HiQual

If you're someone who often works with DV-compressed QuickTime movies, you may have noticed that these movies tend to look much better on tape than on a computer monitor. That's because DV movies don't have their high quality flag set by default, which can lead to a blocky and blurred image when viewed on a screen.

Enter HiQual, a free utility designed specifically for setting the high quality flag in DV movies. With HiQual, you can quickly and easily set this flag, improving the image quality of your movies on computer monitors. This is particularly useful for those working with high-performance Macs that don't require the performance boost of not having the high quality flag set.

One of the major benefits of using HiQual is that it's much faster than manually setting the flag on each movie using QuickTime Player. Simply drop one or more QuickTime movies onto the application, and the high quality flag will be set immediately. Plus, if you ever need to clear the flag for any reason, just hold down the Option key when dropping your movies.

Keep in mind that the high quality flag only affects the video when it's displayed on the computer monitor. If you're sending your movies over a FireWire connection to a camera or VTR, the image quality will remain unchanged. Overall, HiQual is an excellent tool for anyone looking to improve the image quality of their DV movies on a computer monitor.