Creating Extended Audio Descriptions in QuickTime

This tutorial provides a method for creating extended audio descriptions in QuickTime. This method is a workaround until such time as players support the SMIL 2.0 recommendation from the W3C.

Adding Extended Audio Descriptions

Before you add extended audio descriptions to a QuickTime movie, you will need to record your descriptions. Save them as WAV or MOV files.

Open your QuickTime movie.
Find the first spot in your movie where you want the video paused and the extended audio description to play.
Select 'Export...' from the 'File' menu in QuickTime.
At the bottom of the dialog box, change the 'Export:' combo box to 'Movie to Picture', and the 'Use:' combo box to 'Uncompressed'. This will export the frame that is currently in view. Click on the save button after noting (or changing) the filename.
Drag the picture icon over a QuickTime shortcut/alias or open a new QuickTime player window, choose 'Open Image Sequence' from the File menu, and locate your image. Using the latter method, you should accept the default FPS (frames per second) when prompted.
Choose 'Select All' from the 'Edit menu, and then choose 'Copy' from the 'Edit' menu.
Open a new QuickTime player window, and open the WAV file containing the extended audio description that corresponds to the image already open.
Choose 'Select All' from the 'Edit menu.
Hold down the option and shift keys on a Mac (shift, control, and alt keys in Windows) and select 'Add Scaled' from the edit menu.
save the combined WAV/image file
Choose 'Select All' from the 'Edit' menu and then choose 'Copy' from the 'Edit' menu.
Click once on the window with the movie that the extended audio descriptions will go into.
Assuming that the slider has not been moved since the image was exported, choose 'Paste' from the 'Edit' menu. If the slider has been moved, you will need to locate the exact point in the movie where the movie matches the exported image before pasting.
Repeat steps 1-13 as needed.
Choose 'Save As...' from the 'File' menu.
Make sure to save you movie 'Self-Contained'.

Congratulations! You have added extended audio descriptions.

Back to Audio Descriptions in Rich Media