Exporting via Bluetooth

Do you carry family photos in your purse or wallet? Do you also carry a cellular phone? If so, why show off still pictures of the kids when you can also play video? iMovie can export movies in 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Program) format, which is used by cellular phone companies to play video on their devices. Once exported, iMovie can transfer the file to the phone using Bluetooth wireless networking.

To export via Bluetooth:

1.	If you want to share specific clips, select them in the Timeline or the Clips pane. Otherwise, choose Share from the File menu, or press Command-Shift-E.
2.	Click the Bluetooth icon. iMovie displays the estimated file size in the information area (Figure 17.18). Figure 17.18. iMovie lets you share movies with Bluetooth-enabled devices such as some cellular phones.
3.	If you highlighted clips in step 1, click the option marked Share selected clips only. Otherwise, click the Share button. iMovie then compresses the movie.
4.	After compression, choose a Bluetooth device in the dialog that appears, and click Select (Figure 17.19). iMovie transfers the movie file. Figure 17.19. The Bluetooth devices you've paired with your Mac appear in this dialog.

Tips

• The default 3GPP compression settings favor small file size over video quality. If you want to create a higher-quality movie file, share the clips using QuickTime's expert settings (see Chapter 16). Set the Export popup menu to Movie to 3G. I've found that increasing the data rate and setting a lower key frame rate improves quality substantially (Figure 17.20).

  Figure 17.20. To improve video quality, I've set the movie at right to a data rate of 160 bits per second, and the key frame to every 5 frames.

  

• For more on the 3GPP format, see www.apple.com/mpeg4/3gpp/.