Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Quicktime

Firefox 3.5.5 + VLC 1.0.3 + Embedded .MOV + Windows 7= $#@%!!!

Alvy Ampersand — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:52:23 -0800

Firefox 3.5.5 + VLC 1.0.3 + Embedded .MOV + Windows 7= $#@%!!! A synopsis:

i) I get a new laptop which runs Windows 7. Yay!

ii) I install VLC on it - ideally, it will be my primary media player. I do not install the Mozilla plug-in.

iii) I install FF.

iv) I bookmark several .ASX files in Firefox. When I click a bookmark, FF's Download options box appears, asking if I want to save the .asx file, or open it. I opt to open it, using VLC, and it works exactly the way I want it to. Yay!

v) I mosey over to Apple Trailers, and am chagrined but unsurprised to find 'Please install QuickTime' messages, rather than embedded .mov files. When I try bookmarking and clicking the .MOV file (The same strategy as the .MOV files), Firefox automatically opens a new tab which is all black save for white text which reads 'Waiting for video', not even giving me the option to save the file or open it with the application of my choice.

vi) After some research, I realize that I declined VLC's Mozilla plug-in. So, I uninstall and reinstall VLC, including the plug-in this time.

vii) The QuickTime/MOV problem persists, and now clicking my bookmarked .ASX files automatically opens a black background 'Waiting for video' tab as well. Fiddling with file type/default application settings in both Win7 and FF has not changed anything

Ultimately, I want to be able to listen to streaming audio on VLC using the Firefox bookmark method I originally had, while being able to watch embedded QuickTime videos in my browser without having to install any other media players (WinAmp, MPC, and especially not QuickTime or iTunes). Can I achieve my dream?

I realize the Windows 7 angle is probably irrelevant (I had similar issues on my WinXP-running PC, but had a buttload of largely redundant media players that allowed me to get around the issue), but better to err on the side of thoroughness. Apologies for any lack of clarity.

I need an automated way to convert MKV to MP4 on Mac OS X

joshrholloway — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:00:41 -0800

I am trying to build an automated solution to convert MKV files to MP4 without re-encoding on Mac OS X, using AppleScript, Automator, etc. and I need help! Multiple times a day I get MKV container files that I need to convert to MP4 files. There is a great application for Windows called XenonMKV that can extract the individual components out of an MKV container and re-assemble them as an MP4. It does this process without re-encoding the video, which saves tons of time. A process that would normally take an hour or two can be done in three to five minutes with XenonMKV.

Unfortunately, there is apparently nothing like this application for OS X. There is, however, a little trick you can pull off using QuickTime 7 Pro and Perian. Perian will let you open MKV files with QuickTime, which you can't normally do, and you can use the Pass Through option during export from QuickTime which achieves basically the same effect as XenonMKV.

So now that I know this process is possible, and since I have to do it multiple times a day, I want to try to automate it. It's pretty easy to slap together an AppleScript that can take a video file as input and then export it, but there are two hitches:

1. QuickTime Pro needs to use the specific Pass Through export settings no matter what the last export settings used were.

2. When you open an MKV file in QuickTime, the entire video must be indexed fully before you can run an export. This can take anywhere from a minute to three minutes or so, depending on the length and file size of the video.

The second problem seems to be the biggest because it doesn't appear there's any way to tell QuickTime to wait until a video is indexed before running a command. The best I could come up with was to parse the file size and then tell QuickTime to wait for a certain amount of time that's really just a best guess of how long it will take to index the video file based on its size. This is really not a good solution, because I'd like to share this with other people who might not have a system as fast as mine, and the numbers may be off.

So does anyone have any ideas on how I could make this process work? Ideally I'd like to see the final form as a standalone .app that can be used as a droplet and do everything automatically without any input from the user. Any help at all would be appreciated.

Flash CS4 Quicktime Export leaves artifacts and looks like crud. Help!

buriednexttoyou — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:03:30 -0800

Flash animators: When I export my flash cartoon to quicktime, moving objects leave behind horrible artifacts. Apparently I am not the only one with this problem. If Flash's quicktime export is so crummy, how do the professionals publish their cartoons to video? I'm working with CS4 on a mac, but I've heard this is also a problem with CS3. I've also heard that you can import SWF files into After Effects and then export to video. As much as I'd like to be able to afford AE, I can't at the moment.

I know there are tons of animators working in Flash. Does this problem exist for you, and how do you deal with it?

Preloading Streaming Quicktime Chapters

wavejumper — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:04:40 -0800

Help me figure out how to preload "chapters" in a streaming Quicktime file - so that the chapter headings load and are selectable immediately! Here's the link:

http://www.wholestorycoaching.com/epilogue.htm

When you click on "Introduction", you can see the spaces for 9 other chapters, however, at least on my machine, they are not selectable and the titles of them don't show up until that point in the (fairly long) timeline is loaded. I'm hoping to find a way to let people skip ahead to any of those 10 points. Any suggestions appreciated, thanks!

Has Apple backed me into a corner of infinite regress?

Lutoslawski — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:18:23 -0800

What's up with my itunes/quick-time/OS?? I can't play my music! So for some reason my iTunes will not open because apparently I need Quicktime 7.3.1 or later. Ok great. So when I attempt to download the new Quicktime from the apple site, it won't let me install it because my OS is too old. I have OS X 10.4.11.

When I click 'update software' and try to get quicktime that way, it says there is an error and it can't download it.

What do I do??? Do I need to buy a new OS? I have a PowerBook G4, if it matters.

Please hope me, metafilter, I'm nothing without iTunes.

Oscilloscoporama?

cachondeo45 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:41:30 -0800

Can I make a Quicktime movie of the iTunes or WMP oscilloscope? Ok, so it's not exactly an oscilloscope, but I want to make the pulsing shapes that you can watch while listening to a song in a media player into a short quicktime movie (maybe around 30 or 45 seconds) that I can then embed into a PowerPoint. It's for a science of sound class so that I can show my students just a quick clip of the modern equivalent to an oscilloscope. Due to time and technology restrictions, I can't just exit out of PowerPoint and show them the real deal. Suggestions?

trimming podcasts in quicktime

krunk — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:06:57 -0800

I have a podcast (M4A format) that I'd like to trim and save without re-encoding. Is this possible? In Quicktime Pro I can select a time range, trim it, and choose save, but it saves the resulting file as a .MOV file. Basically I want to grab a chapter of the podcast and have it as a regular audio file. Eventually this will be done in AppleScript.

Is the .MOV simply a wrapper? It looks as though I can change the file extension to M4A and it loads fine. Do I have to manually change the extension each time? What podcast info has to be removed for iTunes to load it as a regular file and not load it into the podcast section?

Please Help Me eMail my Videos via OSX Mail

konig — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:59:28 -0800

I want to send YouTube and other videos via email after I've download them. I am using OSX 10.5.6 and v3.5 Mail. I have a QT Pro license, so I can convert the format once the video is downloaded. I would like for friends who use PCs and those who use Macs to be able to play the videos. My questions are:

1) In what format should the video be when I send it, so that users of both platforms are able to enjoy the video?

2) If a PC user tells me that they cannot view the video, what application should I advise they obtain in order to do so. (I am not going to try to troubleshoot their PC, I just want to tell them that they need "X" program in order to play the movie.)

3) Is there any other info that I need to be aware of, from your experience, to do this as seamlessly as possible?

I have done a lot of searching for these answers and cannot seem to find them. I sincerely appreciate your assistance in advance!

Tutorial or template for embedding Quicktime VR pano file in a website?

tnygard — Sat, 09 May 2009 07:35:59 -0800

Tutorial or template for embedding Quicktime VR pano file in a website? Hi all, 7 years ago I was part of an archaeological project, and we made one of those stitched together panorama movie files that allow one to explore an environment. I created it with Quicktime VR and it has the pano extension. I would now like to embed this file in my personal website, but I am having trouble finding a good tutorial for that.

The support on the quicktime website says to use the html code that the stitcher produces, but that is no help for me because I do not own the stitching program and do not have the html code it may have produced 7 years ago.

What I do have access to is the full Master Collection of Adobe CS3. Perhaps there is a way that this suite can interact with pano files, but I have not been able to figure it out thus far. I have been using the CS3 version of Dreamweaver and Photoshop to assemble the site, and I am also doing some hand coding. Any suggestions for getting this embedded would be most appreciated

Quicktime movies won't delete!

musofire — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:03:55 -0800

(Mac OS 10.5) Is Quicktime hiding files from me? When Quicktime plays a movie file for me, it shows up as a "Recent" file in the Quicktime menu. But even if I throw the file in the trash, and delete the trash, it is still somehow able to play the movie. I can't find the file by searching for its name. But yet, there it is.

Where are these files hiding, and how can I find and delete them?

How to reduce the filesize of iMovie exports.

Glum — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:51:57 -0800

What bit rate should I store (for general viewing) my iMovie videos at? I shoot home movies on a Flip Mino HD. I'm no Copolla (as the hardware would suggest) but I enjoy editing my movies together on iMovie, watching them back on my Mac and sharing with friends on YouTube.

The Flip Mino HD is 1280x720 so I export using the Share -> Export using QuickTime option in iMovie. I have been using H.264, with the resolution and frame set to match the source material. Importantly I left the Data Rate set to Automatic and the Compressor Quality set to best.

The results are good, but big. A less than 4 minute clip is resulting in a 681MB MOV file. Now I crunched it down in Handbrake so that I could upload it to YouTube more easily. I set it to restrict the file size to about 10% of the original size (70MB) which equates to a bit rate of something like 2380kbps. I would say there is very little difference in quality between this MP4 file and the original MOV.

I'm happy to save the massive MOVs to DVD or somewhere for archiving, but is there a rule I can use to determine what data rate to export at for general viewing?

OSX QuickTime VR editing tools?

dbiedny — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:59:42 -0800

What's the current state of QuickTime VR editing software on OSX? So I've been searching the web, looking for current QuickTime VR editing tools and methods - adding text labels, hotspots, embedded still graphic overlays to imported Quicktime VR files (created with the VR Worx software), that sort of thing. Anyone working with authoring and editing QuickTime VR on the Mac? My Google-Fu is not turning up a whole lot, so I'm hoping that there are some MeFites that are actively working with the tech.

How to embed Quicktime VR but forbid a download and enable fullscreen mode

fenwaydirtdog — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:11:03 -0800

How to embed quicktime VR on web site without letting user download the VR and with letting a user go into full screen mode to see the embedded movie I know there have been questions here about embedding QuickTime VRs on web sites, and lots of questions on the internet at large, but this has a twist that I was hoping somone might be able to help me with

I want to embed a QuickTime VR on my site. However,

1) I don't want the visitor to my site to be able to download the VR. This is because if they download it they might not come back to the site, and I want to maximize traffic.

and

2) I want the visitor to be able to enjoy the VR in full screen mode.

Can one embed the VR with these two prior conditions being met?

Thanks!

How can I play an old Mac Quicktime VR file on a PC and/or the WWW?

bodega — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:52:41 -0800

How can I play an old Mac Quicktime VR file on a PC? On the web? Complications inside... The file has been living in an old Mac diskette since 1997. I remember being able to just run the thing on whatever Mac was nearby when I first got the file. Also on the disk is a folder called "QTVRPlayer1.0.2". I transferred the files to a PC using "softmac".

I don't currently have access to a Mac. Though, now that I have the files off the disk, I can try going back to the Apple store. (They were unable to help me get the files off the disk as they had no floppy drives...)

I have tried opening the file in QT 7.5 ("blank" screen), PS, IrfanView, Firefox, IE, and a few others. I've also tried adding different extensions ".mov", ".QTVR". And, I've made a few attempts "Embedding a QTVR Movie in a Web Page".
My next step is to start searching for old QTVR authoring software, and old PC installers of Quicktime. But I'm hoping there's a simpler solution I've overlooked.

My ultimate goal for this QTVR file is to post it on the web. (Sharing old memories with friends and family.) But, I'd also like to view it on my PC at home.

Thanks in advance.

High quality video with small file sizes.

phaedon — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:21:17 -0800

Compressing quicktime movies for the internets. I'm in a new position where I have to prep a lot of video content for the web. I'm looking to maximize quality and resolution while keeping file size as practical as possible (my target audience does not include high-end users with blazing connections). Looking at the trailers that Apple throws up makes me feel my work has something left to be desired... are there any tutorials available on how to prep content for the web using Quicktime, Final Cut, or Compressor? I feel like I have a rudimentary knowledge of how this works but I am left wondering if there are any cool tricks or advanced tips.

legal video conversion

roue — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:32:10 -0800

I'd like to legally automate the conversion of quicktime .mov files videos to .flv, providing a drop box service, preferably under linux, but I'm getting tripped up on the first and last parts My users are requesting a simple video ingestion/conversion service and they don't want to use YouTube in an attempt to maintain control of their content.

There are plenty of tools that will take video file format x, y, and z and convert them to H.263/Sorensen Spark/H.264 .flv files. The obvious choices are ffmpeg / mencoder / vlc project libs. Unfortunately, to accomplish the conversion they have reverse engineered U.S. patent restricted commercial codecs (please correct me if I'm wrong). Since I'll be doing this in a professional capacity, I'd like it to be completely in compliance with the law.

So I guess my question is three fold:

1. What's the cheapest way I can legally do quicktime to flv conversion?

2. If I've got a choice, what's the best codec to use for web distribution?

3. What automatable software would you recommend?

We can probably afford to spend some money, but not, for instance, the $3000 On2 wants for it's conversion tools. Also, we have Adobe CS3 Flash and Flash Video Encoder, but I was unable to find a way to script them (on Mac) to do a conversion. Last, if at all possible I'd like to avoid really hacky solutions like "this cool app that records mouse movments and lets you play them back..."

Thanks.

I can't hear anything!

pinto — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:53:41 -0800

Quicktime/Web Audio Problems. Some quicktime video I produced is having volume issues--but only on certain computers with small speakers. What gives? When played back on the internal speakers of a g5 and a white macbook, sound is basically non-existent. It sounds fine on every other computer tested, including my macbook pro (internal speakers and powered speakers), a dell pc laptop (internal speakers), etc etc.

The file is embedded here (having these problems on several of the videos in the series):
http://www.skyscraper.org/PROGRAMS/VERTICAL_DENSITY/vertical_density_wright.php

I also uploaded it to veoh and did a flash conversion, which had no effect.

My only guess is that the EQ is such that frequencies that can travel through the internal speakers on those machines are not present, and the lower frequencies, which other speakers play fine, can't be heard.

I'm at wits end, after doing multiple gain operations and EQing.

Video to Images

rocco — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:50:18 -0800

I need to convert a Quicktime movie to one single JPEG image that contains every frame of the movie. So you'd see each frame as a tiny image and there'd be thousands of little images in this one JPEG. I've done this before, and I have the image, but I just cannot find it again! This would be for the mac. Thanks

Tracktion 2 on a netbook?

Artifice_Eternity — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:28:13 -0800

Can I reliably run Tracktion 2 on a netbook? I'm especially interested in the MSI Wind, but open to other options (Asus, Dell, etc.). Inside, more details on what I envision doing. I'm an electronic musician, and I do most of my producing in Tracktion. I'd like to start using it during live performances as well. This is what I'm thinking of doing with it:

- Playing a single pre-mixed stereo backing track
- Running a VST vocoder, using a pre-recorded carrier track and live vocals
- Playing a QuickTime movie containing synced visuals
- Possibly running one soft synth with a keyboard controller via USB MIDI

The soft synth is optional -- I can just play an external hardware synth instead, like I do now -- but I'd definitely need to be able to do the other 3 things to make this worth my while.

I figure what I'm planning to do would put relatively little strain on the CPU -- it's not like I'm planning to use a dozen different VST plugins simultaneously.

But is it realistic to think I can do even this much on an MSI Wind or other netbook? I've found at least one forum posting from a person who says he's run Tracktion 2 on a Wind successfully, but I'd be interested in hearing more from people who have tried this.

I should add that my desire with the visuals is to have them exported via the machine's VGA port, and projected at full size (i.e., filling the screen). I haven't actually experimented yet with QuickTime playback in Tracktion, so I don't know if this is possible.

Good Flash player for playing Quicktime (.mov) files?

mark7570 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:28:25 -0800

Good off-the-shelf Flash player to play Quicktime (.mov) files? Or get one custom-built? I have videos of a recent event, all in Quicktime .mov format, nicely edited. I want to post them online, on a site that I host myself.

Problem, of course, is that lots of users don't have Quicktime installed, and/or the default Quicktime player isn't very friendly (starts and stops as things are buffering).

So I want to use a Flash player (like every other site with video does) to allow users a more convenient way to play the files.

The off-the-shelf Flash players I've found so far either gak on something in the format - they can't play my edited .mov file - or they degrade the quality significantly - or the UI is horrible.

Commercial video-site players, embeddable things like the Revver player, look much better, but they throw ads into the mix. I don't want ads. I'm hosting the files and am willing to pay to own the flash player.

So: is there a good off-the-shelf solution I'm missing, or is this a case where I should go out and get someone to custom-code a decent Flash player (and if so, where do I find that person)?

P.S. Yes, I've read this 2005 post about encoding Web video - figuring things have developed in the ensuing 3 years.

Any camcorders with mic input and easy digital recording format?

wuntu — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:12:22 -0800

What currently available video cameras will record to a commonly viewable digital format (ie. something Quicktime supports with no additional add-ons) AND has a microphone input jack? I'm in search of a video camera that will allow professors to record their lectures. I'm looking for a camera that will:
- store video in a format that can be copied to a computer quickly (so Flash Card or Hard Drive based)
- produce video in a format that can be played on most people's computers with software they already have installed (ie. Quicktime)
- in a format that isn't huge (likely some form of MPEG4)
- has a microphone input jack for attaching an external microphone (this is a must as the speaker will potentially be a significant from the camera.)
- easy to use. ideally there would be an automatic mode so that the person setting it up can just turn it on and press record, then drag a file to a file server for distribution.

It looks like the Sanyo Xacti HD2 fits the bill, but I believe it has been discontinued. Sanyo's newer models appear to record in AVCHD. I tried a Canon HF10, which also records in AVCHD format. The raw files will not play in Quicktime, and importing them through iMovie takes longer than real time (on a MacBook Pro).

VLC seems to be working on support for AVCHD, but unfortunately, I don't think it is ready for general use, and most student computers still don't have VLC installed.

The Focus Enhancements Fire Store products look promising as well. However, it would significantly increase the price of the system and I believe one of our professors previously used one and still needed assistance getting it set up.

Anything else is out there that might work?

QuickTime? Flash? Who's talking about it?

dpcoffin — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:52:21 -0800

Videos in pdfs: Stick with QuickTime, or switch to Flash? I've been producing rich media pdfs for multi-platform CD delivery for some time now, using video clips in Quicktime format, made with FCPro and Sorenson Squeeze. Should I switch to using Flash video now that Acrobat 9, with its native support for Adobe Flash, is here, since it's supposedly far more widely distributed than QT? IS this a game-changer? Advantages? Disadvantages? Where else might I go to stimulate some discussion of the pros and cons of this new option? (Already posted at Adobe forums; no responses so far; I'm unaware of any active multimedia-in-pdf forums…)

Appreciate any comments, opinions, predictions, guesses; thanks!

Give me my old Final Cut Express!

pzarquon — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:13:23 -0800

How do I get Final Cut Express to export straightforward 1280x720 HD videos from my Sanyo Xacti HD700... like it used to? I have a Sanyo Xacti HD700. It gives me 1280x720 MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 files, which my Mac just loves. I used to be able to quickly edit the clips together in Final Cut Express, export using complementary QuickTime settings (specifically, those recommended by Vimeo for HD playback), and get beautiful MP4 files, relatively quickly.

Then, one day, a friend needed me to edit a quick video using a DV camcorder. It was confusing as heck getting the footage into FCE, and not particularly elegant getting it out. But, the project was done overnight, I washed my hands of it, and wanted to get back to making beautiful MP4 files again, relatively quickly.

Except I can't! Now, for one, encoding takes hours. Hours! My source videos and export videos are very similar, yet I sit and watch as the estimate for completion actually goes up for an hour before slowly coming back down.

And frankly, that would be fine, except now my exported videos are the wrong size. They include letterboxes, and the video itself is squished, stretched. So I wait four times as long for a ghastly video. The best I could do is use the Quicktime export settings to "crop off" the letterboxing, but there's still some black bars and it's just not the same.

Here's how my videos used to look. Here's how an exported video looks now. What happened? Out of the box, everything worked perfectly. Now, tainted with actual tape, Final Cut Express seems like it's running my videos through six extra wringers and giving me clips worse than I'd get just cut-and-paste editing the Xacti files in QuickTime Pro!

I Googled my brains out, and all I've learned is, if I had Final Cut Pro, "Project Settings" would have all the switches I need. Well, I don't have FCP, just FCE.

Somewhere, something was set that I want to unset. Can anyone help? Do I have to delete every trace of FCE and just reinstall?

How to fix Windows iTunes HD video?

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:30:21 -0800

How do I make iTunes on Windows XP stop stuttering? HD video stutters, as if iTunes either can't feed video fast enough from the hard drive, or can't uncompress it fast enough to display on-screen. It gets worse as the program progresses.

Per Apple's help document, I have enabled DMA on the hard drive and tried toggling DirectX preferences in QuickTime.

I have an ATI All-in-Wonder 600X that I updated the drivers for. It is plugged into an PCI Express 16x slot.

The box is running a Pentium M 2.1 GHz with 2 GB of RAM.

As much as I hate this awful operating system, I'd like to use this Windows XP box to feed HD video. What settings do I enable or hardware do I need to add to reliably play HD video through this box? Thanks for your advice.

Editing DIVX directly in iMovie/FCP

unSane — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:46:26 -0800

I've got a VIO POV1 helmetcam which records video as .avi files in DIVX format. What do I need to edit this directly in iMovie and Final Cut Pro? Whenever I've tried to do this kind of thing before (using Flip4Mac as I remember) I've run into issues, for example FCP requiring me to render sound for the clips I drop into the timeline.

I've already tried Flip4Mac, Perian and the regular DIVX/XVID codecs and although some will allow me to play the movies with sound in QT, none of them so far will allow iMovie to recognize the files.

Solution before has been to transcode to DV or some other format using ffmpegx or similar, but the movies are long and this takes up a heck of a lot of disk space and it's slow.

Quicktime says the format is 'XVID', 720 x 480, Millions.

(I'll probably transcode to DV for final editing but I'm looking for a quick and dirty way to edit movies on my laptop to play to a group of riders each day on a trip to Moab).