Apple Media Tool 2.0: Creating Transparent Colors

I created a new project in Apple Media Tool 2.0 (AMT) that has color preferences set to:

1) millions
2) 256
3) Thousands

One of my pict files has a dark gray (RGB=8,8,8) background which I made transparent. When I view the project in thousands of colors, the background is transparent, as I expect. But when I play the project on a machine that only supports 256 colors, the background is no longer transparent. How can I fix this?
Apple Media Tool does not handle transparency well when changing color depths. Here are some recommendations on how you can avoid the problem:

* Keep it Simple. Stick to white or black as a transparent color. Never use 16- or 24-bit transparent colors.

* Do as much as possible with QuickTime background stills. QuickTime does a good job of dithering images down to 256 color palettes on Macintosh and Window computers.

* Use Equilibrium's DeBabelizer Toolbox software to create superpalettes that play on Macintosh and Window computers, then make a QuickTime Pict from the result.

* Test extensively on both Macintosh and Window computers using a wide variety of video boards.
Published Date: Feb 18, 2012