the name of the file you were trying to process.
Q: Will you shoot my video for me?
A: Nope! However, CLA-OIT has some video equipment that you can use to shoot it yourself. That equipment can be reserved at http://checkout.claoit.umn.edu. Additionally, if you're taking a course through the CLA-TV Studios, there is production equipment available at http://secure.cla.umn.edu/studios/checkout/.
Q: Will you edit my video for me?
A: Nope! But there are plenty of places on campus to get help putting your video together. The computer lab in HHH50 has some PC and Mac editing stations available. You can learn more about their lab at http://lighthouse.micro.umn.edu/videolab/. Additionally, the CLA-TV Studios have some editing workstations available, which can be reserved at http://studios.cla.umn.edu.
Q: Can I make a suggestion?
A: Absolutely! Let us know what works, what doesn't work, and what could be improved. All feedback is welcome. Send an email to mmill@umn.edu and let us know what you think.
Q: Why does my job say "Waiting"?
A: As Media Mill usage increases, you may find that you need to wait in line behind other users before your video is processing. We are current (November 2006) working to expand the cluster to triple our processing capacity.