Merge audio and video with QT

9 July 2008 2,998 views 3 Comments

The B5 geek in my badly needed a new ringtone and I decided to pull out all the stops and create a video ringtone (3gp file). This tutorial will also help you to learn how to merge audio and video files with QuickTime.

Prerequisites

You will need QuickTime Pro. With QT Pro, you will create your file. For that, you of course will need a QT compatible video (preferably .mov or .mp4/.m4v) and audio file. I used the excellent tool iTube X to download a flash file from YouTube containing the opening sequence from the B5 movie “The Lost Tales”. The downloader converts the flash file to an .mp4 file, which QT can read.

Since I only wanted to use 30 seconds of the video and the audio in that particular section wasn’t suited for a ringtone, I chose one of Christopher Franke’s wonderful scores, “G’Kar Teaches”.

So, once you have QT, your video and audio file, you can start.

Steps

First, trim your audio and video file to the length you need (most carriers support a maximum of 30 seconds ringing before the mailbox activates). Open you file in QT and use the sliders to select the portion of the file you want to keep.

Simply drag and drop the sliders to their positions. Start with the right one.

Afterwards, go to the top menu and select the Edit menu and chose Trim to Selection. That will cut everything outside of the markers away. If you made a mistake, just use the keyboard shortcut CMD-Z, one of my all time favorites ;) , to undo your last action.

If you like what you did, then select Export from the File menu.

1) Chose an export option from the drop down menu. For now, chose the same format as your file has now (in my case, .mp4).

2) Click on the Options button and then click on the second option, Audio. From the first drop down menu, select None. This way, you will save the video without the audio (which you want to replace). Save your file.

Now open your audio file in QT. If you need to, trim it as you did with the video file. When you have selected the range you want to use, select everything (use either CMD-A or Edit – Select All). Then Copy your selection.

Open your new video file (the one without the audio) in QT and from the menu, chose Edit – Add to Movie. Now you have your video and audio stream together in one file. Again, chose Export and then Movie to 3G (if your phone supports one of the other formats, you can use that one of course as well!).

Voila, and you have your video ringtone. Tweak the settings a little until you find the optimum combination of audio and video quality.

Here is mine, first try ever. Keep in mind the video is off YouTube and the display of the mobile phone has a low resolution, so it doesn’t really look as abysmal as it does on your high res computer screen.

The Lost Tales Intro

Copyright: Music: Christopher Franke // Video: JMS, WarnerBros., and whoever else

3 Comments »

Bob C. said:

The software needed for this is QuickTime Pro, an upgrade to QuickTime Player. Apple has not bundled the Pro version with all of the recent Macs. My iMac, about 2 years old, did not come with the Pro version. Apple sells the Pro version for $30.

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Starstuff Reply:
January 27th, 2009 at 3:22 pm

Bob, thank you for pointing this out. I purchased QT Pro early on and often times forget that the functions of QT are limited in comparison. I changed the article accordingly.

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# 27 January 2009 at 3:00 pm